A finitely generated subgroup ${\rm\Gamma}$ of a real Lie group $G$ is said to be Diophantine if there is ${\it\beta}>0$ such that non-trivial elements in the word ball $B_{{\rm\Gamma}}(n)$ centered at $1\in {\rm\Gamma}$ never approach the identity of $G$ closer than $|B_{{\rm\Gamma}}(n)|^{-{\it\beta}}$. A Lie group $G$ is said to be Diophantine if for every $k\geqslant 1$ a random $k$-tuple in $G$ generates a Diophantine subgroup. Semi-simple Lie groups are conjectured to be Diophantine but very little is proven in this direction. We give a characterization of Diophantine nilpotent Lie groups in terms of the ideal of laws of their Lie algebra. In particular we show that nilpotent Lie groups of class at most $5$, or derived length at most $2$, as well as rational nilpotent Lie groups are Diophantine. We also find that there are non-Diophantine nilpotent and solvable (non-nilpotent) Lie groups.

The Frobenius number $F(\boldsymbol{a})$ of a lattice point $\boldsymbol{a}$ in $\mathbb{R}^{d}$ with positive coprime coordinates, is the largest integer which can not be expressed as a non-negative integer linear combination of the coordinates of $\boldsymbol{a}$. Marklof in [The asymptotic distribution of Frobenius numbers, Invent. Math. 181 (2010), 179–207] proved the existence of the limit distribution of the Frobenius numbers, when $\boldsymbol{a}$ is taken to be random in an enlarging domain in $\mathbb{R}^{d}$. We will show that if the domain has piecewise smooth boundary, the error term for the convergence of the distribution function is at most a polynomial in the enlarging factor.

We consider classes of subsets of [0, 1], originally introduced by Falconer, that are closed under countable intersections, and such that every set in the class has Hausdorff dimension at least s. We provide a Frostman-type lemma to determine if a limsup set is in such a class. Suppose that E = lim sup En ⊂ [0, 1], and that μn are probability measures with support in En. If there exists a constant C such that

for all n, then, under suitable conditions on the limit measure of the sequence (μn), we prove that the set E is in the class .

As an application we prove that, for α > 1 and almost all λ ∈ (½, 1), the set

where and ak ∈ {0, 1}}, belongs to the class . This improves one of our previously published results.

We study a subtle inequity in the distribution of unnormalized differences between imaginary parts of zeros of the Riemann zeta function, which was observed by a number of authors. We establish a precise measure which explains the phenomenon, that the location of each Riemann zero is encoded in the distribution of large Riemann zeros. We also extend these results to zeros of more general $L$-functions. In particular, we show how the rank of an elliptic curve over $\mathbb{Q}$ is encoded in the sequences of zeros of other$L$-functions, not only the one associated to the curve.

We attempt to develop a new chapter of the theory of uniform distribution; we call it strong uniformity. Strong uniformity in a nutshell means that we combine Lebesgue measure with the classical theory of uniform distribution, basically founded by Weyl in his famous paper from 1916 [Über die Gleichverteilung von Zahlen mod Eins, Math. Ann.77 (1916), 313–352], which is built around nice test sets, such as axis-parallel rectangles and boxes. We prove the continuous version of the well-known Khinchin’s conjecture [Eins Satz über Kettenbrüche mit arithmetischen Adwendungen, Math. Z.18 (1923), 289–306] in every dimension $d\geqslant 2$ (the discrete version turned out to be false—it was disproved by Marstrand [On Khinchin’s conjecture about strong uniform distribution, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 21 (1970), 540–556]). We consider an arbitrarily complicated but fixed measurable test set $S$ in the $d$-dimensional unit cube, and study the uniformity of a typical member of some natural families of curves, such as all torus lines or billiard paths starting from the origin, with respect to $S$. In the two-dimensional case we have the very surprising superuniformity of the typical torus lines and billiard paths. In dimensions ${\geqslant}3$ we still have strong uniformity, but not superuniformity. However, in dimension three we have the even more striking super-duper uniformity for two-dimensional rays (replacing the torus lines). Finally, we indicate how to exhibit superuniform motions on every “reasonable” plane region (e.g., the circular disk) and on every “reasonable” closed surface (sphere, torus and so on).

