p-adic and non-archimedean product representations (Q1824653)

In the p-adic field \({\mathbb{Q}}_ p\), \(S_ p\) denotes the set of the \(A\in {\mathbb{Q}}\) in the form \(\sum_{\gamma (A)\leq n\leq 0}c_ np^ n\) with \(\gamma\) (A)\(\leq 0\). (Such notation is not so directly introduced). The authors show that given \(A\in (1+p{\mathbb{Z}}_ p)\) (A\(\neq 1)\), then A has a finite or convergent product representation in the form \(\prod^{\infty}_{n=1}(1+1/a_ n)\) where \(a_ n\in S_ p\), \(\gamma (a_ n)\leq 1-2^ n\), \(\gamma (a_{n+1})\leq 2\gamma (a_ n)-1\), and such a representation is unique. The main Theorem also gives additional inequalities. The theorem looks like a product representation theorem for real numbers \(\alpha >1\) due to Cantor. An Engel type proposition shows that for every \(a\in {\mathbb{Q}}_ p\) with \(\gamma\) (a)\(\leq -1\), \((a+1)/(a-1)\) has a square root of the form \(\prod^{\infty}_{n=1}(1+1/a_ n)\) with \(a_ 1=a\), \(a_{n+1}=2a^ 2_ n-1\).