Let $θ= [0; a_1, a_2, \dots]$ be the continued fraction expansion of an irrational real number $θ\in (0, 1)$. It is well-known that the characteristic Sturmian word of slope $θ$ is the limit of a sequence of finite words $(M_k)_{k \ge 0}$, with $M_k$ of length $q_k$ (the denominator of the $k$-th convergent to $θ$) being a suitable concatenation of $a_k$ copies of $M_{k-1}$ and one copy of $M_{k-2}$. Our first result extends this to any Sturmian word. Let $b \ge 2$ be an integer. Our second result gives the continued fraction expansion of any real number $ξ$ whose $b$-ary expansion is a Sturmian word ${\bf s}$ over the alphabet $\{0, b-1\}$. This extends a classical result of Böhmer who considered only the case where ${\bf s}$ is characteristic. As a consequence, we obtain a formula for the irrationality exponent of $ξ$ in terms of the slope and the intercept of ${\bf s}$.
Given a positive integer $N$ and $x$ irrational between zero and one, an $N$-continued fraction expansion of $x$ is defined analogously to the classical continued fraction expansion, but with the numerators being all equal to $N$. Inspired by Sturmian sequences, we introduce the $N$-continued fraction sequences $ω(x,N)$ and $\hatω(x,N)$, which are related to the $N$-continued fraction expansion of $x$. They are infinite words over a two letter alphabet obtained as the limit of a directive sequence of certain substitutions, hence they are $S$-adic sequences. When $N=1$, we are in the case of th…
Let x be a real number and let n be a positive integer. We define four exponents of Diophantine approximation, which complement the exponents w_n(x) and w_n^*(x) defined by Mahler and Koksma. We calculate their six values when n=2 and x is a real number whose continued fraction expansion coincides with some Sturmian sequence of positive integers, up to the initial terms. In particular, we obtain the exact exponent of approximation to such a continued fraction x by quadratic surds.
We determine the classical approximation constants $w_{3}(ζ),w_{3}^{\ast}(ζ),λ_{3}(ζ)$ such as the uniform constants $\widehat{w}_{3}(ζ),\widehat{w}_{3}^{\ast}(ζ),\widehatλ_{3}(ζ)$ associated to real numbers $ζ$ whose continued fraction expansions are given by a Sturmian word. We more generally provide a description of the combined graph of the parametric successive minima functions defined by Schmidt and Summerer in dimension three for such Sturmian continued fractions. This both complements similar results due to Bugeaud and Laurent concerning the two-dimensional constants and generalizes a …
The Lévy constant of an irrational real number is defined by the exponential growth rate of the sequence of denominators of the principal convergents in its continued fraction expansion. Any quadratic irrational has an ultimately periodic continued fraction expansion and it is well-known that this implies the existence of a Lévy constant. Let $a, b$ be distinct positive integers. If the sequence of partial quotients of an irrational real number is a Sturmian sequence over $\{a, b\}$, then it has a Lévy constant, which depends only on $a$, $b$, and the slope of the Sturmian sequence, but not on…
Consider the minimal $β$-shift containing the shift space generated by given Sturmian word. In this paper we characterize such $β$ and investigate its combinatorial, dynamical and topological properties and prove that such $β$ are transcendental numbers.
We generalize the construction of Roy's Fibonacci type numbers to the case of a Sturmian recurrence and we determine the classical exponents of approximation $ω_2(ξ)$, $\widehatω_2(ξ)$, $λ_2(ξ)$, $\widehatλ_2(ξ)$ associated with these real numbers. This also extends similar results established by Bugeaud and Laurent in the case of Sturmian continued fractions. More generally we provide an almost complete description of the combined graph of parametric successive minima functions defined by Schmidt and Summerer in dimension two for such Sturmian type numbers. As a side result we obtain new info…
We study the abelian period sets of Sturmian words, which are codings of irrational rotations on a one-dimensional torus. The main result states that the minimum abelian period of a factor of a Sturmian word of angle $α$ with continued fraction expansion $[0; a_1, a_2, \ldots]$ is either $tq_k$ with $1 \leq t \leq a_{k+1}$ (a multiple of a denominator $q_k$ of a convergent of $α$) or $q_{k,\ell}$ (a denominator $q_{k,\ell}$ of a semiconvergent of $α$). This result generalizes a result of Fici et. al stating that the abelian period set of the Fibonacci word is the set of Fibonacci numbers. A ch…
We reformulate several known results about continued fractions in combinatorial terms. Among them the theorem of Conway and Coxeter and that of Series, both relating continued fractions and triangulations. More general polygon dissections appear when extending these theorems for elements of the modular group $PSL(2,\mathbb{Z})$. These polygon dissections are interpreted as walks in the Farey tessellation. The combinatorial model of continued fractions can be further developed to obtain a canonical presentation of elements of $PSL(2,\mathbb{Z})$.
The study of combinatorial properties of mathematical objects is a very important research field and continued fractions have been deeply studied in this sense. However, multidimensional continued fractions, which are a generalization arising from an algorithm due to Jacobi, have been poorly investigated in this sense, up to now. In this paper, we propose a combinatorial interpretation of the convergents of multidimensional continued fractions in terms of counting some particular tilings, generalizing some results that hold for classical continued fractions.
