On the complexity of algebraic numbers. II: Continued fractions (Q2495347): Difference between revisions

Continuing their earlier paper [Ann. Math. (2) 165, No. 2, 547--565 (2007; Zbl 1195.11094)] the authors prove two theorems giving Diophantine criteria for transcendence applying Schmidt's subspace theorem. Let \(\mathbf a=\{a_l\}_{l\geq 1}\) be a sequence of elements from a (not necessarily finite) set \(\mathcal A\), that we identify with the infinite word \(a_1a_2\dots a_l \dots\). Let \(w\) be a rational number with \(w>1\). \(\mathbf a\) is said to satisfy Condition \((*)_w\) if \(\mathbf a\) is not eventually periodic and if there exists a sequence of finite words \(\{V_n\}_{n\geq 1}\) such that (i) for \(n\geq 1\), the word \(V_n^w\) is a prefix of the word \(\mathbf a\); (ii) the sequence \(\{V_n\}_{n\geq 1}\) is increasing. First a transcendence criterion for `purely' stammering continued fractions is given as follows: Theorem 1. Let \(\mathbf a=\{a_l\}_{l\geq 1}\) be a sequence of positive integers. Let \(\{pz/qz\}_{l\geq 1}\) denote the sequence of convergents to the real number \(\alpha:= [0; a_1, a_2, \dots, a_l,\dots]\). If there exists a rational number \(w\geq 2\) such that a satisfies Condition \((*)_w\), then a is transcendental. If there exists a rational number \(w>1\) such that a satisfies Condition \((*)_w\), and if the sequence \(\{q_l^{1/l}\}_{l\geq 1}\) is bounded (which is, in particular, the case when the sequence \(\mathbf a\) is bounded), then \(\alpha\) is transcendental. The main interest of the first statement of Theorem 1 is that there is no condition on the growth of the sequence \(\{q_l\}_{l\geq 1}\). The second statement of Theorem 1 improves upon Theorem 4 from [\textit{J.-P. Allouche} et al., J. Number Theory 91, 39--66 (2001)], which requires, together with some extra rather constraining hypotheses, the stronger assumption \(w>3/2\). The condition that the sequence \(\{q_l^{1/l}\}_{l\geq 1}\) has to be bounded is in general easy to check, and is not very restrictive, since it is satisfied by almost all real numbers (in the sense of the Lebesgue measure). Apart from this assumption, Theorem 1 does not depend on the size of the partial quotients of \(\alpha\). This is in a striking contrast to all previous results. Then Theorem 2 gives a transcendence criterion for (general) stammering continued fractions. Let \(\mathbf a\) be as in Theorem 1. Let \(\{p_l/q_l\}_{l\geq 1}\) denote the sequence of convergents to the real number \(\alpha:= [0; a_1, a_2, \dots, a_l,\dots]\). Assume that the sequence \(\{q_l^{1/l}\}_{l\geq 1}\) is bounded and set \(M=\limsup_{l\to +infty} q_l^{1/l}\) and \(m=\liminf_{l\to +infty} q_l^{1/l}\). Let \(w\) and \(w'\) be non-negative real numbers with \[ w > (2w'+1) \frac{\log M}{\log m}-w'. \] If \(\mathbf a\) satisfies Condition \((**)_{w,w'}\) (similar to \((*)_w\) above), then \(\alpha\) is transcendental. Several applications of these theorems are then briefly discussed.