A003285 Period of continued fraction for square root of n (or 0 if n is a square).

0, 1, 2, 0, 1, 2, 4, 2, 0, 1, 2, 2, 5, 4, 2, 0, 1, 2, 6, 2, 6, 6, 4, 2, 0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 2, 8, 4, 4, 4, 2, 0, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 10, 8, 6, 12, 4, 2, 0, 1, 2, 6, 5, 6, 4, 2, 6, 7, 6, 4, 11, 4, 2, 0, 1, 2, 10, 2, 8, 6, 8, 2, 7, 5, 4, 12, 6, 4, 4, 2, 0, 1, 2, 2, 5, 10, 2, 6, 5, 2, 8, 8, 10, 16, 4, 4, 11, 4, 2, 0, 1, 2, 12

Offset: 1

Author

N. J. A. Sloane

Keywords

• nonn
• nice

Comments

Any string of five consecutive terms m^2 - 2 through m^2 + 2 for m > 2 in the sequence has the corresponding periods 4,2,0,1,2. - Lekraj Beedassy, Jul 17 2001

For m > 1, a(m^2+m) = 2 and the continued fraction is m, 2, 2*m, 2, 2*m, 2, 2*m, ... - Arran Fernandez, Aug 14 2011

Apparently the generating function of the sequence for the denominators of continued fraction convergents to sqrt(n) is always rational and of form p(x)/[1 - C*x^m + (-1)^m * x^(2m)], or equivalently, the denominators satisfy the linear recurrence b(n+2m) = C*b(n+m) - (-1)^m * b(n), where a(n) is equal to m for each nonsquare n, or 0. See A006702 for the conjecture regarding C. The same conjectures apply to the sequences of the numerators of continued fraction convergents to sqrt(n). - Ralf Stephan, Dec 12 2013

If a(n)=1, n is of form k^2+1 (A002522 except the initial term 1). See A013642 for a(n)=2, A013643 for a(n)=3, A013644 for a(n)=4, A010337 for a(n)=5, A020347 for a(n)=6, A010338 for a(n)=7, A020348 for a(n)=8, A010339 for a(n)=9, and furthermore A020349-A020439. - Ralf Stephan, Dec 12 2013

From William Krier, Dec 12 2024: (Start)

a(m^2-4) = 4 for even m>=6 since sqrt(m^2-4) = [m-1; 1, (m-4)/2, 1, 2*(m-1)].

a(m^2-4) = 6 for odd m>=5 since sqrt(m^2-4) = [m-1; 1, (m-3)/2, 2, (m-3)/2, 1, 2*(m-1)].

a(m^2+4) = 2 for even m>=2 since sqrt(m^2+4) = [m; m/2, 2*m].

a(m^2+4) = 5 for odd m>=3 since sqrt(m^2+4) = [m; (m-1)/2, 1, 1, (m-1)/2, 2*m]. (End)

References

• A. Brousseau, Number Theory Tables. Fibonacci Association, San Jose, CA, 1973, p. 197.
• N. J. A. Sloane and Simon Plouffe, The Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, Academic Press, 1995 (includes this sequence).

Links

• Ray Chandler, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..10000 (first 5000 terms from T. D. Noe)
• Marius Beceanu, Period of the Continued Fraction of sqrt(n), (Feb 05 2003)
• Leon Bernstein, Fundamental units and cycles in the period of real quadratic number fields, I. Pacific J. Math 63 (1976): 37-61.
• Ron Knott, All square-root continued fractions eventually repeat
• R. Luczak, Patterns in the period lengths of simple periodic continued fractional representations of square roots of integers near perfect squares, QED: Chicago's Youth Math Research Symposium (April 2013).
• R. Mestrovic, Euclid's theorem on the infinitude of primes: a historical survey of its proofs (300 BC--2012) and another new proof, arXiv preprint arXiv:1202.3670 [math.HO], 2012-2018. - From _N. J. A. Sloane_, Jun 13 2012
• Justin T. Miller, Families of Continued Fractions, translated (2000) from a document of Nikos Drakos, Computer Based Learning Unit, University of Leeds.
• C. D. Patterson and H. C. Williams, Some Periodic Continued Fractions with Long Periods, Mathematics of Computation, Vol. 44 (1985), No. 170, pp. 523-532.
• A. M. Rockett and P. Szuesz, On the lengths of the periods of the continued fractions of square-roots of integers, Forum Mathematicum, 2 (1990), 119-123.
• R. G. Stanton, C. Sudler, Jr. and H. C. Williams, An Upper Bound for the Period of the Simple Continued Fraction for Sqrt(D), Pacific Journal of Math., Vol. 67 (1976), No. 2, pp. 525-536.
• Hanna Uscka-Wehlou, Continued Fractions and Digital Lines with Irrational Slopes, in Discrete Geometry for Computer Imagery, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 4992/2008, Springer-Verlag.
• A. J. van der Poorten, Fractional Parts of the Period of the Continued Fraction Expansion of Quadratic Integers [Refined and revised text of a talk given at the 2nd Conference of the Canadian Number Theory Association, Vancouver, 1989]
• A. J. van der Poorten, An introduction to continued fractions, Unpublished.
• A. J. van der Poorten, An introduction to continued fractions, Unpublished [Cached copy]
• H. C. Williams, A Numerical Investigation Into the Length of the Period of the Continued Fraction Expansion of Sqrt(D), Mathematics of Computation, Vol. 36 (1981), No. 154, pp. 593-601.

Crossrefs

Cf. A013943, A035015, A054269, A061490, A065938, A067280, A097853.

Programs

Maple

f:= n ->  if issqr(n) then 0
   else nops(numtheory:-cfrac(sqrt(n),'periodic','quotients')[2]) fi:
map(f, [$1..100]); # Robert Israel, Sep 02 2015

Mathematica

a[n_] := ContinuedFraction[Sqrt[n]] // If[Length[ # ] == 1, 0, Length[Last[ # ]]]&
pcf[n_]:=Module[{s=Sqrt[n]},If[IntegerQ[s],0,Length[ContinuedFraction[s][[2]]]]]; Array[pcf,110] (* Harvey P. Dale, Jul 15 2017 *)

PARI

a(n)=if(issquare(n),return(0));my(s=sqrt(n),x=s,f=floor(s),P=[0],Q=[1],k);while(1,k=#P;P=concat(P,f*Q[k]-P[k]);Q=concat(Q,(n-P[k+1]^2)/Q[k]);k++;for(i=1,k-1,if(P[i]==P[k]&&Q[i]==Q[k],return(k-i)));x=(P[k]+s)/Q[k];f=floor(x)) \\ Charles R Greathouse IV, Jul 31 2011

PARI

isok(n, p) = {localprec(p); my(cf = contfrac(sqrt(n))); setsearch(Set(cf), 2*cf[1]);}
a(n) = {if (issquare(n), 0, my(p=100); while (! isok(n, p), p+=100); localprec(p); my(cf = contfrac(sqrt(n))); for (k=2, #cf, if (cf[k] == 2*cf[1], return (k-1))););} \\ Michel Marcus, Jul 07 2021

Python

from sympy.ntheory.continued_fraction import continued_fraction_periodic
def a(n):
    cfp = continued_fraction_periodic(0, 1, d=n)
    return 0 if len(cfp) == 1 else len(cfp[1])
print([a(n) for n in range(1, 104)]) # Michael S. Branicky, Aug 22 2021