Towards a sharp converse of Wall's theorem on arithmetic progressions

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Abstract: Wall's theorem on arithmetic progressions says that if 0.a1a2a3dots is normal, then for any k,ellinmathbbN, 0.akak+ellak+2elldots is also normal. We examine a converse statement and show that if 0.an1an2an3dots is normal for periodic increasing sequences n1<n2<n3<dots of asymptotic density arbitrarily close to 1, then 0.a1a2a3dots is normal. We show this is close to sharp in the sense that there are numbers 0.a1a2a3dots that are not normal, but for which 0.an1an2an3dots is normal along a large collection of sequences whose density is bounded a little away from 1.


The author of the present article investigates Wall's theorem on arithmetic progressions of digits. In particular, he shows a kind of converse statement. The used methods are of elementary nature. Let \(b\geq2\) be an integer. Suppose that \(x\in[0,1)\) hase base \(b\)-expansion \(x=0.a_1a_2a_3\ldots\) with \(a_i\in\{0,1,\ldots,b-1\}\) for \(i\geq 1\). Then we call \(x\) normal (in base \(b\)) if for every integer \(k\geq1\) and every finite string \(s=[d_1,d_2,\ldots,d_k]\) with \(d_i\in\{0,1,\ldots,k-1\}\) for \(1\leq i\leq k\) the asymptotic frequency of occurrences of this string in the base \(b\)-expansion is \(b^{-k}\), i.e., \[\lim_{n\to\infty}\frac{\#\{0\leq i\leq n-1\colon a_{i+j}=d_j,j=1,2,\ldots,k\}}{n}=\frac{1}{b^k}.\] Then Wall's theorem states that if \(0.a_1a_2a_3\) is normal (in base \(b\)) then for any \(k,\ell\in\mathbb{N}\) the number \(0.a_{k}a_{k+\ell}a_{k+2\ell}\ldots\) is also normal (in base \(b\)). The author's first observation is that the exclusions of the trivial case \(\ell=1\) is not sufficient. In particular, he shows the existence of numbers \(0.a_1a_2a_3\ldots\in[0,1)\) which are not normal (in base \(b\)) such that for every \(k\in\mathbb{N}\) and every \(\ell\in\mathbb{N},\ell\geq2\), the number \(0.a_{k}a_{k+\ell}a_{k+2\ell}\ldots\) is normal. Let \(x=0.a_1a_2a_3\ldots\in[0,1)\) and suppose that for any \(\varepsilon>0\) there exists an increasing sequence \(n_1<n_2<n_3<\cdots\) of positive integers with asymptotic lower density greater than \(1-\varepsilon\) such that \(0.a_{n_1}a_{n_2}a_{n_3}\ldots\in[0,1)\) is normal (in base \(b\)). Then the author shows that \(x\) is normal (in base \(b\)). Finally, let \(\mathcal{N}\) be a collection of periodic increasing sequences \(n_1<n_2<n_3<\cdots\) of the positive integers. Suppose there exist elements \(K\) and \(L\) of \(\mathbb{N}\) such that \[\{K(n-1)+L,K(n-1)+L+1,K(n-1)+L+2,\ldots,Kn+L-1\}\] is not a subset of any of the sequences for any \(n\in\mathbb{N}\). Then the author shows that there exists a real number \(0.a_1a_2a_3\ldots\in[0,1)\) that is not normal (in base \(b\)), but \(0.a_{n_1}a_{n_2}a_{n_3}\ldots\in[0,1)\) is normal (in base \(b\)) for all sequences in \(\mathcal{N}\).











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