DIOPHANTINE APPROXIMATION IN IMAGINARY QUADRATIC FIELDS

Abstract

Let H3 be the upper half-space model of the three-dimensional hyperbolic space. For certain cocompact Fuchsian subgroups Γ of an extended Bianchi group Bd, the extremality of the axis of hyperbolic F ∈ Γ in H3 with respect to Γ implies its extremality with respect to Bd. This reduction is used to obtain sharp lower bounds for the Hurwitz constants and lower bounds for the highest limit points in the Markov spectra of Bd for some d < 1000. In particular, such bounds are found for all non-Euclidean class one imaginary quadratic fields. The Hurwitz constants for the imaginary quadratic fields with discriminants -120 and -132 are given. The second minima are also indicated for these fields.