Old and new on sums of digits (Q1811225)

Let \(g\geq 2\) be an integer. Using the \(g\)-adic representation \[ n= \sum_{r\geq 0} e_r(n) \cdot g^r, \text{ where } e_r(n) \in \{ 0,1,\dots, g-1\}, \] the sum of digits, \[ s_g(n) = \sum_{r\geq 0} e_r(n), \] and its iterates \(s_g^{(2)}(n) = s_g\bigl(s_g(n)\bigr), s_g^{(3)}(n), \dots \) are defined. The authors collate known results on this function \( s_g(n)\), and they give new results; all proofs are elementary. For example, the divisibility criterion \( d |n \iff d |s_g(n)\) is proved, the map \( n \mapsto \bigl( s_{g_1}(n), \dots ,s_{g_k}(n) \bigr)\) is not injective, but \( n \mapsto \bigl( s_{2}(n), s_3(n), s_4(n), \dots \bigr)\) is injective. The additivity of \(n \mapsto s_g(n)\) is not true, as shown by the estimate \[ c_1 \log x \leq {1\over x^2} \cdot \sum_{m,n\leq x} \Bigl( s_g(m)+s_g(n) - s_g(m+n) \Bigr) \leq c_2 \log x. \] The known asymptotic formula \[ {1\over N}\cdot \sum_{0\leq n < N} s_g(n) = {{g-1}\over{2\log g}} \cdot \log N + f\left( {{\log N}\over {\log g}} \right) \] is given, the distribution of integers \(n\) satisfying \(s_g(n) \equiv k \bmod m\) is studied, and the density of integers \(n\) satisfying \(\Bigl[\lim_{k\to\infty} s_g^{(k)}(n) \text{ divides }n\Bigr]\) is shown to be equal to \[ \sum_{1\leq m < g} {1\over{\text{lcm} [m,g-1]}}. \] Finally the iterates of \(n \mapsto \sum_{r\geq 0} \bigl(e_r(n)\bigr)^2\) are investigated, and some open problems are mentioned.