Let $Q$ be an infinite subset of $\mathbb{N}$. For any ${\it\tau}>2$, denote $W_{{\it\tau}}(Q)$ (respectively $W_{{\it\tau}}$) to be the set of ${\it\tau}$ well-approximable points by rationals with denominators in $Q$ (respectively in $\mathbb{N}$). We consider the Hausdorff dimension of the liminf set $W_{{\it\tau}}\setminus W_{{\it\tau}}(Q)$ after Adiceam. By using the tools of continued fractions, it is shown that if $Q$ is a so-called $\mathbb{N}\setminus Q$-free set, the Hausdorff dimension of $W_{{\it\tau}}\setminus W_{{\it\tau}}(Q)$ is the same as that of $W_{{\it\tau}}$, i.e. $2/{\it\tau}$.

We study the distribution of the orbits of real numbers under the beta-transformation $T_{{\it\beta}}$ for any ${\it\beta}>1$. More precisely, for any real number ${\it\beta}>1$ and a positive function ${\it\varphi}:\mathbb{N}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{+}$, we determine the Lebesgue measure and the Hausdorff dimension of the following set:

$$\begin{eqnarray}E(T_{{\it\beta}},{\it\varphi})=\{(x,y)\in [0,1]\times [0,1]:|T_{{\it\beta}}^{n}x-y|<{\it\varphi}(n)\text{ for infinitely many }n\in \mathbb{N}\}.\end{eqnarray}$$

We develop the metric theory of Diophantine approximation on homogeneous varieties of semisimple algebraic groups and prove results analogous to the classical Khintchine and Jarník theorems. In full generality our results establish simultaneous Diophantine approximation with respect to several completions, and Diophantine approximation over general number fields using $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}S$-algebraic integers. In several important examples, the metric results we obtain are optimal. The proof uses quantitative equidistribution properties of suitable averaging operators, which are derived from spectral bounds in automorphic representations.

Boyd showed that the beta expansion of Salem numbers of degree 4 were always eventually periodic. Based on an heuristic argument, Boyd had conjectured that the same is true for Salem numbers of degree 6 but not for Salem numbers of degree 8. This paper examines Salem numbers of degree 8 and collects experimental evidence in support of Boyd’s conjecture.

Let $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}\mathbb{F}_q$ be the finite field of $q$ elements. An analogue of the regular continued fraction expansion for an element $\alpha $ in the field of formal Laurent series over $\mathbb{F}_q$ is given uniquely by

$$\begin{equation*}\alpha = A_0(\alpha )+\cfrac {1}{A_1(\alpha )+\cfrac {1}{A_2(\alpha )+\ddots }}, \end{equation*}$$

$(A_n(\alpha ))_{n=0}^\infty $

$\mathbb{F}_q$

$\deg (A_n(\alpha ))\ge 1$

$n\ge 1.$

$(p_n)_{n=1}^\infty $

$$\begin{equation*}\lim _{n\to \infty }\frac {1}{n}\sum _{j=1}^n \deg (A_{p_j}(\alpha )) = \frac {q}{q-1} \end{equation*}$$

$\alpha $

$(p_n)_{n=1}^\infty $

$(n)_{n=1}^\infty ,$

Let $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}p$ be a prime and $b$ a primitive root of $p^2$. In this paper, we give an explicit formula for the number of times a value in $\{0,1,\ldots,b-1\}$ occurs in the periodic part of the base-$b$ expansion of $1/p^m$. As a consequence of this result, we prove two recent conjectures of Aragón Artacho et al. [‘Walking on real numbers’, Math. Intelligencer35(1) (2013), 42–60] concerning the base-$b$ expansion of Stoneham numbers.

Computing the value of a high-dimensional integral can often be reduced to the problem of finding the ratio between the measures of two sets. Monte Carlo methods are often used to approximate this ratio, but often one set will be exponentially larger than the other, which leads to an exponentially large variance. A standard method of dealing with this problem is to interpolate between the sets with a sequence of nested sets where neighboring sets have relative measures bounded above by a constant. Choosing such a well-balanced sequence can rarely be done without extensive study of a problem. Here a new approach that automatically obtains such sets is presented. These well-balanced sets allow for faster approximation algorithms for integrals and sums using fewer samples, and better tempering and annealing Markov chains for generating random samples. Applications, such as finding the partition function of the Ising model and normalizing constants for posterior distributions in Bayesian methods, are discussed.

