Specialisation and reduction of continued fractions of formal power series (Q2574046)

Let \(K\) be some field (usually \({\mathbb Q}\) or a finite field) and let \({\mathbb K} = K(t_1, t_2, \dots)\) be some transcendental extension of \(K\) in one or more algebraically independent variables. Consider now continued fractions over \({\mathbb K}(X)\) of elements in the field of formal Laurent series \({\mathbb K}((X^{-1}))\) with coefficients from \({\mathbb K}\). A \textit{specialisation} is a restriction on the generality of the parameters defining the extension \({\mathbb K}\) over \(K\), \textit{e.g.} an algebraic relation on the variables or a numerical assignment of these. A \textit{reduction} of an element in \({\mathbb K}((X^{-1}))\) modulo \({\mathfrak p}\) is the corresponding power series in \({\mathbb K}_{\mathfrak p}((X^{-1}))\), where \({\mathfrak p}\) is a maximal ideal in the ring of integers \({\mathcal O}_{\mathbb K}\) of \({\mathbb K}\) and \({\mathbb K}_{\mathfrak p} = {\mathcal O}_{\mathbb K} / {\mathfrak p}{\mathcal O}_{\mathbb K}\), whenever this procedure makes sense. An example with \(K = {\mathbb Q}\) is reduction of all coefficients modulo some prime \(p\). In this case reduction does not make sense if \(p\) divides the denominator of a coefficient of the formal Laurent series to be reduced. Performing any of the above operations may have dramatic consequences on the partial quotients of an element \(Y \in {\mathbb K}((X^{-1}))\). Indeed, even though the specialisation or reduction of \(Y\) makes sense, we may experience that the specialisation or reduction of some partial quotient fails to make sense. The main result of the paper under review is that on the level of convergents we do not encounter such problems. Indeed, the sequence of convergents for the specialisation or reduction of \(Y\) can be obtained from the sequence of convergents to \(Y\) by performing the same specialisation or reduction and then removing any repetitions. This result is subsequently applied to the study of the the quartics and sextics over \({\mathbb Q}\), for which the square root has an eventually periodic continued fraction expansion.