A comparative study of algorithms for computing continued fractions of algebraic numbers

Abstract

The obvious way to compute the continued fraction of a real number α > 1 is to compute a very accurate numerical approximation of α, and then to iterate the well-known truncate-and-invert step which computes the next partial quotient a = bαc and the next complete quotient α′ = 1/(α − a). This method is called the basic method. In the course of this process precision is lost, and one has to take precautions to stop before the partial quotients become incorrect. Lehmer [6] gives a safe stopping-criterion, and a trick to reduce the amount of multi-length arithmetic. Schonhage [12] describes an algorithm for computing the greatest common divisor of u and v and the related continued fraction expansion of u/v in O(n log n log log n) steps if both u and v do not exceed 2. A disadvantage of this approach is that if we wish to extend the list of partial quotients computed from an initial approximation of α, we have to compute a more accurate initial approximation of α, compute the new complete quotient using this new approximation and the partial quotients already computed from the old approximation, and then extend the list of partial quotients using that new complete quotient (we notice that Shiu in [13, p.1312] incorrectly states that all the previous calculations have to be repeated, but the partial quotients computed so far don’t have to be recomputed). Bombieri and Van der Poorten [1], and Shiu [13] have recently proposed a remedy for this problem. They give a formula for computing a rational approximation of the next complete convergent from the first n partial quotients. From that complete convergent about n new partial quotients can be computed. So each step gives an approximate doubling of the number of partial quotients. To start the method, a few partial quotients have to be computed with the basic or indirect method. In [1] this method is proposed for algebraic numbers (which are zeros of polynomials) of degree ≥ 3, whereas Shiu also applies it to more general numbers, namely to transcendental numbers that can be defined as the zero of a function for which the logarithmic derivative at a rational point can be computed with arbitrary precision. This includes numbers like π, log π, and log 2. For each of thirteen different numbers, Shiu computes 10000 partial quotients. Their frequency distributions are compared with the one which almost all numbers should obey, according to the Khintchine– Levy theory [3, 7]. No significant deviations from this theory are reported. Shiu calls his method the direct method. Curiously, Shiu does not refer to what we would call the polynomial method for algebraic numbers [2, 5, 11] of degree ≥ 3, which computes the partial quotients of α using only the coefficients of its defining polynomial. Moreover, Shiu gives neither implementational