Bass Note Spectra of Binary Forms

Abstract

We show that the spectrum of every $\mathbb{R}-$isotropic homogeneous binary form $P$ of degree $n\geq3$ is an interval of the form $[0,M_P],$ where $M_P$ is some positive constant. This completes the discussion around a conjecture of Mordell from 1940 (disproved by Davenport) regarding the existence of spectral gaps for binary cubic forms and further settles Mahler's program for binary forms of every degree.