Inequalities for the harmonic numbers

We present various inequalities for the harmonic numbers defined by ${H_n=1+1/2 +\ldots +1/n\,(n\in{\bf N})}$ . One of our results states that we have for all integers n ???2: $$\alpha \, \frac{\log(\log{n}+\gamma)}{n^2} \leq H_n^{1/n} -H_{n+1}^{1/(n+1)} < \beta \, \frac{\log(\log{n}+\gamma)}{n^2}$$ with the best possible constant factors $$\alpha= \frac{6 \sqrt{6}-2 \sqrt[3]{396}}{3 \log(\log{2}+\gamma)}=0.0140\ldots \quad\mbox{and} \quad\beta=1.$$ Here, ?? denotes Euler??s constant.     

Asymptotic properties for the loglog laws under positive association

Let {X _n : n ?? 1} be a strictly stationary sequence of positively associated random variables with mean zero and finite variance. Set $S_n = \sum\limits_{k = 1}^n {X_k }$ , $Mn = \mathop {\max }\limits_{k \leqslant n} \left| {S_k } \right|$ , n ?? 1. Suppose that $0 < \sigma ^2 = EX_1^2 + 2\sum\limits_{k = 2}^\infty {EX_1 X_k < \infty }$ . In this paper, we prove that if E|X ₁|^2+?? < for some ?? ?? (0, 1], and $\sum\limits_{j = n + 1}^\infty {Cov\left( {X_1 ,X_j } \right) = O\left( {n^{ - \alpha } } \right)}$ for some ?? > 1, then for any b > ?1/2 $$\mathop {\lim }\limits_{\varepsilon \searrow 0} \varepsilon ^{2b + 1} \sum\limits_{n = 1}^\infty {\frac{{(\log \log n)^{b - 1/2} }} {{n^{3/2} \log n}}} E\left\{ {M_n - \sigma \varepsilon \sqrt {2n\log \log n} } \right\}_ + = \frac{{2^{ - 1/2 - b} E\left| N \right|^{2(b + 1)} }} {{(b + 1)(2b + 1)}}\sum\limits_{k = 0}^\infty {\frac{{( - 1)^k }} {{(2k + 1)^{2(b + 1)} }}}$$ and $$\mathop {\lim }\limits_{\varepsilon \nearrow \infty } \varepsilon ^{ - 2(b + 1)} \sum\limits_{n = 1}^\infty {\frac{{(\log \log n)^b }} {{n^{3/2} \log n}}E\left\{ {\sigma \varepsilon \sqrt {\frac{{\pi ^2 n}} {{8\log \log n}}} - M_n } \right\}} _ + = \frac{{\Gamma (b + 1/2)}} {{\sqrt 2 (b + 1)}}\sum\limits_{k = 0}^\infty {\frac{{( - 1)^k }} {{(2k + 1)^{2b + 2} }}} ,$$ where x ₊ = max{x, 0}, N is a standard normal random variable, and ??(·) is a Gamma function.     

Extinction profile of the logarithmic diffusion equation

Let ${N \geq 3}$ and u be the solution of u _t = Δ log u in ${\mathbb{R}^N \times (0, T)}$ with initial value u ₀ satisfying ${B_{k_1}(x, 0) \leq u_{0} \leq B_{k_2}(x, 0)}$ for some constants k ₁ > k ₂ > 0 where ${B_k(x, t) = 2(N - 2)(T - t)_{+}^{N/(N - 2)}/(k + (T - t)_{+}^{2/(N - 2)}|x|^{2})}$ is the Barenblatt solution for the equation and ${u_0 - B_{k_0} \in L^{1}(\mathbb{R}^{N})}$ for some constant k ₀ > 0 if ${N \geq 4}$ . We give a new different proof on the uniform convergence and ${L^1(\mathbb{R}^N)}$ convergence of the rescaled function ${\tilde{u}(x, s) = (T - t)^{-N/(N - 2)}u(x/(T - t)^{-1/(N - 2)}, t), s = -{\rm log}(T - t)}$ , on ${\mathbb{R}^N}$ to the rescaled Barenblatt solution ${\tilde{B}_{k_0}(x) = 2(N - 2)/(k_0 + |x|^{2})}$ for some k ₀ > 0 as ${s \rightarrow \infty}$ . When ${N \geq 4, 0 \leq u_0(x) \leq B_{k_0}(x, 0)}$ in ${\mathbb{R}^N}$ , and ${|u_0(x) - B_{k_0}(x, 0)| \leq f \in L^{1}(\mathbb{R}^{N})}$ for some constant k ₀ > 0 and some radially symmetric function f, we also prove uniform convergence and convergence in some weighted L ¹ space in ${\mathbb{R}^N}$ of the rescaled solution ${\tilde{u}(x, s)}$ to ${\tilde{B}_{k_0}(x)}$ as ${s \rightarrow \infty}$ .     

