Pair correlation and equidistribution on manifolds (Q2291634)

A sequence of real numbers \((x_{i})_{i}\) in the unit interval \([0,1]\) is called uniformly distributed if, for any subinterval \([a,b]\subset[0,1]\), we have \[ \lim((\mathrm{Card}\{i\leq N: x_{i}\in[a,b]\})/N)=b-a.\tag{1} \] Once uniform distribution of a sequence is established, it is natural to investigate statistical properties on finer scales. One of the simplest such statistics is pair correlation. We say the sequence \((x_{i})_{i\in N}\) in \([0,1]\) has a Poisson pair correlation, if for any bounded interval \([a,b]\subset R\), we have \[ \lim((\mathrm{Card}\{(i,j)\in[1, N]^2: x_{i}-x_{j}\in[(a/N),(b/N)], i\neq j\})/N)=b-a.\tag{2} \] The average gap between the first \(N\) elements \(x_1,\dots,x_{N}\in[0,1]\) is \((1/N)\), and so, by rescaling the interval to \([(a/N),(b/N)]\), we indeed measure correlations in units of the average gap size. The reference to Poissons terms from the fact that the right hand side of (2) corresponds to the pair correlation of a Poisson point process in \(R\) of intensity one. In recent papers on the area, it has been shown that if a given deterministic sequence in the unit interval has a Poisson pair correlation function, then the sequence is uniformly distributed. So, analogous results have been proved for point sequences on higher-dimensional tori by author. Namely, in two independent papers, \textit{C. Aistleitner} et al. [J. Number Theory 182, 206--220 (2018; Zbl 1415.11106)] and \textit{S. Grepstad} and \textit{G. Larcher} [Arch. Math. 109, No. 2, 143--149 (2017; Zbl 1387.11064)] reversed the question and asked whether Poisson pair correlation (2) of a given sequence implies uniform distribution. The answer is yes, even under weaker hypotheses than (2), for sequences in the unit interval [\textit{C. Aistleitner} et al., J. Number Theory 182, 206--220 (2018; Zbl 1415.11106)] \textit{S. Grepstad} and \textit{G. Larcher}, Arch. Math. 109, No. 2, 143--149 (2017; Zbl 1387.11064); \textit{S. Steinerberger}, Indag. Math., New Ser. 29, No. 5, 1167--1178 (2018; Zbl 1425.11141)]. The same has been established for point sequences on higher-dimensional tori [\textit{S. Steinerberger}, Indag. Math., New Ser. 29, No. 5, 1167--1178 (2018; Zbl 1425.11141); ``Poissonian pair correlation in higher dimensions'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1812.10458}]. In this last result, the author describes a simple statistical argument that explains this observation and furthermore permits a generalisation to bounded Euclidean domains as well as compact Riemannian manifolds. More precisely, he develops a statistical argument that permits a generalisation of these findings to bounded domains in \(mathbb R^n\) (Theorem 1, Section 2) as well as compact Riemannian manifolds (Theorem 2, Section 3 and appendix).