(a) What does it mean to say that a function f:N→C is multiplicative? Show that if f,g:N→C are both multiplicative, then so is f⋆g:N→C, defined for all n∈N by
f⋆g(n)=d∣n∑f(d)g(dn)
Show that if f=μ⋆g, where μ is the Möbius function, then g=f⋆1, where 1 denotes the constant function 1 .
(b) Let τ(n) denote the number of positive divisors of n. Find f,g:N→C such that τ=f⋆g, and deduce that τ is multiplicative. Hence or otherwise show that for all s∈C with Re(s)>1,
n=1∑∞nsτ(n)=ζ(s)2
where ζ is the Riemann zeta function.
(c) Fix k∈N. By considering suitable powers of the product of the first k+1 primes, show that
τ(n)⩾(logn)k
for infinitely many n∈N.
(d) Fix ϵ>0. Show that
nϵτ(n)=p prime, pα∣∣n∏pαϵ(α+1)
where pα∥n denotes the fact that α∈N is such that pα∣n but pα+1∤n. Deduce that there exists a positive constant C(ϵ) depending only on ϵ such that for all n∈N,τ(n)⩽C(ϵ)nϵ.