A natural number $n$ is called abundant if the sum of the proper divisors of $n$ exceeds $n$. For example, $12$ is abundant, since $1+ 2+ 3+ 4+ 6= 16$. In 1929, Bessel-Hagen asked whether or not the set of abundant numbers possesses an asymptotic density. In other words, if $A(x)$ denotes the count of abundant numbers belonging to the interval $[1, x] $, does $A(x)/ x$ tend to a limit? Four years later, Davenport answered Bessel-Hagen’s question in the affirmative. Calling this density $\Delta $, it is now known that $0. 24761\lt \Delta \lt 0. 24766$, so that just under one in four numbers are abundant. We show that $A(x)- \Delta x\lt x/ \mathrm{exp} (\mathop{(\log x)}\nolimits ^{1/ 3} )$ for all large $x$. We also study the behavior of the corresponding error term for the count of so-called $\alpha $-abundant numbers.

We use bounds of mixed character sum to study the distribution of solutions to certain polynomial systems of congruences modulo a prime $p$. In particular, we obtain nontrivial results about the number of solutions in boxes with the side length below ${p}^{1/ 2} $, which seems to be the limit of more general methods based on the bounds of exponential sums along varieties.

We use a generalisation of Vinogradov’s mean value theorem of Parsell et al. [‘Near-optimal mean value estimates for multidimensional Weyl sums’, arXiv:1205.6331] and ideas of Schmidt [‘Irregularities of distribution. IX’, Acta Arith. 27 (1975), 385–396] to give nontrivial bounds for the number of solutions to polynomial congruences, when the solutions lie in a very general class of sets, including all convex sets.

We establish a defect relation for algebraically non-degenerate meromorphic maps over generalized p-parabolic manifolds that intersect hypersurfaces in smooth projective algebraic varieties, extending certain results of H. Cartan, L. Ahlfors, W. Stoll, M. Ru, P. M. Wong and Philip P. W. Wong and others.

We find the best asymptotic lower bounds for the coefficient of the leading term of the ${L}_{1} $ norm of the two-dimensional axis-parallel discrepancy that can be obtained by Roth’s orthogonal function method among a large class of test functions. We use methods of combinatorics, probability, and complex and harmonic analysis.

Let Q be an infinite set of positive integers. Denote by Wτ,n(Q) (respectively, Wτ,n) the set of points in dimension n≥1 that are simultaneously τ-approximable by infinitely many rationals with denominators in Q (respectively, in ℕ*). When n≥2 and τ>1+1/(n−1) , a non-trivial lower bound for the Hausdorff dimension of the liminf set Wτ,n ∖Wτ,n (Q)is established in the case where the set Q satisfies some divisibility properties. The computation of the actual value of this Hausdorff dimension and the one-dimensional analogue of the problem are also discussed.

In the paper we deal with self-approximation of the Riemann zeta function in the half plane $\operatorname {Re} s\gt 1$ and in the right half of the critical strip. We also prove some results concerning joint universality and joint value approximation of functions $\zeta (s+\lambda +id\tau )$ and $\zeta (s+i\tau )$.

Given an integer $q\ge 2$, a $q$-normal number is an irrational number $\eta $ such that any preassigned sequence of $\ell $ digits occurs in the $q$-ary expansion of $\eta $ at the expected frequency, namely $1/q^\ell $. In a recent paper we constructed a large family of normal numbers, showing in particular that, if $P(n)$ stands for the largest prime factor of $n$, then the number $0.P(2)P(3)P(4)\ldots ,$ the concatenation of the numbers $P(2), P(3), P(4), \ldots ,$ each represented in base $q$, is a $q$-normal number, thereby answering in the affirmative a question raised by Igor Shparlinski. We also showed that $0.P(2+1)P(3+1)P(5+1)\ldots P(p+1)\ldots ,$ where $p$ runs through the sequence of primes, is a $q$-normal number. Here, we show that, given any fixed integer $k\ge 2$, the numbers $0.P_k(2)P_k(3)P_k(4)\ldots $ and $0. P_k(2+1)P_k(3+1)P_k(5+1)\ldots P_k(p+1)\ldots ,$ where $P_k(n)$ stands for the $k{\rm th}$ largest prime factor of $n$, are $q$-normal numbers. These results are part of more general statements.