Greedy Regular Convolutions

Abstract

We introduce a class of convolutions on arithmetical functions that are regular in the sense of of Narkiewicz, homogeneous in the sense of Burnett et al, and bounded, in the sense that there exists a common finite bound for the rank of primitive numbers. Among these "greedy convolutions" the unitary convolution and the "ternary convolution" are particularly interesting: they are the only regular, homogeneous convolutions where each primitive number have the same finite rank. While the greedy convolution of length 3, also described in detail, has primitive numbers of rank 3 and rank 1, it is still special in that the set of primitives can be generated by a simple recursive procedure that we name selective sifting.