Some results connected with the class number problem in real quadratic fields (Q2581247)

Let \(K=\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d})/\mathbb{Q}\) be a real quadratic field, where \(d\) is a square free positive natural number. Let \(h(d)\) be the class number of \(K\). A well known result of Hasse says that if \(h(d)=1\), then \(d=p\), \(2q\) or \(qr\), where \(p\), \(q\) and \(r\) are prime numbers and \(q\equiv r \equiv 3\bmod 4\). The main purpose of the paper is to prove the above result by a new method. The proof consists in defining \(4\) subsets \(A, B, C, D\) of \(\mathbb{N}\), reformulating the result of Hasse as follows: if \(d\in A\cup B\cup C \cup D\), then \(h(d)>1\), and proving some elementary properties of these subsets in terms of the Legendre symbol.