Host equidistribution theorem 2026-10-05
Let be relatively prime integers. If is invariant and ergodic for the integer multiplication map on the circle and , then for -almost every the sequence is an equidistributed sequence for Lebesgue measure. For a non-ergodic invariant measure, the same conclusion holds if almost every measure in its ergodic decomposition has positive entropy. Positive entropy of the whole measure alone does not suffice.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 108 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The Rudolph measure rigidity theorem has an essential ergodicity hypothesis. If a Borel probability measure on the circle group is invariant under both and , is ergodic for the semigroup generated jointly by these maps, and either map has positive Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy, thenEquivalently, a jointly ergodic common invariant measure other than Lebesgue measure has zero entropy for both maps. Joint ergodicity means that every set invariant modulo under both maps has measure zero or one. Positive entropy without this hypothesis is insufficient: , with a Dirac measure, is a common invariant measure of positive entropy and is not .
The Host equidistribution theorem states that if are relatively prime integers and is invariant and ergodic under , with , then for -almost every the sequence is an equidistributed sequence for Lebesgue measure. Explicitly, for every continuous on the circle,The non-ergodic form assumes invariance and positive entropy for almost every component in the ergodic decomposition . Applying the ergodic theorem of Host on each such component gives the same almost-everywhere conclusion for . More generally, its conclusion holds on the part supported on positive-entropy components. A positive value of alone does not eliminate zero-entropy components.
To deduce the joint version of the Rudolph measure rigidity theorem, suppose ; if only has positive entropy, interchange the roles. Write the ergodic decomposition as . Since commutes with , its pushforward measure sends a ergodic component to a ergodic component . On each component, is a factor of a measure-preserving system with fibres of size at most three. We use the standard entropy preservation under a finite-to-one factor:The reason for this standard entropy fact is that, conditional on a complete factor point, every finite orbit name has at most three possibilities; its conditional entropy is bounded by , and division by the orbit length gives zero relative entropy.
The component at is almost everywhere; this follows from commutation and the componentwise ergodic averages. The component entropy function is therefore invariant under both and . Joint ergodicity makes it constant almost everywhere, and affinity of entropy under ergodic decomposition identifies the constant as . Thus almost every component has positive entropy, exactly the condition required in the non-ergodic Host equidistribution theorem. It follows that -almost every point equidistributes for under .
For any continuous , invariance under and the dominated convergence theorem now giveContinuous functions determine Borel probability measures on the circle, so , proving the deduction.
For the normal-number example, let be independent fair binary digits and defineThis Cantor Bernoulli measure is supported on the middle-third Cantor set . If is the Bernoulli shift, then on the circle. Consequently is invariant and ergodic: a invariant event pulls back to an invariant event, which has probability zero or one.
Take the ternary digit measurable partition . Its block partition of length has, up to null endpoints, positive-measure atoms under , each of measure , and all other atoms have measure zero. HenceApply the Host equidistribution theorem with , . For -almost every , the sequence equidistributes for Lebesgue measure, so is a normal number in base by normality and equidistribution under integer multiplication.
The ternary expansion of -almost every such contains only and , so the frequency of digit is zero rather than . The ambiguous ternary endpoints form a countable null set and can be removed. Therefore is not a normal number in base . We have proved the stronger almost-everywhere existence statement