On some properties of the Hofstadter-Mertens function (Q2210265)

Summary: Many mathematicians have been interested in the study of recursive sequences. Among them, a class of ``chaotic'' sequences are named ``meta-Fibonacci sequences.'' The main example of meta-Fibonacci sequence was introduced by Hofstadter, and it is called the \(Q\)-sequence. Recently, Alkan-Fox-Aybar and the author studied the pattern induced by the connection between the \(Q\)-sequence and other known sequences. Here, we continue this program by studying a ``Mertens' version'' of the \textit{Hofstadter sequence}, defined (for \(x>0)\) by \(x\mapsto\sum_{n \leq x} \mu (n) Q (n)\), where \(\mu (n)\) is the Möbius function. In particular, as we shall see, this function encodes many interesting properties which relate prime numbers to ``meta-sequences''.