English

Arithmetic properties of arguments of algebraic numbers on the unit circle

Number Theory 2026-03-02 v1 Dynamical Systems

Abstract

An irrational number θ\theta is called Diophantine if there exist c>0c>0 and τ<\tau < \infty such that θpqcqτ\left| \theta - \frac{p}{q} \right| \ge \frac{c}{q^\tau} holds for every (p,q)Z×N(p,q) \in \mathbb{Z} \times \mathbb{N}. In this paper, we study Diophantine and transcendence properties of some real numbers. Using lower bounds for linear forms in logarithms, we show that if βC\beta \in \mathbb{C} is an algebraic number with β=1|\beta|=1 that is not a root of unity, then Arg(β)2π\frac{\operatorname{Arg}(\beta)}{2\pi} is Diophantine. We also prove that if β=eiα\beta = e^{i\alpha} is algebraic, then απ\frac{\alpha}{\pi} is either rational or transcendental. As a consequence, we obtain that if n2n \ge 2 is an integer and α(0,π2)\alpha \in \left(0,\frac{\pi}{2}\right) satisfies ntanα=tan(nα)n \tan \alpha = \tan(n \alpha), then α2π\frac{\alpha}{2\pi} is both Diophantine and transcendental, and α\alpha is transcendental. This extends a result of [V. Cyr, A number theoretic question arising in the geometry of plane curves and in billiard dynamics, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 140 (2012), no. 9, 3035--3040], which establishes that α2π\frac{\alpha}{2\pi} is irrational.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.23597,
  title  = {Arithmetic properties of arguments of algebraic numbers on the unit circle},
  author = {Geraldo César Gonçalves Ferreira and Sávio Ribas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.23597},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

9 pages. Comments are welcome