English

On the transcendence of growth constants associated with polynomial recursions

Number Theory 2023-12-20 v3

Abstract

Let P(x):=adxd++a0Q[x]P(x):=a_d x^d+\cdots+a_0\in\mathbb{Q}[x], ad>0a_d>0, be a polynomial of degree d2d\geq 2. Let (xn)(x_n) be a sequence of integers satisfying \begin{equation*} x_{n+1}=P(x_n)\mbox{for all}\quad n=0,1,2\ldots,\quad\mbox{and} \quad x_n\to\infty\quad\mbox{as}\quad n\to\infty. \end{equation*} Set α:=limnxndn\alpha:=\lim_{n\to\infty} x^{d^{-n}}_n. Then, under the assumption ad1/(d1)Qa_d^{1/(d-1)}\in\mathbb{Q}, in a recent result by Dubickas \cite{dubickas}, either α\alpha is transcendental, or α\alpha can be an integer, or a quadratic Pisot unit with α1\alpha^{-1} being its conjugate over Q\mathbb{Q}. In this paper, we study the nature of such α\alpha without the assumption that ad1/(d1)a_d^{1/(d-1)} is in Q\mathbb{Q}, and we prove that either the number α\alpha is transcendental, or αh\alpha^h is a Pisot number with hh being the order of the torsion subgroup of the Galois closure of the number field Q(α,ad1d1)\mathbb{Q}(\alpha, a_d^{-\frac{1}{d-1}}). Other results presented in this paper investigate the solutions of the inequality q1α1n++qkαkn+β<θn||q_1 \alpha_1^n+\cdots+q_k \alpha_k^n +\beta||<\theta^n in (n,q1,,qk)N×(K×)k(n,q_1,\ldots,q_k)\in \mathbb{N}\times(K^\times)^k, considering whether β\beta is rational or irrational. Here, KK represents a number field, and θ(0,1)\theta\in (0,1). The notation x||x|| denotes the distance between xx and its nearest integer in Z\mathbb{Z}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2207.08614,
  title  = {On the transcendence of growth constants associated with polynomial recursions},
  author = {Veekesh Kumar},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2207.08614},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

To appear: International Journal of Number Theory