On the periodic writing of cubic irrationals and a generalization of Rédei functions

Abstract

In this paper, we provide a periodic representation (by means of periodic rational or integer sequences) for any cubic irrationality. In particular, for a root α of a cubic polynomial with rational coefficients, we study the Cerruti polynomials [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text], which are defined via [Formula: see text] Using these polynomials, we show how any cubic irrational can be written periodically as a ternary continued fraction. A periodic multidimensional continued fraction (with pre-period of length 2 and period of length 3) is proved convergent to a given cubic irrationality, by using the algebraic properties of cubic irrationalities and linear recurrent sequences.