University of Georgia

Mathematics Department Colloquium

Prof. Dr. Hans Peter Schlickewei

Philipps-Universitaet Marburg

December 2, 1999

The Subspace Theorem in Diophantine Approximations


Abstract: The famous theorem of Roth says the following: Suppose $\alpha$ is an algebraic number and $\epsilon > 0$. Then the inequality $|\alpha - x/y| < y^{-2-epsilon}$ has only finitely many rational solutions $x/y$. The Subspace Theorem of W.M.Schmidt generalizes this to arbitrary dimensions. In recent years there has been a dramatic development in that area. Quantitative versions of the Subspace Theorem have been given, that have allowed it to prove some old conjectures on the number of solutions of certain diophantine equations. I will give a survey on these developments and in particular explain the most general result on the Subspace Theorem proved in collaboration with J.H. Evertse.