Diophantine approximation with prime restriction in function fields

TL;DR

This paper extends classical results on prime approximations of irrationals to the setting of function fields, establishing new bounds and analogues using a function field version of Dirichlet's theorem.

Contribution

It introduces the first function field analogues of prime Diophantine approximation results, including a Dirichlet approximation theorem for function fields.

Findings

Established function field analogues of prime approximation results.

Proved a Dirichlet approximation theorem for function fields.

Extended classical bounds to the setting of $\

Abstract

In the thirties of the last century, I. M. Vinogradov established uniform distribution modulo 1 of the sequence $p\alpha$ when $\alpha$ is a fixed irrational real number and $p$ runs over the primes. In particular, he showed that the inequality $||p\alpha||\le p^{-1/5+\varepsilon}$ has infinitely prime solutions $p$, where $||.||$ denotes the distance to the nearest integer. This result has subsequently been improved by many authors. The current record is due to Matom\"aki (2009) who showed the infinitude of prime solutions of the inequality $||p\alpha||\le p^{-1/3+\varepsilon}$. This exponent $1/3$ is considered the limit of the current technology. We prove function field analogues of this result for the fields $k=\mathbb{F}_q(T)$ and imaginary quadratic extensions $K$ of $k$. Essential in our method is the Dirichlet approximation theorem for function fields which is established in general form in the appendix authored by Arijit Ganguly.