TITLE: Find closest integers in Euclidean rings
QUESTION [9 upvotes]: Assume that $K$ is a number field such that $\mathcal{O}_K$ is a norm-Euclidean ring. I am looking for an efficient algorithm that given an element $x\in K$, find an integer $y\in\mathcal{O}_K$ that is closest to $x$ with respect to the norm, i.e. $N(x-y)$ is minimum (at most the Euclidean minimum $m(K)$).
For $K=\mathbb{Q}[i]$ and $\mathcal{O}_K=\mathbb{Z}[i]$ is the Gaussian ring, it is easy by rounding, i.e., for $x=a+ib\in K$, then $y=a'+ib'$ with $a'$ and $b'$ are the integers nearest to $a$ and $b$ respectively. In this case the Euclidean minimum is $m(K)=\frac{1}{2}$, i.e. $N(x-y)\leq\frac{1}{2}$.
For Eisenstein ring $\mathbb{Z}[w]$ where $w^2+w+1=0$, then for given $x=a+bw\in \mathbb{Q}(w)$, the norm is $N(x)= a^2+b^2-ab$ and it is known that $m(K) =\frac{1}{3}$ and rounding does not work as in the case of Gaussian integers. A naive approach can be done as follows:
$$N(x-y)= (a-a')^2+(b-b')^2-(a-a')(b-b')=(a-a'-\frac{b-b'}{2})^2 + \frac{3}{4}(b-b')^2$$
and let $b'$ is the rounding of $b$, then $a'$ is the rounding of $a-\frac{b-b'}{2}$, but what we obtain is that $N(x-y)$ is upper-bounded by $\frac{7}{16}$, not $m(K)=\frac{1}{3}$ as desired.
Could anyone please give me some references for such algorithms for Euclidean rings?
Many thanks in advance!

REPLY [5 votes]: For in depth information I would suggest  the well regarded survey  The Euclidean Algorithm in Algebraic Number Fields by Franz Lemmermeyer. 
There are a fair number of known norm Euclidean rings $\mathcal{O}_K$, though not a huge number. Only a few are commonly encountered so I would ask which ones you really care about and suggest looking at those specifically.
Let me start with some specifics and then make some general remarks.
COMPLEX QUADRADIC NORM-EUCLIDEAN RINGS
There are exactly five of these, they come from   $\mathbb{Q}[\sqrt{-m}]$ for $m=1,2,3,7,11.$ In the first two cases the ring has basis $\{1,\sqrt{-m}\}$ and embedded in $\mathbb{C}$ is tiled by recatangles. For those two your natural rounding works. For the other three a convenient basis is any two of  $\{1,\frac{-1+\sqrt{-m}}2\,\frac{1+\sqrt{-m}}2\}.$ Here is the picture for your case of $m=-3.$ 

The small dot is $$2\frac6{13}-\frac5{13}\omega=2\frac{11}{13}-\frac5{13}\alpha=2\frac{6}{13}\alpha-2\frac{11}{13}\omega.$$ Naive rounding takes it to to $2,3$ and $2\alpha-3\omega=2-\omega$ respectively. However the actual tiling makes it clear where the closest thing is. The cases $m=-7,-11$ are similar but there is not the rotational symmetry. 
In these cases $x+y\sqrt{-m}$ has norm $|x^2+my^2|$ so can't be small unless both $x$ and $y$ are, this is why the naive rounding is almost optimal.

REAL QUADRADIC NORM-EUCLIDEAN RINGS
There are exactly $16$ of these. They come from $\mathbb{Q}[\sqrt{m}]$ for $m=2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 21, 29, 33, 37, 41, 57, 73.$ 
The norm sends $x+y\sqrt{m}$ to $|x^2-my^2|$ so the smallest results may only come from large $x,y.$ 
Consider the case $m=2$ and a point $B=\frac{p}{q}+\frac{p'}q\sqrt{2} \in \mathbb{Q}[\sqrt{2}].$ Certainly the minimum norm of $A-B$ for $A=s+t\sqrt{2}\in\mathbb{Z}[\sqrt{2}]$ is a positive fraction $\frac{r}{q^2},$ but it might be tricky to find. If we manage to find $r=1,$ that is surely optimal.
For $B=\frac5{11}+\frac{16}{33}\sqrt{2}$ each of $0,1,\sqrt{2}$ and $1+\sqrt{2}$ gives a norm of about $\frac14$. The exact norms are $\frac{287}{1089},\frac{188}{1089},\frac{353}{1089}$ and $\frac{254}{1089}$ respectively. There are only two results that good for $A=x+y\sqrt{2}$ with $-2000 \leq x \leq 2000.$ However they are $A=-37-26\sqrt{2}$ and $A=-13+10\sqrt{2}$ both giving a norm (for the difference) of $\frac{56}{1089}.$ I suspect that is closest but don't actually know.
Often one of the four obvious choices is as good as any other choice, and few cases I found are as extreme as this one.

COMMENTS
I like the question but wonder about the motivation. One motivation might be to compute $\gcd(a,b)$ efficiently with the Euclidean algorithm.
For example in $\mathbb{Z}$ the move is  $\gcd(a,b)\rightarrow \gcd(b,r)$ where $a=bq+r$ and $0 \lt r \lt b.$ It is known that in a certain sense the worst case is consecutive Fibonacci numbers. For example $$(55,34) \rightarrow (34,21) \rightarrow(21,13) \rightarrow (13,8) \rightarrow(8,5) \rightarrow (5,3) \rightarrow(3,2) \rightarrow(2,1)$$ is $7$ moves.
However, $\gcd(b,r)=\gcd(b,b-r)$ and the second seems likely to be more efficient when it is smaller. Hence:
$$(55,34) \rightarrow(34,13) \rightarrow(13,5) \rightarrow(5,2) \rightarrow(2,1)$$ is only $4$ moves. Essentially we rounded $\frac{55}{34}$ up to the nearest integer $2$ and wrote $55=34\cdot 2-13$ instead of $55=34 \cdot 1 +21.$
Before going on I'll note that there is sometimes no loss in using the larger of the two remainders, The remainder $13$ is quite a bit smaller that $21$ but an equally short computation is 
$$(55,34) \rightarrow(34,21) \rightarrow(21,8) \rightarrow(8,3) \rightarrow(3,1).$$
I rather suspect that it is never better to use the larger of $r,b-r$ but I have no proof.
If we were trying to find $\gcd(r+s\sqrt{2},t+u\sqrt{2})$ we would go to $\gcd(t+u\sqrt{2},v+w\sqrt{2})$ where $v+w\sqrt{2}=r+s\sqrt{2} -(a+b\sqrt{2})(t+u\sqrt{2})$ and $a+b\sqrt{2} \in \mathbb{Z}[\sqrt{2}]$ somehow chosen to be close to $\alpha+\beta\sqrt{2}=\frac{r+s\sqrt{2}}{t+u\sqrt{2}}\in \mathbb{Q}[\sqrt{2}].$ Could we get less iterations by working hard to make $v+w\sqrt{2}$ have a very small norm relative to $|r^2-2s^2|$, perhaps at the cost of $v,w$ being larger than any of $r,s,t,u?$ It isn't clear. It could be worse. The naive approach does make $v,w$ smaller than $r,s,t,u$ and the norm at each stage is an integer no more than $\frac14$ the previous norm. So the easy to compute naive approximation does give exponential convergence.