Measures supported on partly normal numbers

TL;DR

This paper investigates the measure-theoretic properties of numbers that are normal in some bases but not in others, constructing special measures supported on these sets and analyzing their Fourier properties.

Contribution

It introduces skewed measures supported on sets of partly normal numbers, extending previous work and answering questions about their Fourier-analytic properties.

Findings

Constructed singular measures supported on partly normal sets

Proved these measures are Frostman and Rajchman, with Fourier decay properties

Identified conditions under which these sets are of multiplicity in Fourier analysis

Abstract

A real number $x$ is normal with respect to an integer base $b \geq 2$ if its digit expansion in this base is ``equitable'', in the sense that for $k \geq 1$, every ordered sequence of $k$ digits from $\{0, 1, \ldots, b-1\}$ occurs in the digit expansion of $x$ with the same limiting frequency. Borel's classical result \cite{b09} asserts that Lebesgue-almost every number $x$ is normal in every base $b \geq 2$. This three-part article considers sets of partial normality. Given any choice of integer bases $\mathscr{B}, \mathscr{B}' \subseteq \{2, 3, \ldots\}$, we investigate measure-theoretic properties of the set $\mathscr{N}(\mathscr{B}, \mathscr{B}')$, whose members are, by definition, normal in the bases of $\mathscr{B}$ and non-normal in the bases of $\mathscr{B}'$. A pair of sets $(\mathscr{B}, \mathscr{B}')$ is compatible if any $(b, b') \in \mathscr{B} \times \mathscr{B}'$ is multiplicatively independent. For compatible $(\mathscr{B}, \mathscr{B}')$ with $\mathscr{B}' \ne \emptyset$, we construct singular probability measures supported on $\mathscr N(\mathscr{B}, \mathscr{B}')$ that are both Frostman and Rajchman, extending prior work of Pollington \cite{p81} and Lyons \cite{l86}. The Rajchman property completely answers a question of Kahane and Salem \cite{Kahane-Salem-64}, identifying $\mathscr N(\mathscr{B}, \mathscr{B}')$ as a set of multiplicity (in the Fourier-analytic sense) if and only if $(\mathscr{B}, \mathscr{B}')$ is compatible. The methodological contribution of the article is the construction of a class of probability measures called skewed measures. These measures depend on a number of parameters that can be independently adjusted to ensure (subsets of) properties such as almost everywhere normality, non-normality, ball conditions and Fourier decay.