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An irrational real number is badly approximable when $\Vert q\alpha \Vert \ge c/q$ for some $c>0$ and every positive integer $q$, where the double bars mean distance to the nearest integer. Equivalently every rational approximation obeys $|\alpha -a/q|\ge c/q^2$. The Diophantine bound for the square root of two gives a concrete example and supplies separated rotations for bilinear cancellation for badly approximable phases.

A precise useful form of the principle is the type I–type II inverse principle for Möbius correlation. Normalize $|f(n)|\le 1$, and supposeFor any positive integer cutoffs $U,V$ with $U+V\le \delta X/2$, defineThen $|c_d|,|a_d|\le \tau (d)$, where $\tau$ is the divisor function, and at least one of the following two sums has modulus at least $\delta X/4$:The first is correlation against a controlled linear combination of indicators of multiples of small moduli, each a periodic function: this is the “somewhat periodic” branch. The second is a bilinear sum with independently weighted factors, both larger than the cutoffs: this is the “somewhat multiplicative” branch. The statement concerns these precise correlations, not an assertion that $f$ must itself be periodic or multiplicative.

For clarity, the Vaughan identity for the Möbius function proves this version immediately. Split $\mu ={\mu }_{\le U}+{\mu }_{>U}$ and likewise at $V$. Since $\mu \ast \mu \ast 1=\mu$,Multiply by $f(n)$ and sum. The first two terms contribute at most $U+V$ in modulus, and the remaining terms are $-T_{\mathrm{I}}+T_{\mathrm{II}}$. The triangle inequality gives the stated dichotomy. It is valid at finite $X$ and for any chosen cutoffs in the indicated range.

We now prove the required orthogonality without appealing to a stronger uniform exponential-sum theorem. Write $\alpha =\sqrt{2}$ and $e(u)=e^{2\pi iu}$. The Diophantine bound for the square root of two iswhere $\Vert u\Vert$ is distance to the nearest integer. If $a$ is that nearest integer, then $|2h^2-a^2|\ge 1$, while $h\sqrt{2}+a\le 4h$; dividing proves the bound.

Use the preceding Dirichlet convolution identity with $U=V=P=\lfloor X^{1/10}\rfloor$. The two short terms are $O(P)$. For the type I sum, the exponential geometric sum bound givesConsequentlyusing ${\sum }_{d\le Y}\tau (d)\ll Y\log (2Y)$ from counting factor pairs.

For the type II sum, perform a dyadic decomposition into $d\in (D,2D]$, $w\in (W,2W]$, keeping $dw\le X$. Nonempty blocks have $DW<X$, while $D,W\gg P$. A block $B$ satisfies, by the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and the divisor-square summatory bound,To justify the cutoff, after expanding the square the permissible $d$ for a pair $w,w^{\prime }$ still form an interval, with upper endpoint $\min (2D,X/\max (w,w^{\prime }))$. Its exponential sum has the same geometric bound. Diagonal pairs supply $DW$; for each nonzero difference $h=w-w^{\prime }$ there are $O(W)$ pairs.

The points $0,\alpha ,2\alpha ,\dots ,\lfloor W\rfloor \alpha$ modulo one are separated by at least $1/(4W)$. Counting points in consecutive distance bands around zero therefore givesSubstitution yields the bilinear cancellation for badly approximable phases estimateThere are $O({\log }^{2}X)$ blocks, so $T_{\mathrm{II}}\ll X^{19/20}{\log }^{4}X$. The divisor-square bound itself can be obtained elementarily from $\tau (n{)}^2\le {\tau }_4(n)$ prime-power by prime-power and ${\sum }_{n\le Y}{\tau }_4(n)\le Y(1+\log Y{)}^3$; no uncontrolled coefficient bound is being suppressed.

Combining the short, type I and type II terms,Hence