I am highly interested in doing research in either of

1- Transcendental Number Theory and Algebraic Independence;

2- Diophantine Approximation and Geometry of Numbers.

There is no person working on these areas in the university that I want to study MSc. So I have to choose a "closer" research area for MSc so that I can switch the subject to work on the mentioned primary research interests of mine for PhD.

The reason that I am asking this from this community is because I can't get advice from the faculty: I need to choose the area of research before meeting the would-be supervisor because I want to be prepared by reading some of his/her papers beforehand (like preparing for an interview) to get a chance of admission...

The list of areas of research in the department are:

1- Analytic Number Theory, Additive Problems in Number Theory, Sparse Sequences, Exponential/Character Sums, Automorphic Forms and L-Functions, Density Theorems;

2- Algebraic Number Theory, Elliptic Curves, Complex Multiplication,The Class Numbers of Ray Class Fields of Imaginary Quadratic Fields, Arithmetically Exceptional Mappings;

3- Functional Analysis.

Which area of research is the closest to 1- Transcendental Number Theory and Algebraic Independence, or/and Diophantine Approximation and Geometry of Numbers?

Thank you!