On the \(b\)-ary expansion of an algebraic number (Q957956)

Let \(b\geq2\), let \((a_k)\) be the sequence of digits in the \(b\)-ary expansion of a real number \(\theta\neq0\), and put \[ \text{nbdc}(n,\theta,b)=\#\{1\leq k\leq n:\;a_k\neq a_{k+1}\}. \] It is shown that if \(\theta\notin \mathbb Q\) is algebraic, then for sufficiently large \(n\) one has \[ \text{nbdc}(n,\theta,b)\geq3\log^{1+c}n/(\log\log n)^{1/4} \] with \(c=1/(\omega(b)+4)\), \(\omega(b)\) being the number of prime divisors of \(b\). As a corollary one gets a similar lower bound for the number of non-zero digits among the first \(n\) digits in the \(b\)-ary expansion of an irrational real algebraic number (for \(b=2\) a stronger bound \(\gg n^{1/d}\) with \(d=\deg\theta\) has been obtained by \textit{D. H. Bailey} et al. [J. Théor. Nombres Bordx. 16, No. 3, 487--518 (2004; Zbl 1076.11045)]. Similar results are obtained for the \(p\)-adic digits of algebraic numbers in the \(p\)-adic field, and for \(\beta\)-expansions of \(1\) in the case when \(\beta\) is a Pisot or Salem number.