Markoff-Lagrange spectrum and extremal numbers (Q642121)

In this well written article, the author presents a link between two seemingly disparate topics in Diophantine approximation. Recall that the Lagrange value, \(\nu(x)\), of a real number \(x\) reports on the quality of approximation by rationals to \(x\) and that Markoff showed in the late 19th century that the set of the \(\nu(x)\), the Lagrange spectrum, is discrete in the range \((1/3, +\infty)\), with values realized by quadratic real numbers, and that the sole accumulation point is at 1/3. The author [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 88, No. 1, 42--62 (2004; Zbl 1035.11028)] previously showed that there is a countable set of transcendental real numbers \(\xi\) such that \(\xi\) is appropriately extremal with respect to simultaneous approximation to itself and its square. In the present work, it is shown that there are extremal numbers with \(\nu(\xi) = 1/3\), and constructively shows that the \(\text{GL}_2(\mathbb Z)\)-equivalence class of these are in one-to-one correspondence with solutions (up to permutation) \((m,m_1,m_2) \neq (1,1,1)\) of Markoff's equation \(m^2 + m_{1}^2 + m_{2}^2 = 3 \, m \, m_1 \, m_2\).