On natural leaping convergents of regular continued fractions and an application to linear fractional transformations (Q6546737)

The so-called leaping convergents [\textit{C. Elsner} and \textit{T. Komatsu}, Linear Algebra Appl. 428, No. 4, 824--833 (2008; Zbl 1132.05007); Linear Algebra Appl. 429, No. 4, 933--947 (2008; Zbl 1233.11006)] have been studied by using a linear fractional transformation \(\sigma(x)=(a x+b)/(c x+d)\) for integers \(a,b,c,d\) with \(\Delta=a d-bc \) [\textit{C. Havens} et al., Res. Number Theory 6, No. 1, Paper No. 11, 17 p. (2020; Zbl 1461.11019)]. Two numbers \(\xi\) and \(\mu\) are called equivalent if \(\mu=\sigma(\xi)\) and \(\Delta=\pm 1\). In this paper, focus on the case where \(|\Delta|\ge 2\). Define natural leaping convergents in terms of combinatorial pairings between \(p/q\in\mathcal C(\xi)\) and \(p'/q'\in\mathcal C(\sigma(\xi))\), where \(\mathcal C(\alpha)\) denotes the set of convergents of \(\alpha\). The set of such pairings is called a \(\sigma\)-relation, \(R_\sigma\). The notion of leaping convergents is generalized in such a way that \(\sigma\)-relations between the convergents of both \(\xi\) and \(\sigma(\xi)\) can be formulated. The extent to which the sets of convergents of \(\xi\) and \(\sigma(\xi)\) are \(\sigma\)-related depends on approximation properties with rationals and thus on the irrationality measure of \(\xi\). Then conditions for \(\sigma(p_n/q_n)\in\mathcal(\sigma(\xi))\cap\sigma(\mathcal C(\xi))\) is established based on the arithmetical properties of the convergents. Finally, auxiliary results including new closed form formulae for all convergents of the class of quadratic irrational numbers are established. These results are applied to examples around natural leaping convergents and minor convergents.