Counterexamples, covering systems, and zero-one laws for inhomogeneous approximation

Abstract

We develop the inhomogeneous counterpart to some key aspects of the story of the Duffin--Schaeffer Conjecture (1941). Specifically, we construct counterexamples to a number of candidates for a sans-monotonicity version of Szusz's inhomogeneous (1958) version of Khintchine's Theorem (1924). For example, given any real sequence {y_i}, we build a divergent series of non-negative reals psi(n) such that for any y in {y_i}, almost no real number is inhomogeneously psi-approximable with inhomogeneous parameter y. Furthermore, given any second sequence {z_i} not intersecting the rational span of {1,y_i}, and assuming a dynamical version of Erdos' Covering Systems Conjecture (1950), we can ensure that almost every real number is inhomogeneously psi-approximable with any inhomogeneous parameter z in {z_i}. Next, we prove a positive result that is near optimal in view of the limitations that our counterexamples impose. This leads to a discussion of natural analogues of the Duffin--Schaeffer Conjecture and Duffin--Schaeffer Theorem (1941) in the inhomogeneous setting. As a step toward these, we prove versions of Gallagher's Zero-One Law (1961) for inhomogeneous approximation by reduced fractions.