The Liouville function in number theory is defined as:

$$\lambda(n) := (-1)^{\Omega(n)} \text{ where } \Omega(n) := \sum_{p|n} v_p(n)$$

Taking the discrete time Fourier transform and then taking the inverse, I arrived at the following function for $\lambda$ extended to $\mathbb{R}$ or $\mathbb{C}$:

$$\lambda(x) = \sum_{z \in \mathbb{Z}} \frac{\cos(\pi(\Omega(z)+x-z))\sin(\pi(x-z))}{\pi(x-z)}$$

where if $x$ is an integer $a$ the limit for $x \rightarrow a$ gives $\lambda(a) = (-1)^{\Omega(a)}$. Here is an image where red points correspond to $(n,\lambda(n))$ and blue lines correspond to $\lambda(n)$ whereas the green function corresponds to the extended function $\lambda(x)$:

[![liouville_function_fourier_transform][1]][1]


This can also be written as:

$$\lambda(x) = \frac{\cos(\pi x)\sin(\pi x)}{\pi}\gamma(x)$$

where $\gamma(x)$ is defined as:

$$\gamma(x) = \sum_{z \in \mathbb{Z}} \frac{(-1)^{\Omega(z)}}{x-z}$$
$$=\frac{1}{x}+2x\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{(-1)^{\Omega(n)}}{x^2-n^2}$$

I tried to search for "extension of Liouville function" or "liouville function" "fourier transform" but could not find anything similar to this representations.

Q1) Is the function $\gamma(x)$ something known or can it be transformed to something more familiar (It looks a little bit like the Weierstraß elliptic function but I am not sure what this means)?

Q2) Is there a differential equation which is satisfied by the $\lambda$ function or the $\gamma$ function?

For Q2), we have the following differential equation:

$$(\frac{\lambda(x)}{\gamma(x)})'' = -4 \pi^2 \frac{\lambda(x)}{\gamma(x)}$$

but this is not really useful, since we have two rather unknown functions popping up in the differential equation. It would be nice, if it is possible to give a differential equation where only terms of one function appear.

As a side note, if it is of interest:

Using the known Dirichlet series of $(-1)^{\Omega(n)}$ one can derive for $0 < |x| < 1$ the following series:

$$\gamma(x) = \frac{1}{x} - 2 \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} \frac{\zeta(4(n+1))}{\zeta(2(n+1))}x^{2n+1}$$

Here is a plot of the gamma function in the complex numbers:

[![gamma_function_complex_plane][2]][2]

Thanks for your help.


**Edit**:
[Here is the Sagemath code to do the example computations][3] which shows that in both cases for $x=0$ we have $\lambda(x)=1$.

**Application**:

Denote with $\beta(x) = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{(-1)^{\Omega(n)}}{x^2-n^2}$, so that $\gamma(x) = 1/x+2x\beta(x)$. 

Then we have the following functional equation:

$$\forall a,b \in \mathbb{Z}: \lambda(a+b) = \lambda(a) \lim_{x\rightarrow a}\frac{\gamma(x+b)}{\gamma(x)}$$

From this one deduces:

1) 

$$\forall n \in \mathbb{Z}: \lambda(n+1) = \lambda(n) \lim_{x\rightarrow n}\frac{\gamma(x+1)}{\gamma(x)}$$


2) 

$$\forall a,b \in \mathbb{Z}: \lambda(ab) = \lim_{x\rightarrow a+b}\frac{\gamma(x)^2}{\gamma(x-a)\gamma(x-b)}$$


3)

Then for a normalized polynomial $P(x) = \prod_{i} (x-\alpha_i)$ with integer roots $\alpha_i$ we get as an application, where $\Lambda = $ denotes the set of roots:

$$\forall x \in \mathbb{Z}, x \notin \Lambda:$$

$$\lambda(P(x)) = \lim_{t \rightarrow x} \frac{\lambda(t)^{\operatorname{deg}(P)}}{(1/t+2t\beta(t))^{\operatorname{deg}(P)}}\prod_{\alpha \in \Lambda} (1/(t-\alpha)+2(t-\alpha)\beta(t-\alpha))$$

[Here is an example computation in SageMath.][4]


  [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/nOcfn.png
  [2]: https://i.sstatic.net/WKnWZ.png
  [3]: https://sagecell.sagemath.org/?z=eJyVUsGOmzAQvUfKP4zIxZMQCj30gMS1R_awx1VVOcFJLRnbsk3W4utrGwi726jdwmU8Iz-_9-Z17AJPPbtSIrHebiB8_AKyacr5FD_D3GAklFOHCcv-HNqhJzcqBuq4koSebADMNcJFGdDAJWjDe_az4zdulYlTnDC2mxYa-JaqnahCLbhk5AWIzMmxwv1-4TeByQhmqLwycmzz9lDhDyy0UI7grrC_1CsJwDriaMWls_-FlJ-VUKbJDOuyBXW7iX8XjBK0P3XE521TlSXWMAl4Y8ALnJUlmu_J9NKIB38cEfeWy9ROpy9rmXiMDxTFJ2_UkMxnead6ymUkRUWGc39c-0EluzJzHz09HAX_pSOC99yRO8t_0Mt9M2Li8tivOQYzdHJHHsqiLMsqmNRiIQl-tH66stPU2iUAs1CcTsLHDNytbsMNm9YZt5H6FBzUIHxhh5N13A2OEd84zCERw2WLV8OYzBL_iWL2nRvrIOySSx6DCmzKLLNAHfimBKegquMdYquDrvAeqfcx-LrG4F0KyOKtX231oQrheOvD-IkQYLJvelZ3Hwzw9Urjb7rvyp_ZWcnuk9J1kN4t0n8D1F8pOg==&lang=sage&interacts=eJyLjgUAARUAuQ==
  [4]: https://sagecell.sagemath.org/?z=eJx1UsFugzAMvVfiH3KM09AC0i6TuO_Equ1YtRMdaRXJGBSgQv36OYR2qNMsIQJ-fs_PcWXO4r02l1ISvEYrwWHPgvI8mb98ONMPjkQS_hjszN9kN9TyWuJQ9rYhWZ46JtQtiHPjRCssidbZ2nxV9mq7xvksBI5oFa0q7gLL-lTJURd5miT3XmZyKb-bTrZWjQCqsxSOymvKOAWlgoUbbH1GjvENgvLNK7uSLkbGhS7WKQBsSIIXDbIn05f_qHr6vVgKEAuMxyymYxb46Zc_negPcCfe7ZgWMd-nOtMvhyfu1jXV8N1zqzgRoSdCfFR_vH1O5bp4FIpcoCE5gZazmQfHk1FOpVsp-RlhnfEcQD3sFRAAd-H9BIsxAPk9Q2MM4GVXwRQidzC7iVZP7uMs0VmyXKGmD3nExbLwElAvSS-HyoMidgqgvWlaJ5uEI_XmM74Tf13wA6WctaM=&lang=sage&interacts=eJyLjgUAARUAuQ==