The Marcinkiewicz-Zygmund Property for Riemann Differences with Geometric Nodes

TL;DR

This paper characterizes when Riemann differences with geometric nodes have the Marcinkiewicz-Zygmund property, providing a complete analytic criterion and counterexamples that challenge previous conjectures.

Contribution

It develops a recurrence framework to analytically determine the MZ property for Riemann differences, offering a full classification and counterexamples.

Findings

Counterexamples to previous conjectures about geometric nodes

Complete analytic criterion for the MZ property based on modulus conditions

Framework applicable to generalized differences

Abstract

We study when a Riemann difference of order $ n $ possesses the Marcinkiewicz-Zygmund (MZ) property: that is, whether the conditions $ f(h) = o(h^{n-1}) $ and $ Df(h) = o(h^n) $ imply $ f(h) = o(h^n) $. This implication is known to hold for some classical examples with geometric nodes, such as $ \{0, 1, q, \dots, q^{n-1}\} $ and $ \{1, q, \dots, q^n\} $, leading to a conjecture that these are the only such Riemann differences with the MZ property. However, this conjecture was disproved by the third-order example with nodes $ \{-1, 0, 1, 2\} $, and we provide further counterexamples and a general classification here. We establish a complete analytic criterion for the MZ property by developing a recurrence framework: we analyze when a function $ R(h) $ satisfying $ D(h) = R(qh) - A R(h) $, together with $ D(h) = o(h^n) $ and $ R(h) = o(h^{n-1}) $, forces $ R(h) = o(h^n) $. We prove that this holds if and only if $ A $ lies outside a critical modulus annulus determined by $ q $ and $ n $, covering both $ |q| > 1 $ and $ |q| < 1 $ cases. This leads to a complete characterization of all Riemann differences with geometric nodes that possess the MZ property, and provides a flexible analytic framework applicable to broader classes of generalized differences.