Continued fractions with even period and an infinite family of real quadratic fields of minimal type (Q847003): Difference between revisions

The authors study continued fractions of quadratic irrationals with ``minimal period'' \(l\). For \(d\) a non square positive integer let \(w=\sqrt{d}\) or \(\frac{\sqrt{d}+1}{2}\) be the associated quadratic surd. Then if the period \(l\) of the continued fraction expansion of \(w\) satisfies certain properties (too lengthy to include here), then \(w\) (or the associated quadratic field) is said to be of minimal period \(l\). Based on an idea of \textit{R. A. Mollin} in [Serdica Math. J. 27, No. 4, 317--342 (2001; Zbl 0994.11004)], given a positive integer \(d\), the authors construct new discriminants \(d'\) using the continued fraction of \(w\) such that these discriminants have even minimal period. Then they also ensure that these discriminants have large class number and large Yokoi invariant (a quantity defined in terms of the continued fraction expansion of \(w\)). As a result they produce an infinite family of discriminants with even minimal period that have class number and Yokoi invariant greater than any given value. In the authors' words, this study is related to the study of quadratic fields of discriminant \(d\) with class number \(1\) as numerical evidence suggests that such discriminants have large Yokoi invariants.