On Khintchine exponents and Lyapunov exponents of continued fractions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the multifractal structure of Khintchine exponents in continued fractions, revealing that the spectrum is neither convex nor concave, and extends analysis to fast exponents and Lyapunov spectra.

Contribution

It demonstrates the non-convexity of the Khintchine spectrum and introduces the study of fast Khintchine exponents, providing new insights into their multifractal properties.

Findings

Khintchine spectrum is neither convex nor concave.

Fast Khintchine spectrum is constant under certain conditions.

Method applies to Lyapunov and fast Lyapunov spectra.

Abstract

Assume that $x\in [0,1) $ admits its continued fraction expansion $x=[a_1(x), a_2(x),...]$. The Khintchine exponent $\gamma(x)$ of $x$ is defined by $\gamma(x):=\lim\limits_{n\to \infty}\frac{1}{n}\sum_{j=1}^n \log a_j(x)$ when the limit exists. Khintchine spectrum $\dim E_\xi$ is fully studied, where $ E_{\xi}:=\{x\in [0,1):\gamma(x)=\xi\} (\xi \geq 0)$ and $\dim$ denotes the Hausdorff dimension. In particular, we prove the remarkable fact that the Khintchine spectrum $\dim E_{\xi}$, as function of $\xi \in [0, +\infty)$, is neither concave nor convex. This is a new phenomenon from the usual point of view of multifractal analysis. Fast Khintchine exponents defined by $\gamma^{\phi}(x):=\lim\limits_{n\to\infty}\frac{1}{\phi(n)} \sum_{j=1}^n \log a_j(x)$ are also studied, where $\phi (n)$ tends to the infinity faster than $n$ does. Under some regular conditions on $\phi$, it is proved that the fast Khintchine spectrum $\dim (\{x\in [0,1]: \gamma^{\phi}(x)= \xi \}) $ is a constant function. Our method also works for other spectra like the Lyapunov spectrum and the fast Lyapunov spectrum.