Generalization of a recent irrationality result of Mahler (Q799725)

Let g,\(h\geq 2\) be integers and let \(\alpha\) be the real number \(0.1(g)(g^ 2)(g^ 3)...\), where \((g^ n)\) denotes the string of digits of \(g^ n\) written in base h. It is shown that \(\alpha\) is irrational. \textit{K. Mahler} [J. Number Theory 13, 268-269 (1981; Zbl 0453.10009)] proved this for the case \(h=10\) by a pretty congruence argument. The approach here is different. If log g/log h is rational, it is shown that \(\alpha\) can be expressed as a linear combination of values of the theta function \(\sum^{\infty}_{n=0}x^ nq^{n(n-1)/2}\) and the conclusion follows from a linear independence result of Tschakaloff. It is also possible to obtain a measure of irrationality for \(\alpha\). If \(\zeta =\log g/\log h\) is irrational, the irrationality criterion of \textit{P. Erdős} and \textit{E. G. Straus} [Pac. J. Math. 55 (1973), 85-92 (1974; Zbl 0279.10026)] is applied after writing \(\alpha =1+\sum^{\infty}_{n=1}g^ n/\prod^{n}_{m=1}h^{1+[\zeta m]},\) and the conclusion follows with the aid of Baker's theorem on linear forms in logarithms of algebraic numbers.