Continued fractions and heavy sequences
Abstract
We initiate the study of the sets , , of real for which the sequence (viewed mod 1) consistently hits the interval at least as often as expected (i. e., with frequency ). More formally, where stands for the fractional part of . We prove that, for rational , the sets are of positive Hausdorff dimension and, in particular, are uncountable. For integers , we obtain a surprising characterization of the numbers in terms of their continued fraction expansions: The odd entries (partial quotients) of these expansions are divisible by . The characterization implies that if and only if , for . We are unaware of a direct proof of this equivalence, without making a use of the mentioned characterization of the sets . We also introduce the dual sets of reals for which the sequence of integers consistently hits the set with the at least expected frequency and establish the connection with the sets : {2mm} If for , then if and only if . The motivation for the present study comes from Y. Peres's ergodic lemma.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0911.2054,
title = {Continued fractions and heavy sequences},
author = {Michael Boshernitzan and David Ralston},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0911.2054},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
9 pages