English

Multiplicative approximation by the Weil height

Number Theory 2017-10-24 v1

Abstract

Let K/QK/\mathbb{Q} be an algebraic extension of fields, and let α0\alpha \not= 0 be contained in an algebraic closure of KK. If α\alpha can be approximated by roots of numbers in K×K^{\times} with respect to the Weil height, we prove that some nonzero integer power of α\alpha must belong to K×K^{\times}. More generally, let K1,K2,,KNK_1, K_2, \dots , K_N, be algebraic extensions of \mathbQ\mathb{Q} such that each pair of extensions includes one which is a (possibly infinite) Galois extension of a common subfield. If α0\alpha \not= 0 can be approximated by a product of roots of numbers from each KnK_n with respect to the Weil height, we prove that some nonzero integer power of α\alpha must belong to the multiplicative group K1×K2×KN×K_1^{\times} K_2^{\times} \cdots K_N^{\times}. Our proof of the more general result uses methods from functional analysis.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1710.08399,
  title  = {Multiplicative approximation by the Weil height},
  author = {Robert Grizzard and Jeffrey D. Vaaler},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.08399},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

24 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-22T22:23:05.120Z