The infimum in the metric Mahler measure

Abstract

Dubickas and Smyth defined the metric Mahler measure on the multiplicative group of non-zero algebraic numbers. The definition involves taking an infimum over representations of an algebraic number $\alpha$ by other algebraic numbers. We verify their conjecture that the infimum in its definition is always achieved as well as establish its analog for the ultrametric Mahler measure.