Determination of periods of geometric continued fractions for two-dimensional algebraic hyperbolic operators (Q650250)

The author starts with a short overview of geometric theory of continued fractions in the sense of Klein. The rest of the paper is devoted to periodic geometric continued fractions which correspond to hyperbolic operators \(A\in \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})\) (an operator \(A\) is called hyperbolic if all its eigenvalues are real and distinct). The author presents a simple algorithm (similar to usual basis reduction algorithm) which calculates a reduced form of given hyperbolic operator \(A\in \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})\) (an equivalent matrix \(\left({a\,c}\atop{b\,d}\right)\) such that \(d>b\geq a>0\)). This algorithm solves two problems: 1. It gives an explicit construction of a reduced hyperbolic integer operator from the group \( \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})\) such that one of the periods of the corresponding geometric continued fraction in the sense of Klein coincides with a given sequence of positive integers. 2. It determines the periods for any operator \(A\in \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})\).