arXiv subjects

Keith Merrill

Publications and source records attributed to Keith Merrill.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Diophantine approximation on abelian varieties; a conjecture of M. Waldschmidt

Following the work of Waldschmidt, we investigate problems in Diophantine approximation on abelian varieties. First we show that a conjecture of Waldschmidt for a given simple abelian variety is equivalent to a well-known Diophantine condition holding for a certain matrix related to that variety. We then posit a related but weaker conjecture, and establish the upper bound direction of that conjecture in full generality. For rank 1 elliptic curves defined over a number field $K \subset \mathbb{R}$, we then obtain a weak-type Dirichlet theorem in this setting, establish the optimality of this statement, and prove our conjecture in this case.

math.NT↗

arXiv2022

Imputation under Differential Privacy

The literature on differential privacy almost invariably assumes that the data to be analyzed are fully observed. In most practical applications this is an unrealistic assumption. A popular strategy to address this problem is imputation, in which missing values are replaced by estimated values given the observed data. In this paper we evaluate various approaches to answering queries on an imputed dataset in a differentially private manner, as well as discuss trade-offs as to where along the pipeline privacy is considered. We show that if imputation is done without consideration to privacy, the sensitivity of certain queries can increase linearly with the number of incomplete records. On the other hand, for a general class of imputation strategies, these worst case scenarios can be greatly reduced by ensuring privacy already during the imputation stage. We use a simulated dataset to demonstrate these results across a number of imputation schemes (both private and non-private) and examine their impact on the utility of a private query on the data.

cs.DB↗

arXiv2016

Uniformly de Bruijn sequences and symbolic Diophantine approximation on fractals

Intrinsic Diophantine approximation on fractals, such as the Cantor ternary set, was undoubtedly motivated by questions asked by K. Mahler (1984). One of the main goals of this paper is to develop and utilize the theory of infinite de Bruijn sequences in order to answer closely related questions. In particular, we prove that the set of infinite de Bruijn sequences in $k\geq 2$ letters, thought of as a set of real numbers via a decimal expansion, has positive Hausdorff dimension. For a given $k$, these sequences bear a strong connection to Diophantine approximation on certain fractals. In particular, the optimality of an intrinsic Dirichlet function on these fractals with respect to the height function defined by symbolic representations of rationals follows from these results.

math.CO↗

arXiv2015

Intrinsic Diophantine approximation on manifolds: General theory

We investigate the question of how well points on a nondegenerate $k$-dimensional submanifold $M \subseteq \mathbb R^d$ can be approximated by rationals also lying on $M$, establishing an upper bound on the "intrinsic Dirichlet exponent" for $M$. We show that relative to this exponent, the set of badly intrinsically approximable points is of full dimension and the set of very well intrinsically approximable points is of zero measure. Our bound on the intrinsic Dirichlet exponent is phrased in terms of an explicit function of $k$ and $d$ which does not seem to have appeared in the literature previously. It is shown to be optimal for several particular cases. The requirement that the rationals lie on $M$ distinguishes this question from the more common context of (ambient) Diophantine approximation on manifolds, and necessitates the development of new techniques. Our main tool is an analogue of the Simplex Lemma for rationals lying on $M$ which provides new insights on the local distribution of rational points on nondegenerate manifolds.

math.NT↗

arXiv2015

Hausdorff dimensions of very well intrinsically approximable subsets of quadratic hypersurfaces

We prove an analogue of a theorem of A. Pollington and S. Velani ('05), furnishing an upper bound on the Hausdorff dimension of certain subsets of the set of very well intrinsically approximable points on a quadratic hypersurface. The proof incorporates the framework of intrinsic approximation on such hypersurfaces first developed in the authors' joint work with D. Kleinbock (preprint '14) with ideas from work of D. Kleinbock, E. Lindenstrauss, and B. Weiss ('04).

math.NT↗

arXiv2014

Intrinsic Diophantine approximation on quadric hypersurfaces

We consider the question of how well points in a quadric hypersurface $M\subset\mathbb R^d$ can be approximated by rational points of $\mathbb Q^d\cap M$. This contrasts with the more common setup of approximating points in a manifold by all rational points in $\mathbb Q^d$. We provide complete answers to major questions of Diophantine approximation in this context. Of particular interest are the impact of the real and rational ranks of the defining quadratic form, quantities whose roles in Diophantine approximation have never been previously elucidated. Our methods include a correspondence between the intrinsic Diophantine approximation theory on a rational quadric hypersurface and the dynamics of the group of projective transformations which preserve that hypersurface, similar to earlier results in the non-intrinsic setting due to Dani ('86) and Kleinbock--Margulis ('99).

math.NT↗

arXiv2013

Rational Approximation on Spheres

We quantify the density of rational points in the unit sphere $S^n$, proving analogues of the classical theorems on the embedding of $\q^n$ into $\r^n$. Specifically, we prove a Dirichlet theorem stating that every point $α\in S^n$ is sufficiently approximable, the optimality of this approximation via the existence of badly approximable points, and a Khintchine theorem showing that the Lebesgue measure of approximable points is either zero or full depending on the convergence or divergence of a certain sum. These results complement and improve on previous results, particularly recent theorems of Ghosh, Gorodnik and Nevo.

math.NT↗

arXiv2012

Limit Points Badly Approximable by Horoballs

For a proper, geodesic, Gromov hyperbolic metric space X, a discrete subgroup of isometries Γwhose limit set is uniformly perfect, and a disjoint collection of horoballs {H_j}, we show that the set of limit points badly approximable by {H_j} is absolutely winning in the limit set. As an application, we deduce that for a geometrically finite Kleinian group acting on H^{n+1}, the limit points badly approximable by parabolics is absolutely winning, generalizing previous results of Dani and McMullen. As a consequence of winning, we show that the set of badly approximable limit points has dimension equal to the critical exponent of the group. Since this set can alternatively be described as the limit points representing bounded geodesics in the quotient H^{n+1}/Γ, we recapture a result originally due to Bishop and Jones.

math.MG↗