arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to James Mc Laughlin.
We consider two classes of $q$-continued fraction whose odd and even parts are limit 1-periodic for $|q|>1$, and give theorems which guarantee the convergence of the continued fraction, or of its odd- and even parts, at points outside the unit circle.
We provide the missing member of a family of four $q$-series identities related to the modulus 36, the other members having been found by Ramanujan and Slater. We examine combinatorial implications of the identities in this family, and of some of the identities we considered in "Identities of the Ramanujan-Slater type related to the moduli 18 and 24," [\emph{J. Math. Anal. Appl.} \textbf{344}/2 (2008) 765--777].
We describe three computer searches (in PARI/GP, Maple, and Mathematica, respectively) which led to the discovery of a number of identities of Rogers-Ramanujan type and identities of false theta functions.
Finding polynomial solutions to Pell's equation is of interest as such solutions sometimes allow the fundamental units to be determined in an infinite class of real quadratic fields. In this paper, for each triple of positive integers $(c,h,f)$ satisfying \[c^{2}-f\,h^{2}=1, \] where $(c,h)$ are the smallest pair of integers satisfying this equation, several sets of polynomials $(c(t),h(t),f(t))$ which satisfy \[c(t)^{2}-f(t)\,h(t)^{2}=1 \text{ and } (c(0),h(0),f(0)) = (c,h,f) \] are derived. Moreover, it is shown that the pair $(c(t),h(t))$ constitute the fundamental polynomial solution to the Pell's equation above. The continued fraction expansion of $\sqrt{f(t)}$ is given in certain general cases (for example, when the continued fraction expansion of $\sqrt{f}$ has odd period length, or even period length or has period length $\equiv 2 \mod{4}$ and the middle quotient has a particular form etc). Some applications to determining the fundamental unit in real quadratic fields is also discussed.
In this we paper we prove several new identities of the Rogers-Ramanujan-Slater type. These identities were found as the result of computer searches. The proofs involve a variety of techniques, including series-series identities, Bailey pairs, a theorem of Watson on basic hypergeometric series, generating functions and miscellaneous methods.
Continued fractions whose elements are polynomial sequences have been carefully studied mostly in the cases where the degree of the numerator polynomial is less than or equal to two and the degree of the denominator polynomial is less than or equal to one. Here we study cases of higher degree for both numerator and denominator polynomials, with particular attention given to cases in which the degrees are equal. We extend work of Ramanujan on continued fractions with rational limits and also consider cases where the limits are irrational.
We present several new families of Rogers-Ramanujan type identities related to the moduli 18 and 24. A few of the identities were found by either Ramanujan, Slater, or Dyson, but most are believed to be new. For one of these families, we discuss possible connections with Lie algebras. We also present two families of related false theta function identities.
Given a sequence of complex square matrices, $a_n$, consider the sequence of their partial products, defined by $p_n=p_{n-1}a_{n}$. What can be said about the asymptotics as $n\to\infty$ of the sequence $f(p_n)$, where $f$ is a continuous function? A special case of our most general result addresses this question under the assumption that the matrices $a_n$ are an $l_1$ perturbation of a sequence of matrices with bounded partial products. We apply our theory to investigate the asymptotics of the approximants of continued fractions. In particular, when a continued fraction is $l_1$ limit 1-periodic of elliptic or loxodromic type, we show that its sequence of approximants tends to a circle in $\hat{\mathbb{C}}$, or to a finite set of points lying on a circle. Our main theorem on such continued fractions unifies the treatment of the loxodromic and elliptic cases, which are convergent and divergent, respectively. When an approximating sequence tends to a circle, we obtain statistical information about the limiting distribution of the approximants. When the circle is the real line, the points are shown to have a Cauchy distribution with parameters given in terms of modifications of the original continued fraction. As an example of the general theory, a detailed study of a $q$-continued fraction in five complex variables is provided. The most general theorem in the paper holds in the context of Banach algebras. The theory is also applied to $(r,s)$-matrix continued fractions and recurrence sequences of Poincaré type and compared with closely related literature.
