On irrationals with Lagrange value exactly 3
Abstract
For , let denote the set of such that has only finitely many rational solutions . It is a classical fact, known since the 1950s, that is uncountable for and countable for . However, the cardinality of does not appear to be present in the literature. We prove that is uncountable. More generally, we show that for any , the set of with Lagrange value exactly and such that has exactly rational solutions is also uncountable.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2509.01867,
title = {On irrationals with Lagrange value exactly 3},
author = {Zhe Cao and Harold Erazo and Carlos Gustavo Moreira},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.01867},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
After publication, we learned that the cardinality of $X_3$ was obtained by C. Gurwood (PhD thesis, 1976) by fully characterizing $X(0)$. The result was later reproved by a different method by G. Harcos (undergraduate thesis, 1996, Hungarian). Our method allows the construction of uncountably many irrational numbers in each X(n) with Sturmian continued fraction after substituting a=(2,2), b=(1,1)