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27 votes
4 answers
11k views

Is there an elementary way to find the integer solutions to $x^2-y^3=1$?

I gave this problem to my undergraduate assistant, as I saw that Euler had originally solved it (although I am having trouble finding his proof). After working on it for two weeks, we boiled the hard ...
14 votes
2 answers
1k views

Euclid-style proof of Dirichlet’s theorem on primes in certain arithmetic progression

The well-known theorem of Dirichlet on primes in arithmetic progression states that given coprime natural numbers $a\le q$, there are infinitely many prime numbers congruent to $a\pmod q$. The ...
13 votes
1 answer
1k views

Is there an elementary proof that there are infinitely many primes that are *not* completely split in an abelian extension?

I'm currently in the middle of teaching the adelic algebraic proofs of global class field theory. One of the intermediate lemmas that one shows is the following: Lemma: if L/K is an abelian ...