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Main Authors: Buyalos, Christopher, Thadani, Jayden, Wang, Xinbei, Zykoski, Bradley, Zshornack, Michael
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.10422
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author Buyalos, Christopher
Thadani, Jayden
Wang, Xinbei
Zykoski, Bradley
Zshornack, Michael
author_facet Buyalos, Christopher
Thadani, Jayden
Wang, Xinbei
Zykoski, Bradley
Zshornack, Michael
contents For any $q\in\mathbb{R}$, let $A:=\left(\begin{smallmatrix}1 & 1\\0 & 1\end{smallmatrix}\right), B_q:=\left(\begin{smallmatrix}1 & 0\\q & 1\end{smallmatrix}\right)$ and let $G_q:=\langle A,B_q\rangle\leqslant\operatorname{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$. Kim and Koberda conjecture that for every $q\in\mathbb{Q}\cap(-4,4)$, the group $G_q$ is not freely generated by these two matrices. We generalize work of Smilga and construct families of $q$ satisfying the conjecture that accumulate at infinitely many different points in $(-4,4)$. We give different constructions of such families, the first coming from applying tools in Diophantine geometry to certain polynomials arising in Smilga's work, the second from sums of geometric series and the last from ratios of Pell and Half-Companion Pell Numbers accumulating at $1+\sqrt{2}$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_10422
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A family of accumulation points of non-free rational numbers
Buyalos, Christopher
Thadani, Jayden
Wang, Xinbei
Zykoski, Bradley
Zshornack, Michael
Group Theory
20E05, 11D09
For any $q\in\mathbb{R}$, let $A:=\left(\begin{smallmatrix}1 & 1\\0 & 1\end{smallmatrix}\right), B_q:=\left(\begin{smallmatrix}1 & 0\\q & 1\end{smallmatrix}\right)$ and let $G_q:=\langle A,B_q\rangle\leqslant\operatorname{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$. Kim and Koberda conjecture that for every $q\in\mathbb{Q}\cap(-4,4)$, the group $G_q$ is not freely generated by these two matrices. We generalize work of Smilga and construct families of $q$ satisfying the conjecture that accumulate at infinitely many different points in $(-4,4)$. We give different constructions of such families, the first coming from applying tools in Diophantine geometry to certain polynomials arising in Smilga's work, the second from sums of geometric series and the last from ratios of Pell and Half-Companion Pell Numbers accumulating at $1+\sqrt{2}$.
title A family of accumulation points of non-free rational numbers
topic Group Theory
20E05, 11D09
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.10422