A characterization theorem for the \(L^{2}\)-discrepancy of integer points in dilated polygons (Q301582)

Let \(C\) be a convex \(d\)-dimensional body. If \(\rho\) is large, then \(\rho\) contains roughly \(\rho^d |C|\) integer points. The authors are interested in the \(L^2\)-average error when a copy of \(\rho C\) is randomly thrown into \(\mathbb{R}^d\); more precisely, they consider \[ D_C(\rho) = \left( \int_{\mathbb{T}^d} \int_{\mathrm{SO}(d)} \left| \# \left\{ \left(\rho \sigma(C) + t \right) \cap \mathbb{Z}^d \right\} - \rho^d |C| \right|^2 ~d\sigma dt \right)^{1/2}, \] where \(\mathbb{T}^d\) is the unit torus and \(\mathrm{SO}(d)\) is the special orthogonal group. It is known that \(D_C(\rho) \leq c \rho^{(d-1)/2}\) [\textit{D. G. Kendall}, Q. J. Math., Oxf. Ser. 19, 1--26 (1948; Zbl 0031.11201)], and \(C\) is called \(L^2\)-regular if the reverse inequality also holds. In the present paper, the authors characterize the \(L^2\)-regular convex polygons. More precisely, they prove that a polygon is not \(L^2\)-regular if and only if it can be inscribed in a circle and it is symmetric about the center. The proof makes heavy use of Fourier-analytic machinery. The authors point out that their argument is restricted to the planar case, and that the corresponding multi-dimensional problem remains open.