Pell's equation

Pell's equation, also called the Pell–Fermat equation, is any Diophantine equation of the form ${\displaystyle x^{2}-ny^{2}=1}$ where n is a given positive nonsquare integer and integer solutions are sought for x and y. In Cartesian coordinates, the equation has the form of a hyperbola; solutions occur wherever the curve passes through a point whose x and y coordinates are both integers, such as the trivial solution with x = 1 and y = 0. Joseph Louis Lagrange proved that, as long as n is not a perfect square, Pell's equation has infinitely many distinct integer solutions. These solutions may be used to accurately approximate the square root of n by rational numbers of the form x/y.

Pell's equation for n = 2 and six of its integer solutions

This equation was first studied extensively in India starting with Brahmagupta,[1] who found an integer solution to ${\displaystyle 92x^{2}+1=y^{2}}$ in his Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta circa 628.[2] Bhaskara II in the twelfth century and Narayana Pandit in the fourteenth century both found general solutions to Pell's equation and other quadratic indeterminate equations. Bhaskara II is generally credited with developing the chakravala method, building on the work of Jayadeva and Brahmagupta. Solutions to specific examples of Pell's equation, such as the Pell numbers arising from the equation with n = 2, had been known for much longer, since the time of Pythagoras in Greece and a similar date in India. William Brouncker was the first European to solve Pell's equation. The name of Pell's equation arose from Leonhard Euler mistakenly attributing Brouncker's solution of the equation to John Pell.[3][4][note 1]

History

As early as 400 BC in India and Greece, mathematicians studied the numbers arising from the n = 2 case of Pell's equation,

${\displaystyle x^{2}-2y^{2}=1}$

and from the closely related equation

${\displaystyle x^{2}-2y^{2}=-1}$

because of the connection of these equations to the square root of 2.[5] Indeed, if x and y are positive integers satisfying this equation, then x/y is an approximation of √2. The numbers x and y appearing in these approximations, called side and diameter numbers, were known to the Pythagoreans, and Proclus observed that in the opposite direction these numbers obeyed one of these two equations.[5] Similarly, Baudhayana discovered that x = 17, y = 12 and x = 577, y = 408 are two solutions to the Pell equation, and that 17/12 and 577/408 are very close approximations to the square root of 2.[6]

Later, Archimedes approximated the square root of 3 by the rational number 1351/780. Although he did not explain his methods, this approximation may be obtained in the same way, as a solution to Pell's equation.[5] Likewise, Archimedes's cattle problem — an ancient word problem about finding the number of cattle belonging to the sun god Helios — can be solved by reformulating it as a Pell's equation. The manuscript containing the problem states that it was devised by Archimedes and recorded in a letter to Eratosthenes,[7] and the attribution to Archimedes is generally accepted today.[8][9]

Around AD 250, Diophantus considered the equation

${\displaystyle a^{2}x^{2}+c=y^{2},}$

where a and c are fixed numbers and x and y are the variables to be solved for. This equation is different in form from Pell's equation but equivalent to it. Diophantus solved the equation for (a, c) equal to (1, 1), (1, −1), (1, 12), and (3, 9). Al-Karaji, a 10th-century Persian mathematician, worked on similar problems to Diophantus.[10]

In Indian mathematics, Brahmagupta discovered that

${\displaystyle (x_{1}^{2}-Ny_{1}^{2})(x_{2}^{2}-Ny_{2}^{2})=(x_{1}x_{2}+Ny_{1}y_{2})^{2}-N(x_{1}y_{2}+x_{2}y_{1})^{2},}$

a form of what is now known as Brahmagupta's identity. Using this, he was able to "compose" triples ${\displaystyle (x_{1},y_{1},k_{1})}$ and ${\displaystyle (x_{2},y_{2},k_{2})}$ that were solutions of ${\displaystyle x^{2}-Ny^{2}=k}$, to generate the new triples

${\displaystyle (x_{1}x_{2}+Ny_{1}y_{2},x_{1}y_{2}+x_{2}y_{1},k_{1}k_{2})}$ and ${\displaystyle (x_{1}x_{2}-Ny_{1}y_{2},x_{1}y_{2}-x_{2}y_{1},k_{1}k_{2}).}$

