scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1408144

Authors Herta T. Freitag, George M. Phillips

Publication date 11 April 2001

sum of reciprocals of positive integers Sylvester series Sylvester-Fibonacci series

Other number representations (11A67) Fibonacci and Lucas numbers and polynomials and generalizations (11B39)

Every reduced fraction \(\frac mn\) between 0 and 1 has a representation \(\frac mn= \frac{1}{q_1+1}+ \frac{1}{q_2+1} +\cdots+ \frac{1}{q_{k-1}+1}+ \frac{1}{q_k}\) as a sum of reciprocals of positive integers where \(q_{j+1}> q_j(q_j+1)\) and the \(q_j\) are chosen as small as possible. The authors call this the Sylvester series for \(\frac mn\). For real irrational \(\alpha\) between 0 and 1 there is the Sylvester series \(\alpha= \sum_{k=1}^\infty \frac{1}{n_k}\) with \(n_k\) as small as possible. The set \(\{n\in \mathbb{N}\mid n\geq 2\}\) of denominators can be replaced by certain subsets, for example by the set \(S= \{2,3,5,8,\dots\}= \{F_n\mid n\geq 3\}\) of Fibonacci numbers. This yields, for every real number \(\alpha\) between 0 and 1, the Sylvester-Fibonacci series \(\alpha= \sum_{k=3}^\infty \frac{e_k}{F_k}\) with \(e_k\in \{0,1\}\) and \(\alpha- \sum_{k=3}^n \frac{e_k}{F_k}\) as small as possible, for every \(n\). The authors present some nice observations; for example, \(e_{2k}\neq 0\) implies that \(e_{2k+1}= 0\). For the entire collection see [Zbl 0930.00038].

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