A Specialised Continued Fraction

Abstract

AbstractWe display a number with a surprising continued fraction expansion and show that we may explain that expansion as a specialisation of the continued fraction expansion of a formal series: A series ΣchX-h has a continued fraction expansion with partial quotients polynomials in X of positive degree (other, perhaps than the 0-th partial quotient). Simple arguments, let alone examples, demonstrate that it is noteworthy if those partial quotients happen to have rational integer coefficients only. In that special case one may replace the variable X by an integer ≥ 2; that is: one may 'specialise' and thereby proceed to obtain the regular continued fraction expansion of values of the series. And that is significant because, generally, it is difficult to obtain the explicit continued fraction expansion of a number presented in different shape. Our example leads to a series with a specialisable continued fraction expansion and, a little surprisingly, our arguments suggest that the phenomenon of specialisability for series of the kind appearing here may be reserved to just the special subclass of series we happen to have stumbled upon.