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Michael Coons

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Coons.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

On the absolute value of the autocorrelations of the Thue-Morse sequence

Recently, Baake and Coons proved several results on the average size of the autocorrelations of the Thue--Morse sequence. They also considered the absolute value of the autocorrelations, and showed that the average value of the autocorrelations is zero. In particular, they showed that $\sum_{n\leqslant x}|\eta(n)|=o(x^\alpha)$ for any $\alpha>\log(3)/\log(4)$. In this paper, we sharpen this result, providing upper and lower bounds for $\alpha$. On the way to our lower bounds, we obtain the structure of the linear representation of the point-wise product of two $k$-regular sequences, which may be of independent interest.

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arXiv2024

Relative position in binary substitutions

Given an infinite word ${\bf w}$ on a finite alphabet, an immediate question arises:~can we understand the frequency of letters in ${\bf w}$\,? For words that are the fixed points of substitutions, the answer to this question is often `yes' -- the details and methods of these answers have been well-documented. In this paper, toward a better-understanding of the fixed points of binary substitutions, we delve deeper by investigating, in fine detail, the position of letters by defining various position functions and proving results about their behavior. Our analysis reveals new information about the Fibonacci substitution and the extended Pisa family of substitutions, as well as a new characterization of the Thue--Morse sequence.

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arXiv2023

Linear independence of series related to the Thue--Morse sequence along powers

The Thue--Morse sequence $\{t(n)\}_{n\geqslant 1}$ is the indicator function of the parity of the number of ones in the binary expansion of positive integers $n$, where $t(n)=1$ (resp. $=0$) if the binary expansion of $n$ has an odd (resp. even) number of ones. In this paper, we generalize a recent result of E.~Miyanohara by showing that, for a fixed Pisot or Salem number $\beta>\sqrt{\varphi}=1.272019649\ldots$, the set of the numbers $$ 1,\quad \sum_{n\geqslant 1}\frac{t(n)}{\beta^{n}},\quad \sum_{n\geqslant 1}\frac{t(n^2)}{\beta^{n}},\quad \dots, \quad \sum_{n\geqslant 1}\frac{t(n^k)}{\beta^{n}},\quad \dots $$ is linearly independent over the field $\mathbb{Q}(\beta)$, where $\varphi:=(1+\sqrt{5})/2$ is the golden ratio. Our result implies that for any $k\geqslant 1$ and for any $a_1,a_2,\ldots,a_k\in\mathbb{Q}(\beta)$, not all zero, the sequence \{$a_1t(n)+a_2t(n^2)+\cdots+a_kt(n^k)\}_{n\geqslant 1}$ cannot be eventually periodic.

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arXiv2023

Asymptotics for partitions over the Fibonacci numbers and related sequences

In this paper, harkening back to ideas of Hardy and Ramanujan, Mahler and de Bruijn, with the addition of more recent results on the Fibonacci Dirichlet series, we determine the asymptotic number of ways $p_F(n)$ to write an integer as the sum of non-distinct Fibonacci numbers. This appears to be the first such asymptotic result concerning non-distinct partitions over Fibonacci numbers. As well, under weak conditions, we prove analogous results for a general linear recurrences.

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arXiv2023

Spectral theory of regular sequences: parametrisation and spectral characterisation

We extend the existence of ghost measures beyond nonnegative primitive regular sequences to a large class of nonnegative real-valued regular sequences. In the general case, where the ghost measure is not unique, we show that they can be parametrised by a compact abelian group. For a subclass of these measures, by replacing primitivity with a commutativity condition, we show that these measures have an infinite convolution structure similar to Bernoulli convolutions. Using this structure, we show that these ghost measures have pure spectral type. Further, we provide results towards a classification of the spectral type based on inequalities involving the spectral radius, joint spectral radius, and Lyapunov exponent of the underlying set of matrices. In the case that the underlying measure is pure point, we show that the support of the measure must be a subset of the rational numbers, a result that resolves a new case of the finiteness conjecture.

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arXiv2022

Correlations of the Thue--Morse sequence

The pair correlations of the Thue--Morse sequence and system are revisited, with focus on asymptotic results on various means. First, it is shown that all higher-order correlations of the Thue--Morse sequence with general real weights are effectively determined by a single value of the balanced $2$-point correlation. As a consequence, we show that all odd-order correlations of the balanced Thue--Morse sequence vanish, and that, for any even $n$, the $n$-point correlations of the balanced Thue--Morse sequence have mean value zero, as do their absolute values, raised to an arbitrary positive power. All these results also apply to the entire Thue--Morse system. We finish by showing how the correlations of the Thue--Morse system with general real weights can be derived from the balanced $2$-point correlations.

