English

On a tree of rational functions related to continued fractions

Dynamical Systems 2025-12-15 v1 Number Theory

Abstract

In this article, we present a binary tree with vertices given by rational functions p(x)/q(x)p(x)/q(x); the root and functional derivation of children are inspired by continued fractions. We prove some special properties of the tree. For example, the zero solutions of the denominators q(x)q(x) are all real negative numbers and are dense in (,1](-\infty,-1]. For x>0x>0 functions are non intersecting and form a dense subset of (0,1)(0,1). Furthermore, when evaluating the tree for positive rational values, the tree contains every rational in (0,1)(0,1) exactly once if and only if xNx\in \mathbb{N}. For x=1x=1, one finds back the classical Farey tree which is related to regular continued fractions. In the last part, we will make a similar tree in a similar way but for backward continued fractions. We highlight some similarities and differences.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.11595,
  title  = {On a tree of rational functions related to continued fractions},
  author = {Niels Langeveld and David Ralston},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.11595},
  year   = {2025}
}