Let K be an algebraic number field, [ K:
] = KΣ
. Most of what we shall discuss is trivial when K =
, so that we assume that K ≥ 2 from now onwards. To describe our results, we consider the classical device [2] of Minkowski, whereby K is embedded (diagonally-) into the direct product MK of its completions at its (inequivalent) infinite places. Thus MK is
-algebra isomorphic to
, and is to be regarded as a topological
-algebra, dimRMK = K, in which K is everywhere dense, while the ring Zx of integers of K embeds as a discrete
-submodule of rank K. Following the ideas implicit in Hecke's fundamental papers [6] we may measure the “spatial distribution” of points of MK (modulo units of
κ) by means of a canonical projection onto a certain torus
. The principal application of our main results (Theorems I–III described below) is to the study of the spatial distribution of the
which have a fixed norm n = NK/Q(α). In §2 we shall show that, with suitable interpretations, for “typical” n (for which NK/Q(α) = n is soluble), these α have “almost uniform” spatial distribution under the canonical projection onto TK. Analogous questions have been considered by several authors (see, e.g., [5, 9, 14]), but in all cases, they have considered weighted averages over such n of a type which make it impossible to make useful statements for “typical” n.