On the non-archimedean metric Mahler measure (Q1024539)

For a nonzero algebraic number \(\alpha\), define \(M_\infty(\alpha)=\inf\{\max_{n=1}^N M(\alpha_n)\}\), where the infimum is taken over all \(N\) and over all \(\alpha_1,\alpha_2,\dots,\alpha_N\) satisfying \(\alpha=\prod_{n=1}^N \alpha_n\). Here \(M\) denotes Mahler measure. The authors find a lower bound \(>1\) for \(M_\infty(\alpha)\) when \(\alpha\) is not a root of unity, showing that \(M_\infty(\alpha)=1\) iff \(\alpha\) is a root of unity. As a consequence, \(M_\infty\) can be used to define a metric on \(\overline{\mathbb Q}^\times/\) \(\text{Tor}(\overline{\mathbb Q}^\times)\), in a similar way to the metric Mahler measure defined by \textit{A. Dubickas} and the reviewer [J. Number Theory 86, No. 2, 368--387 (2001; Zbl 1030.11056)]. The authors also find a good lower bound for \(M_\infty(\alpha)\) for \(\alpha\) a nonunit (Theorem 1.3). This enables them to show that if \(\alpha\) is rational and \(d\in\mathbb N\) then \(M_\infty(\alpha^{1/d})\) is the largest prime dividing the numerator or denominator of \(\alpha\).