The summatory function of the sum-of-digits function on polynomial sequences (Q4548872)

It has been proved by \textit{H. Delange} [Enseign. Math. (2) 21, 31-47 (1975; Zbl 0306.10005)] that the summatory function of the \(q\)-ary sum-of-digits function \(s_q(n)\) can be written in the form \[ \sum_{n<N} s_q(n) = \frac{q-1}2 n \log_q N + N\;F_q(\log_q N), \] where \(F_q\) is a continuous periodic (but nowhere differentiable) function. In the present paper the author provides a remarkable generalization of Delange's formula. It is shown that the summatory function of \(s_q(n^k)\), where \(k\geq 1\) is an integer, can be represented in a similar way: \[ \sum_{n<N} s_q(n^k) = \frac{q-1}2 n \log_q (N^k) + N\;F_{q,k}(\log_q (N^k)) + O(N^{1-\varepsilon}), \] in which \(F_{q,k}\) is again a continuous periodic function (and \(\varepsilon>0\)). Whereas it is possible to derive Delange's formula in a completely elementary way by using the recursive structure of digital expansions (leading to the periodic term) there is no (obvious) way to describe the distribution of \(s_q(n^k)\) (for \(k>1\)) in a recursive way. Peter's proof is completely different from that of Delange. It uses estimates and asymptotic expansions for sums of the form \[ \sum_{N\leq n < 2N} \Psi\left( n^k q^{-r} \right), \] where \(\Psi(x) = x - \lfloor x \rfloor - \frac 12\) denotes the first Bernoulli polynomial.