Approaches
A typical problem in this area of mathematics is to work out whether a given number is transcendental. Cantor used a cardinality argument to show that there are only countably many algebraic numbers, and hence almost all numbers are transcendental. Transcendental numbers therefore represent the typical case; even so, it may be extremely difficult to prove that a given number is transcendental (or even simply irrational).
For this reason transcendence theory often works towards a more quantitative approach. So given a particular complex number α one can ask how close α is to being an algebraic number. For example, if one supposes that the number α is algebraic then can one show that it must have very high degree or a minimum polynomial with very large coefficients? Ultimately if it is possible to show that no finite degree or size of coefficient is sufficient then the number must be transcendental. Since a number α is transcendental if and only if P(α)≠0 for every non-zero polynomial P with integer coefficents, this problem can be approached by trying to find lower bounds of the form
where the right hand side is some positive function depending on some measure A of the size of the coefficients of P, and its degree d, and such that these lower bounds apply to all P ≠ 0. Such a bound is called a transcendence measure.
The case of d = 1 is that of "classical" diophantine approximation asking for lower bounds for
- .
The methods of transcendence theory and diophantine approximation have much in common: they both use the auxiliary function concept.
Read more about this topic: Transcendence Theory
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