Siegel lemma

Let $K$ be a number field of degree $D$, and let $L_1,\dots ,L_M$ be linear forms in $N>DM$ variables with coefficients in $K$ and projective height at most $\mathcal{H}\ge 1$. There is a nonzero $\mathbf{x}\in {\mathbb{Z}}^N$ satisfying every $L_j(\mathbf{x})=0$ andFor $K=\mathbb{Q}$, this follows by applying the pigeonhole principle to the images of the integer box $\{0,\dots ,Y{\}}^N$ under $(L_1,\dots ,L_M)$. Expanding coefficients in a rational basis of $K$ gives the factor $D$ in the general count.

The $j$th normalized derivative isIf $P(X)={\sum }_r{a}_r{X}^r$ has integer coefficients, then $D_{j}P(X)={\sum }_{r\ge j}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{r}{j}\right)a_r{X}^{r-j}$ also has integer coefficients. For $\mathrm{deg}P\le n$, its naive polynomial height is at most $2^{n}H(P)$.

For an algebraic number $\alpha$ of degree $d$ and a small $\kappa >0$, Siegel lemma constructs integer polynomials $P,Q$ of degree at most $n$ and exponentially bounded coefficients for which $P(X)+\alpha Q(X)$ has a zero at $X=\alpha$ of order close to $2n/d$. A Wronskian then prevents every specialization $P(X)+yQ(X)$ from having a high-order zero at a rational point. This is the auxiliary-polynomial mechanism in the Thue-Siegel method.

Let $F(X,Y)=P(X)+YQ(X)$ with $P,Q\in \mathbb{Z}[X]$ linearly independent, ${\mathrm{deg}}_{X}F\le n$, and $H(F)\le C^n$. For every $\delta >0$, if a reduced rational $p/q$ has sufficiently large denominator in terms of $C$ and $\delta$, then $F(X,y)$ has multiplicity at most $\delta n+1$ at $p/q$, for every fixed real $y$.

Indeed, the nonzero Wronskianhas degree below $2n$ and height at most $C_0^n$. A zero of multiplicity $r$ of $F(X,y)$ forces a zero of multiplicity at least $r-1$ of $W$. By Gauss lemma for polynomials, $(qX-p{)}^{r-1}$ then divides $W$ in $\mathbb{Z}[X]$, so $q^{r-1}$ divides the leading coefficient of $W$ and is at most $C_0^n$.

If a real algebraic number $\alpha$ has degree $d\ge 3$, then for every $\epsilon >0$ there are only finitely many reduced fractions $p/q$ such thatThe Thue-Siegel auxiliary polynomial proof chooses two such approximations, constructs an auxiliary polynomial nonzero at their pair, and compares its denominator lower bound with the upper bound supplied by its high-order zero at $(\alpha ,\alpha )$.