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Fricke Klein method for isotropic ternary quadratic forms

Preface: the most natural way to take one isotropic vector for an indefinite quadratic form and find others is to use stereographic projection. This gives a parametrization in the same $n$ variables as the quadratic form. After clearing denominators, there is also not much control over the gcd of the resulting integers. So, although finding an integer multiple of every primitive solution is guaranteed, we may not be entirely sure we have found all primitive solutions with entries up to some bound in absolute value.

There is a trick for indefinite ternary forms, which leads to a parametrization by two parameters, with considerable control of the gcd's.

Most of this appears in my answers to Isotropic ternary forms

Question: is it true that the primitive integer solutions to $$ A(x^2 + y^2 + z^2) - B (yz+zx+xy) =0 $$ can all be parametrized by a finite number of solutions as below, in shorthand $R_j U?$ The calculations are awfully convincing, but I have proved only a few. In case anyone gets interested, i wrote out the proof for $A=2, B=113,$ about twenty four pages pdf.

Once we have integers $B > A > 0,$ a necessary and sufficient condition that the form be isotropic in $\mathbb Q,$ and therefore $\mathbb Z,$ is that both $B-A$ and $B+2A$ have integer expressions as $s^2 + 3 t^2.$

There is an interesting alternative, method goes back to Fricke and Klein, gives a two variable parametrization, and can be adjusted to deal with GCD's. There is a complete answer to this, finding all primitive solutions, meaning $\gcd(x,y,z) = 1.$

We begin with finding all primitive solutions to $y^2 - z x = 0.$ If $g = \gcd(x,z) > 1,$ then $g^2 | y^2$ and $g | y,$ so $g | \gcd(x,y,z).$ However, $\gcd(x,y,z) = 1.$ So, $\gcd(x,z) = 1.$ Since $xz = y^2,$ either $x=u^2, z=v^2,$ or $x=-u^2,z=-v^2,$ in either case with $\gcd(u,v) = 1.$ That is, possibly by changing from $(x,y,z)$ to $(-x,-y,-z)$ so as to arrange $x \geq 0,$ all primitive solutions are $$ x = u^2, y = u v, z = v^2. $$

Next, the quadratic form is $X^T G X / 2,$ where $$ G = \left( \begin{array}{rrr} 2a & d & e \\ d & 2b & f \\ e & f &2c \end{array} \right) $$ and $$ X = \left( \begin{array}{r} x \\ y \\ z \end{array} \right) $$

The quadratic form $y^2 - z x$ is $X^T H X / 2,$ where $$ H = \left( \begin{array}{rrr} 0 & 0 & -1 \\ 0 & 2 & 0 \\ -1 & 0 & 0 \end{array} \right) $$ It is a theorem in Fricke and Klein (1897), pages 507-508, that, because the quadratic form has at least one integer solution, in which $(x,y,z)$ are not all zero, there exists a square matrix of integers $R$ and a nonzero integer $n$ such that $$ R^T G R = n H. $$ As $R$ has an inverse, we can take $S$ to have integral entries and minimize positive $k$ in $$ RS = SR = k I. $$

We already know that we can take all solutions of $y^2 - z x = 0$ as the column vector $$ U = \left( \begin{array}{r} u^2 \\ uv \\ v^2 \end{array} \right) $$ for relatively prime $(u,v).$ That is, $U^T H U = 0,$ and all solutions are a scalar multiple of $U.$

