Questions tagged [quadratic-forms]
Algebraic and geometric theory of quadratic forms and symmetric bilinear forms, e.g., values attained by quadratic forms, isotropic subspaces, the Witt ring, invariants of quadratic forms, the discriminant and Clifford algebra of a quadratic form, Pfister forms, automorphisms of quadratic forms.
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Zagier's one-sentence proof of a theorem of Fermat
Zagier has a very short proof (MR1041893, JSTOR) for the fact that every prime number $p$ of the form $4k+1$ is the sum of two squares.
The proof defines an involution of the set $S= \lbrace (x,y,z) \...
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Can a positive binary quadratic form represent 14 consecutive numbers?
NEW CONJECTURE: There is no general upper bound.
Wadim Zudilin suggested that I make this a separate question. This follows
representability of consecutive integers by a binary quadratic form
where ...
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When does $axy+byz+czx$ represent all integers?
For which $a,b,c$ does $axy+byz+czx$ represent all integers?
In a recent answer, I conjectured that this holds whenever $\gcd(a,b,c)=1$, and I hope someone will know. I also conjectured that $axy+byz+...
user44143
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Which quaternary quadratic form represents $n$ the greatest number of times?
Let $Q$ be a four-variable positive-definite quadratic form with integer coefficients and let $r_{Q}(n)$ be the number of representations of $n$ by $Q$. The theory of modular forms explains how $r_{Q}(...
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two's and three's survive in gcd of Lagrange
Lagrange's four square_theorem states that every positive integer $N$ can be written as a sum of four squares of integers. At present, let's focus only on positive integer summands; that is, $N=a_1^2+...
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Simple conjecture about rational orthogonal matrices and lattices
The following conjecture grew out of thinking about topological phases of matter. Despite being very elementary to state, it has evaded proof both by me and by everyone I've asked so far. The ...
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Wanted: Quadratic Space in Characteristic 2 as a Counterexample to a Theorem of Arf
Hi. Peter Roquette sent me an email asking for an example of a quadratic space in characteristic 2 having certain features. I have no idea on this, but maybe someone reading this does.
He would ...
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Must a ring which admits a Euclidean quadratic form be Euclidean?
The question is in the title, but employs some private terminology, so I had better explain.
Let $R$ be an integral domain with fraction field $K$, and write $R^{\bullet}$ for $R \setminus \{0\}$. ...
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A list of proofs of the Hasse–Minkowski theorem
I am currently doing a project in which I intend to include the most insightful possible proof of the Hasse–Minkowski theorem (also known as the Hasse principle for quadratic forms, among other names) ...
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Non-diagonalizable complex symmetric matrix
This is a question in elementary linear algebra, though I hope it's not so trivial to be closed.
Real symmetric matrices, complex hermitian matrices, unitary matrices, and complex matrices with ...
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Why are there usually an even number of representations as a sum of 11 squares
Question: Why do so few $n\equiv 3 \bmod 8$ have an odd number of representations in the form $$n=x_0^2 + x_1^2 + \dots + x_{10}^2$$ with $x_i \geq 0$?
Note that $x_i\geq 0$ spoils the symmetry ...
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Rationality of intersection of quadrics
Let $X \subset \mathbb{P}^n$ be a complete intersection of two quadrics. It is classical that, if $X$ contains a line, then it is rational. The proof is very simple and basically it is given by taking ...
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Primes of the form $x^2+ny^2+mz^2$ and congruences.
This is a sequel of this question where I asked for which positive integer $n$ the
set of primes of the former $x^2+ny^2$ was defined by congruences (a set of primes $P$ is defined by congruences if ...
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Simultaneous "orthonormalization" in $\mathbb{C}^4$
Let $A$ be a positive, invertible $4 \times 4$ hermitian complex matrix.
So we have a positive sesquilinear form $\langle Av,w\rangle$. Say that a pair $(v,w)$ of vectors in $\mathbb{C}^4$ is good ...
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Does this variant of a theorem of Hasse (really due to Gauss) have an "elementary" proof?
BACKGROUND
Here are 3 theorems of varying difficulty. Let $M$ be the $Z/2$ subspace of $Z/2[[x]]$ spanned by $f^k$, with the $k>0$ and odd, and $f=x+x^9+x^{25}+x^{49}+\cdots$. For $g$ in $M$, let $...
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A Priori proof that Covering Radius strictly less than $\sqrt 2$ implies class number one
It turns out that each of Pete L. Clark's "euclidean" quadratic forms, as long as it has coefficients in the rational integers $\mathbb Z$ and is positive, is in a genus containing only one ...
