Mangoldt's function is defined as
![]()
A short list of values of
is given below
| 
 
  | 
 1  | 
 2  | 
 3  | 
 4  | 
 5  | 
 6  | 
 7  | 
 8  | 
 9  | 
 10  | 
| 
 
  | 
 0  | 
 
  | 
 
  | 
 
  | 
 
  | 
 0  | 
 
  | 
 
  | 
 
  | 
 0  | 
The Mangoldt function arises naturally in the fundamental theorem of arithmetic. If we take natural logs of the prime power factorisation of
we obtain![]()
The only nonzero terms in the sum come from those divisors
of the form
for
 and![]()
Hence![]()
is a very useful formula.
We can invert this expression to obtain
in terms of natural logs using the following theorem.
Theorem
If
then![]()
Proof:
where
The inverse to
is
the Mobius function so![]()
for all
so![]()