We attempt to develop a new chapter of the theory of uniform distribution; we call it strong uniformity. Strong uniformity in a nutshell means that we combine Lebesgue measure with the classical theory of uniform distribution, basically founded by Weyl in his famous paper from 1916 [Über die Gleichverteilung von Zahlen mod Eins, Math. Ann.77 (1916), 313–352], which is built around nice test sets, such as axis-parallel rectangles and boxes. We prove the continuous version of the well-known Khinchin’s conjecture [Eins Satz über Kettenbrüche mit arithmetischen Adwendungen, Math. Z.18 (1923), 289–306] in every dimension $d\geqslant 2$ (the discrete version turned out to be false—it was disproved by Marstrand [On Khinchin’s conjecture about strong uniform distribution, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 21 (1970), 540–556]). We consider an arbitrarily complicated but fixed measurable test set $S$ in the $d$-dimensional unit cube, and study the uniformity of a typical member of some natural families of curves, such as all torus lines or billiard paths starting from the origin, with respect to $S$. In the two-dimensional case we have the very surprising superuniformity of the typical torus lines and billiard paths. In dimensions ${\geqslant}3$ we still have strong uniformity, but not superuniformity. However, in dimension three we have the even more striking super-duper uniformity for two-dimensional rays (replacing the torus lines). Finally, we indicate how to exhibit superuniform motions on every “reasonable” plane region (e.g., the circular disk) and on every “reasonable” closed surface (sphere, torus and so on).

Let $Q$ be an infinite subset of $\mathbb{N}$. For any ${\it\tau}>2$, denote $W_{{\it\tau}}(Q)$ (respectively $W_{{\it\tau}}$) to be the set of ${\it\tau}$ well-approximable points by rationals with denominators in $Q$ (respectively in $\mathbb{N}$). We consider the Hausdorff dimension of the liminf set $W_{{\it\tau}}\setminus W_{{\it\tau}}(Q)$ after Adiceam. By using the tools of continued fractions, it is shown that if $Q$ is a so-called $\mathbb{N}\setminus Q$-free set, the Hausdorff dimension of $W_{{\it\tau}}\setminus W_{{\it\tau}}(Q)$ is the same as that of $W_{{\it\tau}}$, i.e. $2/{\it\tau}$.

We study the distribution of the orbits of real numbers under the beta-transformation $T_{{\it\beta}}$ for any ${\it\beta}>1$. More precisely, for any real number ${\it\beta}>1$ and a positive function ${\it\varphi}:\mathbb{N}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{+}$, we determine the Lebesgue measure and the Hausdorff dimension of the following set:

$$\begin{eqnarray}E(T_{{\it\beta}},{\it\varphi})=\{(x,y)\in [0,1]\times [0,1]:|T_{{\it\beta}}^{n}x-y|<{\it\varphi}(n)\text{ for infinitely many }n\in \mathbb{N}\}.\end{eqnarray}$$

We develop the metric theory of Diophantine approximation on homogeneous varieties of semisimple algebraic groups and prove results analogous to the classical Khintchine and Jarník theorems. In full generality our results establish simultaneous Diophantine approximation with respect to several completions, and Diophantine approximation over general number fields using $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}S$-algebraic integers. In several important examples, the metric results we obtain are optimal. The proof uses quantitative equidistribution properties of suitable averaging operators, which are derived from spectral bounds in automorphic representations.

Boyd showed that the beta expansion of Salem numbers of degree 4 were always eventually periodic. Based on an heuristic argument, Boyd had conjectured that the same is true for Salem numbers of degree 6 but not for Salem numbers of degree 8. This paper examines Salem numbers of degree 8 and collects experimental evidence in support of Boyd’s conjecture.

