Mertens Function

In number theory, the Mertens function is defined for all positive integers n as

where μ(k) is the Möbius function. The function is named in honour of Franz Mertens.

Less formally, M(n) is the count of square-free integers up to n that have an even number of prime factors, minus the count of those that have an odd number. The Mertens function slowly grows in positive and negative directions both on average and in peak value, oscillating in an apparently chaotic manner passing through zero when n has the values

2, 39, 40, 58, 65, 93, 101, 145, 149, 150, 159, 160, 163, 164, 166, 214, 231, 232, 235, 236, 238, 254, ... (sequence A028442 in OEIS).

Because the Möbius function only takes the values −1, 0, and +1, the Mertens function moves slowly and there is no n such that |M(n)| > n. The Mertens conjecture went further, stating that there would be no n where the absolute value of the Mertens function exceeds the square root of n. The Mertens conjecture was proven false in 1985 by Andrew Odlyzko and Herman te Riele. However, the Riemann hypothesis is equivalent to a weaker conjecture on the growth of M(n), namely M(n) = O(n1/2 + ε). Since high values for M(n) grow at least as fast as the square root of n, this puts a rather tight bound on its rate of growth. Here, O refers to Big O notation.

The above definition can be extended to real numbers as follows: