Abstract:
If $d$ is not a perfect square, we define $T(d)$ as the length of the minimal period of the simple continued fraction expansion for $\sqrt{d}$. Otherwise, we put $T(d) = 0$. In the recent paper (2024), F.Battistoni, L.Grenié and G.Molteni established (in particular) an upper bound for the second moment of $T(d)$ over the segment $x<d\leqslant 2x$. as a corollary, they derived a new upper estimate for the number of $d$ such that $t(d)>\alpha\sqrt{x}$. In this paper, we improve slightly this result of three authors.
Keywords:continued fractions, period of continued fraction expansion, trilinear Kloosterman sums