Let $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}\mathbb{F}_q$ be the finite field of $q$ elements. An analogue of the regular continued fraction expansion for an element $\alpha $ in the field of formal Laurent series over $\mathbb{F}_q$ is given uniquely by

$$\begin{equation*} \alpha = A_0(\alpha )+\cfrac {1}{A_1(\alpha )+\cfrac {1}{A_2(\alpha )+\ddots }}, \end{equation*}$$

$(A_n(\alpha ))_{n=0}^\infty $

$\mathbb{F}_q$

$\deg (A_n(\alpha ))\ge 1$

$n\ge 1.$

$(p_n)_{n=1}^\infty $

$$\begin{equation*} \lim _{n\to \infty }\frac {1}{n}\sum _{j=1}^n \deg (A_{p_j}(\alpha )) = \frac {q}{q-1} \end{equation*}$$

$\alpha $

$(p_n)_{n=1}^\infty $

$(n)_{n=1}^\infty ,$

Let $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}p$ be a prime and $b$ a primitive root of $p^2$. In this paper, we give an explicit formula for the number of times a value in $\{0,1,\ldots,b-1\}$ occurs in the periodic part of the base-$b$ expansion of $1/p^m$. As a consequence of this result, we prove two recent conjectures of Aragón Artacho et al. [‘Walking on real numbers’, Math. Intelligencer35(1) (2013), 42–60] concerning the base-$b$ expansion of Stoneham numbers.

Computing the value of a high-dimensional integral can often be reduced to the problem of finding the ratio between the measures of two sets. Monte Carlo methods are often used to approximate this ratio, but often one set will be exponentially larger than the other, which leads to an exponentially large variance. A standard method of dealing with this problem is to interpolate between the sets with a sequence of nested sets where neighboring sets have relative measures bounded above by a constant. Choosing such a well-balanced sequence can rarely be done without extensive study of a problem. Here a new approach that automatically obtains such sets is presented. These well-balanced sets allow for faster approximation algorithms for integrals and sums using fewer samples, and better tempering and annealing Markov chains for generating random samples. Applications, such as finding the partition function of the Ising model and normalizing constants for posterior distributions in Bayesian methods, are discussed.

A natural number $n$ is called abundant if the sum of the proper divisors of $n$ exceeds $n$. For example, $12$ is abundant, since $1+ 2+ 3+ 4+ 6= 16$. In 1929, Bessel-Hagen asked whether or not the set of abundant numbers possesses an asymptotic density. In other words, if $A(x)$ denotes the count of abundant numbers belonging to the interval $[1, x] $, does $A(x)/ x$ tend to a limit? Four years later, Davenport answered Bessel-Hagen’s question in the affirmative. Calling this density $\Delta $, it is now known that $0. 24761\lt \Delta \lt 0. 24766$, so that just under one in four numbers are abundant. We show that $A(x)- \Delta x\lt x/ \mathrm{exp} (\mathop{(\log x)}\nolimits ^{1/ 3} )$ for all large $x$. We also study the behavior of the corresponding error term for the count of so-called $\alpha $-abundant numbers.

We use bounds of mixed character sum to study the distribution of solutions to certain polynomial systems of congruences modulo a prime $p$. In particular, we obtain nontrivial results about the number of solutions in boxes with the side length below ${p}^{1/ 2} $, which seems to be the limit of more general methods based on the bounds of exponential sums along varieties.

We use a generalisation of Vinogradov’s mean value theorem of Parsell et al. [‘Near-optimal mean value estimates for multidimensional Weyl sums’, arXiv:1205.6331] and ideas of Schmidt [‘Irregularities of distribution. IX’, Acta Arith. 27 (1975), 385–396] to give nontrivial bounds for the number of solutions to polynomial congruences, when the solutions lie in a very general class of sets, including all convex sets.

We establish a defect relation for algebraically non-degenerate meromorphic maps over generalized p-parabolic manifolds that intersect hypersurfaces in smooth projective algebraic varieties, extending certain results of H. Cartan, L. Ahlfors, W. Stoll, M. Ru, P. M. Wong and Philip P. W. Wong and others.

