Block-count constrained harmonic sums: spectral expansion and block-directed Euler-Maclaurin

Abstract

We determine exactly how harmonic sums, taken over integers with a given number of occurrences of a fixed block of digits, depend on that number of occurrences. Language factorizations, combined with stochastic radix expansions, relate these harmonic sums to the iteration of an operator whose eigenvectors are the Lebesgue measure and distributional derivatives of singular measures. The dual picture is given by a Riesz basis of eigenpolynomials in a suitable Hardy space. The resulting modal expansion admits a natural interpretation as a block-directed Euler-Maclaurin formula interpolating between Euler-Maclaurin and Taylor expansions.