English

Unique expansions of real numbers

Number Theory 2008-12-18 v4 Combinatorics

Abstract

It was discovered some years ago that there exist non-integer real numbers q>1q>1 for which only one sequence (ci)(c_i) of integers ci[0,q)c_i \in [0,q) satisfies the equality i=1ciqi=1\sum_{i=1}^\infty c_iq^{-i}=1. The set of such "univoque numbers" has a rich topological structure, and its study revealed a number of unexpected connections with measure theory, fractals, ergodic theory and Diophantine approximation. In this paper we consider for each fixed q>1q>1 the set Uq\mathcal{U}_q of real numbers xx having a unique representation of the form i=1ciqi=x\sum_{i=1}^\infty c_iq^{-i}=x with integers cic_i belonging to [0,q)[0,q). We carry out a detailed topological study of these sets. For instance, we characterize their closures, and we determine those bases qq for which Uq\mathcal{U}_q is closed or even a Cantor set. We also study the set Uq\mathcal{U}_q' consisting of all sequences (ci)(c_i) of integers ci[0,q)c_i \in [0,q) such that i=1ciqiUq\sum_{i=1}^{\infty} c_i q^{-i} \in \mathcal{U}_q. We determine the numbers r>1r >1 for which the map qUqq \mapsto \mathcal{U}_q' (defined on (1,)(1, \infty)) is constant in a neighborhood of rr and the numbers q>1q >1 for which Uq\mathcal{U}_q' is a subshift or a subshift of finite type.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0609708,
  title  = {Unique expansions of real numbers},
  author = {Martijn de Vries and Vilmos Komornik},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0609708},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

29 pages, some new results added, final version, to appear in Advances in Mathematics

R2 v1 2026-07-22T17:42:59.794Z