\(q\)-deformed necklace rings and \(q\)-Möbius function (Q948723)

The paper under review introduces a \(q\)-deformation of the Möbius function and studies its properties. A truncation set is a nonempty set \(N\) of positive integers such that together with each \(n\) contained in \(N\) all divisors of \(n\) also lie in \(N\). If \(A\) is a commutative ring and \(q\) any integer one denotes by \(Nr_N^q\) the unique functor from the category of commutative rings to itself that satisfies the three conditions: {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[(1)]As a set it coincides with \(A^N\); \item[(2)] For every ring homomorphism \(f: A\to B\), the mapping \(NR_N^q(f): x\mapsto(f(x_n))_{n\in N}\) is a ring homomorphism; \item[(3)]The map \(\phi_N^q : Nr_N^q (A) \to gh_N(A)\), such that \(x\mapsto (\sum_{d|n} dq^{n/d-1}x_d)_{n\in N}\), is also a ring homomorphism where the ghost ring \(gh_N(A)\) is just \(A^N\) with componentwise addition and multiplication. \end{itemize}} Let \(q\) be a variable, then the \(q\)-Möbius function \(\mu_q: \mathbb{N}\to\mathbb{Z}[q]\) is defined as follows: \(\mu_q(n) = \mu_q (n, 1)\). Here \(\mu_q (n, 1)\) is computed in the following way. One forms the lower triangular \(N\times N\) matrix whose \((i,j)\)th entry is \(q^{i/j-1}\) whenever \(j\) divides \(i\), and 0 otherwise. Clearly all diagonal entries equal 1. One sets \(\mu_q(n)\) to be the entry at position \((n,1)\) of the inverse of that matrix. (It is a standard exercise to show that when \(q=1\) one has the usual Möbius function.) The \(q\)-necklace polynomial \(M^q (x, n)\) is defined recursively by \(\sum_{d|n} dM^{q} (x,d)q^{n/d-1} = q^{n-1}x^n\). The paper describes several relations among the \(q\)-necklace polynomials, including an analog of the cyclotomic identity. Strictly natural isomorphisms of \(q\)-necklace rings are studied in the paper as well. Furthermore applications to free restricted Lie algebras are considered.