# Effective lower bounds for some linear forms the American Mathematical Society

Effective lower bounds for some linear formsAuthor: T. W. CusickJournal: Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 222 (1976), 289-301MSC: Primary 10F35DOI: https://doi.org/10.1090/S0002-9947-1976-0422173-8MathSciNet review: 0422173

Author: T. W. CusickJournal: Math. Comp. 31 (1977), 280-317MSC: Primary 10F20DOI: https://doi.org/10.1090/S0025-5718-1977-0429765-5MathSciNet review: 0429765Full-text PDF Free AccessAbstract | References | Similar Articles | Additional InformationAbstract: In his paper “Multidimensional continued fractions” (Ann. Univ. Sci. Budapest. Eötvös Sect. Math., v. 13, 1970, pp. 113-140), G. Szekeres introduced a new higher dimensional analogue of the ordinary continued fraction expansion of a single real number. The Szekeres algorithm associates with each k-tuple $({\alpha _1}, \ldots ,{\alpha _k})$ of real numbers (satisfying $0 < {\alpha _i} < 1$) a sequence ${b_1}, {b_2}, \ldots$ of positive integers; this sequence is called a continued k-fraction, and for k = 1 it is just the sequence of partial quotients of the ordinary continued fraction for ${\alpha _1}$. A simple recursive procedure applied to ${b_1}, {b_2}, \ldots$ produces a sequence $a(n) = (A_n^{(1)}/{B_n}, \ldots ,A_n^{(k)}/{B_n})\;(n = 1,2, \ldots ;A_n^{(i)} \geqslant 0$ and ${B_n} > 0$ are integers) of simultaneous rational approximations to $({\alpha _1}, \ldots ,{\alpha _k})$ and a sequence $c(n) = ({c_{n0}},{c_{n1}}, \ldots ,{c_{nk}})\;(n = 1,2, \ldots )$ of integer $(k + 1)$-tuples such that the linear combination ${c_{n0}} + {c_{n1}}{\alpha _1} + \cdots + {c_{nk}}{\alpha _k}$ approximates zero. Szekeres conjectured, on the basis of extensive computations, that the sequence $a(1),a(2), \ldots$ contains all of the “best” simultaneous rational approximations to $({\alpha _1}, \ldots ,{\alpha _k})$ and that the sequence $c(1),c(2), \ldots$ contains all of the “best” approximations to zero by the linear form ${x_0} + {x_1}{\alpha _1} + \cdots + {x_n}{\alpha _n}$. For the special case k = 2 and ${\alpha _1} = {\theta ^2} – 1,{\alpha _2} = \theta – 1$ (where $\theta = 2\cos (2\pi /7)$ is the positive root of ${x^3} + {x^2} – 2x – 1 = 0$