To determine whether a number is congruent or not is an old and difficult topic and progress is slow. The paper presents a new theorem when a prime number is a congruent number or not. The proof is not necessarily any simpler or shorter than existing proofs, but the method may be useful in other contexts. The proof of Theorem 1 tracks the set of solutions and this set branches as a binary tree. Conditions set to the theorem restricts the branches so that only one branch is left. Following this branch gives either a solution or a contradiction. In Theorem 1 it leads to a contradiction. The interest is in the proof method, which maybe can be generalized to non-primes.
This paper discusses prime numbers that are (resp. are not) congruent numbers. Particularly the only case not fully covered by earlier results, namely primes of the form $p=8k+1$, receives attention.
In this paper, we use the 2-decent method to find a series of odd non-congruent numbers $\equiv1\pmod 8$ whose prime factors are $\equiv1\pmod4$ such that the congruent elliptic curves have second lowest Selmer groups, which includes Li and Tian's result (Li and Tian, 2000) as special cases.
Shiu proved that if a and q are arbitrary coprime integers, then there exist arbitrarily long strings of consecutive primes which are all congruent to a modulo q. We generalize Shiu's theorem to imaginary quadratic fields, where we prove the existence of "bubbles" containing arbitrarily many primes which are all, up to units, congruent to a modulo q.
For fixed $q\in\{3,7,11,19, 43,67,163\}$, we consider the density of primes $p$ congruent to $1$ modulo $4$ such that the class group of the number field $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-qp})$ has order divisible by $16$. We show that this density is equal to $1/8$, in line with a more general conjecture of Gerth. Vinogradov's method is the key analytic tool for our work.
We consider the problem of determining whether a given prime p is a congruent number. We present an easily computed criterion that allows us to conclude that certain primes for which congruency was previously undecided, are in fact not congruent. As a result, we get additional information on the possible sizes of Tate-Shafarevich groups of the associated elliptic curves. We also present a related criterion for primes p such that 16 divides the class number of the imaginary quadratic field Q(sqrt(-p)). Both results are based on descent methods. While we cannot show for either criterion individu…
Let $p_1 = 2, p_2 = 3,...$ be the sequence of all primes. Let $ε$ be an arbitrarily small but fixed positive number, and fix a coprime pair of integers $q \ge 3$ and $a$. We will establish a lower bound for the number of primes $p_r$, up to $X$, such that both $p_{r+1} - p_{r} < ε\log p_r$ and $p_{r} \equiv p_{r+1} \equiv a \bmod q$ simultaneously hold. As a lower bound for the number of primes satisfying the latter condition, the bound we obtain improves upon a bound obtained by D. Shiu.
Let $p$ be an odd prime. We attach appropriate signed Selmer groups to an elliptic curve $E$, where $E$ is assumed to have semistable reduction at all primes above $p$. We then compare the Iwasawa $λ$-invariants of these signed Selmer groups for two congruent elliptic curves over the cyclotomic $\mathbb{Z}_p$-extension in the spirit of Greenberg-Vatsal and B. D. Kim. As an application of our comparsion formula, we show that if the $p$-parity conjecture is true for one of the congruent elliptic curves, then it is also true for the other elliptic curve. In the midst of proving this latter result…
Mohammed Ben Alhocain, in an Arab manuscript of the tenth century, stated that the principal object of the theory of rational right triangles is to find a square which when increased or diminished by a certain number $m$ becomes a square (see Dickson). In modern language, this object is to find a rational point of infinite order on the elliptic curve $my^2=x^3-x$. Heegner constructed (see also Monsky) such rational points in the case that $m$ are primes congruent to 5, 7 modulo 8 or twice primes congruent to 6 modulo 8. We extend Heegner's result to integers $m$ with many prime divisors.
In this paper, $p$ and $q$ are two different odd primes. First, We construct the congruent elliptic curves corresponding to $p$, $2p$, $pq$, and $2pq,$ then, in the cases of congruent numbers, we determine the rank of the corresponding congruent elliptic curves.
A positive integer $A$ is called a congruent number if $A$ is the area of a right-angled triangle with three rational sides. Equivalently, $A$ is a congruent number if and only if the congruent number curve $y^2=x^3-A^2x$ has a rational point $(x,y)\in\mathbb Q^2$ with $y\neq 0$. Using a theorem of Fermat, we give an elementary proof for the fact that congruent number curves do not contain rational points of finite order.
