The four exponentials conjecture and D. Bertrand's conjecture on the modular function (Q1382104)

The four exponentials conjecture has been proposed first by \textit{Th. Schneider} in 1957 (problem 1 of his book [Einführung in die transzendenten Zahlen. Berlin etc.: Springer-Verlag (1957; Zbl 0077.04703)]), then by \textit{S. Lang} [Introduction to transcendental numbers. Reading, Mass. etc.: Addison-Wesley (1966; Zbl 0144.04101)] and by \textit{K. Ramachandra} [Contributions to the theory of transcendental numbers. I, II. Acta Arith. 14, 65--72, 73--88 (1968; Zbl 0176.33101)]: Let \((x_1,x_2)\) and \((y_1,y_2)\) be two pairs of \(\mathbb{Q}\)-linearly independent complex numbers. Then at least one of the four numbers \(e^{x_1y_1}\), \(e^{x_1y_2}\), \(e^{x_2y_1}\), \(e^{x_2y_2}\) is transcendental. \textit{D. Bertrand} [Theta functions and transcendence, Ramanujan J. 1, No. 4, 339--350 (1997; Zbl 0916.11043)] suggested several conjectures related with the modular function \(J\), in particular the following: Let \(q_1\) and \(q_2\) be two multiplicatively independent algebraic numbers in the domain \(0<|q|<1\). Then \(J(q_1)\) and \(J(q_2)\) are algebraically independent. He also pointed out that this problem would solve the following special case of the four exponentials conjecture (with \(x_1=1\), \(x_2=(\log\alpha_1)/2i\pi\), \(y_1 =2i\pi\), \(y_2 =\log\alpha_2\)): If \(\alpha_1\) and \(\alpha_2\) are positive real numbers \(\ne 1\), then \((\log\alpha_1)(\log\alpha_2)/\pi^{2}\) is irrational. The author introduces further conjectures and gives a careful analysis of their relationship. For instance he shows that Bertrand's above mentioned conjecture is equivalent to \(6\) other statements, one of them being: For any \(\tau\) in the upper half plane, at least one of the two numbers \(e^{2i\pi\tau}\) and \(e^{-2i\pi/\tau}\) is transcendental. He shows that this statement holds in the following 5 cases: (i) \(\tau\) is algebraic over the field \(\mathbb{Q}(\pi)\), (ii) The real part \(\Re \tau\) of \(\tau\) is algebraic \(\ne 0\), (iii) The imaginary part \(\Im \tau\) of \(\tau\) is algebraic, (iv) \((\Re \tau)/|\tau|^2\) is algebraic \(\ne 0\), (v) \((\Im \tau)/|\tau|^2\) is algebraic. The author also deduces from the four exponentials conjecture the following statement: For any \(z\in\mathbb{C}\) with \(|z|=1\) and \(z\not=\pm 1\), the number \(e^{2i\pi z}\) is transcendental. From these connections between modular functions and the exponential function, one can expect further progress on either side.