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The first of my questions may be entirely elementary, but the second (closely related) question may be of appropriate interest for this site.

Suppose that we are given $w_1, w_2, \cdots, w_n$ of positive integers which are co-prime. Let $H > 1$ be a positive parameter. I am interested in evaluation the sum

$$\displaystyle \sum_{w_1 x_1 + \cdots + w_n x_n \leq H} (w_1 x_1 + \cdots + w_n x_n)$$

I think the sum can be expressed in the form $c_0 H^{n+1} + O(H^{n})$ for some positive constant $c_0 > 0$, and if this is the case then I want to know what $c_0$ is in terms of the weights $w_1, \cdots, w_n$.

Second question is for general weights $w_1, \cdots, w_n$, where these are positive real numbers (but not necessarily integers), can we obtain the same result? Since a counting argument is not so clear here, what would be the way to show it?

Thanks for any insights.

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  • $\begingroup$ For your "elementary" first question I assume that you are summing over all choices of non-negative integers $x_1,\dots,x_n$ which have the weighted sum less than $H$. I would guess that you could get a good approximation to the second question by taking sums less than $NH$ using integer weights obtained by rounding the $Nw_i$ $\endgroup$ Feb 14, 2012 at 19:22

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new answer I think that the sum will be $$\frac{n}{w_1w_2\dots w_n}\binom{H+n}{n+1}+o(H^{n}).$$ I do not think that it matters if the positive values $w_i$ are integers nor (if they are) if they are relatively prime. If my calculations are correct, then in the special case that $w_1=w_2=\dots=w_n=1$ and $H$ is an integer, the sum comes out to exactly $n\binom{H+n}{n+1}.$

As an experiment: with $w_1=e,w_2=\pi,w_3=\sqrt{17}$ and $H=1000$ the exact sum (to the nearest integer) is $3,597,483,570$ while the estimate is $3,571,444,698.$

old answer I think that $c_0H^{n+1}$ seems more likely.

In the special case $n=1, w_1=1$ you would have the sum of all the integers up to $H$ and hence $\frac{H(H+1)}{2}$ (We may as well assume $H$ is an integer.) In general for $n=1$ we can assume that $H=kw_1$ and get $\frac{1}{2w_1}H^2+O(H).$

The case that there are $n$ $w_i$ all equal to 1 might fit the description and be worth working out.

The case $n=2$ with $w_1=1$ is the sum $$\sum_{x_2=0}^{\lfloor H/w_2 \rfloor}\ \sum_{j=0 }^{H-x_2w_2}(x_2w_2+j)$$ which could be exactly worked out without too much grief and is clearly $c_0H^3+O(H^2).$

In general one could pull out $w_1$, (say the smallest of the relatively prime $w_i$) and then add the sums for $H,H-w_1,H-2w_1,\dots$ with the weights $w_2,\dots,w_n$

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  • $\begingroup$ I think you are right and have corrected this in the question. $\endgroup$ Feb 14, 2012 at 20:02
  • $\begingroup$ I still think that the constant is correct but that can't be $o(H^{n})$ as written because for $w_1=w_2=\dots=w_n=w$ the exact value would be $\frac{nH(H/w+1)(H/w+2)\dots(H/w+n)}{(n+1)!}.$ This suggests possible $o(H^n)$ formulas for the general case but it would take further investigation. $\endgroup$ Feb 15, 2012 at 0:09
  • $\begingroup$ Of course we would have to replace $H$ by $qw$ if $qw \lt H \lt (q+1)w.$ The sum clearly is non-decreasing in $H$. in the integer case there is probably an exact formula for each congruence class mod the lcm of the $w_i$. $\endgroup$ Feb 15, 2012 at 18:18
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As a response to this question A weighted sum of non-negative integers Qiaochu Yuan and me mentioned that the number of times some $k$ can be written as $\sum x_i w_i$ is called denumerant and is $c k^{n-1} + O(k^{n-2})$, where the constant depends only on $w_i$ and $n$, namely it is $1/ (n-1)!\prod w_i$.

Now, let $d_k$ denote the denumerant, then what you are looking for is, going by Aaron Meyerowitz clarifying comment, equal to $\sum_{k \le H} k d_k$. Plugging in the asymtotics for the denumerant and evaluating the sum, which is up to lower order terms $c \sum k^{n}$ you should get what you are looking for, even with a value for the constant.

For the second question, I agree with Aaron Meyerowitz that the thing seems insensitive to small perturbations and so one can pass to rational and thus integral weights.

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Here is an insight. Look at the rectangular simplex formed in the positive orthant that is cut off by the plane H = wvec dot vvec, where wvec is your vector of weights. Your sum will be a weighted sum of lattice points grouped by planes parallel to the constraint plane. This perspective should confirm your estimate up to a multiplicative constant, even in the case the weight vector is composed of arbitrary reals. (I assume as Aaron does that the x_i you use in the sum lie inside the simplex as lattice point coordinates.)

Gerhard "Ask Me About System Design" Paseman, 2012.02.14

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