Positive integers: counterexample to W. M. Schmidt's conjecture

MaRDI QIDQ1946752zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors N. G. Moshchevitin

Publication date 15 April 2013

Published in Moscow Journal of Combinatorics and Number Theory (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1108.4435

zbMATH Keywords

Diophantine approximation with positive integersDiophantine exponentsSchmidt's problem

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Simultaneous homogeneous approximation, linear forms (11J13)

Abstract: We show that there exist real numbers $alph{a}_1,alph{a}_2$ linearly independent over $mathbbZ$ together with 1 such that for every non-zero integer vector $(m_1,m_2)$ with $m_{1}ge0$ and $m_{2}ge0$ one has $||m_{1}alph{a}_1+m_{2}alph{a}_2||ge{2}^{-300}(max(m_1,m_2){)}^{-sigma}$ with $sigma=1.94696^{+}$.

Review text

For a real number \(x\) let \(\| x\|\) denote the distance to the nearest integer. In 1976, \textit{W. M. Schmidt} [Monatsh. Math. 82, 237--245 (1976; Zbl 0337.10022)] proved that if \(\alpha_1\), \(\alpha_2\) are real numbers such that \(1,\alpha_1,\alpha_2\) are linearly independent over \({\mathbb Q}\), then there exists a sequence of vectors \(\{(x_1^{(n)},x_2^{(n)})\}_{n\geq 1}\) whose components are positive integers and such that the quantity \[ \| x_1^{(n)} \alpha_1+x_2^{(n)} \alpha_2\|\left( \max\{x_1^{(n)},x_2^{(n)}\}\right)^{\phi} \] tends to \(0\) with \(n\), where \(\phi=(1+{\sqrt{5}})/2\) is the golden section. In the same work, Schmidt conjectured that the same statement holds with \(\phi\) replaced by \(2-\varepsilon\) for any \(\varepsilon>0\). In the paper under review, the author refutes Schmidt's conjecture by constructing a counterexample \(\alpha_1,\alpha_2\) for the exponent \(\sigma\) equal the largest root of \(x^4-2x^2-4x+1=0\), a number about \(1.94696\ldots\). The proof is based on a new result of the author in the geometry of numbers which he calls fundamental lemma whose statement is one page long and whose proof occupies most of the paper. No new conjecture is offered as to what should be the optimal exponent (between \(\phi\) and \(\sigma\)) in Schmidt's theorem.

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