Let $\mathbb{N}$ be the set of positive integers and let $s\in \mathbb{N}$. We denote by $d^s$ the arithmetic function given by $d^s\left(n\right)={\left(d\left(n\right)\right)}^s$, where $d\left(n\right)$ is the number of positive divisors of $n$. Moreover, for every $\ell ,m\in \mathbb{N}$ we denote by ${\delta }^{s,\ell ,m}\left(n\right)$ the sequence $$\underset{m\text{-times}}{\underbrace{d^s(d^s(...d^s(d^s\left(n\right)+\ell )+\ell ...)+\ell )}}=\left\{\begin{array}{cc}{d}^s\left(n\right)\hfill & \text{for}m=1,\hfill \\ d^s(d^s\left(n\right)+\ell )\hfill & \text{for}m=2,\hfill \\ d^s(d^s(d^s\left(n\right)+\ell )+\ell )\hfill & \text{for}m=3,\hfill \\ ⋮\hfill \end{array}\right.$$ We present classical and nonclassical notes on the sequence ${\left({\delta }^{s,\ell ,m}\left(n\right)\right)}_{m\ge 1}$, where $\ell$, $n$, $s$ are understood as parameters.

The technique developed by A. Walfisz in order to prove (in 1962) the estimate $H\left(x\right)\ll {(logx)}^{2/3}{(loglogx)}^{4/3}$ for the error term $H\left(x\right)={\sum }_{n\le x}\frac{\phi \left(n\right)}{n}-\frac{6}{{\pi }^2}x$ related to the Euler function is extended. Moreover, the argument is simplified by exploiting works of A.I. Saltykov and of A.A. Karatsuba. It is noted in passing that the proof proposed by Saltykov in 1960 of $H\left(x\right)\ll {(logx)}^{2/3}{(loglogx)}^{1+ϵ}$ is erroneous and once corrected “only” yields Walfisz’ result. The generalizations obtained can be applied to error terms related to various classical - and less classical - arithmetical...

The paper deals with asymptotics for a class of arithmetic functions which describe the value distribution of the greatest-common-divisor function. Typically, they are generated by a Dirichlet series whose analytic behavior is determined by the factor ζ2(s)ζ(2s − 1). Furthermore, multivariate generalizations are considered.