Strong approximation of Riesz means at critical index on Hp(T) (0<p≤1)

This paper is a continuation of [3]. Suppose f∈H^p(T), 0σ _r ^σ f,σ=1/p?1. When p=1, it is just the partial Fourier sums S_kf. In this paper we establish the sharp estimations on the degree of approximation: $$\left\{ { - \frac{1}{{logR}}\int\limits_1^R {\left\| {\sigma _r^\delta f - f} \right\|_{H^p (T)}^p \frac{{dr}}{r}} } \right\}^{1/p} \leqq C{\mathbf{ }}{}_p\omega \left( {f,{\mathbf{ }}( - \frac{1}{{logR}})^{1/p} } \right)_{H^p (T)} ,0< p< 1,$$ and \(\frac{1}{{\log L}}\sum\limits_{k - 1}^L {\frac{{\left\| {S_k f - f} \right\|_H 1_{(T)} }}{k} \leqq Cp\omega (f; - \frac{1}{{\log L}})_H 1_{(T)} } \) Where $$\omega (f,{\mathbf{ }}h)_{H^p (T)} \begin{array}{*{20}c} { = Sup} \\ {0 \leqq \left| u \right| \leqq h} \\ \end{array} \left\| {f( \cdot + u) - f( \cdot )} \right\|_{H^p (T).} $$ .     

Sharp weak-type inequalities for Hilbert transform and Riesz projection

The paper is devoted to the study of the weak norms of the classical operators in the vector-valued setting.

1. Let S, H denote the singular integral involution operator and the Hilbert transform on $L^p \left( {\mathbb{T}, \ell _\mathbb{C}^2 } \right)$ , respectively. Then for 1 ≤ p ≤ 2 and any f, $$\left\| {\mathcal{S}f} \right\|_{p,\infty } \leqslant \left( {\frac{1} {\pi }\int_{ - \infty }^\infty {\frac{{\left| {\tfrac{2} {\pi }\log \left| t \right|} \right|^p }} {{t^2 + 1}}dt} } \right)^{ - 1/p} \left\| f \right\|p,$$ $$\left\| {\mathcal{H}f} \right\|_{p,\infty } \leqslant \left( {\frac{1} {\pi }\int_{ - \infty }^\infty {\frac{{\left| {\tfrac{2} {\pi }\log \left| t \right|} \right|^p }} {{t^2 + 1}}dt} } \right)^{ - 1/p} \left\| f \right\|p.$$ Both inequalities are sharp.
2. Let P ₊ and P _? stand for the Riesz projection and the co-analytic projection on $L^p \left( {\mathbb{T}, \ell _\mathbb{C}^2 } \right)$ , respectively. Then for 1 ≤ p ≤ 2 and any f, $$\left\| {P + f} \right\|_{p,\infty } \leqslant \left\| f \right\|_p ,$$ $$\left\| {P - f} \right\|_{p,\infty } \leqslant \left\| f \right\|_p .$$ Both inequalities are sharp.
3. We establish the sharp versions of the estimates above in the nonperiodic case.

The results are new even if the operators act on complex-valued functions. The proof rests on the construction of an appropriate plurisubharmonic function and probabilistic techniques.     

