Linear inhomogeneous congruences in continued fractions on finite alphabets (Q2090542)

The authors study words in a fixed finite alphabet \(\mathbf{A}\subseteq\mathbb{N}\) and let to words in \(\mathbf{A}\) uniquely correspond finite continued fractions by \[ [d_1,d_2,\ldots, d_k]=\frac{1}{d_1+\frac{1}{d_2+..+\frac{1}{d_k}}}. \] Let \(\mathcal{R}_{\mathbf{A}}\) denote the set off irreducible rational fractions \(y/Y\) expressed in terms of finite continued fractions on \(\mathbf{A}\) \[ \mathcal{R}_{\mathbf{A}}=\Big\{\frac{y}{Y}\Big|\begin{array}{l}y,Y\in\mathbb{N},y/Y=[d_1,d_2,\ldots,d_k], \hbox{ gcd}(y,Y)=1,y\leq Y,\cr d_j\in\mathbf{A}\hbox{ for }j=1,2,\ldots,k\end{array}\Big\}. \] Let natural numbers \(a,b,q,t,P^{(1)}\) and \(P^{(2)}\), as well as a real number \(p>0\) be given (\(a,b,q\) are co-prime), then \(T^{\mathbf{A}}_{p,b,t}\) is the number of solutions of the congruence \[ ay-bY\equiv t \pmod{q}\tag{1} \] in integer variables \(Y\) and \(y\) from the intervals \([p,P^{(1)}]\) and \([1,P^{(2)}]\) respectively, provided that \(y/Y\) belongs to \(\mathcal{R}_{\mathbf{A}}\). The main results of the paper concern an upper bound for \(T^{\mathbf{A}}_{p,b,t}\) for certain values of \(p\), extending results (for \(t=0,p=b=1,\mathbf{A}=\mathbb{N}\) and slightly different condiitons on \(a,q\) and \(y,Y\)) due to \textit{N. M. Korobov} [Trigonometric sums and their applications (Russian). Moskva: Nauka (1989; Zbl 0665.10026)]. They also studies the case where \(y,Y\) satisfy the additional constraint \[ \left|\frac{y}{Y}-\psi\right|\leq\varepsilon,\eqno{(2)} \] wherer \(\psi\) is also a fraction from \(\mathcal{R}_{\mathbf{A}}\) and \(\varepsilon\in (0,1]\) is an arbitrary small number. The number of solutions of \((1)\) in integer variables \(Y\in [p,P]\) and \(y\in [1,P]\) for \(y/Y\in \mathcal{R}_{\mathbf{A}}\) is denoted by \(T^{\mathbf{A},\varepsilon}_{p,b,t}\). The main results are now: Theorem 1.1. Let the inequalities \(P\geq 2\sqrt{q/\varepsilon}\) and \((2)\) be valid. Then the following estimate holds: \[ T^{\mathbf{A},\varepsilon}_{2\sqrt{q/\varepsilon},b,0}\ll \left(\frac{P^2\varepsilon}{q}\right)^{\Delta_{\mathbf{A}}}. \] Theorem 1.2. Let the inequalities \(P\geq 2\sqrt{q/\varepsilon}\) and \((2)\) be valid. Then the following estimate holds: \[ T^{\mathbf{A},\varepsilon}_{2\sqrt{q/\varepsilon},b,t}\ll \frac{(P^2\varepsilon)^{\Delta_{\mathbf{A}}}}{q^{2\Delta_{\mathbf{A}-1}}}. \] Theorem 3.1. If the inequality \(P\geq 2\sqrt{q/\varepsilon}\) holds, then, for \(M_1=\max\left\{1,\frac{C'}{\sqrt{\varepsilon}}\right\}\) and a suitable choice of the constant \(C'\), and for \(M_3=\max\{ \sqrt{q}/2,1\}\), the following estimate holds: \[ |S_{q,\varepsilon}|\ll \frac{|G_{\mathbf{A}}^{P,2A}|}{(q/\varepsilon)^{\Delta_{\mathbf{A}}}}. \] There is another result proven in the paper, but it would take too much space to reproduce all intermediate definitions.; nevertheless, it is feproduced here: Theorem 4.1. If the inequality \(P\geq 2\sqrt{q/\varepsilon}\) holds, then, for \(M_1=\max\left\{1,\frac{C'}{\sqrt{\varepsilon}}\right\}\) and a suitable choice of the constant \(C'\), and for \(M_3=\max\{ \sqrt{q}/2,1\}\), the following estimate holds: \[ \sum_{\left(\begin{array}{l}y\cr Y\end{array}\right)\in G_{\mathbf{A}}^{P,2A}}\ \mathbf{1}_{ay-bY\equiv t \pmod{q}}\mathbf{1}_{\{|y/Y-\psi|\leq\varepsilon\}}\ll \frac{|G_{\mathbf{A}}^{P,2}|\varepsilon^{\Delta_{\mathbf{A}}}}{q^{2\Delta_{\mathbf{A}}-1}}\ll \frac{P^{2\Delta_{mathbf{A}}}\varepsilon^{\Delta_{\mathbf{A}}}}{q^{2\Delta_{\mathbf{A}}-1}} \] The layout of the paper is as follows: \S1. Introduction (\(1\frac{1}{2}\) page). Statement of the problem, historical background, main results. \S2. Continued fractions and matrices (\(4\frac{1}{2}\) pages). \S3. Sums of Korobov \(\delta\)-symbols (\(2\) pages). \S4. Replacing an inhomogeneous congruence by two congruences expressed in terms of a matrix (\(1\frac{1}{2}\) page). \S5. Proof of the main results (\(\frac{1}{2}\) page). References (\(20\) items). The interested reader is invited to peruse the paper meticulously: it is worth it!