Approximants of Śleszyński-Pringsheim continued fractions (Q5946118)

The paper is concerned with nonterminating continued fractions of the form \[ a(1) / [ b(1) + a(2) / [ b(2) + \cdots ]] \] whose coefficients are complex numbers satisfying the conditions \( |b(n) |\geq |a(n) + 1 |\) for all \( n \). The authors first address themselves to the existence problem: when is \( z(n) \) for all \( n \geq 1 \) a sequence of convergents of a continued fraction of the type considered? A geometric answer is given. \( b \) and \( c \) being distinct points in an open disc \( \Delta \), there is a unique disc \( \Phi(b,c,\Delta) = \Gamma \) such that (i) \( \Gamma \subseteq \Delta \), (ii) \( c \in \Gamma \) and (iii) \( b \) and \( c \) are inverse with respect to the boundary of \( \Gamma \), \( \Gamma \) being maximal in the sense that it contains every disc possessing the properties attributed to \( \Gamma \) in (i, ii, iii). Taking \( z(0) = 0 \) and \( \Delta(0) \) to be the open unit disc, the given sequence is a sequence of convergents if and only if for each disc \( \Delta(n) = \Phi(z(n-1), z(n), \Delta(n-1)) \) constructed, \( z(n+1) \in \Delta(n) \), where \( n \geq 1 \). Special consideration is given to the case in which the \( z(n) \) have the form \( r(n) \omega \), the \( r(n) \) being real and \( \omega \) being a fixed complex number (the existence criterion then has a considerably simpler formulation). \( C(n) \) \( (n \geq 1) \) being the successive convergents of a continued fraction of the above type, and \( L \) being the limit to which they converge, the error estimate \( |L - C(n) |\) is expressed in terms of the corresponding estimate derived from a further continued fraction having real valued coefficients simply related to those of the original continued fraction.