The total distance for algebraic integers having all their conjugates in a sector (Q2672015)

For an algebraic integer \(\alpha\) with conjugates \(\alpha_1=\alpha, \alpha_2,\dots, \alpha_d\) over \(\mathbb Q\) set \[ \mathrm{Td}(\alpha)=\frac{1}{d} \sum_{j=1}^d \big||\alpha_j|-1\big|. \] The author proves the following estimate on \(\mathrm{Td}(\alpha)\). There exist a left discontinuous, strictly positive, staircase function \(g\) on \([0, 90^{\circ})\) and a positive, continuous, monotonically decreasing function \(f\) on \([0, 90^{\circ})\) such that for \(\theta \in [0, 90^{\circ})\) we have \(\mathrm{Td}(\alpha) \geq \min(f(\theta),g(\theta))\) if \(\alpha\) is a nonzero algebraic integer whose conjugates all lie in the sector \(|\arg z| \leq \theta\). Moreover, she computes the exact value of the minimum for 21 subintervals of \([0, 90^{\circ})\) and constructs a corresponding minimal polynomial for \(\alpha\). The proof is based on a method of explicit auxiliary functions.