Multiplicative automatic sequences (Q2069626)

\textit{P. Sarnak} [Not. South Afr. Math. Soc. 43, No. 2, 89--97 (2012; Zbl 1473.11147)] formulated the following conjecture, giving a dynamical context for expected randomness in the values of the Möbius function. For a topological dynamical system \(T\colon X\to X\) (with \(X\) a compact metric space and \(T\) a homeomorphism) does zero topological entropy for \(T\) imply that for any \(f\in C(X)\) and starting point \(x\in X\) we have \((1/N)\sum_{n=1}^{N}f(T^nx)\mu(n)\to0\) as \(N\to\infty\)? Related questions and generalizations have gone in multiple directions. The third author proved this orthogonality to the Möbius function on average for automatic sequences (that is, sequences accepted by finite automata) [Duke Math. J. 166, No. 17, 3219--3290 (2017; Zbl 1439.11089)]; the second and third authors considered related questions with the Möbius function replaced by any bounded multiplicative functions [Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. 40, No. 12, 6877--6918 (2020; Zbl 1454.37020)]. These considerations motivate the work here, which gives an explicit classification of complex-valued automatic sequences that are also multiplicative. Dirichlet characters have these two properties (for example), but are automatic for the rather extreme reason that they are periodic. More interesting examples are known, and the definitive classification here subsumes many earlier partial results.