We show that there is a set $S \subseteq {\mathbb N}$ with lower density arbitrarily close to $1$ such that, for each sufficiently large real number $\alpha $, the inequality $|m\alpha -n| \geq 1$ holds for every pair $(m,n) \in S^2$. On the other hand, if $S \subseteq {\mathbb N}$ has density $1$, then, for each irrational $\alpha>0$ and any positive $\varepsilon $, there exist $m,n \in S$ for which $|m\alpha -n|<\varepsilon $.

Let $\psi : \mathbb {N} \to [0,1/2]$ be given. The Duffin–Schaeffer conjecture, recently resolved by Koukoulopoulos and Maynard, asserts that for almost all reals $\alpha$ there are infinitely many coprime solutions $(p,q)$ to the inequality $|\alpha - p/q| < \psi (q)/q$, provided that the series $\sum _{q=1}^\infty \varphi (q) \psi (q) / q$ is divergent. In the present paper, we establish a quantitative version of this result, by showing that for almost all $\alpha$ the number of coprime solutions $(p,q)$, subject to $q \leq Q$, is of asymptotic order $\sum _{q=1}^Q 2 \varphi (q) \psi (q) / q$. The proof relies on the method of GCD graphs as invented by Koukoulopoulos and Maynard, together with a refined overlap estimate from sieve theory, and number-theoretic input on the ‘anatomy of integers’. The key phenomenon is that the system of approximation sets exhibits ‘asymptotic independence on average’ as the total mass of the set system increases.

Let q a prime power and ${\mathbb F}_q$ the finite field of q elements. We study the analogues of Mahler’s and Koksma’s classifications of complex numbers for power series in ${\mathbb F}_q((T^{-1}))$ . Among other results, we establish that both classifications coincide, thereby answering a question of Ooto.

Following T. H. Chan, we consider the problem of approximation of a given rational fraction a/q by sums of several rational fractions a1/q1,…,an/qn with smaller denominators. We show that in the special cases of n=3 and n=4 and certain admissible ranges for the denominators q1,…,qn, one can improve a result of T. H. Chan by using a different approach.

Explicit bounds for the Hurwitz constants for general cofinite Fuchsian groups have been found. It is shown that the bounds obtained are exact for the Hecke groups and triangular groups with signature (0 : 2, p, q).