The successive minima in the geometry of numbers and the distinction between algebraic and transcendental numbers (Q1066181)

Let \(x=(x_ 1,...,x_ n)\) be a lattice point of the standard lattice \({\mathbb{Z}}^ n\) (n\(\geq 2)\) and define, for a real number a, \[ U(x)=| x_ 1+ax_ 2+...+a^{n-1}x_ n|,\quad V(x)=\max (| x_ 2|,...,| x_ n|).\quad Furthermore,\quad let\quad s\quad be\quad a\quad l\arg e\quad real\quad parameter\quad and\quad put\quad \] \(F(x)=\max (s^{n-1}U(x),\quad s^{-1}V(x)).\) The paper under review deals with the successive minima \(m_ h\) \((h=1,...,n)\), the results depending on whether a is algebraic or transcendent. We quote a few of them: Theorem 1: Suppose there exists an integer h, \(1\leq h\leq n\), such that \(V(x^ h)=0\) for certain arbitrarily large values of s (here x is a lattice point such that \(F(x^ h)=m_ h)\). Then a is a rational number and its denominator does not exceed \(\sqrt{n-1}.\) Theorem 2: Let N be an integer, \(1\leq N\leq n-1\), and \(c>0\) an absolute constant. If there exists a sequence \((s_ k)\) tending to infinity such that \(m_ h\leq cs_ k^{-1}\) throughout \((h=1,...,n-N)\), then a is algebraic and of degree \(\leq N.\) Theorem 4: Let T(s) be a function satisfying T(s)\(\to \infty\) for \(s\to \infty\). Then there exists a real transcendental number a and a sequence \((s_ k)\) tending to infinity such that \(m_ h\leq T(s_ k)s_ k^{- 1}\) for all \(k\in {\mathbb{N}}\) and all \(h=1,...,n-1.\) For a wealth of very interesting results of this type, the reader is referred to the original work.