Symmetry and Specializability in the continued fraction expansions of some infinite products

James Mc Laughlin

Published 2004-02-27Version 1

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.