On the Lebesgue measure of sum-level sets for continued fractions

Marc Kesseböhmer, Bernd O. Stratmann

Published 2009-01-13, updated 2009-09-23Version 2

In this paper we give a detailed measure theoretical analysis of what we call sum-level sets for regular continued fraction expansions. The first main result is to settle a recent conjecture of Fiala and Kleban, which asserts that the Lebesgue measure of these level sets decays to zero, for the level tending to infinity. The second and third main result then give precise asymptotic estimates for this decay. The proofs of these results are based on recent progress in infinite ergodic theory, and in particular, they give non-trivial applications of this theory to number theory. The paper closes with a discussion of the thermodynamical significance of the obtained results, and with some applications of these to metrical Diophantine analysis.