Arrangements of Hyperplanes and the Number of Threshold Functions

Two approaches on estimating the number of threshold functions which were recently developed by the author are discussed. Let P(K,n) denote the number of threshold functions in K-valued logic. The first approach establishes that $$P(K,n + 1) \geqslant \frac{1}{2}\left( {\mathop {K^{n - 1} }\limits_{\left\lfloor {n - 4 - 2\frac{n}{{\log _K n}}} \right\rfloor } } \right)P\left( {K,\left\lfloor {{\text{2}}\frac{n}{{\log _K n}} + 3} \right\rfloor } \right).$$ The key argument of investigation is the generalization of the result of Odlyzko on subspaces spanned by random selections of ±1-vectors. Let $E_K = \{ 0,1 \ldots ,K - 1\} $ and let E denote the set of all vectors $w_i ,i = 1, \ldots ,K^n $ , which have the form $(1,a_1 , \ldots ,a_n ),a_i \in E_K $ . Denote by $\Lambda _n (K)$ the number of all collections of different vectors $(w_{i_1 } , \ldots ,w_{i_n } ),2 \leqslant i_1 , \ldots ,i_n \leqslant \mathbb{K}^n $ , such that, for any k, $1 \leqslant k \leqslant n$ , the vector $w_{i_k } $ is minimal among all vectors from the set $E \cap {\text{span}}(w_{i_k } , \ldots ,w_{i_n } )$ . The second approach is based on topology-combinatorical techniques and allows to establish the following inequality $P(K,n) \geqslant 2\Lambda _n (K)$ .     

On the average number of direct factors of a finite Abelian group

Let \(T(x) = \sum\limits_{ord(G) \leqq x} {t(G),} \) , wheret(G) define the number of direct factors of a finite Abelian group.E. Krätzel ([5]) defined a remainderΔ ₁(x) in the asymptotic ofT(x) and proved $$\Delta _1 (x)<< x^{{5 \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {5 {12}}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {12}}} \log ^4 x.$$ Using two different methods to estimate a special three-dimensional exponential sum we get the better results $$\Delta _1 (x)<< x^{{{282} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{282} {683}}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {683}}} \log ^4 x$$ and $$\Delta _1 (x)<< x^{{{45} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{45} {109}}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {109}} + \varepsilon } (\varepsilon > 0).$$      

Necessary and sufficient conditions for the asymptotic distribution of the largest entry of a sample correlation matrix

Let {X _k,i ; i ≥ 1, k ≥ 1} be a double array of nondegenerate i.i.d. random variables and let {p _n ; n ≥ 1} be a sequence of positive integers such that n/p _n is bounded away from 0 and ∞. In this paper we give the necessary and sufficient conditions for the asymptotic distribution of the largest entry ${L_{n}={\rm max}_{1\leq i < j\leq p_{n}}|\hat{\rho}^{(n)}_{i,j}|}$ of the sample correlation matrix ${{\bf {\Gamma}}_{n}=(\hat{\rho}_{i,j}^{(n)})_{1\leq i,j\leq p_{n}}}$ where ${\hat{\rho}^{(n)}_{i,j}}$ denotes the Pearson correlation coefficient between (X _1,i , ..., X _n,i )′ and (X _1,j ,...,X _n,j )′. Write ${F(x)= \mathbb{P}(|X_{1,1}|\leq x), x\geq0}$ , ${W_{c,n}={\rm max}_{1\leq i < j\leq p_{n}}|\sum_{k=1}^{n}(X_{k,i}-c)(X_{k,j}-c)|}$ , and ${W_{n}=W_{0,n},n\geq1,c\in(-\infty,\infty)}$ . Under the assumption that ${\mathbb{E}|X_{1,1}|^{2+\delta} < \infty}$ for some δ > 0, we show that the following six statements are equivalent: $$ {\bf (i)} \quad \lim_{n \to \infty} n^{2}\int\limits_{(n \log n)^{1/4}}^{\infty}\left( F^{n-1}(x) - F^{n-1}\left(\frac{\sqrt{n \log n}}{x}\right) \right) dF(x) = 0,$$ $$ {\bf (ii)}\quad n \mathbb{P}\left ( \max_{1 \leq i < j \leq n}|X_{1,i}X_{1,j} | \geq \sqrt{n \log n}\right ) \to 0 \quad{\rm as}\,n \to \infty,$$ $$ {\bf (iii)}\quad \frac{W_{\mu, n}}{\sqrt {n \log n}}\stackrel{\mathbb{P}}{\rightarrow} 2\sigma^{2},$$ $$ {\bf (iv)}\quad \left ( \frac{n}{\log n}\right )^{1/2} L_{n} \stackrel{\mathbb{P}}{\rightarrow} 2,$$ $$ {\bf (v)}\quad \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty}\mathbb{P}\left (\frac{W_{\mu, n}^{2}}{n \sigma^{4}} - a_{n}\leq t \right ) = \exp \left \{ - \frac{1}{\sqrt{8\pi}} e^{-t/2}\right \}, - \infty < t < \infty,$$ $$ {\bf (vi)}\quad \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty}\mathbb{P}\left (n L_{n}^{2} - a_{n}\leq t \right ) = \exp \left \{ - \frac{1}{\sqrt{8 \pi}} e^{-t/2}\right \}, - \infty < t < \infty$$ where ${\mu=\mathbb{E}X_{1,1}, \sigma^{2}=\mathbb{E}(X_{1,1} - \mu)^{2}}$ , and a _n  = 4 log p _n ? log log p _n . The equivalences between (i), (ii), (iii), and (v) assume that only ${\mathbb{E}X_{1,1}^{2} < \infty}$ . Weak laws of large numbers for W _n and L _n , n ≥  1, are also established and these are of the form ${W_{n}/n^{\alpha}\stackrel{\mathbb{P}}{\rightarrow} 0}\,(\alpha > 1/2)$ and ${n^{1-\alpha}L_{n}\stackrel{\mathbb{P}}{\rightarrow} 0}\,(1/2 < \alpha \leq 1)$ , respectively. The current work thus provides weak limit analogues of the strong limit theorems of Li and Rosalsky as well as a necessary and sufficient condition for the asymptotic distribution of L _n obtained by Jiang. Some open problems are also posed.     

