The exceptional set for Diophantine approximation with mixed powers of prime variables

Abstract

Let lambda_1, λ_2, λ_3, λ_4 be non-zero real numbers, not all negative, with λ_1/λ_2 irrational and algebraic. Suppose that \mathcal{V} is a well-spaced sequence and δ>0. In this paper, it is proved that for any \varepsilon >0, the number of v \in \mathcal{V} with v \leqslant N for which |λ_1 p_1^2 + λ_2 p_2^3+ λ_3 p_3^4+ λ_4 p_4^5 - v| < v^{-δ} has no solution in prime variables p_1,p_2,p_3,p_4 does not exceed O\big(N^{\frac{359}{378} + 2δ+\varepsilon}\big). This result constitutes an improvement upon that of Q. W. Mu and Z. P. Gao [12].