English

Lacunary formal power series and the Stern-Brocot sequence

Number Theory 2014-04-29 v3 Combinatorics

Abstract

Let F(X)=n0(1)εnXλnF(X) = \sum_{n \geq 0} (-1)^{\varepsilon_n} X^{-\lambda_n} be a real lacunary formal power series, where εn=0,1\varepsilon_n = 0, 1 and λn+1/λn>2\lambda_{n+1}/\lambda_n > 2. It is known that the denominators Qn(X)Q_n(X) of the convergents of its continued fraction expansion are polynomials with coefficients 0,±10, \pm 1, and that the number of nonzero terms in Qn(X)Q_n(X) is the nnth term of the Stern-Brocot sequence. We show that replacing the index nn by any 2-adic integer ω\omega makes sense. We prove that Qω(X)Q_{\omega}(X) is a polynomial if and only if ωZ\omega \in {\mathbb Z}. In all the other cases Qω(X)Q_{\omega}(X) is an infinite formal power series, the algebraic properties of which we discuss in the special case λn=2n+11\lambda_n = 2^{n+1} - 1.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1202.0211,
  title  = {Lacunary formal power series and the Stern-Brocot sequence},
  author = {Jean-Paul Allouche and Michel Mendès France},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1202.0211},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

to appear in Acta Arithmetica