On the multiplicativity of the linear combination of additive representation functions (Q681071)

Let \(\mathbb Z^+\) denote the set of positive integers and let \(A\) be a subset of \(\mathbb Z^+\). For \(n,k\) belonging to \(\mathbb Z^+,\) denote by \(R_{A,k}(n)\) the number of solutions \((x_1,\dots,x_k)\in A^k\) of the equation \(x_1+\cdots+x_k=n.\) In this paper, the authors suggest to study whether the function \(g: \mathbb Z^+\rightarrow\mathbb Z,\) defined by \[g(n)=c_1R_{A,1}(n)+c_2R_{A,2}(n)+\cdots+c_kR_{A,k}(n)\] where \(c_1,c_2,\dots,c_k\) are integers and \(c_k\ne 0,\) is multiplicative (that is: \(g(ab)=g(a)g(b)\) for every \(a,b\in\mathbb Z^+\) which are coprime) or not. The main result is the next theorem: ``If \(A\subset\mathbb Z^+\) and \(c_1,c_2\in\mathbb Z\), \(c_2\ne 0,\) then the function \(g(n)=c_1R_{A,1}(n)+c_2R_{A,2}(n)\) is multiplicative if and only if one of the following conditions holds: \(A=\{1\}\) and \(c_1=1\) or \(A=\mathbb Z^+\) and \(c_1=c_2=1\) or \(A=\{n^2: n\in\mathbb Z^+\}\) and \(c_1=c_2=1\).'' The authors conclude with some observations for \(k\) arbitrary.