On the discrepancy of some special sequences (Q1092949)

Let \((x_ k)\) be a sequence of real numbers. The discrepancy of \((x_ 1,x_ 2,...,x_ N)\) is defined as \(D_ N=\sup_{J}| (1/N)\sum^{N}_{k=1}\chi_ J(\{x_ k\})-\lambda J|,\) where the supremum is taken over all subintervals J of the unit interval, \(\chi_ J( )\) is the characteristic function of J, \(\{\) \(x\}\) is the fractional part of x, and \(\lambda\) J represents the length of the interval J. It is well known that the sequence \((x_ n)\) is uniformly distributed modulo 1 if and only if \(\lim_{N\to \infty}D_ N=0.\) Let \(n=\sum^{\infty}_{k=0}\epsilon_ kq^ k\) be the q-adic representation of the positive integer n, where q and \(\epsilon_ k\) are integers, \(q\geq 2\), and \(0\leq \epsilon_ k<q\). Of special interest are sequences of the form \((xs^{(d)}(q,n))\), where \(s^{(d)}(q,n)=\sum^{\infty}_{k=0}\epsilon^ d_ k\), the sum of the dth powers of the q-adic digits. Here d and q are integers with \(d\geq 1\) and \(q\geq 2\). \textit{J. Coquet} [Acta Arith. 36, 157-162 (1980; Zbl 0357.10026)] has shown that \((xs^{(1)}(q,n))\) is uniformly distributed modulo 1 if and only if x is irrational. The authors establish estimates for the discrepancy of the sequence \((xs^{(d)}(q,n))\) for irrational x of type \(\eta\). The irrational number x is of type \(\eta\) if given \(\epsilon >0\), \(h^{\eta +\epsilon} \| hx\| \geq c(x,\epsilon)\) for positive integers \(\eta\). Here \(\| y\| =\min (\{y\}, 1-[y])\), and \(c(x,\epsilon)\) is a positive constant. The authors prove that if x is of type \(\eta\), given \(\epsilon >0\), then \[ D_ N(xs^{(d)}(q,n))\leq c(q,x,\epsilon)(\log N)^{- 1/2\eta +\epsilon}\text{ for integers }N>1, \] and if x is not of type \(\eta'\) for any \(\eta'<\eta\), then for infinitely many integers N \[ | D_ N(xs^{(d)}(q,n)| \geq (\log N)^{-(1/2\eta +\epsilon)}. \] The authors conclude by proving a related metric theorem. For \(t\in [0,1)\), let \[ s_ n^{(d)}(q,t)= \sum^{n}_{k=1} \epsilon^ d_ k(q,t), \] where \(t=\sum^{\infty}_{k=1}\epsilon_ kq^{-k}\), with \(0\leq \epsilon_ k<q\). Let \(q_ n(t)=xs^ d_ n(q,t)+a_ n\), where \((a_ n)\) is a sequence of reals. If x is of type \(\eta\), and \((a_ n)\) is any sequence of reals, then for almost all \(t\in [0,1)\), and \(\epsilon >0\), \[ D_ N(xs_ n^{(d)}(q,t)+a_ n)\leq c(t,q,x,\epsilon)N^{- 1/2\eta +\epsilon}\text{ for all positive integers N.} \] The proof involves the method of \textit{I. S. Gál} (now Gaal) and \textit{J. F. Koksma} [Indag. Math. 12, 192-207 \((1950+\) Zbl 0041.024)].