Distribution of periodic points of certain Gauss shifts with infinite invariant measure

Abstract

This paper investigates the periodic points of the Gauss type shifts associated to the even continued fraction (Schweiger) and to the backward continued fraction (R\'enyi). We show that they coincide exactly with two sets of quadratic irrationals that we call $E$-reduced, and respectively $B$-reduced. We prove that these numbers are equidistributed with respect to the (infinite) Lebesgue absolutely continuous invariant measures of the corresponding Gauss shift.