On the L p -distortion of finite quotients of amenable groups

We study the L ^p -distortion of finite quotients of amenable groups. In particular, for every ${2\leq p < \infty}$ , we prove that the ? ^p -distortions of the groups ${C_2\wr C_n}$ and ${C_{2^n}\rtimes C_n}$ are in ${\Theta((\log n)^{1/p}),}$ and that the ? ^p -distortion of ${C_n^2 \rtimes_A \mathbf{Z}}$ , where A is the matrix ${{\left({\small\begin{array}{cc}2 & 1 \\ 1 & 1 \end{array}} \right)}}$ is in ${\Theta((\log \log n)^{1/p}).}$      

On sets of uniqueness for harmonic functions in the unit circle

The resutls of this paper show that the structure of sets mentioned in the title is not trivial. For example, it is shown that there exist countalbe sets of uniqueness for logarithmic potential, i.e., closed countable subsets E of the unit circle $\mathbb{T}$ such that $$f \in C(\mathbb{T}),f|_E = 0,U^f |_E = 0 \Rightarrow f \equiv 0.$$ Here $U^f (z) = \tfrac{1}{\pi }\int\limits_0^{2\pi } {f(e^{i\theta } )\log \tfrac{1}{{\left| {z - e^{i\theta } } \right|}}d\theta } $ . On the other hand, it is shown that every countable porous closed subset of $\mathbb{T}$ is a nonuniqueness set. Bibliography: 9 titles.     

On the number of reducible polynomials of bounded naive height

We prove an asymptotical formula for the number of reducible integer polynomials of degree d and of naive height at most T when \({T \to \infty}\) . The main term turns out to be of the form \({\kappa_d T^d}\) for each \({d \geq 3}\) , where the constant \({\kappa_d}\) is given in terms of some infinite Dirichlet series involving the volumes of symmetric convex bodies in \({\mathbb{R}^d}\) . For d = 2, we prove that there are asymptotically \({\kappa_2 T^2 \,\text{log} T}\) of such polynomials, where \({\kappa_2:=6(3\sqrt{5}+2\,\text{log} (1+\sqrt{5}) -2 \,\text{log}\, 2)/\pi^2}\) . Earlier results in this direction were given by van der Waerden, Pólya and Szegö, Dörge, Chela, and Kuba.     

Spectral Projections of the Complex Cubic Oscillator

We prove the spectral instability of the complex cubic oscillator \({-\frac{{\rm d}^{2}}{{\rm d}x^{2}} + ix^{3} + i \alpha x}\) for non-negative values of the parameter α, by getting the exponential growth rate of \({\|\Pi_{n}(\alpha)\|}\) , where \({\Pi_{n}(\alpha)}\) is the spectral projection associated with the nth eigenvalue of the operator. More precisely, we show that for all non-negative α $$\lim\limits_{n \to + \infty} \frac{1}{n} {\rm log}\|\Pi_{n}(\alpha)\| = \frac{\pi}{\sqrt{3}}$$ .     

