Functions of bounded variation, signed measures, and a general Koksma-Hlawka inequality

Abstract

In this paper we prove a correspondence principle between multivariate functions of bounded variation in the sense of Hardy and Krause and signed measures of finite total variation, which allows us to obtain a simple proof of a generalized Koksma--Hlawka inequality for non-uniform measures. Applications of this inequality to importance sampling in Quasi-Monte Carlo integration and tractability theory are given. Furthermore, we discuss the problem of transforming a low-discrepancy sequence with respect to the uniform measure into a sequence with low discrepancy with respect to a general measure $\mu$, and show the limitations of a method suggested by Chelson.

29 pages. Second version: some minor changes, typos fixed, etc. The manuscript has been accepted for publication by Acta Arithmetica