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It is well known that Euler gave the first proof of FLT ($x^n + y^n = z^n$ has no nontrivial integral solutions for $n > 2$) for exponent $n=3$, but that his proof had gaps (which are not as easily closed as Weil seems to suggest in his excellent Number Theory - An Approach through History). Later proofs by Legendre and Kausler had the same gap, and in fact I do not know any correct proof published before Kummer's proof for all regular primes. Gauss had a beautiful proof, with the 3-isogeny clearly visible, which was published posthumously by Dedekind, and of course Dirichlet could have given a correct proof (he gave one for $n = 5$ in his very first article but apparently did not dare to provoke Legendre by suggesting his proof in Theorie des Nombres was incomplete) but did not.

The problem in the early proofs is this: if $p^2 + 3q^2 = z^3$, one has to show that $p$ and $q$ can be read off from $p + q \sqrt{-3} = (a + b\sqrt{-3})^3$. The standard proofs use unique factorization in ${\mathbb Z}[\zeta_3]$ or the equivalent fact that there is one class of binary quadratic forms with discriminant $-3$; Weil uses a (sophisticated, but elementary) counting argument.

I wonder whether there is any correct proof for the cubic Fermat equation before Kummer's proof for all regular prime exponents (1847-1850)?

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    $\begingroup$ For the benefit of those of us who aren't familiar with the argument, what exactly is the "same gap" that is not "easily closed"? $\endgroup$
    – Timothy Chow
    Commented Dec 14, 2010 at 18:04
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    $\begingroup$ @Timothy: better now? $\endgroup$
    – Franz Lemmermeyer
    Commented Dec 14, 2010 at 18:10
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    $\begingroup$ @Franz: Yes, excellent...thanks. @Peter: Fermat produced an argument only for $n=4$. For other values of $n$, the question of whether Fermat had a proof is a matter of faith. $\endgroup$
    – Timothy Chow
    Commented Dec 15, 2010 at 2:49
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    $\begingroup$ @Peter: Yes, I do. In one of his last letters (to Carcavi), Fermat gives four theorems which he says can be proved by descent; he does admit, however, (depending on your interpretation) that there remain a few "details" to be supplied. One of these "theorems" is the primality of the Fermat numbers, another one the diophantine equations y^2 = x^3 - 2 and y^2 = x^3-4, and one is FLT for n=3. $\endgroup$
    – Franz Lemmermeyer
    Commented Dec 15, 2010 at 10:36
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    $\begingroup$ Weil says Fermat did have a proof for n = 3 in his book; strangely enough, this is preceded by a remark that Fermat's methods are based on 2-isogenies on elliptic curves. As he knew very well, the usual descent proof of FLT for n=3 is based on a 3-isogeny, which cannot be found in Diophantus or in any of Fermat's work on diophantine problems. $\endgroup$
    – Franz Lemmermeyer
    Commented Dec 15, 2010 at 10:37

1 Answer 1

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I had a look at Paulo Ribenboim's "13 lectures on Fermat's last Theorem" (Springer Verlag, 1979). In section 3 of Chapter III, he discusses (with full bibliographical details) the controversy around Euler's proof, and then provides a proof, using purely elementary number theory, which he attributes to Euler.

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    $\begingroup$ Harold Edwards, in "Fermat's Last Theorem" (Spring-Verlag, 1977) also notes that Euler's original proof via descent fails for the above reasons, and gives a proof that cubes must factor into cubes by using methods known to Euler (arguments Euler used to show that primes congruent to 1 mod 3 can be written as $a^2 + 3b^2$), but also explicitly states that though Euler could have made this argument, he did not. $\endgroup$
    – Zack Wolske
    Commented Dec 18, 2011 at 1:36

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