The idea of using measure theoretic concepts to investigate the size of number theoretic sets, originating with E. Borel, has been used for nearly a century. It has led to the development of the theory of metrical Diophantine approximation, a branch of Number Theory which draws on a rich and broad variety of mathematics. We discuss some recent progress and open problems concerning this classical theory. In particular, generalisations of the Duffin-Schaeffer and Catlin conjectures are formulated and explored.
Let $k,\ell\geq2$ be fixed integers and $C$ be an effectively computable constant depending only on $k$ and $\ell$. In this paper, we prove that all solutions of the equation $(x+1)^{k}+(x+2)^{k}+...+(\ell x)^{k}=y^{n}$ in integers $x,y,n$ with $x,y\geq1, n\geq2, k\neq3$ and $\ell\equiv 1 \pmod 2$ satisfy $\max\{x,y,n\}<C$. The case when $\ell$ is even has already been completed by Soydan (Publ. Math. Debrecen 91 (2017), pp. 369-382).
Under the assumption that the approximating function $ψ$ is monotonic, the classical Khintchine-Groshev theorem provides an elegant probabilistic criterion for the Lebesgue measure of the set of $ψ$-approximable matrices in $\R^{mn}$. The famous Duffin-Schaeffer counterexample shows that the monotonicity assumption on $ψ$ is absolutely necessary when $m=n=1$. On the other hand, it is known that monotonicity is not necessary when $n > 2$ (Sprindzuk) or when $n=1$ and $m>1$ (Gallagher). Surprisingly, when $n=2$ the situation is unresolved. We deal with this remaining case and thereby remove all …
Analogues of the classical theorems of Khintchine, Jarnik and Jarnik-Besicovitch in the metrical theory of Diophantine approximation are established for quaternions by applying results on the measure of general `lim sup' sets.
In these notes, we begin by recalling aspects of the classical theory of metric Diophantine approximation; such as theorems of Khintchine, Jarn\'ık, Duffin-Schaeffer and Gallagher. We then describe recent strengthening of various classical statements as well as recent developments in the area of Diophantine approximation on manifolds. The latter includes the well approximable, the badly approximable and the inhomogeneous aspects.
The main objective of this paper is to prove a Khintchine type theorem for divergence for linear Diophantine approximation on non-degenerate manifolds, which completes earlier results for convergence.
We outline a proof of an analogue of Khintchine's Theorem in R^2, where the ordinary height is replaced by a distance function satisfying an irrationality condition as well as certain decay and symmetry conditions.
We calculate the measure and Hausdorff dimension of sets of matrices over fields of formal power series with good approximation properties for a restricted set of denominators.
In this paper we discuss a general problem on metrical Diophantine approximation associated with a system of linear forms. The main result is a zero-one law that extends one-dimensional results of Cassels and Gallagher. The paper contains a discussion on possible generalisations including a selection of various open problems.
Let $W(\p)$ denote the set of $\p$-well approximable points in $\R^d$ and let $K$ be a compact subset of $\R^d$ which supports a measure $μ$. In this short note, we show that if $μ$ is an `absolutely friendly' measure and a certain $μ$--volume sum converges then $μ(W(\p) \cap K) = 0$. The result obtained is in some sense analogous to the convergence part of Khintchines classical theorem in the theory of metric Diophantine approximation. The class of absolutely friendly measures is a subclass of the friendly measures introduced by D. Kleinbock, E. Lindenstrauss and B. Weiss (On fractal measures…
In this paper we study $p$-adic Diophantine approximation on manifolds, specifically multiplicative Diophantine approximation on affine subspaces and a Diophantine dichotomy for analytic $p$-adic manifolds.
