On the heights of totally p-adic numbers

Bombieri and Zannier established lower and upper bounds for the limit infimum of the Weil height in fields of totally p-adic numbers and generalizations thereof. In this paper, we use potential theoretic techniques to generalize the upper bounds from their paper and, under the assumption of integrality, to improve slightly upon their bounds

Norms extremal with respect to the Mahler measure

In a previous paper, the authors introduced several vector space norms on the space of algebraic numbers modulo torsion which corresponded to the Mahler measure on a certain class of numbers and allowed the authors to formulate L^p Lehmer conjectures which were equivalent to their classical counterparts. In this paper, we introduce and study several analogous norms which are constructed in order to satisfy an extremal property with respect to the Mahler measure. These norms are a natural generalization of the metric Mahler measure introduced by Dubickas and Smyth. We evaluate these norms on certain classes of algebraic numbers and prove that the infimum in the construction is achieved in a certain finite dimensional space.Comment: 24 page

Orthogonal decomposition of the space of algebraic numbers and Lehmer's problem

We introduce vector space norms associated to the Mahler measure by using the L^p norm versions of the Weil height recently introduced by Allcock and Vaaler. In order to do this, we determine orthogonal decompositions of the space of algebraic numbers modulo torsion by Galois field and degree. We formulate L^p Lehmer conjectures involving lower bounds on these norms and prove that these new conjectures are equivalent to their classical counterparts, specifically, the classical Lehmer conjecture in the p = 1 case and the Schinzel-Zassenhaus conjecture in the p = infinity case.Comment: 29 page

A generalization of Dirichlet's unit theorem

We generalize Dirichlet's $S$-unit theorem from the usual group of $S$-units of a number field $K$ to the infinite rank group of all algebraic numbers having nontrivial valuations only on places lying over $S$. Specifically, we demonstrate that the group of algebraic $S$-units modulo torsion is a \bQ-vector space which, when normed by the Weil height, spans a hyperplane determined by the product formula, and that the elements of this vector space which are linearly independent over $\mathbb{Q}$ retain their linear independence over $\mathbb{R}$

Equidistribution and the heights of totally real and totally p-adic numbers

C.J. Smyth was among the first to study the spectrum of the Weil height in the field of all totally real numbers, establishing both lower and upper bounds for the limit infimum of the height of all totally real integers and determining isolated values of the height. Later, Bombieri and Zannier established similar results for totally p-adic numbers and, inspired by work of Ullmo and Zhang, termed this the Bogomolov property. In this paper, we use results on equidistribution of points of low height to generalize both Bogomolov-type results to a wide variety of heights arising in arithmetic dynamics

Energy integrals over local fields and global height bounds

We solve an energy minimization problem for local fields. As an application of these results, we improve on lower bounds set by Bombieri and Zannier for the limit infimum of the Weil height in fields of totally p-adic numbers and generalizations thereof. In the case of fields with mixed archimedean and non-archimedean splitting conditions, we are able to combine our bounds with similar bounds at the archimedean places for totally real fields.Comment: 13 page

On totally real numbers and equidistribution

C.J. Smyth and later Flammang studied the spectrum of the Weil height in the field of all totally real numbers, establishing both lower and upper bounds for the limit infimum of the height of all totally real integers and determining isolated values of the height. We remove the hypothesis that we consider only integers and establish an lower bound on the limit infimum of the height for all totally real numbers. Our proof relies on a quantitative equidistribution theorem for numbers of small height

Quantitative height bounds under splitting conditions

In an earlier work, the first author and Petsche used potential theoretic techniques to establish a lower bound for the height of algebraic numbers that satisfy splitting conditions, such as being totally real or p-adic, improving on earlier work of Bombieri and Zannier in the totally p-adic case. These bounds applied as the degree of the algebraic number over the rationals tended towards infinity. In this paper, we use discrete energy approximation techniques on the Berkovich projective line to make the dependence on the degree in these bounds explicit, and we establish lower bounds for algebraic numbers which depend only on local properties of the numbers.Comment: This second version contains improvements of essentially all calculations, leading to better bounds in Theorems 1, 7, 10, 11 and 12. Some errors have been corrected. In particular, the statement from Proposition 14 was not correct in the first version. 22 page

On the non-Archimedean metric Mahler measure

Recently, Dubickas and Smyth constructed and examined the metric Mahler measure and the metric na\"ive height on the multiplicative group of algebraic numbers. We give a non-Archimedean version of the metric Mahler measure, denoted $M_\infty$, and prove that $M_\infty(\alpha) = 1$ if and only if $\alpha$ is a root of unity. We further show that $M_\infty$ defines a projective height on $\bar{\mathbb Q}^\times/ \bar{\mathbb Q}^\times_\mathrm{tors}$ as a vector space over $\mathbb Q$. Finally, we demonstrate how to compute $M_\infty(\alpha)$ when $\alpha$ is a surd

Energy integrals and small points for the Arakelov height

We study small points for the Arakelov height on the projective line. First, we identify the smallest positive value taken by the Arakelov height, and we characterize all cases of equality. Next we solve several archimedean energy minimization problems with respect to the chordal metric on the projective line, and as an application, we obtain lower bounds on the Arakelov height in fields of totally real and totally p-adic numbers.Comment: 12 page