Badly approximable numbers, Kronecker's theorem, and diversity of Sturmian characteristic sequences

badly approximable number bounded partial quotients continued fraction Kronecker's theorem measure of diversity Sturmian characteristic sequence three-gap theorem

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Continued fractions (11A55) Inhomogeneous linear forms (11J20) Continued fractions and generalizations (11J70) Distribution modulo one (11J71) Symbolic dynamics (37B10)

Abstract: We give an optimal version of the classical ``three-gap theorem on the fractional parts of $n h e t a$ , in the case where $h e t a$ is an irrational number that is badly approximable. As a consequence, we deduce a version of Kronecker's inhomogeneous approximation theorem in one dimension for badly approximable numbers. We apply these results to obtain an improved measure of sequence diversity for characteristic Sturmian sequences, where the slope is badly approximable.

Review text

The real number $\theta$ with simple continued fraction $\theta = [a_0, a_1, a_2,\dots]$ called the bounded partial quotients or is badly approximable if there exists a positive integer $B$ such that $|a_i|\leq B$ for all $i \geq 1$. The set of real numbers with partial quotients bounded by $B$ is denoted by $S_B$. Kronecker's theorem states that if $\theta$ is an irrational real number, $\beta$ is a real number, and $N$ and $\varepsilon$ are positive real numbers, there exist integers $n,p$ with $n>N$ such that $|n\theta -p-\beta| < \varepsilon$. The quadratic upper bound proved in this paper. For a real irrational number $\theta$, let $\{\theta\}$ denote its fractional part. Let $N$ be a positive integer, and sort the $N+2$ numbers $0,\{\theta\}, \{2\theta\}, \dots, \{N \theta\}, 1$ in ascending order $s_0 = 0 < s_1 < s_2 < \dots < s_N < 1 = s_{N+1}$. The gaps are the numbers $s_{i+1} - s_i$ for $0 \leq i \leq N$, and the gap set $G(\theta, N)$ is the set ${s_{i+1} - s_i : 0 \leq i \leq N }$. Let $H(\theta, N) = \max G(\theta, N)$, the largest gap in the gap set. For each integer $B\geq 1$ defined value $f(B) := \sup_{\theta \in S_B} \sup_{N \in \mathbb{N}} N \cdot H(\theta,N)$. The main result of this paper is the following theorem. Theorem. Let $B \geq 1$ be an integer. Then \[ f(B)=\begin{cases} 1+\frac{(a+1)^2}{2\sqrt{a^2+2a}}, & \text{if}\; B=2a, a \in \mathbb{N}; \\ 1+\frac{a^2+3a+2}{\sqrt{4a^2+12a+5}}, & \text{if}\; B=2a+1, a \in \mathbb{N}\cup \{0\}. \end{cases} \]

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