The nature and origin of exceptional sets associated with the rotation number of circle maps, Kolmogorov-Arnol'd-Moser theory on the existence of invariant tori and the linearisation of complex diffeomorphisms are explained. The metrical properties of these exceptional sets are closely related to fundamental results in the metrical theory of Diophantine approximation. The counterpart of Diophantine approximation in hyperbolic space and a dynamical interpretation which led to the very general notion of `shrinking targets' are sketched and the recent use of flows in homogeneous spaces of lattice…
In this paper, we sharpen earlier work of the first author, Luca and Mulholland, showing that the Diophantine equation $$ A^3+B^3 = q^αC^p, \, \, ABC \neq 0, \, \, \gcd (A,B) =1, $$ has, for "most" primes $q$ and suitably large prime exponents $p$, no solutions. We handle a number of (presumably infinite) families where no such conclusion was hitherto known. Through further application of certain {\it symplectic criteria}, we are able to make some conditional statements about still more values of $q$, a sample such result is that, for all but $O(\sqrt{x}/\log x)$ primes $q$ up to $x$, the equa…
This work is motivated by problems on simultaneous Diophantine approximation on manifolds, namely, establishing Khintchine and Jarnik type theorems for submanifolds of R^n. These problems have attracted a lot of interest since Kleinbock and Margulis proved a related conjecture of Alan Baker and V.G. Sprindzuk. They have been settled for planar curves but remain open in higher dimensions. In this paper, Khintchine and Jarnik type divergence theorems are established for arbitrary analytic non-degenerate manifolds regardless of their dimension. The key to establishing these results is the study o…
This paper goes back to a famous problem of Mahler in metrical Diophantine approximation. The problem has been settled by Sprindzuk and subsequently improved by Alan Baker and Vasili Bernik. In particular, Bernik's result establishes a convergence Khintchine type theorem for Diophantine approximation by polynomials, that is it allows arbitrary monotonic error of approximation. In the present paper the monotonicity assumption is completely removed.
Duffin and Schaeffer have generalized the classical theorem of Khintchine in metric Diophantine approximation in the case of any error function under the assumption that all the rational approximants are irreducible. This result is extended to the case where the numerators and the denominators of the rational approximants are related by a congruential constraint stronger than coprimality.
We establish a new connection between metric Diophantine approximation and the parametric geometry of numbers by proving a variational principle facilitating the computation of the Hausdorff and packing dimensions of many sets of interest in Diophantine approximation. In particular, we show that the Hausdorff and packing dimensions of the set of singular $m\times n$ matrices are both equal to $mn \big(1-\frac1{m+n}\big)$, thus proving a conjecture of Kadyrov, Kleinbock, Lindenstrauss, and Margulis (preprint 2014) as well as answering a question of Bugeaud, Cheung, and Chevallier (preprint 2016…
The use of Hausdorff measures and dimension in the theory of Diophantine approximation dates back to the 1920s with the theorems of Jarnik and Besicovitch regarding well-approximable and badly-approximable points. In this paper we consider three inhomogeneous problems that further develop these classical results. Firstly, we obtain a Jarnik type theorem for the set of multiplicatively approximable points in the plane. This Hausdorff measure statement does not reduce to Gallagher's Lebesgue measure statement as one might expect and is new even in the homogeneous setting. Next, we establish a Ja…
We prove a version of the Khinchine--Groshev theorem for Diophantine approximation of matrices subject to a congruence condition. The proof relies on an extension of the Dani correspondence to the quotient by a congruence subgroup. This correspondence together with a multiple ergodic theorem are used to study rational approximations in several congruence classes simultaneously. The result in this part holds in the generality of weighted approximation but is restricted to simple approximation functions.
In this paper, we consider the intrinsic Diophantine approximation on the triadic Cantor set $\mathcal{K}$, i.e. approximating the points in $\mathcal{K}$ by rational numbers inside $\mathcal{K}$, a question posed by K. Mahler. By using another height function of a rational number in $\mathcal{K}$, i.e. the denominator obtained from its periodic 3-adic expansion, a complete metric theory for this variant intrinsic Diophantine approximation is presented which yields the divergence theory of Mahler's original question.
For two properly intersecting effective cycles in projective space X,Y, and their intersection product Z, the metric Bezout Theorem relates the degrees, heights of X,Y, and Z, as well as their distances and algebraic distances to a given point theta. Applications of this Theorem are in the area of Diophantine Approximation, giving estimates for approximation properties of Z with respect to $θ$ against the ones of X, and Y.
