A simple proof of Schmidt-Summerer's inequality (Q1955630)

The authors give a new simple proof of an inequality for \textit{intermediate Diophantine exponents} obtained by \textit{W. M. Schmidt} and \textit{L. Summerer} [Monatsh. Math. 169, No. 1, 51--104 (2013; Zbl 1264.11056)]. Let \(\Lambda\) be a unimodular \(d\)-dimensional lattice in \(\mathbb R^d\), \(\mathcal B_\infty^d\), the cube of \(\mathbb R^d\) with vertices at the points \((\pm 1,\dots,\pm 1)\). Let \(G_t \to \mathbb R^d\to \mathbb R^d\) be a map defined by \[ G_t((z_1,\dots,z_d)^T)=(t^{d-1}z_1,t^{-1}z_2,\dots t^{-1}z_d)^T. \] \textit{W. M. Schmidt} and \textit{L. Summerer} [Zbl 1264.11056; Acta Arith. 140, No. 1, 67--91 (2009; Zbl 1236.11060)] studied the asymptotic behaviour of the successive minima of the body \(G_t\mathcal B^d_\infty\) with respect to the given lattice \(\Lambda\). For each \(d\)-tuple \(\mathbf \tau = (\tau_1,\dots, \tau_d ) \in \mathbb R^d\), denote by \(D_\tau\) the diagonal \(d\times d\) matrix with \(e^{\tau_1},\dots, e^{\tau_d}\) on the main diagonal. Let \(\lambda_p(M)\) be the \(p\)th successive minimum of a compact symmetric convex body \(M \subset \mathbb R^d\) (centered at the origin) with respect to the lattice \(\Lambda\). Let \(\mathcal T\) be a \textit{path} in \(\mathbb R^d\) defined as \(\mathbf \tau = \mathbf \tau (s)\), with \( s\in \mathbb R_+\), such that \(\tau_1(s)+\dots +\tau_d (s) = 0\), for all \(s\). Set \(\mathcal B(s) := D_\tau (s)\mathcal B^d_\infty\). For each \(p = 1,\dots,d\), let the functions \[ \psi_p(\Lambda, \mathcal T,s)=\frac{\ln(\lambda_p(\mathcal B(s)))}{s}. \] The two quantities \(\underline{\psi}_p(\Lambda,\mathcal T)=\lim_{s\to\infty}\inf \psi_p(\Lambda,\tau,s)\) and \(\overline{\psi}_p(\Lambda,\mathcal T)=\lim_{s\to\infty}\sup \psi_p(\Lambda,\tau,s)\) are called respectively the \(p\)th lower and upper Schmidt-Summerer exponents. Let an \(n\times m\) real matrix \(\Theta\) \[ T_\theta= \left(\begin{matrix} E_m& 0\\ \Theta & E_n \end{matrix}\right) \text{ and } \Lambda_\Theta=T_\theta^{-1}\mathbb Z^d, \tag{1} \] where \(E_m\) and \(E_n\) are the corresponding unitary matrices. Let \(\mathcal T_\Theta : s \to \tau (s)\) defined by \[ \tau_1(s) = \dots = \tau_m(s) = s, \tau_{m+1}(s) = \dots = \tau_d (s) = -ms/n. \tag{2} \] The authors give a new {simple } proof of the Schmidt-Summerer inequalites [Zbl 1264.11056] (in particular without use of Mahler's theory compound body) Let \(\Lambda = \Lambda_\Theta, \mathcal T = \mathcal T_\Theta\), where \(\Lambda_\Theta\) and \(\mathcal T_\theta\) are defined by (1) and (2). Then, for \(m = 1\) and any \(p\in\mathbb Z\) with \(1 \leq p \leq d\), we have \[ (1 + \underline{\psi}_p)(1/n-\overline{\psi}_p)\leq (1+\underline{\psi}_1)(1/n-\underline{\psi}_p) \] and \[ (1 + \overline{\psi}_d )(1/n - \overline{\psi}_ p) \leq (1 + \overline{\psi}_p) (1/n - \underline{\psi}_p), \] provided that \(1, \theta_1, \dots,\theta_n\) are linearly independent over \(\mathbb Q\), where \(\theta_1, \dots,\theta_n\) are the components of \(\Theta\).