$L_p$-discrepancy of the symmetrized van der Corput sequence

Abstract: It is well known that the $L_p$-discrepancy for $p \in [1,\infty]$ of the van der Corput sequence is of exact order of magnitude $O((\log N)/N)$. This however is for $p \in (1,\infty)$ not best possible with respect to the lower bounds according to Roth and Proinov. For the case $p=2$ it is well known that the symmetrization trick due to Davenport leads to the optimal $L_2$-discrepancy rate $O(\sqrt{\log N}/N)$ for the symmetrized van der Corput sequence. In this note we show that this result holds for all $p \in (1,\infty)$. The proof is based on an estimate of the Haar coefficients of the corresponding local discrepancy and on the use of the Littlewood-Paley inequality.