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History of "no positive definite ternary integral quadratic form is universal"?
I am currently leading a graduate student research group on geometry of numbers (henceforth GoN) and its Diophantine applications, especially to quadratic forms. In an early lecture I gave a bit of a ...
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Quaternary quadratic forms and Elliptic curves via Langlands?
The content of this note was the topic of a lecture by Günter Harder at the School on Automorphic Forms, Trieste 2000. The actual problem comes from the article
A little bit of number theory by ...
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On Siegel mass formula
I have asked this question exactly here. The question is as follows:
I am interested deeply in the following problem:
Let $f$ be a (fixed) positive definite quadratic form; and let $n$ be an ...
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Many representations as a sum of three squares
Let $r_3(n) = \left|\{(a,b,c)\in {\mathbb Z}^3 :\, a^2+b^2+c^2=n \}\right|$. I am looking for the maximum asymptotic size of $r_3(n)$. That is, the maximum number of representations that a number can ...
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What is known about primes of the form $x^2-2y^2$?
David Cox's book Primes of The Form: $x^2+ny^2$ does a great job proving and motivating a lot of results for $n>0$. I was unable to find anything for negative numbers, let alone the case I am ...
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The number 1680 and Lagrange's four-square theorem
The number $1680$ has the factorization $2^4\times3\times5\times7$. Rather to my surprise, I found that this number has certain mysterious connection with Lagrange's four-square theorem.
QUESTION: ...
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Positive quadratic polynomial
Let $S$ be solutions of a system of quadratic polynomials on $\mathbb{R}^n$.
Suppose $q$ is another quadratic polynomial such that $q|_S\geqslant 0$.
Is it possible to find a polynomial $\tilde q$ ...
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Primes and $x^2+2y^2+4z^2$
A few months ago, I have asked a question about primes represented by ternary quadratic forms. I got two wonderful answers, which showed me how the theory was way richer and more complex that I ...
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The Green-Tao theorem and positive binary quadratic forms
Some time ago I asked a question on consecutive numbers represented integrally by an integral positive binary quadratic form. It has occurred to me that, instead, the Green-Tao theorem may include a ...
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Is there an approach to understanding solution counts to quadratic forms that doesn't involve modular forms?
Given a quadratic form Q in k variables, there is an associated theta series $$\theta_Q(z) = \sum_{x\in \mathbb{Z}^k}q^{Q(x)}$$ where $q = e^{2\pi i z}$ which is a modular form of weight $k/2$. Thus ...
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Quadratic forms and $p$-adic integers
I want to prove a result on equivalences of quadratic forms over $\mathbb{Q}_p$, with a control on the height of the change-of-basis matrix.
(I am more generally interested in hermitian forms over ...
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Do almost all systems of quadratic equations have solutions?
If I have a system of linear equations, $A x = c$, with $A$ an $n\times n$ complex matrix, it is relatively easy to see that the set of matrices $A$ for which there is no (complex) solution has ...
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Achieving consecutive integers as norms from a quadratic field
This question is inspired by my inability to make any progress on Will Jagy's question.
Giving a positive answer to this question should be strictly easier than proving Jagy's conjectures.
Suppose ...
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orbits of automorphism group for indefinite lattices
I have a question about indefinite lattices.
QUESTION: Let $\Lambda\times\Lambda\rightarrow {\Bbb Z}$ be a lattice,
that is, ${\Bbb Z}^n$ with a non-degenerate integer quadratic form,
not necessarily ...
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Clifford PBW theorem for quadratic form
$\DeclareMathOperator\Cl{Cl}$Update Feb 3 '12: now with a question 2 which is much more elementary (and should be well-known!).
Let $k$ be a commutative ring with $1$. Let $L$ be a $k$-module, and $g:...
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Cohomological interpretations of quadratic form invariants over rings?
The standard approach to classifying of quadratic forms over $\Bbb Q$ is to use the Hasse (local-global) principle together with a system of standard invariants of quadratic forms over the local ...
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Can you efficiently solve a system of quadratic multivariate polynomials?
Given a system of 2nd-degree polynomials, $P=\{p_1,\dots,p_m\}$ where $p_i: \mathbb{R}^n \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$, can you efficiently find a common zero of all of these polynomials? In other words, ...
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Upper bound on answer for Pell equation
A user on MSE, @martin , asked https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1611411/pell-equations-upper-bound about an upper bound for $x$ in $x^2 - p y^2 = 1,$ when $p$ is prime. I checked, it appears ...
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Is -1 a sum of 2 squares in a certain field K?