What happens if $X^T G X = 0,$ the "solutions" we want, with gcd one? Well, $R^T G R = n H,$ so $S^T R^T G R S = n S^T H S,$ so $$ G = \frac{n}{k^2} S^T H S, $$ and $X^T G X = 0$ says $$ X^T S^T H S X = 0. $$ We have already shown that there is some integer $w$ with $$ SX = w U. $$ This gives us $RSX = w RU$ and $kX = w RU.$ Now, as $\gcd(x,y,z) = 1,$ there is a row vector $A = (\alpha,\beta,\gamma)$ with $AX = 1.$ This tells us $k = w ARU.$ As $ARU$ is some integer, $w | k,$ and the earlier $kX = w RU$ becomes $$ X = \frac{1}{h} R U $$ for $h = \frac{k}{w} \in \mathbb Z.$ Furthermore, as $ RS = SR = k I, $ we know $k | \det R,$ so $h | k$ tells us $h | \det R.$ One may leave it this way: list the divisors of $\det R,$ including $\det R$ itself. For each primitive pair $(u,v),$ produce the column vector $RU,$ which will be a solution but perhaps not primitive. Divide out by the gcd of the entries of $RU.$ All integer primitive solutions are given by $$ X = RU/ g_1, $$ where $g_1$ is the gcd of the three entries of $RU.$ It is worth emphasizing that $g_1$ is a divisor of $\det R.$ Also, we get some explicit bounds, as $$ |X|^2 = \frac{1}{g_1^2} U^T R^T R U, $$ since $R$ is nonsingular integer and $R^T R$ is symmetric positive definite. So, no matter what, we have a way to find all primitive solutions $X$ with some $|X| \leq \mbox{bound}$ by taking $|u|, |v|$ up to some other bound we can figure out. $$ \bigcirc \bigcirc \bigcirc \bigcirc \bigcirc \bigcirc \bigcirc $$ A more interesting alternative: for each divisor of $\det R,$ we may rewrite the eventual primitive solution with that gcd as a new recipe, $R_1 U$ for a new integer matrix $R_1$ that also solves $R_1^T G R_1 = n H.$

The example I like to show is solving $$ 2(x^2 + y^2 + z^2) - 113(yz + zx + xy)=0, $$ four "recipes," $$ \left( \begin{array}{r} x \\ y \\ z \end{array} \right) = \left( \begin{array}{r} 37 u^2 + 51 uv + 8 v^2 \\ 8 u^2 -35 uv -6 v^2 \\ -6 u^2 + 23 uv + 37 v^2 \end{array} \right) $$

$$ \left( \begin{array}{r} x \\ y \\ z \end{array} \right) = \left( \begin{array}{r} 32 u^2 + 61 uv + 18 v^2 \\ 18 u^2 -25 uv -11 v^2 \\ -11 u^2 + 3 uv + 32 v^2 \end{array} \right) $$

$$ \left( \begin{array}{r} x \\ y \\ z \end{array} \right) = \left( \begin{array}{r} 38 u^2 + 45 uv + 4 v^2 \\ 4 u^2 -37 uv -3 v^2 \\ -3 u^2 + 31 uv + 38 v^2 \end{array} \right) $$

$$ \left( \begin{array}{r} x \\ y \\ z \end{array} \right) = \left( \begin{array}{r} 29 u^2 + 63 uv + 22 v^2 \\ 22 u^2 -19 uv -12 v^2 \\ -12 u^2 -5 uv + 29 v^2 \end{array} \right) $$

For all four recipes, $$ x^2 + y^2 + z^2 = 1469 \left( u^2 + uv + v^2 \right)^2 $$ Since $u^2 + uv + v^2 \geq 3 u^2 / 4$ and $u^2 + uv + v^2 \geq 3 v^2 / 4,$ this gives us explicit bounds on the absolute values of $u,v$ that gives us all (primitive) solutions of $ 2(x^2 + y^2 + z^2) = 113 (yz+zx+xy) $ with the absolute values of $x,y,z$ up to a desired bound.

