Hankel determinants, Pad\'e approximations, and irrationality exponents

The irrationality exponent of an irrational number $\xi$, which measures the approximation rate of $\xi$ by rationals, is in general extremely difficult to compute explicitly, unless we know the continued fraction expansion of $\xi$. Results obtained so far are rather fragmentary, and often treated case by case. In this work, we shall unify all the known results on the subject by showing that the irrationality exponents of large classes of automatic numbers and Mahler numbers (which are transcendental) are exactly equal to $2$. Our classes contain the Thue--Morse--Mahler numbers, the sum of the reciprocals of the Fermat numbers, the regular paperfolding numbers, which have been previously considered respectively by Bugeaud, Coons, and Guo, Wu and Wen, but also new classes such as the Stern numbers and so on. Among other ingredients, our proofs use results on Hankel determinants obtained recently by Han.Comment: International Mathematics Research Notices 201

Palindromic continued fractions

In the present work, we investigate real numbers whose sequence of partial quotients enjoys some combinatorial properties involving the notion of palindrome. We provide three new transendence criteria, that apply to a broad class of continued fraction expansions, including expansions with unbounded partial quotients. Their proofs heavily depend on the Schmidt Subspace Theorem

Words and Transcendence

Is it possible to distinguish algebraic from transcendental real numbers by considering the $b$-ary expansion in some base $b\ge2$? In 1950, \'E. Borel suggested that the answer is no and that for any real irrational algebraic number $x$ and for any base $g\ge2$, the $g$-ary expansion of $x$ should satisfy some of the laws that are shared by almost all numbers. There is no explicitly known example of a triple $(g,a,x)$, where $g\ge3$ is an integer, $a$ a digit in $\{0,...,g-1\}$ and $x$ a real irrational algebraic number, for which one can claim that the digit $a$ occurs infinitely often in the $g$-ary expansion of $x$. However, some progress has been made recently, thanks mainly to clever use of Schmidt's subspace theorem. We review some of these results

Lacunary formal power series and the Stern-Brocot sequence

Let $F(X) = \sum_{n \geq 0} (-1)^{\varepsilon_n} X^{-\lambda_n}$ be a real lacunary formal power series, where $\varepsilon_n = 0, 1$ and $\lambda_{n+1}/\lambda_n > 2$. It is known that the denominators $Q_n(X)$ of the convergents of its continued fraction expansion are polynomials with coefficients $0, \pm 1$, and that the number of nonzero terms in $Q_n(X)$ is the $n$th term of the Stern-Brocot sequence. We show that replacing the index $n$ by any 2-adic integer $\omega$ makes sense. We prove that $Q_{\omega}(X)$ is a polynomial if and only if $\omega \in {\mathbb Z}$. In all the other cases $Q_{\omega}(X)$ is an infinite formal power series, the algebraic properties of which we discuss in the special case $\lambda_n = 2^{n+1} - 1$.Comment: to appear in Acta Arithmetic