Quadratische Ordnungen mit großer Klassenzahl. (Quadratic orders with large class number) (Q911648)

In connection with the class number one problem, many results on lower bounds for the class number of real quadratic fields are recently obtained by using diophantine equation theory [the reviewer, Proc. Int. Conf. Katata/Jap., 125-137 (1986; Zbl 0612.12010), Adv. Stud. Pure Math. 13, 493-501 (1988; Zbl 0664.10002), \textit{R. A. Mollin}, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 101, 439-444 (1987; Zbl 0632.12006)] and by using continued fraction theory [\textit{T. Azuhata}, Tokyo J. Math. 10, 259-270 (1987; Zbl 0659.12008), \textit{S. Louboutin}, J. Number Theory 30, No.2, 167-176 (1988; Zbl 0652.12002)], respectively. In this paper, the author intends to generalize and improve these already known results. Namely, he considers generally the quadratic orders and obtains a general theorem on lower bounds for the class number, which is applicable directly for imaginary quadratic orders and is available for real quadratic orders if we have norms of reduced principal ideals, especially the continued fraction expansion of the basis element of the order.