The goal of this paper is to generalize the main results of [KM] and subsequent papers on metric Diophantine approximation with dependent quantities to the set-up of systems of linear forms. In particular, we establish `joint strong extremality' of arbitrary finite collection of smooth nondegenerate submanifolds of ${\bold R}^n$. The proofs are based on generalized quantitative nondivergence estimates for translates of measures on the space of lattices.
This paper develops the metric theory of simultaneous inhomogeneous Diophantine approximation on a planar curve with respect to multiple approximating functions. Our results naturally generalize the homogeneous Lebesgue measure and Hausdor? dimension results for the sets of simultaneously well-approximable points on planar curves, established in [2, 6, 10, 20].
The metric Bezout Theorem proved in an earlier paper can be extended to a derivative version that compares derivatives of the algebraic distance of a point $θ$ to two properly intersecting cycles in projective space with the derivatives of the algebraic distance of $θ$ to their intersection. This improvement can be used to make algebraic independence criteria, to be proved in a forthcoming paper, more flexible and to refine Approximation results that are proved using the metric Bezout Theorem.
In 1958, Szüsz proved an inhomogeneous version of Khintchine's theorem on Diophantine approximation. Szüsz's theorem states that for any non-increasing approximation function $ψ:\mathbb{N}\to (0,1/2)$ with $\sum_q ψ(q)=\infty$ and any number $γ,$ the following set \[ W(ψ,γ)=\{x\in [0,1]: |qx-p-γ|< ψ(q) \text{ for infinitely many } q,p\in\mathbb{N}\} \] has full Lebesgue measure. Since then, there are very few results in relaxing the monotonicity condition. In this paper, we show that if $γ$ is can not be approximate by rational numbers too well, then the monotonicity condition can be replaced …
The main goal of this work is to establish quantitative nondivergence estimates for flows on homogeneous spaces of products of real and $p$-adic Lie groups. These results have applications both to ergodic theory and to Diophantine approximation. Namely, earlier results of Dani (finiteness of locally finite ergodic unipotent-invariant measures on real homogeneous spaces) and Kleinbock-Margulis (strong extremality of nondegenerate submanifolds of $\Bbb R^n$) are generalized to the $S$-arithmetic setting.
In this paper we develop a general theory of metric Diophantine approximation for systems of linear forms. A new notion of `weak non-planarity' of manifolds and more generally measures on the space of $m\times n$ matrices over $\Bbb R$ is introduced and studied. This notion generalises the one of non-planarity in $\Bbb R^n$ and is used to establish strong (Diophantine) extremality of manifolds and measures. The notion of weak non-planarity is shown to be `near optimal' in a certain sense. Beyond the above main theme of the paper, we also develop a corresponding theory of inhomogeneous and weig…
We prove a number of results on the metric and non-metric theory of Diophantine approximation for Yu's multidimensional variant of Mahler's classification of transcendental numbers. Our results arise as applications of well known results in Diophantine approximation to the setting of Yu's classification.
It is shown that for any translation invariant outer measure M, the M-measure of the intersection of any subset of R^n that is invariant under rational translations and which does not have full Lebesgue measure with an the closure of an open set of positive measure cannot be positive and finite. Analogues for $p$-adic fields and fields of formal power series over a finite field are established. The results are applied to some problems in metric Diophantine approximation.