Let $n$ be a positive square-free integer, where every odd prime factor of $n$ has form $8a\pm 1$. We determine when $n$ is non-congruent with second minimal $2$-primary Shafarevich-Tate group, in terms of the $4$-ranks of class groups and a Jacobi symbol. In particular, when every odd prime factor of $n$ has form $8a+1$, this condition is equivalent to the vanishing of the $4$-rank of the tame kernel of $\mathbb Q(\sqrt{n})$ for odd $n$, or $\mathbb Q(\sqrt{-n})$ for even $n$. This generalizes previous results.
We demonstrate the existence of a congruence class bias in the distribution of supersingular primes on average for elliptic curves over $\Q$. For example, we show that on average there are twice as many supersingular primes congruent to 2 mod 3 as there are congruent to 1 mod 3. Our result is obtained using the averaging approach of Fouvry-Murty along with ideas of David-Pappalardi.
We present an elementary exposition of the descent method used by Komoto, Watanabe and Wada to show $N=42553$ is a congruent number. We generalize to $N=7p$ with $p$ prime, and try to present the method such that an amateur could understand and perform their own calculations.
For any $ε>0$, there exists $q_0(ε)$ such for any $q\ge q_0(ε)$ and any invertible residue class $a$ modulo $q$, there exists a natural number that is congruent to $a$ modulo $q$ and that is the product of exactly three primes, all of which are below $q^{\frac{3}{2}+ε}$. If we restrict our attention to odd moduli $q$ that do not have prime factors congruent to 1 mod 4, we can find such primes below $q^{\frac{11}{8}+ε}$. If we further restrict our set of moduli to prime $q$ that are such that $(q-1,4\cdot7\cdot11\cdot17\cdot23\cdot29)=2$, we can find such primes below $q^{\frac{6}{5}+ε}$. Final…
A recent paper of Shekhar compares the ranks of elliptic curves $E_1$ and $E_2$ for which there is an isomorphism $E_1[p] \simeq E_2[p]$ as $\mathrm{Gal}(\bar{\mathbf{Q}}/\mathbf{Q})$-modules, where $p$ is a prime of good ordinary reduction for both curves. In this paper we prove an analogous result in the case where $p$ is a prime of good supersingular reduction.
We take an approach toward counting the number of n for which the curves E_n: y^2=x^3-n^2x have 2-Selmer groups of a given size. This question was also discussed in a pair of Invent. Math. papers by Roger Heath-Brown. We discuss the connection between computing the size of these Selmer groups and verifying cases of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture. The key ingredient for the asymptotic formulae is the ``independence'' of the Legendre symbol evaluated at the prime divisors of an integer with exactly k prime factors.
We study the parity of rank of $2$-${\rm Selmer}$ groups associated to $π/3$ and $2π/3$-congruent numbers. Our second result gives some positive densities about $π/3$ and $2π/3$ non-congruent numbers which can support the even part of Goldfeld's conjecture. We give some necessary conditions such that $n$ is non $π/3$-congruent number for elliptic curves $E_n$ whose Shafarevich-Tate group is non-trivial. In the last section, we show that for $n=pq\equiv 5(resp. \ 11)\pmod{24}$, the density of non $π/3$($resp.$ $2π/3$)-congruent numbers is at least 75\%, where $p,q$ are primes.
