On the complexity of algebraic numbers. II: Continued fractions

Radix representation; digital problems (11A63) Automata sequences (11B85) Transcendence (general theory) (11J81) Schmidt Subspace Theorem and applications (11J87) Normal numbers, radix expansions, Pisot numbers, Salem numbers, good lattice points, etc. (11K16) Symbolic dynamics (37B10)

Abstract: The continued fraction expansion of an irrational number

a l p h a

is eventually periodic if and only if

a l p h a

is a quadratic irrationality. However, very little is known regarding the size of the partial quotients of algebraic real numbers of degree at least three. Because of some numerical evidence and a belief that these numbers behave like most numbers in this respect, it is often conjectured that their partial quotients form an unbounded sequence. More modestly, we may expect that if the sequence of partial quotients of an irrational number

a l p h a

is, in some sense, "simple", then

a l p h a

is either quadratic or transcendental. The term "simple" can of course lead to many interpretations. It may denote real numbers whose continued fraction expansion has some regularity, or can be produced by a simple algorithm (by a simple Turing machine, for example), or arises from a simple dynamical system... The aim of this paper is to present in a unified way several new results on these different approaches of the notion of simplicity/complexity for the continued fraction expansion of algebraic real numbers of degree at least three.

Review text

Continuing their earlier paper [Ann. Math. (2) 165, No. 2, 547--565 (2007; Zbl 1195.11094)] the authors prove two theorems giving Diophantine criteria for transcendence applying Schmidt's subspace theorem. Let \(\mathbf a=\{a_l\}_{l\geq 1}\) be a sequence of elements from a (not necessarily finite) set \(\mathcal A\), that we identify with the infinite word \(a_1a_2\dots a_l \dots\). Let \(w\) be a rational number with \(w>1\). \(\mathbf a\) is said to satisfy Condition \((*)_w\) if \(\mathbf a\) is not eventually periodic and if there exists a sequence of finite words \(\{V_n\}_{n\geq 1}\) such that (i) for \(n\geq 1\), the word \(V_n^w\) is a prefix of the word \(\mathbf a\); (ii) the sequence \(\{V_n\}_{n\geq 1}\) is increasing. First a transcendence criterion for `purely' stammering continued fractions is given as follows: Theorem 1. Let \(\mathbf a=\{a_l\}_{l\geq 1}\) be a sequence of positive integers. Let \(\{pz/qz\}_{l\geq 1}\) denote the sequence of convergents to the real number \(\alpha:= [0; a_1, a_2, \dots, a_l,\dots]\). If there exists a rational number \(w\geq 2\) such that a satisfies Condition \((*)_w\), then a is transcendental. If there exists a rational number \(w>1\) such that a satisfies Condition \((*)_w\), and if the sequence \(\{q_l^{1/l}\}_{l\geq 1}\) is bounded (which is, in particular, the case when the sequence \(\mathbf a\) is bounded), then \(\alpha\) is transcendental. The main interest of the first statement of Theorem 1 is that there is no condition on the growth of the sequence \(\{q_l\}_{l\geq 1}\). The second statement of Theorem 1 improves upon Theorem 4 from [\textit{J.-P. Allouche} et al., J. Number Theory 91, 39--66 (2001)], which requires, together with some extra rather constraining hypotheses, the stronger assumption \(w>3/2\). The condition that the sequence \(\{q_l^{1/l}\}_{l\geq 1}\) has to be bounded is in general easy to check, and is not very restrictive, since it is satisfied by almost all real numbers (in the sense of the Lebesgue measure). Apart from this assumption, Theorem 1 does not depend on the size of the partial quotients of \(\alpha\). This is in a striking contrast to all previous results. Then Theorem 2 gives a transcendence criterion for (general) stammering continued fractions. Let \(\mathbf a\) be as in Theorem 1. Let \(\{p_l/q_l\}_{l\geq 1}\) denote the sequence of convergents to the real number \(\alpha:= [0; a_1, a_2, \dots, a_l,\dots]\). Assume that the sequence \(\{q_l^{1/l}\}_{l\geq 1}\) is bounded and set \(M=\limsup_{l\to +infty} q_l^{1/l}\) and \(m=\liminf_{l\to +infty} q_l^{1/l}\). Let \(w\) and \(w'\) be non-negative real numbers with \[ w > (2w'+1) \frac{\log M}{\log m}-w'. \] If \(\mathbf a\) satisfies Condition \((**)_{w,w'}\) (similar to \((*)_w\) above), then \(\alpha\) is transcendental. Several applications of these theorems are then briefly discussed.

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