Univoque bases of real numbers: local dimension, Devil's staircase and isolated points

TL;DR

This paper studies the set of bases with unique expansions for real numbers, analyzing their local dimensions, critical values, and the structure of the set of unique expansions, revealing complex fractal and topological properties.

Contribution

It introduces a variation principle for unique base expansions, determines critical values for the set's Hausdorff dimension, and explores the topological structure of these sets.

Findings

The set of bases with unique expansions exhibits a Devil's staircase in its dimensional function.

Critical values mark transitions from positive dimension to countable or singleton sets.

Typical points have sets of bases with isolated points, contrasting with the case at x=1.

Abstract

Given a positive integer $M$ and a real number $x>0$, let $\mathcal U(x)$ be the set of all bases $q\in(1, M+1]$ for which there exists a unique sequence $(d_i)=d_1d_2\ldots$ with each digit $d_i\in\{0,1,\ldots, M\}$ satisfying $$ x=\sum_{i=1}^\infty\frac{d_i}{q^i}. $$ The sequence $(d_i)$ is called a $q$-expansion of $x$. In this paper we investigate the local dimension of $\mathcal U(x)$ and prove a `variation principle' for unique non-integer base expansions. We also determine the critical values of $\mathcal U(x)$ such that when $x$ passes the first critical value the set $\mathcal U(x)$ changes from a set with positive Hausdorff dimension to a countable set, and when $x$ passes the second critical value the set $\mathcal U(x)$ changes from an infinite set to a singleton. Denote by $\mathbf U(x)$ the set of all unique $q$-expansions of $x$ for $q\in\mathcal U(x)$. We give the Hausdorff dimension of $\mathbf U(x)$ and show that the dimensional function $x\mapsto\dim_H\mathbf U(x)$ is a non-increasing Devil's staircase. Finally, we investigate the topological structure of $\mathcal U(x)$. In contrast with $x=1$ that $\mathcal U(1)$ has no isolated points, we prove that for typical $x>0$ the set $\mathcal U(x)$ contains isolated points.