Benford Behavior of Generalized Zeckendorf Decompositions

Density, gaps, topology (11B05) Recurrences (11B37) Fibonacci and Lucas numbers and polynomials and generalizations (11B39) Central limit and other weak theorems (60F05)

Abstract: We prove connections between Zeckendorf decompositions and Benford's law. Recall that if we define the Fibonacci numbers by

F_{1} = 1, F_{2} = 2

and

F_{n + 1} = F_{n} + F_{n - 1}

, every positive integer can be written uniquely as a sum of non-adjacent elements of this sequence; this is called the Zeckendorf decomposition, and similar unique decompositions exist for sequences arising from recurrence relations of the form

G_{n + 1} = c_{1} G_{n} + c d o t s + c_{L} G_{n + 1 - L}

with

c_{i}

positive and some other restrictions. Additionally, a set

S s u b s e t m a t h b b Z

is said to satisfy Benford's law base 10 if the density of the elements in

S

with leading digit

d

is

l o g_{10} (1 + f r a c 1 d)

; in other words, smaller leading digits are more likely to occur. We prove that as

n o i n f t y

for a randomly selected integer

m

in

[0, G_{n + 1})

the distribution of the leading digits of the summands in its generalized Zeckendorf decomposition converges to Benford's law almost surely. Our results hold more generally: one obtains similar theorems to those regarding the distribution of leading digits when considering how often values in sets with density are attained in the summands in the decompositions.

Recommendations

Cited in

(7)

This page was built for publication: Benford Behavior of Generalized Zeckendorf Decompositions

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q5230165)