From Christoffel Words to Markoff Numbers

· Oxford University Press
Ebook
208
Pages
Eligible
Ratings and reviews aren’t verified  Learn More

About this ebook

In 1875, Elwin Bruno Christoffel introduced a special class of words on a binary alphabet linked to continued fractions which would go onto be known as Christoffel words. Some years later, Andrey Markoff published his famous theory, the now called Markoff theory. It characterized certain quadratic forms and certain real numbers by extremal inequalities. Both classes are constructed using certain natural numbers — known as Markoff numbers — and they are characterized by a certain Diophantine equality. More basically, they are constructed using certain words — essentially the Christoffel words. The link between Christoffel words and the theory of Markoff was noted by Ferdinand Frobenius in 1913, but has been neglected in recent times. Motivated by this overlooked connection, this book looks to expand on the relationship between these two areas. Part 1 focuses on the classical theory of Markoff, while Part II explores the more advanced and recent results of the theory of Christoffel words.

About the author

Christophe Reutenauer was educated at the Université Paris in 1977 before going on to complete his doctorate thesis at the same institution in 1980. He was a former researcher at CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) in Paris and LITP (Laboratoire d'Informatique Théorique et de Programmation) from 1976 to 1990. Reutenauer has, from 1985, been a professor at UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal), and was also a professor at the University of Strasbourg between 1999 and 2001. Since then, he has been an invited professor or researcher at several universities, including Saarbrücken, Darmstadt, Roma, Napoli, Palermo, UQAM, San Diego (UCSD), Strasbourg, Montpelier, Bordeaux, Paris-Est, Nice, and the Mittag-Leffler Institute. He was also the Canadian Research Chair for "Algebra, Combinatorics and mathematical Informatics" between 2001 and 2015.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.