Operators on algebras of arithmetic functions (Q2531333)

Let \(A\) denote the set of all real-valued arithmetic functions \(f\), \(P\) the set of all \(f\in A\) such that \(f(1)\) is positive, and \(M\) the set of all real multiplicative \(f\). Let \(*\) denote the Dirichlet product and \(\times\) the unitary product. It is shown that the groups \(\{P, *\}\), \(\{M, *\}\), \(\{P, X\}\), \(\{M, X\}\) and \(\{A, +\}\) are all isomorphic. The proofs are based on properties of a logarithm operator \(L: P\to A\) defined (in the Dirichlet case) by \[ Lf(n)=\sum_{d\mid n} f(d)f^{-1}(n/d) \log d\quad\text{if}\;n > 1,\quad Lf(1)=\log f(1). \] It is shown that \(L\) possesses the logarithmic property \(L(f*g)=L(f)+L(g)\) and is a bijection of \(P\) onto \(A\). An analogous result holds in the unitary case. If \(f\in P\) and \(r\) is a real number, we define the \(r\)th power of \(f\) by \(f^r=E(rLf)\), where \(E=L^{-1}\). It is shown that \(f\) is multplicative if and only if \(Lf(n)=0\) whenever \(n\) is not a prime power. It follows that \(f^r\) is multplicative whenever \(f\) is. Trigonometric operators are constructed from \(E\) as in ordinary analysis, and their properties lead to further isomorphism theorems. Finally, an extension of these results to complex-valued arithmetic functions is indicated.