On a conjecture of Dekking : The sum of digits of even numbers

Iurie Boreico, Daniel El-Baz, Thomas Stoll

Published 2013-05-05, updated 2013-05-08Version 2

Let $q\geq 2$ and denote by $s_q$ the sum-of-digits function in base $q$. For $j=0,1,...,q-1$ consider $$# \{0 \le n < N : \;\;s_q(2n) \equiv j \pmod q \}.$$ In 1983, F. M. Dekking conjectured that this quantity is greater than $N/q$ and, respectively, less than $N/q$ for infinitely many $N$, thereby claiming an absence of a drift (or Newman) phenomenon. In this paper we prove his conjecture.