Discrete spectra and Pisot numbers

Abstract

By the m-spectrum of a real number q>1 we mean the set Y^m(q) of values p(q) where p runs over the height m polynomials with integer coefficients. These sets have been extensively investigated during the last fifty years because of their intimate connections with infinite Bernoulli convolutions, spectral properties of substitutive point sets and expansions in noninteger bases. We prove that Y^m(q) has an accumulation point if and only if q<m+1 and q is not a Pisot number. Consequently a number of related results on the distribution of points of this form are improved.