On periodicity of p-adic Browkin continued fractions

DOI10.1007/S00209-023-03333-3MaRDI QIDQ6090607zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Laura Capuano, Nadir Murru, L. Terracini

Publication date 17 November 2023

Published in Mathematische Zeitschrift (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.07364

\(p\)-adic continued fractions periodicity quadratic irrationals

(p)-adic and power series fields (11D88) Continued fractions and generalizations (11J70) Continued fraction calculations (number-theoretic aspects) (11Y65)

Abstract: The classical theory of continued fractions has been widely studied for centuries for its important properties of good approximation, and more recently it has been generalized to

p

-adic numbers where it presents many differences with respect to the real case. In this paper we investigate periodicity for the

p

-adic continued fractions introduced by Browkin. We give some necessary and sufficient conditions for periodicity in general, although a full characterization of

p

-adic numbers having purely periodic Browkin continued fraction expansion is still missing. In the second part of the paper, we describe a general procedure to construct square roots of integers having periodic Browkin

p

-adic continued fraction expansion of prescribed even period length. As a consequence, we prove that, for every

n g e 1

, there exist infinitely many

s q r t m i n Q Q_{p}

with periodic Browkin expansion of period

2^{n}

, extending a previous result of Bedocchi obtained for

n = 1

.

Review text

It's well known that a continued fraction gives the best rational approximations of real numbers. Periodic continued fractions characterize quadratic irrationals. Let \(p>2\) be a prime number. Let \(|\cdot|_p\) and \(|\cdot|_{\infty}\) the \(p\)-adic and the Euclidean norm. For given \(\alpha \in \mathbb{Q}_p\) its \(p\)-adic continued fraction expansion is determined. Browkin's definition of \(p\)-adic continued fraction is investigated in this paper. There are many different definitions of \(p\)-adic continued fractions. Let's define the set \(\mathcal{Y}=\mathbb{Z}\big[\frac{1}{p}\big] \cap (-\frac{p}{2}, \frac{p}{2})\). Assume that a unique \(s(\alpha) \in\mathcal{Y}\) such that \(0\leq |\alpha-s(\alpha)|<1\) exists for given \(\alpha \in \mathbb{Q}_p\). The \(p\)-adic continued fraction expansion of alpha is determined using the following algorithm \[ \alpha_0=\alpha,\quad a_n=s(\alpha_n), \quad \alpha_{n+1}=\frac{1}{\alpha_n-a_n} \; \text{if}\; \alpha_n \neq a_n. \] The periodicity for \(p\)-adic continued fractions introduced by Browkin is investigate in the paper. Some necessary and sufficient conditions for the periodicity of Browkin's continued fraction expansion are given. A general procedure to construct square roots of integers having a periodic Browkin \(p\)-adic continued fraction expansion of prescribed even period length described. It is proved that for every \(n\geq 1\), a infinitely many \(\sqrt{m} \in \mathbb{Q}_p\) with periodic Browkin expansion of period \(2^n\) exists. Some illustrative examples are considered in the article.

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