On the DOTU-factorization problem in dimension four (Q1865177)

Minkowski's conjecture concerning the product of \(n\) homogeneous linear forms in \(n\) variables can be stated as follows: Let \(\Lambda\) be a non-degenerate \(n\)-dimensional lattice with determinant \(d(\Lambda)\) and \(y\) in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), then there exists a point \(Z= (Z_1, Z_2,\dots, Z_n)^{\text{tr}}\) in the inhomogeneous lattice \(\Lambda+y\) such that \[ \Pi(Z)= |Z_1 Z_2 \dots Z_n|\leq 2^{-n} d(\Lambda). \] This conjecture has attracted important contributions from Minkowski, Remak, Birch, Swinnerton-Dyer, Dyson, Bambah, Woods, Skubenko, Saffari and others. For \(n>5\), the hypothesis still remains unsolved. The first significant result for general \(n\) was obtained by Chebotarev. This result was improved by Mordell, Davenport, Bombieri, Gruber and Skubenko. Let \(M(\Lambda)= \text{Max} \{\mu_\wedge(y): y\in \varphi(\Lambda)\}\) where \(\mu_\wedge(y)= \inf \{\prod(x-y) d(\Lambda)^{-1}: x\in \Lambda\}\), \(y\in \mathbb{R}^n\) and \(\varphi(\Lambda)\) is a set of representatives of \(\mathbb{R}^n/\Lambda\). A nonsingular \(n\times n\)-matrix \(A\) is called a Minkowski matrix if for the lattice \(\Lambda= A\mathbb{Z}^n\) we have \(M(A\mathbb{Z}^n)\leq 2^{-n}|\det A|\). Obviously, if all nonsingular \(n\times n\) matrices were Minkowski matrices, the Minkowski conjecture would be true in dimension \(n\). Schneider, Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer have given some classes of such matrices. \textit{A. M. Macbeath} [Proc. Glasg. Math. Assoc. 5, 86-89 (1961; Zbl 0098.26303)] established the Minkowski property for the DOTU-matrix (product of a nonsingular diagonal matrix, orthogonal, triangular with unit diagonal elements and an integer unimodular matrix). He also proved that each \(2\times 2\)-matrix can be represented in the DOTU form and any rational \(n\times n\)-matrix has some neighbourhood made up of a DOTU matrix. Narzullaev reproved independently the DOTU-property of \(2\times 2\)-matrices and proved it for \(3\times 3\)-matrices. There are remarkable interrelations of the above problems with the homogeneous minimum. Gruber had observed that the homogeneous minimum also plays a significant role in connection with Mordell's inverse problem. Gruber was the first to observe that in infinitely many dimensions there do exist matrices which are not factorizable in the DOTU form. A recent example by H. W. Lenstra jun. shows that in each dimension \(n\geq 64\) there exist non-factorizable matrices. The present paper reflects a further interrelation of the homogeneous minimum and the DOTU problem. It is shown here that any basis of a non-degenerate unimodular 4-dimensional lattice with sufficiently small homogeneous minimum \(\lambda(\Lambda)\leq \lambda_0\) can be written in the form DOTU. Here, \(\lambda_0\) is an absolute constant which can be determined explicitly.