Class numbers of imaginary cyclic quartic fields and related quaternary systems (Q799727)

Let \(q\equiv 5 (mod 8)\) be a prime \(>5\), so that there exist integers \(a\equiv 1 (mod 2)\) and \(b\equiv 0 (mod 2)\) such that \(q=a^ 2+b^ 2.\) The class number of the imaginary cyclic quartic field \(K={\mathbb{Q}}(i\sqrt{2q+2a\sqrt{q}})={\mathbb{Q}}(i\sqrt{2q-2a\sqrt{q}})\) is denoted by h(K). Independently in 1980 the author and the reviewer, and B. Setzer, gave slightly different explicit formulae for h(K). The author gives a proof of the Hudson-Williams formula and shows that it is equivalent to Setzer's formula. He then discusses the solvability of the quaternary quadratic diophantine system \[ 16p^ k=x^ 2+2qu^ 2+2qv^ 2+qw^ 2,\quad xw=av^ 2- 2buv-au^ 2,\quad GCD(x,u,v,w,p)=1, \] for \(k\geq 1\). It is shown that the solvability of this system depends upon the relative class number \(h^*=h(K)/h({\mathbb{Q}}(\sqrt{q})).\)