Fractional parts of powers of real algebraic numbers (Q2143615): Difference between revisions

For a real number \(x\), let \[||x||=\min\{|x-m|:m \in \mathbb{Z}\}\] denote the distance to its nearest integer. \textit{A. Baker} and \textit{J. Coates} [Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 77, 269--279 (1975; Zbl 0298.10018)] proved the following: Theorem (Baker-Coates). Let \(r/s\) be a rational number greater than \(1\) and which is not an integer. Then, there exist an effectively computable positive real number \(\tau\) and an effectively computable integer \(n_0\) such that \[||(r /s)^n||>s^{-(1-\tau)n},\] for every integer \(n\) exceeding \(n_0\). In the paper under review the author obtains an interesting extension of the above theorem to real algebraic numbers exceeding \(1\) (see Theorem 5 of the paper). Namely, the main result of the present article is as follows: Theorem. Let \(\alpha\) be a real algebraic number greater than \(1\) and of degree \(d \ge 1\). Let \(h\) be the smallest positive integer such that \(\alpha^h\) is an integer or a quadratic Pisot unit and put \(\mathcal{N}_{\alpha}=\{hn:n \in \mathbb{Z}_{\ge 1}\}\). If no such integer exists, then \(\mathcal{N}_{\alpha}\) is the empty set. There exist positive, effectively computable real numbers \(C=C(\alpha)\), \(\tau=\tau(\alpha)\) and an effectively computable integer \(n_0 = n_0(\alpha)\), depending only on \(\alpha\), such that \[ ||\alpha^n||>C^{-(1-\tau)n} \ \text{for} \ n>n_0 \ \text{not in} \ \mathcal{N}_{\alpha}. \] The proof of the main result depends essentially on an ingenious application of lower bounds for linear forms in logarithms together with a result of Boyd on the number of roots of an irreducible polynomial of maximal modulus.