Smallest bases of expansions with multiple digits

Abstract: Given two positive integers

M

and

k

, let

B_{k}

be the set of bases

q > 1

such that there exists a real number

x

having exactly

k

different

q

-expansions over the alphabet

0, 1, c d o t s, M

. In this paper we investigate the smallest base

q_{2}

of

B_{2}

, and show that if

M = 2 m

the smallest base

q_2 =frac{m+1+sqrt{m^2+2m+5}}{2},

and if

M = 2 m - 1

the smallest base

q_{2}

is the appropriate root of

x^4=(m-1),x^3+2 m, x^2+m ,x+1.

Moreover, for

M = 2

we show that

q_{2}

is also the smallest base of

B_{k}

for all

k g e 3

. This turns out to be different from that for

M = 1

.

This page was built for publication: Smallest bases of expansions with multiple digits