A lower bound in asymptotic Diophantine approximations (Q2527012)

Let \(\alpha\) be a real irrational number. Define for all real numbers \(B\ge 1\), \(\lambda(B,\alpha)\) to be the number of solutions in integers \(q\), \(p\) of the inequalities \(\vert q\alpha - p\vert < 1/q\), \(1\le q\le B\). It is known [\textit{W. Schmidt}, Can. J. Math. 12, 619--631 (1960; Zbl 0097.26205)] that for almost all \(\alpha\), \(\lambda(B,\alpha) \sim 2\log B\) \((B\to\infty)\). It is not hard to show that there is a universal constant \(c >0\) such that for all irrationals \(\alpha\), \(\lambda(B,\alpha)\ge c \log B+ O(1)\) \((B\to\infty)\). The purpose of this paper is to determine the best possible value of \(c\). This turns out to be \[ c_0 = 3/\log((9 + \sqrt{77})/2) =1.373\dots\,. \] We show that if \(\alpha\) is equivalent to \(\alpha_0 = [8;1,7,1,7, \dots] = (9 +\sqrt{77})/2\) \((\alpha_0\) is expressed by its continued fraction expansion) then \(\lambda(B,\alpha) = c_0 \log B+ O(1)\) \((B\to\infty)\). But there are in fact uncountably many irrationals \(\alpha\) such that \(\lambda(B,\alpha) \sim c_0 \log B\) \((B\to\infty)\). These results are obtained by using an involved analysis of the continued fractions of irrational numbers.