English

V Tree -- Continued Fraction Expansion, Stern-Brocot Tree, Minkowski's $?(x)$ Function In Binary: Exponentially Faster

Number Theory 2020-08-19 v1

Abstract

The Stern-Brocot tree and Minkowki's question mark function ?(x)?(x) (or Conway's box function) are related to the continued fraction expansion of numbers from Q with unary encoding of the partial denominators. We first define binary encodings CI,CIIC_I, C_{II} of the natural numbers, adapted to the Gau\ss-Kuz'min measure for the distribution of partial denominators. We then define the V1_1 tree as analogue to the Stern-Brocot tree, using the binary encondings CI,CIIC_I, C_{II}. We shall see that all numbers with denominator qq are present in the first 3.44log2(q)3.44\log_2(q) levels, instead of 1/q1/q appearing in level qq in the Stern-Brocot tree. The extension of the V1_1 tree, the V tree, covers all numbers from Q exactly once. We also define the binary version of Minkowski's question mark function, ?V?_V, and conjecture that it has no derivative at rational points (for the original, ?(x)=0,xQ?'(x)=0, x\in Q).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2008.08020,
  title  = {V Tree -- Continued Fraction Expansion, Stern-Brocot Tree, Minkowski's $?(x)$ Function In Binary: Exponentially Faster},
  author = {Michael Vielhaber},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.08020},
  year   = {2020}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T17:56:34.509Z