The distribution of elements in automatic double sequences (Q2566146)

This paper deals with double sequences \(A=(A(i,j))\), \(i,j\in\mathbb Z\) over \(\mathbb F_q\) satisfying a linear recurrence relation with at most finitely many nonzero entries on each row. Natural examples include Pascal's triangle and rhombus modulo a prime. In earlier work [J. Number Theory 103, No. 1, 109--121 (2003; Zbl 1057.11008)] the author found a formula for the number of occurrences of a digit in the first \(q^k\) rows of the sequence. Here the result is generalized to \(q\)-automatic double sequences over a finite alphabet, and an explicit formula for the occurrence of specific digits in each row of \(A\) is found. For the \(n\)th row, this involves a product of matrices related to the digits of the \(q\)-ary expansion of \(n\). Asymptotic typical behaviour is thence related to the upper Lyapunov exponent of these square matrices. Examples are given where this may be computed explicitly, giving new proofs of several known results on Pascal's triangle modulo a prime as special case, in particular a new and different proof of the result of \textit{R. Garfield} and \textit{H. S. Wilf} [J. Number Theory 41, No. 1, 1--5 (1992; Zbl 0765.11008)] is found.