Geometry of numbers is the part of number theory which uses geometry for the study of algebraic numbers. Typically, a ring of algebraic integers is viewed as a lattice in ${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n},}$ and the study of these lattices provides fundamental information on algebraic numbers.^[1] The geometry of numbers was initiated by Hermann Minkowski (1910).

Best rational approximants for π (green circle), e (blue diamond), ϕ (pink oblong), (√3)/2 (grey hexagon), 1/√2 (red octagon) and 1/√3 (orange triangle) calculated from their continued fraction expansions, plotted as slopes y/x with errors from their true values (black dashes)  

The geometry of numbers has a close relationship with other fields of mathematics, especially functional analysis and Diophantine approximation, the problem of finding rational numbers that approximate an irrational quantity.^[2]

Minkowski's results

Suppose that ${\displaystyle \Gamma }$ is a lattice in ${\displaystyle n}$-dimensional Euclidean space ${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}}$ and ${\displaystyle K}$ is a convex centrally symmetric body. Minkowski's theorem, sometimes called Minkowski's first theorem, states that if ${\displaystyle \operatorname {vol} (K)>2^{n}\operatorname {vol} (\mathbb {R} ^{n}/\Gamma )}$, then ${\displaystyle K}$ contains a nonzero vector in ${\displaystyle \Gamma }$.

The successive minimum ${\displaystyle \lambda _{k}}$ is defined to be the inf of the numbers ${\displaystyle \lambda }$ such that ${\displaystyle \lambda K}$ contains ${\displaystyle k}$ linearly independent vectors of ${\displaystyle \Gamma }$. Minkowski's theorem on successive minima, sometimes called Minkowski's second theorem, is a strengthening of his first theorem and states that^[3]

${\displaystyle \lambda _{1}\lambda _{2}\cdots \lambda _{n}\operatorname {vol} (K)\leq 2^{n}\operatorname {vol} (\mathbb {R} ^{n}/\Gamma ).}$

Later research in the geometry of numbers

In 1930–1960 research on the geometry of numbers was conducted by many number theorists (including Louis Mordell, Harold Davenport and Carl Ludwig Siegel). In recent years, Lenstra, Brion, and Barvinok have developed combinatorial theories that enumerate the lattice points in some convex bodies.^[4]

Influence on functional analysis

Minkowski's geometry of numbers had a profound influence on functional analysis. Minkowski proved that symmetric convex bodies induce norms in finite-dimensional vector spaces. Minkowski's theorem was generalized to topological vector spaces by Kolmogorov, whose theorem states that the symmetric convex sets that are closed and bounded generate the topology of a Banach space.^[6]

Researchers continue to study generalizations to star-shaped sets and other non-convex sets.^[7]

References

Bibliography

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• Lovász, L.: An Algorithmic Theory of Numbers, Graphs, and Convexity, CBMS-NSF Regional Conference Series in Applied Mathematics 50, SIAM, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1986
• Malyshev, A.V. (2001) [1994], "Geometry of numbers", Encyclopedia of Mathematics, EMS Press
• Minkowski, Hermann (1910), Geometrie der Zahlen, Leipzig and Berlin: R. G. Teubner, JFM 41.0239.03, MR 0249269, retrieved 2016-02-28
• Wolfgang M. Schmidt. Diophantine approximation. Lecture Notes in Mathematics 785. Springer. (1980 [1996 with minor corrections])
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• Siegel, Carl Ludwig (1989). Lectures on the Geometry of Numbers. Springer-Verlag.
• Rolf Schneider, Convex bodies: the Brunn-Minkowski theory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993.
• Anthony C. Thompson, Minkowski geometry, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996.
• Hermann Weyl. Theory of reduction for arithmetical equivalence . Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 48 (1940) 126–164. doi:10.1090/S0002-9947-1940-0002345-2
• Hermann Weyl. Theory of reduction for arithmetical equivalence. II . Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 51 (1942) 203–231. doi:10.2307/1989946