May 9, 2013
Let $\omega=[a_1, a_2, \cdots]$ be the infinite expansion of continued fraction for an irrational number $\omega \in (0,1)$; let $R_n (\omega)$ (resp. $R_{n, \, k} (\omega)$, $R_{n, \, k+} (\omega)$) be the number of distinct partial quotients each of which appears at least once (resp. exactly $k$ times, at least $k$ times) in the sequence $a_1, \cdots, a_n$. In this paper it is proved that for Lebesgue almost all $\omega \in (0,1)$ and all $k \geq 1$, $$ \displaystyle \lim_{...
October 10, 2022
Any rational number can be written as the sum of distinct unit fractions. In this survey paper we review some of the many interesting questions concerning such 'Egyptian fraction' decompositions, and recent progress concerning them.
July 1, 2009
A landmark theorem in the metric theory of continued fractions begins this way: Select a non-negative real function $f$ defined on the positive integers and a real number $x$, and form the partial sums $s_n$ of $f$ evaluated at the partial quotients $a_1,..., a_n$ in the continued fraction expansion for $x$. Does the sequence $\{s_n/n\}$ have a limit as $n\rar\infty$? In 1935 A. Y. Khinchin proved that the answer is yes for almost every $x$, provided that the function $f$ doe...
November 1, 2017
Let $H_n$ be the $n$-th harmonic number and let $v_n$ be its denominator. It is well known that $v_n$ is even for every integer $n\ge 2$. In this paper, we study the properties of $v_n$. One of our results is: the set of positive integers $n$ such that $v_n$ is divisible by the least common multiple of $1, 2, \cdots, \lfloor {n^{1/4}}\rfloor $ has density one. In particular, for any positive integer $m$, the set of positive integers $n$ such that $v_n$ is divisible by $m$ has...
December 22, 2004
We consider continued fractions \frac{-a_1}{1-\frac{a_2}{1-\frac{a_3}{1-...}}} \label{fr} with real coefficients $a_i$ converging to a limit $a$. S.Ramanujan had stated the theorem (see [ABJL], p.38) saying that if $a\neq\frac14$, then the fraction converges if and only if $a<\frac14$. The statement of convergence was proved in [V] for complex $a_i$ converging to $a\in\mathbb C\setminus[\frac14,+\infty)$ (see also [P]). J.Gill [G] proved the divergence of (\ref{fr}) under the...
July 15, 2024
Legendre's theorem states that every irreducible fraction $\frac{p}{q}$ which satisfies the inequality $\left |\alpha-\frac{p}{q} \right | < \frac{1}{2q^2}$ is convergent to $\alpha$. Later Barbolosi and Jager improved this theorem. In this paper we refine these results.
November 18, 1998
An Egyptian fraction is a sum of distinct unit fractions (reciprocals of positive integers). We show that every rational number has Egyptian fraction representations where the number of terms is of the same order of magnitude as the largest denominator, improving a result from an earlier paper to best-possible form. We also settle, in best-possible form, the related problem of how small M_t(r) can be such that there is an Egyptian fraction representation of r with exactly t t...
March 23, 2016
This paper is a continuation of a previous paper. Here, as there, we examine the problem of finding the maximum number of terms in a partial sequence of distinct unit fractions larger than 1/100 that sums to 1. In the previous paper, we found that the maximum number of terms is 42 and introduced a method for showing that. In this paper, we demonstrate that there are 27 possible solutions with 42 terms, and discuss how primes show that no 43-term solution exists.
June 7, 2022
We investigate the number of steps taken by three variants of the Euclidean algorithm on average over Farey fractions. We show asymptotic formulae for these averages restricted to the interval $(0,1/2)$, establishing that they behave differently on $(0,1/2)$ than they do on $(1/2,1)$. These results are tightly linked with the distribution of lengths of certain continued fraction expansions as well as the distribution of the involved partial quotients. As an application, we ...
February 2, 2022
Let $\psi: \mathbb{N} \to [0,1/2]$ be given. The Duffin-Schaeffer conjecture, recently resolved by Koukoulopoulos and Maynard, asserts that for almost all reals $\alpha$ there are infinitely many coprime solutions $(p,q)$ to the inequality $|\alpha - p/q| < \psi(q)/q$, provided that the series $\sum_{q=1}^\infty \varphi(q) \psi(q) / q$ is divergent. In the present paper, we establish a quantitative version of this result, by showing that for almost all $\alpha$ the number of ...