Unique infinite expansions in noninteger bases (Q2428604)

Let \(q>1\) be a real number and \(m\) be the largest integer strictly less than \(q\). Set \(J_q:=[0, m/(q-1)]\). For \(x\in J_q\), \(x\neq 0\), the sequence \(a_i(x,q)\) is defined recursively by choosing \(a_n(x,q)\) to be the largest element of \(\{0,1,\ldots,m\}\) such that \(a_1(x,q)/q+\cdots+a_n(x,q)/q^n<1\). Set \(\alpha_n(q):=a_n(1,q)\). Set \({\mathcal U}_q\) to be the set of \(x\in J_q\) that have a unique expansion \(x=\sum_{j\geq 1} c_j q^{-j}\) with digits \(c_j\in\{0,\ldots,m\}\). The closure of \({\mathcal U}_q\) is denoted by \(\overline{{\mathcal U}_q}\). Further, set \({\mathcal V}_q\) to be the set of \(x\in J_q\) such that \((m-a_{n+i}(x,q)) \leq (\alpha_i(q))\) holds lexicographically whenever \(\alpha_n(q)>0\). A sequence is said to be finite if it has a last nonzero digit, and infinite otherwise. A sequence \((c_i)\) is said to be doubly infinite if it is infinite and if its conjugate \((\overline{c_i})=(m-c_i)\) is also infinite. The main result of this article is that \(x\in \overline{{\mathcal U}_q}\) if and only if at least one of \(x\) and \(m/(q-1)-x\) has a unique infinite expansion. Furthermore, \(x\in{\mathcal V}_q\) if and only if \(x\) has a unique doubly infinite expansion. Setting \({\mathcal U}=\{q>1: 1\in{\mathcal U}_q\}\), the author shows that the closure \(\overline{\mathcal U}\) is the set of \(q>1\) with \(1\in\overline{{\mathcal U}_q}\). It is also shown that every lazy expansion is infinite and that every quasi-greedy expansion is doubly infinite.