Asymptotic persistence density conjecture for Benford sequences

Less than 1 year old · traced to

Let bb range over integer bases greater than 11. A base is B-EQUI-PERS at sample size NN when there exists a continued-fraction convergent denominator qk≤Nq_k\leq N such that ak+1qk>Nlog⁡Na_{k+1}q_k>N\log N, where ak+1a_{k+1} is the next partial quotient of the continued fraction of log⁡10(b)\log_{10}(b). Asymptotic persistence density conjecture. The persistence density among integer bases converges:

ρ∞=lim⁡B→∞#{b≤B:b is B-EQUI-PERS}B−1=112.\rho_\infty=\lim_{B\to\infty}\frac{\#\{b\leq B:b\text{ is B-EQUI-PERS}\}}{B-1}=\frac{1}{12}.

Extended computation gives densities close to 1/121/12, while a Gauss--Kuzmin heuristic accounts for only part of the observed rate. A proof would require understanding the joint distribution of continued-fraction partial quotients and denominators for integer logarithms, including correlations not captured by existing theory.

References

Primary source

James M. Hyman, “Why Eight Percent of Benford Sequences Never Converge”, arXiv:2603.18243 (2026).

Progress summary

Never refreshed

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.