Ergodic averages along sequences of slow growth (Q6972337)

\textit{V. Bergelson} and \textit{F. K. Richter} [Duke Math. J. 171, No. 15, 3133--3200 (2022; Zbl 1514.37018)] proved a form of ergodic theorem along the sequence \((\Omega(n))\) (where \(\Omega(n)\) as usual denote the number of prime factors of \(n\)) for continuous functions on uniquely ergodic dynamical systems. The first author proved that these two hypotheses are essential, by showing that the sequence has the strong sweeping out property (that is, the ergodic averages along the sequence in general fail to converge in the strongest possible sense) [\textit{K. Loyd}, Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 43, No. 11, 3685--3706 (2023; Zbl 1533.37019)]. Here the extent to which the ergodic theorem fails is quantified in the sense that averages of the form \[\frac{1}{\log\log N}\sum_{n=1}^{N}\frac{1}{n\log n}f(T^{\Omega(n)}x)\] are shown to converge almost everywhere while averages of the form \[\frac{1}{\log N}\sum_{n=1}^{N}\frac{1}{n}f(T^{\Omega(n)}x)\] are shown to exhibit the strong sweeping out property. The proofs involve ideas from both ergodic theory and number theory, and further results give a large new class of sub-polynomial sequences along which the pointwise ergodic theorem fails.