Intrinsic Diophantine approximation on the unit circle and its Lagrange spectrum (Q6040261)

The pair \((a,b)\) is called a Pythagorean pair if \(a\) and \(b\) are non-negative coprime integers and \(a^2+b^2\) is a square. Let the half-line \(l\) with the origin \(O\) be into the first quadrant of an affine coordinate plane and it stays as far away as possible from all but finitely many Pythagorean pairs. Denote by \(\hat{\delta}(P,(a,b))\) the shortest (Euclidean) distance between the Pythagorean pair \((a,b)\) and the half-line \(\overrightarrow{OP}\) and \[ L(P)=\limsup_{(a,b)} \hat{\delta}(P,(a,b))^{-1}, \] where Pythagorean pairs \((a, b)\) are ordered by their Euclidean norms \(\sqrt{a^2+b^2}\). Let \((\mathcal{X},d(\cdot,\cdot))\) be a complete metric space and let \(\mathcal{Y}\) be a closed subset of \(\mathcal{X}\). We assume that \(\mathcal{Y}\) contained in the closure of a countable subset \(\mathcal{Z}\) of \(\mathcal{X}\). It is assumed that there is a height function \(H: \mathcal{Z} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}_{\geqslant 0}\), whose inverse image of any finite set is finite. We have a Lagrange spectrum \[ \mathscr{L}(\mathcal{Y})=\{L(P) \, |\, P\in \mathcal{Y}-\mathcal{Z}, L(P)<\infty\}, \] where \[ L(P)=\limsup_{Z \in \mathcal{Z}}\frac{1}{H(Z) d(P,Z)}. \] We call \((x; y_1, y_2)\) a Markoff triple if \((x; y_1, y_2)\) is a positive integer triple satisfying \[ 2x^2+y_1^2+y_2^2=4xy_1y_2. \] One obtains two sequences \[ \mathcal{M}_x= \{x | (x; y_1, y_2)\; \text{is a Markoff triple} \} \] and \[ \mathcal{M}_y=\{\max \{y_1,y_2\} | (x;y_1,y_2) \;\text{is a Markoff triple}\}. \] Let \(S^1\) be a unit sphere in \(\mathbb{R}\) centered at the origin. A complete description of the structure of \(\mathscr{L}(S^1)\) below its smallest accumulation point is given in the paper. The following theorem is the main result of the paper. Theorem. Let \(\mathscr{L}(S^1)\) be the Lagrange spectrum with respect to \((\mathbb{R}^2, S^1,S^1,H).\) Then \[ \mathscr{L}(S^1)\cap [0,2)=\left\{ \sqrt{4-\tfrac{1}{x^2}}\, \big|\, x \in \mathcal{M}_x\right\} \cup \left\{\sqrt{4-\tfrac{1}{y}} \, \big| \, y \in \mathcal{M}_y \right \}. \] The theorem is an analogue of Markoff's classical theorem on \(\mathscr{L}(\mathbb{R})\).