A remark on positive definite quadratic forms and rational points (Q522050): Difference between revisions

Let \(f(\bar x)=\sum_{i,j=1}^n f_{i,j}x_ix_j\), where \(f_{i,j}=f_{j,i}\in\mathbb Z\) and \(\bar x=(x_1, \ldots , x_n)\), be a positive definite quadratic form. Consider the manifold \(M\subset \mathbb R^n\) given by \(f(\bar x)=1\). The goal is to approximate points in \(M\) by points in \(\mathbb Q^n\cap M\) (contrary to the more usual goal of finding approximations in all of \(\mathbb Q^n\)). Suppose further that \(f(\bar x)-y^2\) is isotropic. The author gives an explicit formula for a constant \(C_f\) such that for \(\bar\alpha\in M\) and \(T\geq 3C_f\) there exists \[ \bar r=\left(\frac{a_1}{q}, \ldots , \frac{a_n}{q}\right)\in \mathbb Q^n\cap M \] satisfying (1) \(1\leq q\leq T\) and (2) \[ f(\bar\alpha -\bar r)\leq \frac{6C_f^2}{qT}. \] This is an effective version of an unpublished result of \textit{L. Fishman} et al. [``Intrinsic Diophantine approximation on quadric hypersurfaces'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1405.7650}]. The proof uses a theorem of Minkowski on successive minima and a nullstellensatz of Cassels.