We find the best asymptotic lower bounds for the coefficient of the leading term of the ${L}_{1} $ norm of the two-dimensional axis-parallel discrepancy that can be obtained by Roth’s orthogonal function method among a large class of test functions. We use methods of combinatorics, probability, and complex and harmonic analysis.

Let Q be an infinite set of positive integers. Denote by Wτ,n(Q) (respectively, Wτ,n) the set of points in dimension n≥1 that are simultaneously τ-approximable by infinitely many rationals with denominators in Q (respectively, in ℕ*). When n≥2 and τ>1+1/(n−1) , a non-trivial lower bound for the Hausdorff dimension of the liminf set Wτ,n ∖Wτ,n (Q)is established in the case where the set Q satisfies some divisibility properties. The computation of the actual value of this Hausdorff dimension and the one-dimensional analogue of the problem are also discussed.

In the paper we deal with self-approximation of the Riemann zeta function in the half plane $\operatorname {Re} s\gt 1$ and in the right half of the critical strip. We also prove some results concerning joint universality and joint value approximation of functions $\zeta (s+\lambda +id\tau )$ and $\zeta (s+i\tau )$.

Given an integer $q\ge 2$, a $q$-normal number is an irrational number $\eta $ such that any preassigned sequence of $\ell $ digits occurs in the $q$-ary expansion of $\eta $ at the expected frequency, namely $1/q^\ell $. In a recent paper we constructed a large family of normal numbers, showing in particular that, if $P(n)$ stands for the largest prime factor of $n$, then the number $0.P(2)P(3)P(4)\ldots ,$ the concatenation of the numbers $P(2), P(3), P(4), \ldots ,$ each represented in base $q$, is a $q$-normal number, thereby answering in the affirmative a question raised by Igor Shparlinski. We also showed that $0.P(2+1)P(3+1)P(5+1) \ldots P(p+1)\ldots ,$ where $p$ runs through the sequence of primes, is a $q$-normal number. Here, we show that, given any fixed integer $k\ge 2$, the numbers $0.P_k(2)P_k(3)P_k(4)\ldots $ and $0. P_k(2+1)P_k(3+1)P_k(5+1) \ldots P_k(p+1)\ldots ,$ where $P_k(n)$ stands for the $k{\rm th}$ largest prime factor of $n$, are $q$-normal numbers. These results are part of more general statements.

We give continued fraction algorithms for each conjugacy class of triangle Fuchsian group of signature $(3, n, \infty )$, with $n\geq 4$. In particular, we give an explicit form of the group that is a subgroup of the Hilbert modular group of its trace field and provide an interval map that is piecewise linear fractional, given in terms of group elements. Using natural extensions, we find an ergodic invariant measure for the interval map. We also study Diophantine properties of approximation in terms of the continued fractions and show that these continued fractions are appropriate to obtain transcendence results.

We study various Dirichlet series of the form ∑n≥1f(πnα)/ns, where α is an irrational number and f(x) is a trigonometric function like cot(x), 1/sin(x) or 1/sin2(x). The convergence is slow and strongly depends on the Diophantine properties of α. We provide necessary and sufficient convergence conditions using the continued fraction of α. We also show that any one of our series is equal to a related series, which converges much faster, defined in term of iterations of the continued fraction operator α↦{1/α}.

We discuss the distribution properties of hybrid sequences whose components stem from Niederreiter–Halton sequences on the one hand, and Kronecker sequences on the other. In this paper, we give necessary and sufficient conditions on the uniform distribution of such sequences, and derive a result regarding their discrepancy. We conclude with a short summary and a discussion of topics for future research.

Given an integer d≥2, a d-normal number, or simply a normal number, is an irrational number whosed-ary expansion is such that any preassigned sequence, of length k≥1, taken within this expansion occurs at the expected limiting frequency, namely 1/dk. Answering questions raised by Igor Shparlinski, we show that 0.P(2)P(3)P(4)…P(n)… and 0.P(2+1)P(3+1)P(5+1)…P(p+1)…, where P(n) stands for the largest prime factor of n, are both normal numbers.