Consider the field of fractions $K$
of the quotient algebra $\mathbb{R}[x,y,z,t]/(x^2+y^2+z^2+t^2+1)$,
where $\mathbb{R}$ is the field of real numbers and $x,y,z,t$ are variables.
Clearly $-1$ is a ...
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primes represented by an indefinite binary quadratic form
Suppose I have a form $$ f(x,y) = a x^2 + b x y + c y^2, $$ with $a,b,c$ integers, $\gcd(a,b,c)=1$ and $\Delta = b^2 - 4 a c > 0,$ but $\Delta \neq n^2$ for any integer $n.$
Do there exist (...
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A criterion for real-rooted polynomials with nonnegative coefficients
Let $P \in \mathbb{R}[X]$, with $\deg P = n$. Is it true that
$P$ has only real roots $\quad \Longleftrightarrow \quad P\cdot P'' + (\frac{1}{n}-1)P'^2 \leq 0$ ?
The direct implication can be shown ...
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Positive 4-form
Denote by $W$ the space of all symmetric bilinear forms on $\mathbb{R}^n$.
Let $Q$ be a quadratic form on $W$.
Suppose that $Q(b)\geqslant 0$ for any $b\in W$ such that $b(X,Y)=\ell(X)\cdot\ell(Y)$ ...
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A diophantine equation in $\mathbb{N}$
While I was working on a paper on graph theory, I encountered a problem which I think is a number-theory-problem. I don't know if there are any tools to answer the question.
Find all natural numbers $...
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On the positive definiteness of a linear combination of matrices
In my work in PDE, the following problem in linear algebra came up. Any help in this direction is appreciated.
QUESTION:
Let $m,n\in\mathbb{N}$ and let $A_1,\ldots, A_m\in M_n(\mathbb{R})$ be real, ...
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Orthogonal group of quadratic form
Orthogonal group of the quadratic form over fields, somehow, is well-studied. Indeed
E. Cartan has proved for quadratic forms over the reals or complexes that any
orthogonal transformation is a ...
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"Pythagoras number" for integral matrices
It is classically known that every positive integer is a sum of at most four squares of integers, i.e. every sum of squares of integers is a sum of four squares of integers. Now consider a symmetric $...
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2-dimensional sublattices with all vectors having very big square (in absolute value)
QUESTION: Let $\Lambda\times\Lambda\rightarrow {\Bbb Z}$ be a lattice,
that is, ${\Bbb Z}^n$ with a non-degenerate integer quadratic form, not
definite, not necessarily unimodular, $n>2$. I want ...
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Integral positive definite quadratic forms and graphs
Let me start with a question for which I know the answer. Consider a symmetric integral $n\times n$ matrix $A=(a_{ij})$ such that $a_{ii}=2$, and for $i\ne j$ one has $a_{ij}=0$ or $-1$. One can ...
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Would a closed universe with special relativity violate causality? Does the universe have to be simply connected?
This question may be more appropriate for physics.stackexchange.com, but it would be helpful to get feedback from experts in Minkowski geometry.
The classic twin paradox is a false thought experiment ...
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What numbers are integrally represented by $4 x^2 + 2 x y + 7 y^2 - z^3$
This is related to my first MO question and Kevin Buzzard's conjecture at
Integers not represented by $ 2 x^2 + x y + 3 y^2 + z^3 - z $
In December 2010 my question appeared in the M.A.A. Monthly, ...
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Positive primes represented by indefinite binary quadratic form
Neil Sloane asked me about commands in computer languages to find the (positive) primes represented by indefinite binary quadratic forms. So I wrote something in C++ that works. This is for the OEIS, ...
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1
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How to describe all integer solutions to $x^2+y^2=3z^2+1$?
The question is in the title. Here is a short motivation. The general quadratic Diophantine equation is
$$
x^TAx+bx+c=0,
$$
where $x$ is a vector of $n$ variables, $A$ is $n \times n$ matrix with ...
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Fundamental units with norm $-1$ in real quadratic fields
If we have distinct primes $p \equiv q \equiv 1 \pmod 4,$ with Legendre $(p|q) = (q|p) = -1,$ there is a solution to $u^2 - pq v^2 = -1$ in integers and the fundamental unit of $O_{\mathbb Q(\sqrt{pq})...
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Primes $ 1 + x^2 + y^2$
EDIT, Saturday 11:32 am, March 24: a complete answer for $4 + x^2 + y^2$ and generally $4 m^2 + x^2 + y^2$ for fixed $m$ is given in Friedlander and Iwaniec page 282, Theorem 14.8. We might also ...
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