Strong approximation of empirical process with independent but non-identically distributed random variables

Let{Y_t,t=1,2,…} be independent random variables with continuous distribution functionsF_i(y).For any y,dencte s=F_t(y)=1/t sum from i=1 to t F_i(y).The empirical process is defind by t~(-1/2)R(s,t) whereR(s,t)=t(1/t sum from i=1 to t I_((?)_t(Y_i)≤s)-s)=sum from i=1 to t I_(?)-ts=sum from i=1 to t I_(?)-(?)_t(y)=sum from i=1 to t I_(Y_(?)≤y)-sum from i=1 to t F_i(y).The purpose of this paper is to investigate the asymptotic properties of the empirical processR(s,t).We shall prove that for some integer sequence {t_k},there is a (?)-process (?)(s,t) such that(?)|R(s,t_k)-(?)(s,t_k)|=O(t_k~(1/2)(log t_k)~(-1/4)(log log t_k)~(1/2))a.s.where (?)(s,t) is a two-parameter Gaussian process defined in §1.     

On the second eigenvalue and random walks in randomd-regular graphs

The main goal of this paper is to estimate the magnitude of the second largest eigenvalue in absolute value, λ₂, of (the adjacency matrix of) a randomd-regular graph,G. In order to do so, we study the probability that a random walk on a random graph returns to its originating vertex at thek-th step, for various values ofk. Our main theorem about eigenvalues is that $$E|\lambda _2 (G)|^m \leqslant \left( {2\sqrt {2d - 1} \left( {1 + \frac{{\log d}}{{\sqrt {2d} }} + 0\left( {\frac{1}{{\sqrt d }}} \right)} \right) + 0\left( {\frac{{d^{3/2} \log \log n}}{{\log n}}} \right)} \right)^m $$ for any \(m \leqslant 2\left\lfloor {log n\left\lfloor {\sqrt {2d - } 1/2} \right\rfloor /\log d} \right\rfloor \) , where E denotes the expected value over a certain probability space of 2d-regular graphs. It follows, for example, that for fixedd the second eigenvalue's magnitude is no more than \(2\sqrt {2d - 1} + 2\log d + C'\) with probability 1?n ^?C for constantsC andC′ for sufficiently largen.     

Some relations on the ordering of trees by minimal energies between subclasses of trees

The energy of a graph is defined as the sum of the absolute values of all eigenvalues of the graph. A tree is said to be non-starlike if it has at least two vertices with degree more than 2. A caterpillar is a tree in which a removal of all pendent vertices makes a path. Let $\mathcal{T}_{n,d}$ , $\mathbb{T}_{n,p}$ be the set of all trees of order n with diameter d, p pendent vertices respectively. In this paper, we investigate the relations on the ordering of trees and non-starlike trees by minimal energies between $\mathcal{T}_{n,d}$ and $\mathbb{T}_{n,n-d+1}$ . We first show that the first two trees (non-starlike trees, resp.) with minimal energies in $\mathcal{T}_{n,d}$ and $\mathbb{T}_{n,n-d+1}$ are the same for 3≤d≤n?2 (3≤d≤n?3, resp.). Then we obtain that the trees with third-minimal energy in $\mathcal{T}_{n,d}$ and $\mathbb{T}_{n,n-d+1}$ are the same when n≥11, 3≤d≤n?2 and d≠8; and the tree with third-minimal energy in $\mathcal{T}_{n,8}$ is the caterpillar with third-minimal energy in $\mathbb{T}_{n,n-7}$ for n≥11.     

On fractional parts of powers of real numbers close to 1

We prove that there exist arbitrarily small positive real numbers ε such that every integral power ${(1 + \varepsilon)^n}$ is at a distance greater than ${2^{-17} \varepsilon |\log \varepsilon |^{-1}}$ to the set of rational integers. This is sharp up to the factor ${2^{-17} |\log\varepsilon |^{-1}}$ . We also establish that the set of real numbers α > 1 such that the sequence of fractional parts ${(\{\alpha^n\})_{n\ge 1}}$ is not dense modulo 1 has full Hausdorff dimension.     