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of reflecting numbers to the realm of number theory and to classify reflecting numbers of certain types. For us, reflecting numbers are coming from congruent numbers, above congruent numbers, and away from congruent numbers. Explicitly speaking, a reflecting number of type $(k,m)$ is the average of two distinct rational $k$th powers, between which the distance is twice another nonzero rational $m$th power. In particular, reflecting numbers of type $(2,2)$ are all congruent numbers and thus will be called reflecting congruent numbers in this…
In this paper, based on an ideal of Tian, we establish a new sufficient condition for a positive integer to be a congruent number in terms of Legendre symbols of prime factors of the positive integer. Our criterion generalizes previous criterions of Heegner, and Birch--Stephens, Monsky, and Tian, and conjecturally provides a list of positive density of congruent numbers. Our method of proving our criterion is to give formulae for the analytic Tate--Shafarevich number in terms of the so-called genus periods and genus points. These formulae are derived from the Waldspurger formula and the genera…
A positive integer $N$ is called a $θ$-congruent number if there is a $\ta$-triangle $(a,b,c)$ with rational sides for which the angle between $a$ and $b$ is equal to $θ$ and its area is $N \sqrt{r^2-s^2}$, where $θ\in (0, π)$, $\cos(θ)=s/r$, and $0 \leq |s|<r$ are coprime integers. It is attributed to Fujiwara \cite{fujw1} that $N$ is a $\ta$-congruent number if and only if the elliptic curve $E_N^\ta: y^2=x (x+(r+s)N)(x-(r-s)N)$ has a point of order greater than $2$ in its group of rational points. Moreover, a natural number $N\neq 1,2,3,6$ is a $\ta$-congruent number if and only if rank of …
In this work, we prove the following result(Theorem 1): Suppose that n is a positive integer, p an odd prime, and such that either n is congruent to 0 modulo4 and p congruent to 3 modulo8; or alternatively, n is congruent to 2 modulo4 and p congruent to 7 modulo 8. In addition to the above, assume that one of the following holds: Either (i) n^2-p>0 and the positive integer is a prime, Or (ii) n^2-p<0 and the positive integer N=-m=-(n^2-p) is a prime. Then the diophantine equation x^4 +2nx^2y^2+my^4=z^2 has no positive integer solutions. The method of proof is elementary in that it only uses co…
The Modular Group provides simple proofs of Fermat's representations: X^2+Y^2 for primes congruent to 1 (mod 4) and by X^2+3Y^2 for primes congruent to 1 (mod 3)
We prove the non-planarity of a family of 3-regular graphs constructed from the solutions to the Markoff equation $x^2+y^2+z^2=xyz$ modulo prime numbers greater than 7. The proof uses Euler characteristic and an enumeration of the short cycles in these graphs. Non-planarity for large primes would follow assuming a spectral gap, which was the original motivation. For primes congruent to 1 modulo 4, or congruent to 1, 2, or 4 modulo 7, explicit constructions give an alternate proof of non-planarity.
We confirm, for the primes up to 3000, the conjecture of Bourgain, Gamburd, and Sarnak on strong approximation for the Markoff surface $x^2+y^2+z^2 = 3xyz$ modulo primes. For primes congruent to 3 modulo 4, we find data suggesting that some natural graphs constructed from this equation are asymptotically Ramanujan. For primes congruent to 1 modulo 4, the data suggest a weaker spectral gap. In both cases, there is close agreement with the Kesten-McKay law for the density of states for random 3-regular graphs. We also study the connectedness of other level sets $x^2+y^2+z^2-3xyz = k$. In the deg…
It is well known that when a prime $p$ is congruent to 1 modulo 4, the sum of the quadratic residues equals the sum of the quadratic nonresidues. In this note we give analogous results for the case where $p$ is congruent to 3 modulo 4.
Any positive integer $n$ other than 10 with abundancy index 9/5 must be a square with at least 6 distinct prime factors, the smallest being 5. Further, at least one of the prime factors must be congruent to 1 modulo 3 and appear with an exponent congruent to 2 modulo 6 in the prime power factorization of $n$.
The aim of this expository article is twofold. The first is to introduce several polynomials of one variable as well as two variables defined on the positive integers with values as congruent numbers. The second is to present connections between Pythagorean triples and the Pell equation $x^2-dy^2=1$ plus its analogous counterpart $x^2-dy^2=-1$ which give rise to congruent numbers n with arbitrarily many prime factors.
Let $K = \mathbb Q(\sqrt{-q})$, where $q$ is a prime congruent to $3$ modulo $4$. Let $A = A(q)$ denote the Gross curve over the Hilbert class field $H$ of $K$. In this note we use Magma to calculate the values $L(E/H, 1)$ for all such $q$'s up to some reasonable ranges for all primes $q$ congruent to $7$ modulo $8$. All these values are non-zero, and using the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture, we can calculate hypothetical orders of the Tate-Shafarevich group of $A$ for all such $q$ up to $4831$.
Uniformly for small $q$ and $(a,q)=1$, we obtain an estimate for the weighted number of ways a sufficiently large integer can be represented as the sum of a prime congruent to $a$ modulo $q$ and a square-free integer. Our method is based on the notion of local model developed by Ramaré and may be viewed as an abstract circle method.
