On the content bound for real quadratic field extensions (Q402291)

Summary: Let \(K\) be a finite extension of \(\mathbb Q\) and let \(S=\{\nu\}\) denote the collection of normalized absolute values on \(K\). Let \(V_K^+\) denote the additive group of adeles over \(K\) and let \(\mathbf c:V_K^+\to\mathbb R_{\geq 0}\) denote the content map defined as \(\mathbf c(\{a_v\})=\prod_{\nu\in S}\nu(a_\nu)\) for \(\{a_\nu\}\in V_K^+\). A classical result of \textit{J. W. S. Cassels} [Global fields. In: Algebraic number theory. Proceedings of an instructional conference organized by the London Mathematical Society. London and New York: Academic Press. (1967; Zbl 0153.07403)] states that there is a constant \(c>0\) depending only on the field \(K\) with the following property: if \(\{a_\nu\}\in V_K^+\) with \(\mathbf c(\{a_\nu\})>c\), then there exists a non-zero element \(b\in K\) for which \(\nu(b)\leq\nu(a_\nu)\), \(\forall\,\nu\in S\). Let \(c_K\) be the greatest lower bound of the set of all \(c\) that satisfy this property. In the case that \(K\) is a real quadratic extension there is a known upper bound for \(c_K\) due to S. Lang. The purpose of this paper is to construct a new upper bound for \(c_K\) in the case that \(K\) has class number one. We compare our new bound with Lang's bound for various real quadratic extensions and find that our new bound is better than Lang's in many instances.