Uniform distribution, discrepancy, and reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces

In this paper we define a notion of uniform distribution and discrepancy of sequences in an abstract set E through reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces of functions on E. In the case of the finite-dimensional unit cube these discrepancies are very closely related to the worst case error obtained for numerical integration of functions in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space. In the compact case we show that the discrepancy tends to zero if and only if the sequence is uniformly distributed in our sense. Next we prove an existence theorem for such uniformly distributed sequences and investigate the relation to the classical notion of uniform distribution. Some examples conclude this paper. (C) 2001 Academic Press.