New results towards the Duffin-Schaeffer conjecture, which is a fundamental unsolved problem in metric number theory, have been established recently assuming extra divergence. Given a non-negative function $ψ: \mathbb{N}\to\mathbb{R}$ we denote by $W(ψ)$ the set of all $x\in\mathbb{R}$ such that $|nx-a|<ψ(n)$ for infinitely many $a,n$. Analogously, denote $W'(ψ)$ if we additionally require $a,n$ to be coprime. Aistleitner et al. [1] proved that $W'(ψ)$ is of full Lebesgue measure if there exist an $\varepsilon>0$ such that $\sum_{n=2}^\inftyψ(n)φ(n)/(n(\log n)^\varepsilon)=\infty$. This result…
The convergence theory for the set of simultaneously $ψ$-approximable points lying on a planar curve is established. Our results complement the divergence theory developed in `Diophantine approximation on planar curves and the distribution of rational points' (by V. Beresnevich, H. Dickinson, and S. Velani, with an Appendix: `Sums of two squares near perfect squares' by R.C. Vaughan, To appear: Annals of Math., Pre-print: arkiv:math.NT/0401148, (2004), 1-52.) and thereby completes the general metric theory for planar curves.
The inhomogeneous metric theory for the set of simultaneously $ψ$-approximable points lying on a planar curve is developed. Our results naturally incorporate the homogeneous Khintchine-Jarnik type theorems recently established in [Ann. of Math. (2), 166 (2007), pp. 367-426] and [Invent. Math., 166 (2006), pp. 103-124]. The key lies in obtaining essentially the best possible results regarding the distribution of `shifted' rational points near planar curves.
The overall aim of this note is to initiate a "manifold" theory for metric Diophantine approximation on the limit sets of Kleinian groups. We investigate the notions of singular and extremal limit points within the geometrically finite Kleinian group framework. Also, we consider the natural analogue of Davenport's problem regarding badly approximable limit points in a given subset of the limit set. Beyond extremality, we discuss potential Khintchine-type statements for subsets of the limit set. These can be interpreted as the conjectural "manifold" strengthening of Sullivan's logarithmic law f…
We study the diophantine exponent of analytic submanifolds of the space of m by n real matrices, answering questions of Beresnevich, Kleinbock and Margulis. We identify a family of algebraic obstructions to the extremality of such a submanifold, and give a formula for the exponent when the submanifold is algebraic and defined over the rationals. We then apply these results to the determination of the diophantine exponent of rational nilpotent Lie groups.
We derive several results that describe the rate at which a generic geodesic makes excursions into and out of a cusp on a finite area hyperbolic surface and relate them to approximation with respect to the orbit of infinity for an associated Fuchsian group. This provides proofs of some well known theorems from metric diophantine approximation in the context of Fuchsian groups. It also gives new results in the classical setting.
The primary goal of this paper is to complete the theory of metric Diophantine approximation initially developed in [Ann. of Math.(2) 166 (2007), p.367-426] for $C^3$ non-degenerate planar curves. With this goal in mind, here for the first time we obtain fully explicit bounds for the number of rational points near planar curves. Further, introducing a perturbational approach we bring the smoothness condition imposed on the curves down to $C^1$ (lowest possible). This way we broaden the notion of non-degeneracy in a natural direction and introduce a new topologically complete class of planar cu…
A classical result of Kaufman states that, for each $τ>1,$ the set of well approximable numbers \[ E(τ)=\{x\in\mathbb{R}: \|qx\| < |q|^{-τ} \text{ for infinitely many integers q}\} \] is a Salem set with Hausdorff dimension $2/(1+τ)$. A natural question to ask is whether the same phenomena holds for well approximable vectors in $\mathbb{R}^n.$ We prove that this is in general not the case. In addition, we also show that in $\mathbb{R}^n, n\geq 2,$ the set of badly approximable vectors is not Salem.
In 1962, Gallagher proved an higher dimensional version of Khintchine's theorem on Diophantine approximation. Gallagher's theorem states that for any non-increasing approximation function $ψ:\mathbb{N}\to (0,1/2)$ with $\sum_{q=1}^{\infty} ψ(q)\log q=\infty$ and $γ=γ'=0$ the following set \[ \{(x,y)\in [0,1]^2: \|qx-γ\|\|qy-γ'\|<ψ(q) \text{ infinitely often}\} \] has full Lebesgue measure. Recently, Chow and Technau proved a fully inhomogeneous version (without restrictions on $γ,γ'$) of the above result. In this paper, we prove an Erdős-Vaaler type result for fibred multiplicative Diophantine…
We establish a `mixed' version of a fundamental theorem of Khintchine within the field of simultaneous Diophantine approximation. Via the notion of ubiquity we are able to make significant progress towards the completion of the metric theory associated with mixed problems in this setting. This includes finding a natural mixed analogue of the classical Jarník-Besicovich Theorem. Previous knowledge surrounding mixed problems was almost entirely restricted to the multiplicative setup of de Mathan & Teulié [21], where the concept originated.
