The main result of this paper is a criterion for linear independence of continued fractions over the rational numbers. The proof is based on their special properties.

For $x\in ℂ$, $\left|x\right|\<1$, $s\in \mathbb{N}$, let ${\mathrm{Li}}_s\left(x\right)$ be the $s$-th polylogarithm of $x$. We prove that for any non-zero algebraic number $\alpha$ such that $\left|\alpha \right|\<1$, the $\mathbb{Q}\left(\alpha \right)$-vector space spanned by $1,{\mathrm{Li}}_1\left(\alpha \right),{\mathrm{Li}}_2\left(\alpha \right),\cdots$ has infinite dimension. This result extends a previous one by Rivoal for rational $\alpha$. The main tool is a method introduced by Fischler and Rivoal, which shows the coefficients of the polylogarithms in the relevant series to be the unique solution of a suitable Padé approximation problem.

Let $Q$ be a nonconstant polynomial with integer coefficients and without zeros at the non–negative integers. Essentially with the method of Hermite, a new proof is given on linear independence of values at rational points of the function$$\begin{array}{c}\hfill G\left(x\right)=\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }\frac{x^n}{Q\left(1\right)Q\left(2\right)\cdots Q\left(n\right)}.\end{array}$$