Extensions of the Cugiani-Mahler theorem

In 1955, Roth established that if $\xi$ is an irrational number such that there are a positive real number $\epsilon$ and infinitely many rational numbers $p/q$ with $q\ge 1$ and $|\xi -p/q|<q^{-2-\epsilon }$, then $\xi$ is transcendental. A few years later, Cugiani obtained the same conclusion with $\epsilon$ replaced by a function $q\mapsto \epsilon \left(q\right)$ that decreases very slowly to zero, provided that the sequence of rational solutions to $|\xi -p/q|<q^{-2-\epsilon \left(q\right)}$ is sufficiently dense, in a suitable sense. We give an alternative, and much simpler, proof of Cugiani’s Theorem and extend it to simultaneous approximation.