English

Hyperelliptic curves, continued fractions, and Somos sequences

Number Theory 2007-05-23 v1 Algebraic Geometry

Abstract

We detail the continued fraction expansion of the square root of a monic polynomials of even degree. We note that each step of the expansion corresponds to addition of the divisor at infinity, and interpret the data yielded by the general expansion. In the quartic and sextic cases we observe explicitly that the parameters appearing in the continued fraction expansion yield integer sequences defined by bilinear relations instancing sequences of Somos type.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0608247,
  title  = {Hyperelliptic curves, continued fractions, and Somos sequences},
  author = {Alfred J. van der Poorten},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0608247},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/074921706000000239 in the IMS Lecture Notes--Monograph Series (http://www.imstat.org/publications/lecnotes.htm) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org)