Digital expansion of exponential sequences (Q558121)

Let \(a\) and \(q\) be integers larger than one such that \(\log_a q\) is irrational. The author studies the average number of occurences of a (\(s+1\))-digit subblock in the \(q\)-ary digital expansions of \(a^n\), \(1\leq n\leq N\). The first result concerns the most significant digits: It is shown that there exists a positive real constant \(\gamma\) such that the average number of occurrences of the subblock in the most significant \(\gamma\log_q N\) digits equals \(\gamma\log_q N q^{-(s+1)}+O(1)\). For the second result concerning the least significant digits, \(q\) is assumed to be a prime not dividing \(a\). Under this stronger assumption, the bounds on the error term have a lower order of magnitude. Let \(A_1(N)\), \(A_2(N)\) be positive integer-valued functions with \[ (\log_q N)^\eta\leq A_1(N)\leq A_2(N)\leq (\log_q N)^{3/2-\varepsilon} \] for some positive constants \(\varepsilon\) and \(\eta\). Then the average number of occurrences of the given subblock among the digits with indices between \(A_1(N)\) and \(A_2(N)\) equals the ``right'' main term \((A_2(N)-A_1(N))q^{-(s+1)}\) plus an error term of \(O(1/\log^\lambda N)\) for some positive \(\lambda\). The proofs use a discrepancy bound due to \textit{P. Kiss} and \textit{R. F. Tichy} [Proc. Japan Acad., Ser. A 65, 135--138 (1989; Zbl 0692.10041); ibid. 65, 191--194 (1989; Zbl 0692.10041)] and bounds for exponential sums. In both cases, lower bounds for the number of subblock changes and the sum-of-digits function immediately follow from the results.