A conjecture of Mordell states that if $p$ is a prime and $p$ is congruent to $3$ mod $4$, then $p$ does not divide $y$ where $(x,y)$ is the fundamental solution to $x^{2}-py^{2}=1$. The conjecture has been verified for primes not exceeding $10^{7}$. In this article, we show that Mordell's conjecture holds for four conjecturally infinite families of primes.
We consider a certain equidistributed sequence of rational numbers constructed from the primes. In particular, we determine the sharp convergence rate for the star discrepancy of said sequence. Our arguments are based on well-known discrepancy estimates for inversive congruential pseudorandom numbers together with asymptotic formulae involving prime numbers.
A pair of odd primes is said to be symmetric if each prime is congruent to one modulo their difference. A theorem from 1996 by Fletcher, Lindgren, and the third author provides an upper bound on the number of primes up to x that belong to a symmetric pair. In the present paper, that theorem is improved to what is likely to be the best possible result. We also establish that there exist infinitely many symmetric pairs of primes. In fact, we show that for every integer m at least 2 there is a string of m consecutive primes, any two of which form a symmetric pair.
A generalization of the congruent number problem is to find positive integers $n$ that appear as the areas of Heron triangles. Selmer group of a congruent number elliptic curve has been studied quite extensively. Here, we look into the $2$-Selmer group structure for Heronian elliptic curves associated with Heron triangles of area $n$ and one of the angle $θ$ such that $\tan \fracθ{2} = n^{-1}$ and $n^{2}+1=2q$ for some prime $q$.
In this paper we establish function field versions of two classical conjectures on prime numbers. The first says that the number of primes in intervals (x,x+x^epsilon] is about x^epsilon/log x and the second says that the number of primes p<x that are congruent to a modulo d, for d^(1+delta)<x, is about pi(x)/phi(d). More precisely, we prove: Let 1\leq m<k be integers, let q be a prime power, and let f be a monic polynomial of degree k with coefficients in the finite field with q elements. Then there is a constant c(k) such that the number N of prime polynomials g=f+h with deg h \leq m satisfi…
Several discrete geometry problems are closely related to the arithmetic theory of elliptic curves defined on the rational fields $\mathbb{Q}$. In this paper we consider the $θ$-congruent number for $θ=\fracπ{3}$ and $\frac{2π}{3}$ and tiling number n. For the case that $n\geqslant 2$ is square-free odd integer, we determine all $n$ such that the Selmer rank of elliptic curve $E_{n,\fracπ{3}}:\ y^2=x(x-n)(x+3n)$ or/and $E_{n,\frac{2π}{3}}:\ y^2=x(x+n)(x-3n)$ is zero. From this, we provide several series of non $θ$-congruent numbers for $θ=\fracπ{3}$ and $\frac{2π}{3}$, and non tiling numbers n…
Under ABC, Silverman showed that there are infinitely many non-Wieferich primes with respect to any (non-trivial) base $a$. Recently Srinivas and Subramani proved an analogous result over number fields with trivial class group. In the first part of this article, we extend their result to any arbitrary number fields. Secondly, we give an asymptotic lower bound for the number of non-Wieferich prime ideals. Furthermore, we show a lower bound of same order is achievable for non-Wieferich prime ideals having norm congruent to $1 \pmod k.$ Lastly, we generalize Silverman's work for elliptic curves o…
By making use of only simple facts about congruence, we first show that every even Markoff number is congruent to 2 modulo 32, and then, generalizing an earlier result of Baragar, establish the uniqueness for those Markoff numbers c where one of 3c - 2 and 3c + 2 is a prime power, 4 times a prime power, or 8 times a prime power.
Let $P$ and $T$ be disjoint sets of prime numbers with $T$ finite. A simple formula is given for the natural density of the set of square-free numbers which are divisible by all of the primes in $T$ and by none of the primes in $P$. If $P$ is the set of primes congruent to $r$ modulo $m$ (where $m$ and $r$ are relatively prime numbers), then this natural density is shown to be $0$.
We show that, for every prime number p, there exist infinitely many K3 surfaces over Q whose rational points lie dense in the space of p-adic points. We also show that there exists a K3 surface over Q whose rational points lie dense in the space of p-adic points for all prime numbers p with p congruent to 3 mod 4 and greater than 7.
