Limits of Mahler measures in multiple variables

Abstract

We prove that certain sequences of Laurent polynomials, obtained from a fixed Laurent polynomial P by monomial substitutions, give rise to sequences of Mahler measures which converge to the Mahler measure of P. This generalizes previous work of Boyd and Lawton, who considered univariate monomial substitutions. We provide moreover an explicit upper bound for the error term in this convergence, generalizing work of Dimitrov and Habegger, and a full asymptotic expansion for a family of 2-variable polynomials, whose Mahler measures were studied independently by the third author.