By introducing a ubiquity property for rectangles, we prove the mass transference principle from rectangles to rectangles, i.e., if a sequence of rectangles forms a ubiquity system (a full measure property), then the limsup set defined by shrinking these rectangles to smaller rectangles has full Hausdorff measure or to say transfer a full measure property to a full Hausdorff measure property for brevity. The limsup sets generated by balls or generated by rectangles appear at the most fundamental level in Diophantine approximation: one follows from Dirichlet's theorem, the other follows from Mi…
We begin with a brief treatment of Hausdorff measure and Hausdorff dimension. We then explain some of the principal results in Diophantine approximation and the Hausdorff dimension of related sets, originating in the pioneering work of Vojtech Jarnik. We conclude with some applications of these results to the metrical structure of exceptional sets associated with some famous problems. It is not intended that all the recent developments be covered but they can be found in the references cited.
We place the theory of metric Diophantine approximation on manifolds into a broader context of studying Diophantine properties of points generic with respect to certain measures on $\Bbb R^n$. The correspondence between multidimensional Diophantine approximation and dynamics of lattices in Euclidean spaces is discussed in an elementary way, and several recent results obtained by means of this correspondence are surveyed.
In this paper the metric theory of Diophantine approximation associated with the small linear forms is investigated. Khintchine-Groshev theorems are established along with Hausdorff measure generalization without the monotonic assumption on the approximating function.
We show that Mahler's classification of real numbers $ζ$ with respect to the growth of the sequence $(w_{n}(ζ))_{n\geq 1}$ is equivalently induced by certain natural assumptions on the decay of the sequence $(λ_{n}(ζ))_{n\geq 1}$ concerning simultaneous rational approximation. Thereby we obtain a much clearer picture on simultaneous approximation to successive powers of a real number in general. Another variant of the Mahler classification concerning uniform approximation by algebraic numbers is shown as well. Our method has several applications to classic exponents of Diophantine approximatio…
In recent years, the ergodic theory of group actions on homogeneous spaces has played a significant role in the metric theory of Diophantine approximation. We survey some recent developments with special emphasis on Diophantine properties of affine subspaces and their submanifolds.
Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a non-degenerate planar curve. We show that the curve is of Khintchine-type for convergence in the case of simultaneous approximation with two independent approximation functions; that is if a certain sum converges then the set of all points $(x,y)$ on the curve which satisfy simultaneously the inequalities $\| q x \| < ψ_1(q)$ and $\| qy \| < ψ_2(q)$ infinitely often has induced measure 0. This completes the metric theory for the Lebesgue case. Further, for the cae of multiplicative approximation $\| qx \| \| q y \| < ψ(q)$, we establish a Hausdorff measure convergence re…
In metric Diophantine approximation there are two main types of approximations: simultaneous and dual for both homogeneous and inhomogeneous settings. The well known measure-theoretic theorems of Khintchine and Jarník are fundamental in these settings. Recently, there has been substantial progress towards establishing a metric theory of Diophantine approximations on manifolds. In particular, both the Khintchine and Jarník type results have been established for planar curves except for only one case. In this paper, we prove an inhomogeneous Jarník type theorem for convergence on planar curves a…
In this paper we investigate the metrical theory of Diophantine approximation associated with linear forms that are simultaneously small for infinitely many integer vectors; i.e. forms which are close to the origin. A complete Khintchine--Groshev type theorem is established, as well as its Hausdorff measure generalization. The latter implies the complete Hausdorff dimension theory.
