Bounds on the period of the continued fraction after a Möbius transformation (Q2307450)

Let be given a non--singular matrix \(N=\begin{pmatrix}a & b \\ c & d\end{pmatrix} \). The mapping \(h_N : \mathbb{R} \backslash \{ -\tfrac{d}{c}\} \to \mathbb{R} \) given by \[h_N(x)=\frac{ax+b}{cx+d} \] is considered in the article. It is easy to see if a given a quadratic irrational number \(x\) then number \(h_N(x)\) will be a quadratic irrational number (in the same field) too. The main result of the article is an upper and lower bound on the period of the continued fraction expansion of \(h_N(x)\) as a function of the period of the continued fraction expansion of \(x\). Let the number \(x\) be written in the form \( x = [v,\overline{w}]\) with \(v\in \mathbb{N}^l\) and \(w \in \mathbb{N}^k \) for some \(l, k \in \mathbb{Z}^+\) (overline denotes infinite repetition of \(w\) and \(\mathbb{N} = \{0, 1, 2, \ldots \}\)). Let \(\operatorname{per}(x)\) denote the shortest period of a continued fraction of \(x\). The following theorem is the main result of the paper. Theorem. Let \(x\) be a quadratic irrational number, \(h_N\) a Möbius transformation and \(n = | \det N |\). We have \[ \frac{1}{S_n} \operatorname{per}(x) \le \operatorname{per} (h_N(x))\leq S_n \operatorname{per}(x), \] where \[ S_n=\sum_{\substack{t \in \mathbb{N} \\t| n }} \sum_{\substack{j=t \\ j \notin J_{n,t}}}^{2t-1} \Big( 2\Big\lfloor \frac{\xi(j,t)}{2} \Big\rfloor +1 \Big). \] The functions \(\xi(j,t)\) and \(J_{n,n}\) are defined in the article. The results of experiments are presented.