Purely periodic expansions in systems with negative base

Zuzana Masáková, Edita Pelantová

Published 2012-02-09Version 1

We study the question of pure periodicity of expansions in the negative base numeration system. In analogy of Akiyama's result for positive Pisot unit base $\beta$, we find a sufficient condition so that there exist an interval $J$ containing the origin such that the $(-\beta)$-expansion of every rational number from $J$ is purely periodic. We focus on the case of quadratic bases and demonstrate the following difference between the negative and positive bases: It is known that the finiteness property (${\rm Fin}(\beta)=\Z[\beta]$) is not only sufficient, but also necessary in the case of positive quadratic and cubic bases. We show that ${\rm Fin}(-\beta)=\Z[\beta]$ is not necessary in the case of negative bases.