An exact growth constant for the quadratic polynomial continued fraction
Description
Structural proof and numerical verification of the exact two-sided growth law for
the convergent denominators q_n of the quadratic polynomial continued fraction
V(A,B,C) = 1 + K_{n>=1} 1/(A n^2 + B n + C), for integers A,B,C >= 1. With
b_k = A k^2 + B k + C and the standard continuant q_0=1, q_1=b_1,
q_n = b_n q_{n-1} + q_{n-2}, we prove
log q_n = n log A + 2 log(n!) + (B/A) log n + (K_Gamma + delta) + kappa/n + O(1/n^2),
where K_Gamma = -log(Gamma(1-r1) Gamma(1-r2)) is the elementary naive-product
constant (r1,r2 the roots of A x^2 + B x + C; at B=0 it equals
log(sinh(pi sqrt(C/A)) / (pi sqrt(C/A)))), delta = log R_inf > 0 with
R_inf = lim q_n / prod_{k<=n} b_k is a strictly positive continued-fraction
correction from the +q_{n-2} term, and kappa = (1/2)(B^2/A^2 + B/A - 2C/A).
This sharpens the deposited one-sided denominator-growth bound
log Q_n >= n log n - O(n) (which suffices for Euler's irrationality criterion and
underlies the deposited 482-constant catalogue) to an exact expansion through
O(1/n) with an explicit additive constant. No closed form is claimed for delta
(an 80-digit PSLQ search for the triple (1,0,1) returns none).
Epistemic status (SIARC four-class): STRUCTURAL (complete elementary hand proof,
not yet machine-checked in Lean), modulo one standard cited asymptotic
(DLMF 5.11.13 Gamma-ratio expansion); VERIFIED numerically (mpmath, 50-60 digits)
on seven triples, with the B=0 cross-check K_Gamma = sinh form holding to 50 digits.
Changes in v1.1 (file-only): Replaced the manuscript PDF with the typeset repository build. The reference to the companion "Logarithmic Ladder" paper now carries its Zenodo concept DOI (10.5281/zenodo.19491767) in place of an internal placeholder note; an ORCID and code/data-availability + AI-assistance statements were added. No change to the mathematical content, results, or epistemic grading; the concept DOI (10.5281/zenodo.20564681) is unchanged.
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Additional details
Related works
- Is supplement to
- Preprint: 10.5281/zenodo.19491767 (DOI)
- Is supplemented by
- Software: https://github.com/papanokechi/pcf-quadratic-growth (URL)
- References
- Publication: https://dlmf.nist.gov/5.11 (URL)
Software
- Repository URL
- https://github.com/papanokechi/project-fingerprint
- Programming language
- Python
- Development Status
- Active