Approximating reals by sums of two rationals (Q2483160)

The author conjectures that for any \(\alpha\in\mathbb{R}\), any \(\beta\in[0, 1]\), and any \(N\in\mathbb{N}\) there is an approximation \[ \biggl|\alpha- {a_1\over q_1}- {a_2\over q_2}\biggr|\leq {1\over (q_1q_2)^\beta N^{2-\beta}}\tag{\(*\)} \] with denominators \(q_1,q_2\leq N\). Moreover, if \(|q\alpha- a|\leq N^{-2}\) with \(q\leq N^2\), it is conjectured that the left--hand-side of \((*)\) can be made \(O_\varepsilon(q^{-1}N^{\varepsilon-2})\), for any \(\varepsilon> 0\). A variant of this latter conjecture is proved, in which the three occurences of the exponent 2 are all replaced by 3/2. Moreover the original version holds for all \(\alpha\in[0,1]\) apart from a set of measure \(O_\varepsilon((\log N)^{-1/2})\). The proofs of these and other related results use exponential and character sums.