On the nonarchimedean quadratic Lagrange spectra

Abstract

We study Diophantine approximation in completions of functions fields over finite fields, and in particular in fields of formal Laurent series over finite fields. We introduce a Lagrange spectrum for the approximation by orbits of quadratic irrationals under the modular group. We give nonarchimedean analogs of various well known results in the real case: the closedness and boundedness of the Lagrange spectrum, the existence of a Hall ray, as well as computations of various Hurwitz constants. We use geometric methods of group actions on Bruhat-Tits trees.