Connections of Class Numbers to the Group Structure of Generalized Pythagorean Triples

Authors Thomas Jaklitsch, Thomas C. Martinez, Steven J. Miller, Sagnik Mukherjee

Publication date 7 December 2021

Quadratic and bilinear Diophantine equations (11D09) Class numbers of quadratic and Hermitian forms (11E41)

Abstract: Two well-studied Diophantine equations are those of Pythagorean triples and elliptic curves; for the first, we have a parametrization through rational points on the unit circle, and for the second we have a structure theorem for the group of rational solutions. Recently Yekutieli discussed a connection between these two problems and described the group structure of Pythagorean triples and the number of triples for a given hypotenuse. We generalize these methods and results to Pell's equation. We find a similar group structure and count on the number of solutions for a given

z

to

x^{2} + D y^{2} = z^{2}

when

D

is 1 or 2 modulo 4 and the class group of

m a t h b b Q [s q r t - D]

is a free

m a t h b b Z_{2}

module, which always happens if the class number is at most 2. We give examples of when the results hold for a class number greater than 2, as well as an example with different behavior when the class group does not have this structure.

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