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I am interested in knowing the order of magnitude of the following two weighted sums. The first one is as follows:

Suppose $(w_1, w_2, \cdots, w_{n-1})$ are positive numbers, and suppose that $\lambda$ is a positive real number. Let $d$ be a given positive integer (with $d < \lfloor \lambda \rfloor$). Then I want to know the value of $$\displaystyle \sum_{\substack{w_1 x_1 + \cdots + w_{n-1} x_{n-1} \leq \lambda, \text{ } x_1 < d}} 1 $$ where the sum is over non-negative integers $x_1, \cdots x_{n-1}$.

If $w_1 = w_2 = \cdots = w_{n-1} = 1$ and $\lambda$ is a positive integer, then the above sum can be expressed as $$\displaystyle \sum_{x_1 + \cdots + x_n = \lambda} 1 - \sum_{x_2 + \cdots + x_n = \lambda - d} 1,$$ which can be expressed in closed form: $$\displaystyle \binom{\lambda + n - 1}{n-1} - \binom{\lambda - d + n - 1}{n-1}$$ which is equal to $$\displaystyle \frac{(\lambda + n-1) \cdots (\lambda + 1)}{(n-1)!} - \frac{(\lambda - d + n-1) \cdots (\lambda - d + 1)}{(n-1)!} = \frac{d\lambda^{n-2}}{(n-2)!} + O(\lambda^{n-3}).$$ Now my question is for arbitrary weights $(w_1, \cdots, w_{n-1})$ and $\lambda$ an arbitrary positive integer, can the same estimate hold? In particular, I am asking if the following equality holds: $$\displaystyle \sum_{\substack{w_1 x_1 + \cdots + w_{n-1} x_{n-1} \leq \lambda, \text{ } x_1 < d}} 1 = \frac{d\lambda^{n-2}}{w_1 \cdots w_{n-1} (n-2)!} + O(\lambda^{n-3})$$

A related question is whether the following weighted sum has a nice asymptotic form as well:

$$\displaystyle \sum_{\substack{w_1 x_1 + \cdots + w_{n-1} x_{n-1} \leq \lambda, \text{ } x_1 < d}} w_1 x_1 + \cdots + w_{n-1} x_{n-1} $$

I suspect, based on the answer provided at Values of various weighted sums , that the asymptotic should be

$$\displaystyle \frac{ d\lambda^{n-1}}{w_1 \cdots w_{n-1} (n-2)!} + O(\lambda^{n-2}).$$

A third sum I want to estimate is when the weight of the summands need not be the same as the original weight. In particular, for integral weights $w_1, \cdots, w_{n-1}$ and $v_1, \cdots, v_{n-1}$ positive real numbers not identical to $w_1, \cdots, w_{n-1}$ and $\lambda$ a positive integer:

$$\displaystyle \sum_{w_1 x_1 + \cdots + w_{n-1}x_{n-1} = \lambda, x_1 < d} v_1 x_1 + \cdots + v_{n-1} x_{n-1}$$

Here I suspect the answer to be

$$\displaystyle \frac{d\lambda^{n-2}}{w_1 \cdots w_{n-1}(n-2)!} \left(\frac{v_1}{w_1} + \cdots + \frac{v_{n-1}}{w_{n-1}}\right) + O(\lambda^{n-3})$$

Any help would be much appreciated.

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  • $\begingroup$ I am fairly certain that in general you will need to use a generalized Euler-Maclaurin formula here, and would be very interested indeed to know if a simpler approach can work. I have some unpublished notes on this topic from some years back; feel free to contact me if this is of interest. $\endgroup$ Mar 6, 2012 at 17:47
  • $\begingroup$ Yes that would be great... do you have any idea if any of the assertions in the question are true? $\endgroup$ Mar 7, 2012 at 0:21

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We might as well assume that $\lambda$ is an integer. Then your first sum is the coefficient of $x^\lambda$ in $$ F(x) =\frac{1+x^{w_1}+x^{2w_1}+\cdots+x^{(d-1)w_1}} {(1-x^{w_2})\cdots(1-x^{w_{n-1}})(1-x)}. $$ The Laurent expansion of $F(x)$ at $x=1$ begins $$ F(x) = \frac{d}{w_2w_3\cdots w_{n-1}}\frac{1}{(1-x)^{n-1}} +\cdots, $$ so the coefficient of $x^\lambda$ is asymptotic to $$ \frac{d}{w_2\cdots w_{n-1}}{-(n-1)\choose \lambda} \sim \frac{d}{w_2\cdots w_{n-1}}\frac{\lambda^{n-2}} {(n-2)!}, $$ agreeing with your first conjecture except that there is no $w_1$ in the denominator.

Addendum. For the second sum, define $$ G(x,y) = \frac{1+x^{v_1}y^{w_1}+\cdots+x^{(d-1)v_1}y^{(d-1)w_1}} {(1-x^{v_2}y^{w_2})\cdots(1-x^{v_{n-1}}y^{w_{n-1}})}. $$ Then the second sum is equal to the coefficient of $y^\lambda$ in $$ \frac{d}{dx} G(x,y)|_{x=1} = \frac{v_1y^{w_1}+\cdots+(d-1)v_1y^{(d-1)w_1}} {(1-y^{w_2})\cdots (1-y^{w_{n-1}})} $$ $$ + \sum_{k=2}^{n-1} \frac{(1+y^{w_1}+\cdots+y^{(d-1)w_1})v_k} {(1-y^{w_k})\cdot (1-y^{w_2})(1-y^{w_3})\cdots (1-y^{w_{n-1}})}. $$ The first term grows like $(1-y)^{-(n-2)}$ and thus is asymptotically negligible compared to the remaining terms (the sum from $k=2$ to $n-1$). Thus $$ \frac{d}{dx} G(1,y) \sim d\sum_{k=2}^{n-1} \frac{v_k}{w_k(w_2 w_3\cdots w_{n-1})} \frac{1}{(1-y)^{n-1}}. $$ The coefficient of $y^\lambda$ is asymptotic to $$ \frac{d}{w_2w_3\cdots w_{n-1}}\sum_{k=2}^{n-1}\frac{v_k}{w_k} \cdot \frac{\lambda^{n-2}}{(n-2)!}. $$ This agrees with the conjecture (up to computational error) except for the $w_1$ factor and $v_1/w_1$ term.

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  • $\begingroup$ Is there any chance that the second conjecture is true? In the case I am interested I have $w_1 = 1$ anyway, so the correct form of the first conjecture yields the same thing as my original conjecture. $\endgroup$ Mar 7, 2012 at 3:20
  • $\begingroup$ I have added an addendum on the second conjecture. $\endgroup$ Mar 7, 2012 at 17:16

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