Hyperquadratic continued fractions in odd characteristic with partial quotients of degree one (Q2254222)

Let \(p\) be a prime number, \(q=p^s\) with \(s \geq 1,\) and let \(\mathbb{F}_q\) be the finite field with \(q\) elements. Here are denoted by \(\mathbb{F}_q[T], \mathbb{F}_q(T)\) and \(\mathbb{F}(q)\) respectively the ring of polynomials, the field of rational functions and the field of power series in \(1/T\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q.\) Each irrational (rational) element \(\alpha\) of \(\mathbb{F}(q)\) can be expanded as an infinite (finite) continued fraction, ie \(\alpha=[a_1 , a_2,\dots a_n,\dots]\) where the \(a_i\in \mathbb{F}_q[T]\), with \(\deg(a_i) > 0\) for \(i > 1\), are the partial quotients and the tail \(\alpha_i = [a_i, a_{ i+1},\dots] \in \mathbb{F}(q)\) is the complete quotient. Infinite continued fractions in \(\mathbb{F}(q)\) which are algebraic over \(\mathbb{F}_q (T)\) are studied in this article. The main result of the paper is a theorem about these continued fractions. Some applications of the theorem are considered. It is shown that previous examples of algebraic, and nonquadratic, power series over a finite prime field, considered by other authors, belong to a very large family of continued fractions for certain algebraic power series over an arbitrary finite field of odd characteristic. The bibliography contains 15 sources.