Let be a free Abelian semigroup, where is the identity element, and let be the Möbius function. Define on the elements of the semigroup analogously to the definition of (as if is the product of distinct primes) by regarding generators of the semigroup as primes. Then the Möbius problem asks if the properties
1. implies for , where has the linear order ,
2. for all ,
imply that
for all . Informally, the problem asks "Is the multiplication law on the positive integers uniquely determined by the values of the Möbius function and the property that multiplication respects order?
The problem is known to be true for all if for all (Flath and Zulauf 1995).