Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 May 2015
Let $\Vert \cdot \Vert$ denote the distance to the nearest integer and, for a prime number
$p$, let
$|\cdot |_{p}$ denote the
$p$-adic absolute value. Over a decade ago, de Mathan and Teulié [Problèmes diophantiens simultanés, Monatsh. Math. 143 (2004), 229–245] asked whether
$\inf _{q\geqslant 1}$
$q\cdot \Vert q{\it\alpha}\Vert \cdot |q|_{p}=0$ holds for every badly approximable real number
${\it\alpha}$ and every prime number
$p$. Among other results, we establish that, if the complexity of the sequence of partial quotients of a real number
${\it\alpha}$ grows too rapidly or too slowly, then their conjecture is true for the pair
$({\it\alpha},p)$ with
$p$ an arbitrary prime.