Continued fractions for some alternating series (Q2639892): Difference between revisions

We discuss certain simple continued fractions that exhibit a type of ``self-similar'' structure: their partial quotients are formed by perturbing and shifting the denominators of their convergents. We prove that all such continued fractions represent transcendental numbers. As an application, we prove that Cahen's constant \(C=\sum_{i\geq 0}\frac{(- 1)^ i}{S_ i-1}\) is transcendental. Here \((S_ n)\) is Sylvester's sequence, defined by \(S_ 0=2\) and \(S_{n+1}=S^ 2_ n-S_ n+1\) for \(n\geq 0\). We also explicitly compute the continued fraction for the number C; its partial quotients grow doubly exponentially and they are all squares.