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arXiv2021

Ghost distributions of regular sequences are affine transformations of self-affine sets

Ghost measures of regular sequences---the unbounded analogue of automatic sequences---are generalisations of standard fractal mass distributions. They were introduced to determine fractal (or self-similar) properties of regular sequences similar to those related to automatic sequences. The existence and continuity of ghost measures for a large class of regular sequences was recently given by Coons, Evans and Ma\~nibo. In this paper, we provide an explicit connection between fractals and regular sequences by showing that the graphs of ghost distributions---the distribution functions of ghost measures---of the above-mentioned class of regular sequences are sections of self-affine sets. As an application of our result, we show that the ghost distributions of the Zaremba sequences---regular sequences of the denominators of the convergents of badly approximable numbers---are all singular continuous.

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arXiv2020

A sequential view of self--similar measures, or, What the ghosts of Mahler and Cantor can teach us about dimension

We show that missing $q$-ary digit sets $F\subseteq[0,1]$ have corresponding naturally associated countable binary $q$-automatic sequence $f$. Using this correspondence, we show that the Hausdorff dimension of $F$ is equal to the base-$q$ logarithm of the Mahler eigenvalue of $f$. In addition, we demonstrate that the standard mass distribution $\nu_F$ supported on $F$ is equal to the ghost measure $\mu_f$ of $f$.

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arXiv2020

The spectral theory of regular sequences

Regular sequences are natural generalisations of fixed points of constant-length substitutions on finite alphabets, that is, of automatic sequences. Using the harmonic analysis of measures associated with substitutions as motivation, we study the limiting asymptotics of regular sequences by constructing a systematic measure-theoretic framework surrounding them. The constructed measures are generalisations of mass distributions supported on attractors of iterated function systems.

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arXiv2020

On a family of singular continuous measures related to the doubling map

Here, we study some measures that can be represented by infinite Riesz products of 1-periodic functions and are related to the doubling map. We show that these measures are purely singular continuous with respect to Lebesgue measure and that their distribution functions satisfy super-polynomial asymptotics near the origin, thus providing a family of extremal examples of singular measures, including the Thue--Morse measure.

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arXiv2018

Becker's conjecture on Mahler functions

In 1994, Becker conjectured that if $F(z)$ is a $k$-regular power series, then there exists a $k$-regular rational function $R(z)$ such that $F(z)/R(z)$ satisfies a Mahler-type functional equation with polynomial coefficients where the initial coefficient satisfies $a_0(z)=1$. In this paper, we prove Becker's conjecture in the best-possible form; we show that the rational function $R(z)$ can be taken to be a polynomial $z^\gamma Q(z)$ for some explicit non-negative integer $\gamma$ and such that $1/Q(z)$ is $k$-regular.

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arXiv2017

Binary constant-length substitutions and Mahler measures of Borwein polynomials

We show that the Mahler measure of every Borwein polynomial -- a polynomial with coefficients in $ \{-1,0,1 \}$ having non-zero constant term -- can be expressed as a maximal Lyapunov exponent of a matrix cocycle that arises in the spectral theory of binary constant-length substitutions. In this way, Lehmer's problem for height-one polynomials having minimal Mahler measure becomes equivalent to a natural question from the spectral theory of binary constant-length substitutions. This supports another connection between Mahler measures and dynamics, beyond the well-known appearance of Mahler measures as entropies in algebraic dynamics.

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arXiv2017

Extension of a theorem of Duffin and Schaeffer

Let $r_1,\ldots,r_s:\mathbb{Z}_{n\geqslant 0}\to\mathbb{C}$ be linearly recurrent sequences whose associated eigenvalues have arguments in $\pi\mathbb{Q}$ and let $F(z):=\sum_{n\geqslant 0}f(n)z^n$, where $f(n)\in\{r_1(n),\ldots,$ $r_s(n)\}$ for each $n\geqslant 0$. We prove that if $F(z)$ is bounded in a sector of its disk of convergence, it is a rational function. This extends a very recent result of Tang and Wang, who gave the analogous result when the sequence $f(n)$ takes on values of finitely many polynomials.

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arXiv2017

A natural probability measure derived from Stern's diatomic sequence

Stern's diatomic sequence with its intrinsic repetition and refinement structure between consecutive powers of $2$ gives rise to a rather natural probability measure on the unit interval. We construct this measure and show that it is purely singular continuous, with a strictly increasing, H\"older continuous distribution function. Moreover, we relate this function with the solution of the dilation equation for Stern's diatomic sequence.

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arXiv2017

Mahler takes a regular view of Zaremba

In the theory of continued fractions, Zaremba's conjecture states that there is a positive integer $M$ such that each integer is the denominator of a convergent of an ordinary continued fraction with partial quotients bounded by $M$. In this paper, to each such $M$ we associate a regular sequence---in the sense of Allouche and Shallit---and establish various properties and results concerning the generating function of the regular sequence. In particular, we determine the minimal algebraic relation concerning the generating function and its Mahler iterates.

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arXiv2016

Zero order estimates for Mahler functions

We give an upper bound for the zero order of the difference between a Mahler function and an algebraic function. This complements estimates of Nesterenko, Nishioka, and T\"opfer, among others, who considered polynomials evaluated at Mahler functions.

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