The Class Number Of Binary Quadratic Forms

The Class Number of Binary Quadratic Forms

Binary Quadratic Forms

The first coherent exposition of the theory of binary quadratic forms was given by Gauss in the Disqnisitiones Arithmeticae. During the nine teenth century, as the theory of ideals and the rudiments of algebraic number theory were developed, it became clear that this theory of bi nary quadratic forms, so elementary and computationally explicit, was indeed just a special case of a much more elega,nt and abstract theory which, unfortunately, is not computationally explicit. In recent years the original theory has been laid aside. Gauss's proofs, which involved brute force computations that can be done in what is essentially a two dimensional vector space, have been dropped in favor of n-dimensional arguments which prove the general theorems of algebraic number the ory. In consequence, this elegant, yet pleasantly simple, theory has been neglected even as some of its results have become extremely useful in certain computations. I find this neglect unfortunate, because binary quadratic forms have two distinct attractions. First, the subject involves explicit computa tion and many of the computer programs can be quite simple. The use of computers in experimenting with examples is both meaningful and enjoyable; one can actually discover interesting results by com puting examples, noticing patterns in the "data," and then proving that the patterns result from the conclusion of some provable theorem.

Binary Quadratic Forms

This book deals with algorithmic problems concerning binary quadratic forms 2 2 f(X,Y)= aX +bXY +cY with integer coe?cients a, b, c, the mathem- ical theories that permit the solution of these problems, and applications to cryptography. A considerable part of the theory is developed for forms with real coe?cients and it is shown that forms with integer coe?cients appear in a natural way. Much of the progress of number theory has been stimulated by the study of concrete computational problems. Deep theories were developed from the classic time of Euler and Gauss onwards to this day that made the solutions ofmanyof theseproblemspossible.Algorithmicsolutionsandtheirproperties became an object of study in their own right. Thisbookintertwinestheexpositionofoneveryclassicalstrandofnumber theory with the presentation and analysis of algorithms both classical and modern which solve its motivating problems. This algorithmic approach will lead the reader, we hope, not only to an understanding of theory and solution methods, but also to an appreciation of the e?ciency with which solutions can be reached. The computer age has led to a marked advancement of algorithmic - search. On the one hand, computers make it feasible to solve very hard pr- lems such as the solution of Pell equations with large coe?cients. On the other, the application of number theory in public-key cryptography increased the urgency for establishing the complexity of several computational pr- lems: many a computer system stays only secure as long as these problems remain intractable.