Continued fractions and heavy sequences

Abstract: We initiate the study of the sets

H (c)

,

0 < c < 1

, of real

x

for which the sequence

(k x)_{k g e q 1}

(viewed mod 1) consistently hits the interval

[0, c)

at least as often as expected (i. e., with frequency

g e q c

). More formally, [ H(c)={alphain mathbf Rmid { m card}({1leq kleq nmid < kalpha><c})geq cn, {for all}ngeq1}. ] where

< x > = x - [x]

stands for the fractional part of

x i n m a t h b b R

. We prove that, for rational

c

, the sets

H (c)

are of positive Hausdorff dimension and, in particular, are uncountable. For integers

m g e q 1

, we obtain a surprising characterization of the numbers

a l p h a i n H_{m} = H (f r a c 1 m)

in terms of their continued fraction expansions: The odd entries (partial quotients) of these expansions are divisible by

m

. The characterization implies that

x i n H_{m}

if and only if

f r a c 1 m x i n H_{m}

, for

x > 0

. We are unaware of a direct proof of this equivalence, without making a use of the mentioned characterization of the sets

H_{m}

. We also introduce the dual sets

h a t H_{m}

of reals

y

for which the sequence of integers

consistently hits the set

m m a t h b b Z

with the at least expected frequency

f r a c 1 m

and establish the connection with the sets

H_{m}

: {2mm} If

x y = m

for

x, y > 0

, then

x i n H_{m}

if and only if

y i n h a t H_{m}

. The motivation for the present study comes from Y. Peres's ergodic lemma.

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