Continuants with equal values, a combinatorial approach

Abstract: A regular continuant is the denominator

K

of a terminating regular continued fraction, interpreted as a function of the partial quotients. We regard

K

as a function defined on the set of all finite words on the alphabet

1 < 2 < 3 < d o t s

with values in the positive integers. Given a word

w = w_{1} c d o t s w_{n}

with

w_{i} i n m a t h b b N

we define its multiplicity

m u (w)

as the number of times the value

K (w)

is assumed in the Abelian class

m a t h c a l X (w)

of all permutations of the word

w .

We prove that there is an infinity of different lacunary alphabets of the form

b_{1} < d o t s < b_{t} < l + 1 < l + 2 < d o t s < s

with

b_{j}, t, l, s i n m a t h b b N

and

s

sufficiently large such that

m u

takes arbitrarily large values for words on these alphabets. The method of proof relies in part on a combinatorial characterisation of the word

w_{m a x}

in the class

m a t h c a l X (w)

where

K

assumes its maximum.

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