The size of \((q;q)_n\) for \(q\) on the unit circle (Q1293168)

This paper is concerned with the asymptotic behaviour as \(n\to\infty\) of \[ (q;q)_n := (1-q)(1-q^2)\cdots(1-q^n) \] for \(|q|=1\), i.e., \(q=\exp(2\pi i \tau)\) with \(\tau\in[0,1)\). This has applications in number theory, Padé approximation or continued fractions. It is known that for almost all \(\tau\), \(\lim_{n\to\infty} |(q;q)_n|^{1/n}=1\), and that \(\lim_{n\to\infty} \|(q;q)\|^{1/n}_{L_\infty(|q|=1)}>1\). Here the author proves that in fact for almost every \(\tau\), \(\log|(q;q)_n|= O(\log n)^{1+\varepsilon}\) iff \(\varepsilon>0\), and that if \(\tau\) has a continued fraction expansion with bounded partial quotients, then \(\log|(q;q)_n|=O(\log n)\). The proofs use elementary theory of diophantine approximation.