English

Roots of Markoff quadratic forms as strongly badly approximable numbers

Number Theory 2011-06-10 v1

Abstract

For a real number xx, x=min{xp:pZ}\| x\| = \min \{|x-p|: p\in Z\} is the distance of xx to the nearest integer. We say that two real numbers θ\theta, θ\theta' are ±\pm equivalent if their sum or difference is an integer. Let θ\theta be irrational and put ϕ(θ)=inf{qqθ:qN}.\phi(\theta) = \inf \{q \,\| q \theta\| : q \in N \}. We will prove: If ϕ(θ)>1/3\phi(\theta)> 1/3, then θ\theta is ±\pm equivalent to a root of fm(x,1)=0f_m (x,1) = 0, where fmf_m is a Markoff form. Conversely, if θ\theta is ±\pm equivalent to a root of fm(x,1)=0f_m(x,1)=0, then ϕ(θ)=mmθ=23+94m2>1/3.\phi(\theta) = m \| m\theta \| = \frac{2}{3+\sqrt{9-4m^{-2}}} > 1/3.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1106.1844,
  title  = {Roots of Markoff quadratic forms as strongly badly approximable numbers},
  author = {Jan Florek},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1106.1844},
  year   = {2011}
}

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15 pages