Benford's law, recurrence relations, and uniformly distributed sequences. II (Q1006440)

This article deals with Benford's law and uniformly distributed sequences. Let \(b\geq 2\) be an integer. Each real \(x>0\) can be written in one way \(x=M_b(x).b^{e_b(x)}\) where \(e_b(x)\in\mathbb Z\) and \(M_b(x)\) is the mantissa of \(x\) in basis \(b\). Let \((a_n)_{n\geq 1}\subset (0,+\infty)\). The sequence \((a_n)_{n\geq 1}\) is said satisfy \textit{Bendford's law in basis \(b\)} if for all \(t\in[1,b)\) if \[ \lim_{N\rightarrow\infty} \frac{|\{1\leq n\leq N\;:\;M_b(a_n)<t\}|}{N}=\log_b(t)\text{\;for all\;}t\in [1,b). \] The sequence \((a_n)_{n\geq 1}\) is said satisfy \textit{strong Benford's law} if it satisfy Bendford's law in every basis \(b\geq 2\). The main result of the author generalizing his previous article [Elem. Math. 60, No. 1, 10--18 (2005; Zbl 1084.11005)] is: \textbf{Theorem.} Let \(\alpha>0, \xi>0\) and \(\mu\) be real numbers and \(Q\) a function defined on \([1,\infty)\) satisfying: 1) There exists an integer \(k\geq 1\) and a real number \(x_0\geq 1\) such that \(Q\) be \(k\)-times differentiable on \((x_0,+\infty)\); 2) \(\lim_{x\rightarrow\infty} Q^{(k)}\) exists and is a nonzero rational number. Let \((a_n)_{n\geq 1}\in (0,+\infty)\) be a sequence such that \(\lim_{n\rightarrow\infty}\frac{a_n}{n^\mu\xi^{Q(n)}}=\alpha\). Then, for every integer \(b\geq 2\) such that \(\log_b(\xi)\in \mathbb R\backslash \mathbb Q\), the sequence \((a_n)_{n\geq 1}\) satisfies Benford's law in basis \(b\). Moreover, if, for every positive integer \(m\), \(\xi^m\) is not integer, then \((a_n)_{n\geq 1}\) satisfies strong Benford's law. The proof relies on the theory of uniformly distributed sequences. On the historic background of Benford's law see also [\textit{A. Berger, L. A. Bunimovich} and \textit{T. P. Hill}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 357, No. 1, 197--219 (2005; Zbl 1123.37006)]; [\textit{A. Berger} and \textit{T. P. Hill}, ``Newton's Method obeys Bendford's law'', Am. Math. Mon. 114, No. 7, 588--601 (2007; Zbl 1136.65048)]; [\textit{J. P. Delahaye}, ``L'étonnante loi de Benford'', Pour la Science 351, 90--95 (2007)]; [\textit{N. Hungerbühler}, ``Benfords Gesetz über führende Ziffern'', EducETH, March (2007), \url{http://www.educ.ethz.ch}].