Algebraic sums and products of univoque bases (Q1653258)

Let \(x \in (0,1]\) and consider the set \({\mathcal U}(x)\) consisting of all \(\beta \in (1,2]\) such that the \(\beta\)-expansion of \(x\) is unique (the paper under review denotes \(\beta\) by \(q\)), i.e., such that there is a unique sequence \((d_i) \in \{0,1\}^{\mathbb N}\) with \(x = \sum_{i=1}^\infty d_i \beta^{-i}\). This is the set of univoque bases of \(x\). It was shown by \textit{F. Lü} et al. [Fundam. Math. 227, No. 1, 69--83 (2014; Zbl 1368.11089)] that \({\mathcal U}(x)\) is a Lebesgue null set of maximal Hausdorff dimension. In the paper under review, the authors show that for any real \(\lambda \neq 0\), the sum set \[ {\mathcal U}(x) + \lambda {\mathcal U}(x) = \{p+\lambda q : p,q \in {\mathcal U}(x)\}, \] as well as the quotient set \[ {\mathcal U}(x) \cdot {\mathcal U}(x)^\lambda = \{pq^\lambda : p,q \in {\mathcal U}(x)\}, \] contain an interval. The analogous result is also shown for the set of so-called non-matching parameters introduced by \textit{K. Dajani} and \textit{C. Kalle} [``Invariant measures, matching and the frequency of 0 for signed binary expansions'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1703.06335}]. The proof depends on studying the associated symbolic space of sequences, using this to prove that a certain subset satisfies the property of thickness and then applying a result of \textit{S. Astels} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 352, No. 1, 133--170 (2000; Zbl 0967.11026)] to deduce the main result. For the special value \(x = 1\), setting \(\lambda = 1\), the main result implies that \({\mathcal U}(x) + {\mathcal U}(x)\) and \({\mathcal U}(x) \cdot {\mathcal U}(x)\) both contain an interval. However, it is shown towards the end of the paper that the sets are not themselves intervals. Nonetheless, the authors conjecture that the sets \({\mathcal U}(x) - {\mathcal U}(x)\) and \({\mathcal U}(x) \cdot {\mathcal U}(x)^{-1}\) are in fact intervals.