Indeed, we were able to choose all four coefficient matrices with this pattern: $$ R = \left( \begin{array}{ccc} \alpha & \beta & \gamma \\ \gamma & - \beta + 2 \gamma & \alpha - \beta + \gamma \\ \alpha - \beta + \gamma & 2 \alpha - \beta & \alpha \end{array} \right) $$

The rows constitute a cycle of three neighboring, but not reduced, binary quadratic forms under the action of the matrix $$ P = \left( \begin{array}{rr} 0 & 1 \\ -1 & -1 \end{array} \right), $$ where $P^3 = I.$ As soon as we write $X = RU$ we get the identity $$ x^2 + y^2 + z^2 = \left( \alpha^2 + (\alpha - \beta + \gamma)^2 + \gamma^2 \right) \cdot \left( u^2 + uv + v^2 \right)^2 $$

In all four cases we simply discard occurrences when the resulting $x,y,z$ have a common factor. With the understanding that we negate all $x,y,z$ so that the entry with largest absolute value is positive, then sort so that $$ x \geq |y| \geq |z|, $$ here are the answers with maximum up to $1200$

jagy@phobeusjunior:~$ ./isotropy_binaries_combined 2 113 1200 | sort -n
             x      y     z          first line       u   v
             29     22    -12      < 29, 63, 22 >      1  0    
             32     18    -11      < 32, 61, 18 >      1  0    
             37      8     -6      < 37, 51, 8 >      1  0    
             38      4     -3      < 38, 45, 4 >      1  0    
            188    171    -86      < 37, 51, 8 >      1  2    
            211    144    -82      < 38, 45, 4 >      1  2    
            226    123    -76      < 32, 61, 18 >      1  2    
            243     94    -64      < 29, 63, 22 >      1  2    
            246     88    -61      < 38, 45, 4 >      2  1    
            258     59    -44      < 37, 51, 8 >      2  1    
            264     38    -29      < 29, 63, 22 >      2  1    
            268     11     -6      < 32, 61, 18 >      2  1    
            396    262   -151      < 37, 51, 8 >      1  3    
            432    209   -134      < 38, 45, 4 >      1  3    
            472    129    -94      < 29, 63, 22 >      3  1    
            489     76    -58      < 32, 61, 18 >      3  1    
            516    458   -233      < 38, 45, 4 >      2  3    
            526    447   -232      < 37, 51, 8 >      2  3    
            628    311   -198      < 38, 45, 4 >      3  2    
            656    262   -177      < 32, 61, 18 >      2  3    
            671    232   -162      < 37, 51, 8 >      3  2    
            692    183   -134      < 29, 63, 22 >      2  3    
            726     47    -32      < 32, 61, 18 >      3  2    
            727     36    -22      < 29, 63, 22 >      3  2    
            804    787   -382      < 32, 61, 18 >      1  5    
            894    688   -373      < 29, 63, 22 >      1  5    
            953    946   -456      < 38, 45, 4 >      3  4    
           1034    492   -317      < 37, 51, 8 >      1  5    
           1062    443   -296      < 29, 63, 22 >      5  1    
           1102    363   -256      < 38, 45, 4 >      1  5    
           1123    314   -228      < 32, 61, 18 >      5  1    
           1159   1046   -528      < 32, 61, 18 >      1  6    
           1179    118    -88      < 38, 45, 4 >      5  1    
           1188     19      2      < 37, 51, 8 >      5  1    
           1199   1002   -524      < 29, 63, 22 >      1  6
             x      y     z          first line       u   v

I should probably point out that, while it was quite easy (after writing the C++ programs) to make a list of primitive solutions to $ 2(x^2 + y^2 + z^2) - 113(yz + zx + xy)=0 $ with $x \geq |y| \geq |z|$ for $x \leq 1200,$ and just as easy to identify the four square matrices $R_1,R_2,R_3,R_4$ used above, it was quite a big job to prove that these really do give all (ordered) primitive solutions. I have a pdf of the whole business in detail, about twenty pages Latex. Oh: in the above, we may always take $u,v \geq 0.$ It is a reasonable conjecture that the problem $ A(x^2 + y^2 + z^2) - B(yz + zx + xy)=0, $ with $\gcd(A,B)=0,$ $B > A > 0,$ and both $B-A$ and $B + 2A$ expressible in integers as $s^2 + 3 t^2,$ always works out with a finite number of such $R_i.$ No proof.

Will Jagy
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