For integers $m \geq 2$, we study divergent continued fractions whose numerators and denominators in each of the $m$ arithmetic progressions modulo $m$ converge. Special cases give, among other things, an infinite sequence of divergence theorems, the first of which is the classical Stern-Stolz theorem. We give a theorem on a general class of Poincar{é} type recurrences which shows that they tend to limits when the limits are taken in residue classes and the roots of their characteristic polynomials are distinct roots of unity. We also generalize a curious $q$-continued fraction of Ramanujan's with three limits to a continued fraction with $k$ distinct limit points, $k\geq 2$. The $k$ limits are evaluated in terms of ratios of certain unusual $q$ series. Finally, we show how to use Daniel Bernoulli's continued fraction in an elementary way to create analytic continued fractions with $m$ limit points, for any positive integer $m \geq 2$.
In this paper we show how to apply various techniques and theorems (including Pincherle's theorem, an extension of Euler's formula equating infinite series and continued fractions, an extension of the corresponding transformation that equates infinite products and continued fractions, extensions and contractions of continued fractions and the Bauer-Muir transformation) to derive infinite families of in-equivalent polynomial continued fractions in which each continued fraction has the same limit. This allows us, for example, to construct infinite families of polynomial continued fractions for famous constants like $π$ and $e$, $ζ{(k)}$ (for each positive integer $k\geq 2$), various special functions evaluated at integral arguments and various algebraic numbers. We also pose several questions about the nature of the set of real numbers which have a polynomial continued fraction expansion.
If a continued fraction $K_{n=1}^{\infty} a_{n}/b_{n}$ is known to converge but its limit is not easy to determine, it may be easier to use an extension of $K_{n=1}^{\infty}a_{n}/b_{n}$ to find the limit. By an extension of $K_{n=1}^{\infty} a_{n}/b_{n}$ we mean a continued fraction $K_{n=1}^{\infty} c_{n}/d_{n}$ whose odd or even part is $K_{n=1}^{\infty} a_{n}/b_{n}$. One can then possibly find the limit in one of three ways: (i) Prove the extension converges and find its limit; (ii) Prove the extension converges and find the limit of the other contraction (for example, the odd part, if $K_{n=1}^{\infty}a_{n}/b_{n}$ is the even part); (ii) Find the limit of the other contraction and show that the odd and even parts of the extension tend to the same limit. We apply these ideas to derive new proofs of certain continued fraction identities of Ramanujan and to prove a generalization of an identity involving the Rogers-Ramanujan continued fraction, which was conjectured by Blecksmith and Brillhart.
Let $f(x) \in \mathbb{Z}[x]$. Set $f_{0}(x) = x$ and, for $n \geq 1$, define $f_{n}(x)$ $=$ $f(f_{n-1}(x))$. We describe several infinite families of polynomials for which the infinite product \prod_{n=0}^{\infty} (1 + \frac{1}{f_{n}(x)}) has a \emph{specializable} continued fraction expansion of the form S_{\infty} = [1;a_{1}(x), a_{2}(x), a_{3}(x), ... ], where $a_{i}(x) \in \mathbb{Z}[x]$, for $i \geq 1$. When the infinite product and the continued fraction are \emph{specialized} by letting $x$ take integral values, we get infinite classes of real numbers whose regular continued fraction expansion is predictable. We also show that, under some simple conditions, all the real numbers produced by this specialization are transcendental.
In some recent papers, the authors considered regular continued fractions of the form \[ [a_{0};\underbrace{a,...,a}_{m}, \underbrace{a^{2},...,a^{2}}_{m}, \underbrace{a^{3},...,a^{3}}_{m}, ... ], \] where $a_{0} \geq 0$, $a \geq 2$ and $m \geq 1$ are integers. The limits of such continued fractions, for general $a$ and in the cases $m=1$ and $m=2$, were given as ratios of certain infinite series. However, these formulae can be derived from known facts about two continued fractions of Ramanujan. Motivated by these observations, we give alternative proofs of the results of the previous authors for the cases $m=1$ and $m=2$ and also use known results about other $q$-continued fractions investigated by Ramanujan to derive the limits of other infinite families of regular continued fractions.