Periodicity of continued fractions in hyperelliptic function fields (Q689672)

In 1990, \textit{T. G. Berry} [Arch. Math. 55, 259-266 (1990; Zbl 0728.14027)] generalized some old results of Abel and Halphen on continued fraction expansions of algebraic functions belonging to hyperelliptic function fields. He gave necessary and sufficient conditions for the quasi-periodicity (i.e., periodicity up to constant multiple) of continued fraction expansions of functions of the form \((L+\sqrt{F})/M\), where \(L\), \(M\), \(F\) are polynomials subject to the following restrictions: \(F\) is monic, square-free and of even degree \(2p+2\), \(M\) divides \(F-L^ 2\). Here, we characterize those elements of a hyperelliptic function field which have quasi-periodic continued fraction expansions. The essential point of the proof is the relation between the extremal points of a module and the continued fractions associated to the algebraic function. We end the paper by proving that quasi-periodicity and periodicity are equivalent when the function is of the form \(f\sqrt{F}\) with \(f\) a polynomial. We thereby obtain a result of \textit{C. Friesen} [Continued fraction characterization and generic ideals in real quadratic function fields (Preprint)] which asserts that the period of the continued fractions is either symmetric of quasi-symmetric. In the latter case, the unit associated to the development is situated in the middle of the period. Similar results, in the case, where the constant field \(K\) is finite, have been obtained by E. Artin, D. Hayes, C. Gonzalez.