Richomme, Saari and Zamboni (J. Lond. Math. Soc. 83: 79-95, 2011) proved that at every position of a Sturmian word starts an abelian power of exponent $k$ for every $k > 0$. We improve on this result by studying the maximum exponents of abelian powers and abelian repetitions (an abelian repetition is an analogue of a fractional power) in Sturmian words. We give a formula for computing the maximum exponent of an abelian power of abelian period $m$ starting at a given position in any Sturmian word of rotation angle $α$. vAs an analogue of the critical exponent, we introduce the abelian critical …
We study the Diophantine properties of a new class of transcendental real numbers which contains, among others, Roy's extremal numbers, Bugeaud-Laurent Sturmian continued fractions, and more generally the class of Sturmian type numbers. We compute, for each real number $ξ$ of this set, several exponents of Diophantine approximation to the pair $(ξ,ξ^2)$, together with $ω_2^*(ξ)$ and $\widehatω_2^*(ξ)$, the so-called ordinary and uniform exponent of approximation to $ξ$ by algebraic numbers of degree $\leq 2$. As an application, we get new information on the set of values taken by $\widehatω_2^…
This paper is a sequel to our previous work in which we found a combinatorial realization of continued fractions as quotients of the number of perfect matchings of snake graphs. We show how this realization reflects the convergents of the continued fractions as well as the Euclidean division algorithm. We apply our findings to establish results on sums of squares, palindromic continued fractions, Markov numbers and other statements in elementary number theory.
The Stern diatomic sequence is closely linked to continued fractions via the Gauss map on the unit interval, which in turn can be understood via systematic subdivisions of the unit interval. Higher dimensional analogues of continued fractions, called multidimensional continued fractions, can be produced through various subdivisions of a triangle. We define triangle partition-Stern sequences (TRIP-Stern sequences for short), higher-dimensional generalizations of the Stern diatomic sequence, from the method of subdividing a triangle via various triangle partition algorithms. We then explore seve…
In the present work, we investigate real numbers whose sequence of partial quotients enjoys some combinatorial properties involving the notion of palindrome. We provide three new transendence criteria, that apply to a broad class of continued fraction expansions, including expansions with unbounded partial quotients. Their proofs heavily depend on the Schmidt Subspace Theorem.
We establish new combinatorial transcendence criteria for continued fraction expansions. Let $α= [0; a_1, a_2,...]$ be an algebraic number of degree at least three. One of our criteria implies that the sequence of partial quotients $(a_{\ell})_{\ell \ge 1}$ of $α$ cannot be generated by a finite automaton, and that the complexity function of $(a_{\ell})_{\ell \ge 1}$ cannot increase too slowly.
We show how an object from the combinatorially geometric version of the analytical number theory, namely geometric continued fractions, appears in the classical smooth dynamics, namely in the problem on the topological classification of Anosov diffeomorphisms of tori.
It is widely believed that the continued fraction expansion of every irrational algebraic number $α$ either is eventually periodic (and we know that this is the case if and only if $α$ is a quadratic irrational), or it contains arbitrarily large partial quotients. Apparently, this question was first considered by Khintchine. A preliminary step towards its resolution consists in providing explicit examples of transcendental continued fractions. The main purpose of the present work is to present new families of transcendental continued fractions with bounded partial quotients. Our results are de…
We establish a combinatorial realization of continued fractions as quotients of cardinalities of sets. These sets are sets of perfect matchings of certain graphs, the snake graphs, that appear naturally in the theory of cluster algebras. To a continued fraction $[a_1,a_2,\ldots,a_n]$, we associate a snake graph $\mathcal{G}[a_1,a_2,\ldots,a_n]$ such that the continued fraction is the quotient of the number of perfect matchings of $\mathcal{G}[a_1,a_2,\ldots,a_n]$ and $\mathcal{G}[a_2,\ldots,a_n]$. We also show that snake graphs are in bijection with continued fractions. We then apply this conn…
In this paper we investigate the combinatorial structure of 3-dimensional Minkowski-Voronoi continued fractions. Our main goal is to prove the asymptotic stability of Minkowski-Voronoi complexes in special two-parametric families of rank-1 lattices. In addition we construct explicitly the complexes for the case of White's rank-1 lattices and provide with a hypothetic description in a more complicated settings.
A regular continuant is the denominator $K$ of a terminating regular continued fraction, interpreted as a function of the partial quotients. We regard $K$ as a function defined on the set of all finite words on the alphabet $1<2<3<\dots$ with values in the positive integers. Given a word $w=w_1\cdots w_n$ with $w_i\in\mathbb{N}$ we define its multiplicity $μ(w)$ as the number of times the value $K(w)$ is assumed in the Abelian class $\mathcal{X}(w)$ of all permutations of the word $w.$ We prove that there is an infinity of different lacunary alphabets of the form $\{b_1<\dots <b_t<l+1<l+2<\dot…
We consider the one-parameter family of interval maps arising from generalized continued fraction expansions known as alpha-continued fractions. For such maps, we perform a numerical study of the behaviour of metric entropy as a function of the parameter. The behaviour of entropy is known to be quite regular for parameters for which a matching condition on the orbits of the endpoints holds. We give a detailed description of the set M where this condition is met: it consists of a countable union of open intervals, corresponding to different combinatorial data, which appear to be arranged in a h…
The Riemann zeta function at integer arguments can be written as an infinite sum of certain hypergeometric functions and more generally the same can be done with polylogarithms, for which several zeta functions are a special case. An analytic continuation formula for these hypergeometric functions exists and is used to derive some infinite sums which allow the zeta function at integer arguments n to be written as a weighted infinite sum of hypergeometric functions at n - 1. The form might be considered to be a shift operator for the Riemann zeta function which leads to the curious values ζF(0)…
