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Minkowski's conjecture, well-rounded lattices and topological dimension

Author(s): Curtis T. McMullen
Journal: J. Amer. Math. Soc. 18 (2005), 711-734.
MSC (2000): Primary 11H31; Secondary 11E57, 11J83, 55M10, 55N30
Posted: March 24, 2005
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Abstract: Let $A \subset {\operatorname{SL}}_n({\mathbb R})$ be the diagonal subgroup, and identify ${\operatorname{SL}}_n({\mathbb R})/ {\operatorname{SL}}_n({\mathbb Z})$ with the space of unimodular lattices in ${\mathbb R}^n$. In this paper we show that the closure of any bounded orbit

\begin{displaymath}A \cdot L \subset {\operatorname{SL}}_n({\mathbb R})/{\operatorname{SL}}_n({\mathbb Z}) \end{displaymath}

meets the set of well-rounded lattices. This assertion implies Minkowski's conjecture for $n=6$ and yields bounds for the density of algebraic integers in totally real sextic fields.

The proof is based on the theory of topological dimension, as reflected in the combinatorics of open covers of ${\mathbb R}^n$ and $T^n$.

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Additional Information:

Curtis T. McMullen
Affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Harvard University, 1 Oxford St, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138-2901

DOI: 10.1090/S0894-0347-05-00483-2
PII: S 0894-0347(05)00483-2
Received by editor(s): August 27, 2004
Posted: March 24, 2005
Additional Notes: Research partially supported by the NSF and the Guggenheim Foundation.
Copyright of article: Copyright 2005, American Mathematical Society
The copyright for this article reverts to public domain after 28 years from publication.

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