An upper bound for the periodic length of a quadratic irrational (Q2479809)

The following assertion on an upper bound for the period length of a quadratic irrational is obtained in the paper. Theorem. Let \(\xi\) be a quadratic irrational in the representation \(\frac{B+\sqrt{D}}{2A}\) with the discriminant \(D\) being of the form \(t^2+4\) or \(t^2-4\) and as small as possible. Then for the (minimal) period length \(l(\xi)\) of the continued fraction expansion of \(\xi\), we have \[ l(\xi)\leq\max\left\{\{k\in \mathbb{N}:4f(k)f(k+2)\leq D\}\cup\{1\}\right\}, \] where \(f(k)\) denotes the \(k\)-th Fibonacci number (starting with \(f(1)=1\), \(f(2)=1\)). The obtained estimate improves the known Podsypanin result [\textit{E. V. Podsypanin}, J. Sov. Math. 18, 919 -- 923 (1982); translation from Zap. Nauchn. Semin. Lenin. Otd. Math. Inst. Steklova 82, 95 -- 99 (1979; Zbl 0435.10008)].