Weighted diameters of complete sets of conjugate algebraic integers (Q4397359)

Let \(X\) be a compact subset of \(\mathbb C\) and \(n \geq 2\). Define \[ t_n(X) = \sup\biggl(\prod_{1 \leq i < j \leq n}| z_i - z_j| \biggr)^{1/(n(n-1))}, \] where the supremum is over all \(n\)-subsets \(\{z_1,\dots,z_n\}\) of \(X\). So \(t_2(X)\) is the diameter of \(X\). The author studies \(t_n(X_d)\), where \(X_d\) is a complete set of \(d\) conjugate algebraic integers (i.e. the set of roots of an irreducible monic polynomial with integer coefficients). In an earlier paper [Math. Comput. 67, 821-831 (1998; Zbl 0980.13204)], the author had determined the minimal values of \(t_2(X_d)\) for \(6\leq d \leq 9\). (The values for \(2 \leq d \leq 5\) were known from ealier work.) In this paper, by an extension of these methods, he computes the minimal values of \(t_3(X_d)\) for \(d \leq 7\), \(t_4(X_d)\) for \(d \leq 6\), \(t_5(X_5)\) and \(t_6(X_6)\). He suggests that the study of \(t_n(X_d)\) for larger \(n\) and \(d\) should be a good method for determining small discriminants since the \(t_n(X_d)\) are decreasing with \(n\) and \(t_d(X_d)^{d(d-1)}\) is the discriminant.