Asymptotic distribution of the distance function to the Farey points (Q1360716)

Let \(x\) be a real number in \(I:= [0,1]\) and \({\mathcal F}_n\) be the Farey sequence of order \(n\in\mathbb{N}\), that is the collection of all rationals \(p/q\) with \(p,q\in \mathbb{Z}\), \(0\leq p\leq q\) and \(\text{gcd} (p,q)=1\). Further, let \[ p_n(x)= \min_{p/q\in{\mathcal F}_n} |x-\tfrac pq| \] the minimal distance between \(x\) and \({\mathcal F}_n\). Hitherto little is known about the asymptotic distribution of the functions \(n^2 p_n(x)\) and \(np_n(\xi/n)\) \((\xi\in \mathbb{R}\): \(0\leq\xi\leq n)\) for \(n\to\infty\). Consequently, the authors establish results for these functions, e.g. Theorem 2. For all reals \(a,A\) with \(A> a> 0\) one has \[ \text{meas} \{x\in I: a< n^2p_n(x)\leq A\}\to \int_a^A \widehat{p}(\tau) d\tau \qquad (n\to\infty) \] where the density is given by \[ \widehat{p}(\tau)= \frac{6}{\pi^2} \begin{cases} 1, &0\leq \tau\leq 1/2,\\ (1+ \log(2\tau)- \tau)/\tau, &1/2\leq \tau\leq 2,\\ (\log (2\tau)- 2\log (\sqrt{\tau}+ \sqrt{\tau-2})+ \frac 12 (\sqrt{\tau}- \sqrt{\tau-2})^2)/\tau, &\tau\geq 2. \end{cases} \] Here ``meas'' represents the Lebesgue measure in \(I\) and \(\widehat{p} (\tau) d\tau\) is the probability measure on \({\mathcal B}\), where \({\mathcal B}\) denotes the \(\sigma\)-algebra of the Borel subsets of \(]0,\infty[\). A similar result holds for the sequence of functions \(np_n(x)\) (\(\rightsquigarrow\) Theorem 1). One of the key ingredients of the proof is the asymptotic two-dimensional uniformity of the pairs of denominators of two consecutive elements of the Farey sequence \({\mathcal F}_n\) (\(\rightsquigarrow\) Theorem 3). Finally, let \(\delta\neq 0\). An asymptotic result for the \(\delta\)th-power moment of \(p_n(x)\) \((n\to\infty)\) is established in terms of the Riemann zeta-function, which is a consequence of the Theorems 1 and 2.