Diophantine approximation with prime restriction in function fields (with an appendix by Arijit Ganguly) (Q2167490)

The problem of Diophantine approximation when restricting to prime denominators has a long history. Due to a result of \textit{K. Matomäki} [Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 147, No. 2, 267--283 (2009; Zbl 1196.11101)], for any fixed irrational \(\alpha\) and \(\varepsilon>0\), there are infinitely many primes that fulfill the inequality \(\lVert p \alpha \rVert \leq p^{-1/3 + \varepsilon}\), where \(\lVert.\rVert\) denotes the distance to the next integer. Note that the exponent \(-1/3 + \varepsilon\) is still the currently best proven exponent. The authors prove analogues of this result with the same exponent for the function fields \(k = \mathbb{F}_q(T)\) for \(q \geq 7\) being an odd prime power and for imaginary quadratic extensions \(K : k\) in the following sense: Let \(k_\infty\) denote the completion of \(k = \mathbb{F}_q(T)\) with respect to the absolute value defined by \(\lvert a_n T^n + \ldots + a_1 T + a_0 \rvert = q^n\) (\(a_n \neq 0\)). Moreover, extend \(\lvert\,\cdot\,\rvert\) to \(k_\infty\) in the obvious way. Theorem 3.3: Assume that \(q \geq 7\) is an odd prime power. Let \(\alpha \in k_{\infty} \setminus k\) and \[ \lVert x + k \rVert := \inf\limits_{x' \in x + k}|x'|\qquad (x \in k_{\infty}). \] Then there are infinitely many monic irreducible polynomials \(\pi\) such that \(\lVert \pi \alpha \rVert \leq \pi^{-1/3 + \varepsilon}\). Recall the definition of imaginary quadratic field extensions: Let \(q\) be an odd integer, \(\beta \in \mathbb{F}_q[T]\) a square-free polynomial of odd degree or with leading coefficient not being a square in \(\mathbb{F}_q\). If \(K := k(\sqrt{\beta})\), then \(K:k\) is called an imaginary quadratic field extension. Theorem 4.1: Assume that \(q \geq 7\) is an odd prime power, \(k = \mathbb{F}_q(T)\) and let \(K:k\) be an imaginary quadratic field extension. Let \textbf{A} denote the integral closure of \(A = \mathbb{F}_q[T]\), \(K_{\infty}\) the completion of \(K\) with respect to the unique extension of \(\lvert\,\cdot\,\rvert\) and let \(\lVert x+ \textbf{A} \rVert := \inf\limits_{x' \in x + \textbf{A}} |x'| \qquad (x \in K_{\infty})\). Then for every \(\alpha \in K_{\infty} \setminus K\), there exist infinitely many principal prime ideals \(\mathfrak{p} \subset\) \textbf{A} such that there is a generator \(\pi\) of \(\mathfrak{p}\) that fulfills \(\lVert \pi \alpha \rVert \leq \pi^{-1/3 + \varepsilon}.\) The authors start their paper with a short proof of Matomäki's result when additionally assuming GRH, using Dirichlet's approximation theorem and Dirichlet characters (Theorem 2.1). This proof serves as a coarse template for their proofs of Theorems 3.3 and Theorem 4.1. Note that Theorems 3.3 and Theorem 4.1 hold unconditionally since GRH is known to hold in these settings. A form of Dirichlet's approximation theorem for functions fields is known (see Theorem 3.1), whereas an analogue in the imaginary quadratic field extension is proven in the appendix by Arijit Ganguly, which is of independent interest.