| course |
course_year |
question_number |
tags |
title |
year |
Quadratic Mathematics |
IB |
62 |
IB |
2001 |
Quadratic Mathematics |
|
1.I.8B |
2001 |
Let $q(x, y)=a x^{2}+b x y+c y^{2}$ be a binary quadratic form with integer coefficients. Define what is meant by the discriminant $d$ of $q$, and show that $q$ is positive-definite if and only if $a>0>d$. Define what it means for the form $q$ to be reduced. For any integer $d<0$, we define the class number $h(d)$ to be the number of positive-definite reduced binary quadratic forms (with integer coefficients) with discriminant $d$. Show that $h(d)$ is always finite (for negative $d)$. Find $h(-39)$, and exhibit the corresponding reduced forms.