A mean value theorem for the Dedekind zeta-function of a quadratic number field

Let \(K = \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt d )\) be any quadratic number field with discriminantd. ζ _K (s) denotes the Dedekind zeta-function. The purpose of this note is to prove the following asymptotic formula: $$\int\limits_0^T {|\zeta _K ({1 \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {1 2}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} 2} + it)|^2 dt = ({6 \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {6 {\pi ^2 }}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {\pi ^2 }})} \prod\limits_{p/d} {(1 + {1 \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {1 p}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} p})^{ - 1} \cdot R_K^2 \cdot T \cdot \log ^2 T + O_\varepsilon \left\{ {\left| d \right|1 + \varepsilon \cdot T \cdot \log T} \right\},} $$ where the implied constant depends only on ε. HereR _K, denotes the residue of ζ _K (s) ats=1.     

Strong approximation by rectangular partial sums of double orthogonal series

Пусть {? _ik(x):i, k=1, 2,...} — орто нормированная систе ма в пространстве с полож ительной мерой и {a _ik} — последов ательность действит ельных чисел, для которой $$\mathop \sum \limits_{\iota = 1}^\infty \mathop \sum \limits_{\kappa = 1}^\infty a_{ik}^2 \kappa ^2 (i,k)< \infty ,$$ где {x(i, K)} — определенна я неубывающая последовательность положительных чисел. Тогда суммаf(x) двойног о ортогонального ряд а \(\mathop \sum \limits_{\iota = 1}^\infty \mathop \sum \limits_{\kappa = 1}^\infty a_{ik} \varphi _{ik} (x)\) существует в смысле с ходимости в метрикеL ² и сходимос ти почти всюду. Изучае тся порядок так называем ой сильной аппроксимац ииf(x) (при коэффициентн ых условиях) прямоуголь ными частными суммами \(s_{mn} (x) = \mathop \sum \limits_{\iota = 1}^\infty \mathop \sum \limits_{\kappa = 1}^\infty a_{ik} \varphi _{ik} (x)\) . Основной ре зультат состоит в сле дующем. Если {λ_j(m):m=1, 2,...} — неубывающи е последовательност и положительньк чисел, стремящиеся к ∞ и такие, что \(\mathop {\lim \sup }\limits_{m \to \infty } \lambda _j (2m)/\lambda _j (m)< \sqrt 2 \) дляj=1,2, и если $$\mathop \sum \limits_{\iota = 1}^\infty \mathop \sum \limits_{\kappa = 1}^\infty a_{ik}^2 \left[ {\log log (i + 3)} \right]^2 \left[ {\log log (k + 3)} \right]^2 (\lambda _1^2 (i) + \lambda _2^2 (k))< \infty ,$$ TO ПОЧТИ ВСЮДУ $$\left\{ {\frac{1}{{mn}}\mathop \sum \limits_{i = 1}^m \mathop \sum \limits_{\kappa = 1}^m \left[ {s_{ik} (x) - f(x)} \right]^2 } \right\}^{1/2} = o_x (\lambda _1^{ - 1} (m) + \lambda _2^{ - 1} (n))$$ при min (m, n) → ∞.     

On the discrepancy function in arbitrary dimension, close to L 1

Let A _N to be N points in the unit cube in dimension d, and consider the discrepancy function $$ D_N (\vec x): = \sharp \left( {\mathcal{A}_N \cap \left[ {\vec 0,\vec x} \right)} \right) - N\left| {\left[ {\vec 0,\vec x} \right)} \right| $$ Here, $$ \vec x = \left( {\vec x,...,x_d } \right),\left[ {0,\vec x} \right) = \prod\limits_{t = 1}^d {\left[ {0,x_t } \right),} $$ and $ \left| {\left[ {0,\vec x} \right)} \right| $ denotes the Lebesgue measure of the rectangle. We show that necessarily $$ \left\| {D_N } \right\|_{L^1 (log L)^{(d - 2)/2} } \gtrsim \left( {log N} \right)^{\left( {d - 1} \right)/2} . $$ In dimension d = 2, the ‘log L’ term has power zero, which corresponds to a Theorem due to [11]. The power on log L in dimension d ≥ 3 appears to be new, and supports a well-known conjecture on the L ¹ norm of D _N . Comments on the discrepancy function in Hardy space also support the conjecture.