Periodic representations and rational approximations of square roots

In this paper the properties of R\'edei rational functions are used to derive rational approximations for square roots and both Newton and Pad\'e approximations are given as particular cases. As a consequence, such approximations can be derived directly by power matrices. Moreover, R\'edei rational functions are introduced as convergents of particular periodic continued fractions and are applied for approximating square roots in the field of p-adic numbers and to study periodic representations. Using the results over the real numbers, we show how to construct periodic continued fractions and approximations of square roots which are simultaneously valid in the real and in the p-adic field

A computer algebra user interface manifesto

Many computer algebra systems have more than 1000 built-in functions, making expertise difficult. Using mock dialog boxes, this article describes a proposed interactive general-purpose wizard for organizing optional transformations and allowing easy fine grain control over the form of the result even by amateurs. This wizard integrates ideas including: * flexible subexpression selection; * complete control over the ordering of variables and commutative operands, with well-chosen defaults; * interleaving the choice of successively less main variables with applicable function choices to provide detailed control without incurring a combinatorial number of applicable alternatives at any one level; * quick applicability tests to reduce the listing of inapplicable transformations; * using an organizing principle to order the alternatives in a helpful manner; * labeling quickly-computed alternatives in dialog boxes with a preview of their results, * using ellipsis elisions if necessary or helpful; * allowing the user to retreat from a sequence of choices to explore other branches of the tree of alternatives or to return quickly to branches already visited; * allowing the user to accumulate more than one of the alternative forms; * integrating direct manipulation into the wizard; and * supporting not only the usual input-result pair mode, but also the useful alternative derivational and in situ replacement modes in a unified window.Comment: 38 pages, 12 figures, to be published in Communications in Computer Algebr

Transition probabilities for general birth-death processes with applications in ecology, genetics, and evolution

A birth-death process is a continuous-time Markov chain that counts the number of particles in a system over time. In the general process with $n$ current particles, a new particle is born with instantaneous rate $\lambda_n$ and a particle dies with instantaneous rate $\mu_n$. Currently no robust and efficient method exists to evaluate the finite-time transition probabilities in a general birth-death process with arbitrary birth and death rates. In this paper, we first revisit the theory of continued fractions to obtain expressions for the Laplace transforms of these transition probabilities and make explicit an important derivation connecting transition probabilities and continued fractions. We then develop an efficient algorithm for computing these probabilities that analyzes the error associated with approximations in the method. We demonstrate that this error-controlled method agrees with known solutions and outperforms previous approaches to computing these probabilities. Finally, we apply our novel method to several important problems in ecology, evolution, and genetics

Rational approximations to algebraic Laurent series with coefficients in a finite field

In this paper we give a general upper bound for the irrationality exponent of algebraic Laurent series with coefficients in a finite field. Our proof is based on a method introduced in a different framework by Adamczewski and Cassaigne. It makes use of automata theory and, in our context, of a classical theorem due to Christol. We then introduce a new approach which allows us to strongly improve this general bound in many cases. As an illustration, we give few examples of algebraic Laurent series for which we are able to compute the exact value of the irrationality exponent