English

Diophantine approximation with integers having no large prime factors

Number Theory 2026-03-31 v2

Abstract

Given any irrational number α\alpha, we show that for any 0<θ<6/170<\theta<6/17, there are infinitely many yy-smooth (friable) numbers nn such that nα<nθ,\|n\alpha\| < n^{-\theta}, where (logn)Cyn(\log n)^C\leq y\leq n for some large constant C>0C>0. This improves the previous work of Baker, who obtained the exponent 1/32/(3C)+o(1)1/3-2/(3C)+o(1) in the case of y(logn)Cy\geq (\log n)^C, and that of Yau, who obtained the exponent 1/31/3 when y=no(1)y=n^{o(1)}. Our proof is based on the dispersion method together with arithmetic inputs coming from the average bounds for Kloosterman sums over smooth numbers.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.17732,
  title  = {Diophantine approximation with integers having no large prime factors},
  author = {Kunjakanan Nath and Habibur Rahaman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.17732},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

v2. Strengthened the main result (Theorem 1) to cover the smoothness range $y\geq (\log n)^C$. Also, the main result holds with the exponent $6/17$ in the whole range. 32 pages; comments are welcome

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:26:11.391Z