Not only did this give a way to generate infinitely many solutions to ${\displaystyle x^{2}-Ny^{2}=1}$ starting with one solution, but also, by dividing such a composition by ${\displaystyle k_{1}k_{2}}$, integer or "nearly integer" solutions could often be obtained. For instance, for ${\displaystyle N=92}$, Brahmagupta composed the triple (10, 1, 8) (since ${\displaystyle 10^{2}-92(1^{2})=8}$) with itself to get the new triple (192, 20, 64). Dividing throughout by 64 ('8' for ${\displaystyle x}$ and ${\displaystyle y}$) gave the triple (24, 5/2, 1), which when composed with itself gave the desired integer solution (1151, 120, 1). Brahmagupta solved many Pell equations with this method, proving that it gives solutions starting from an integer solution of ${\displaystyle x^{2}-Ny^{2}=k}$ for k = ±1, ±2, or ±4.[11]

The first general method for solving the Pell equation (for all N) was given by Bhāskara II in 1150, extending the methods of Brahmagupta. Called the chakravala (cyclic) method, it starts by choosing two relatively prime integers ${\displaystyle a}$ and ${\displaystyle b}$, then composing the triple ${\displaystyle (a,b,k)}$ (that is, one which satisfies ${\displaystyle a^{2}-Nb^{2}=k}$) with the trivial triple ${\displaystyle (m,1,m^{2}-N)}$ to get the triple ${\displaystyle (am+Nb,a+bm,k(m^{2}-N))}$, which can be scaled down to

${\displaystyle \left({\frac {am+Nb}{k}},{\frac {a+bm}{k}},{\frac {m^{2}-N}{k}}\right).}$

When ${\displaystyle m}$ is chosen so that ${\displaystyle {\frac {a+bm}{k}}}$ is an integer, so are the other two numbers in the triple. Among such ${\displaystyle m}$, the method chooses one that minimizes ${\displaystyle {\frac {m^{2}-N}{k}}}$, and repeats the process. This method always terminates with a solution (proved by Joseph-Louis Lagrange in 1768). Bhaskara used it to give the solution x = 1766319049, y = 226153980 to the N = 61 case.[11]

Several European mathematicians rediscovered how to solve Pell's equation in the 17th century, apparently unaware that it had been solved almost five hundred years earlier in India. Pierre de Fermat found how to solve the equation and in a 1657 letter issued it as a challenge to English mathematicians.[12] In a letter to Kenelm Digby, Bernard Frénicle de Bessy said that Fermat found the smallest solution for N up to 150, and challenged John Wallis to solve the cases N = 151 or 313. Both Wallis and William Brouncker gave solutions to these problems, though Wallis suggests in a letter that the solution was due to Brouncker.[13]

John Pell's connection with the equation is that he revised Thomas Branker's translation[14] of Johann Rahn's 1659 book Teutsche Algebra[note 2] into English, with a discussion of Brouncker's solution of the equation. Leonhard Euler mistakenly thought that this solution was due to Pell, as a result of which he named the equation after Pell.[4]

The general theory of Pell's equation, based on continued fractions and algebraic manipulations with numbers of the form ${\displaystyle P+Q{\sqrt {a}},}$ was developed by Lagrange in 1766–1769.[15]

Solutions

Fundamental solution via continued fractions

Let ${\displaystyle {\tfrac {h_{i}}{k_{i}}}}$ denote the sequence of convergents to the regular continued fraction for ${\displaystyle {\sqrt {n}}}$. This sequence is unique. Then the pair (x₁,y₁) solving Pell's equation and minimizing x satisfies x₁ = h_i and y₁ = k_i for some i. This pair is called the fundamental solution. Thus, the fundamental solution may be found by performing the continued fraction expansion and testing each successive convergent until a solution to Pell's equation is found.[16]

The time for finding the fundamental solution using the continued fraction method, with the aid of the Schönhage–Strassen algorithm for fast integer multiplication, is within a logarithmic factor of the solution size, the number of digits in the pair (x₁,y₁). However, this is not a polynomial time algorithm because the number of digits in the solution may be as large as √n, far larger than a polynomial in the number of digits in the input value n.[17]

Additional solutions from the fundamental solution

Once the fundamental solution is found, all remaining solutions may be calculated algebraically from

${\displaystyle x_{k}+y_{k}{\sqrt {n}}=(x_{1}+y_{1}{\sqrt {n}})^{k},}$[17]

expanding the right side, equating coefficients of ${\displaystyle {\sqrt {n}}}$ on both sides, and equating the other terms on both sides. This yields the recurrence relations

${\displaystyle \displaystyle x_{k+1}=x_{1}x_{k}+ny_{1}y_{k},}$

${\displaystyle \displaystyle y_{k+1}=x_{1}y_{k}+y_{1}x_{k}.}$

Concise representation and faster algorithms

Although writing out the fundamental solution (x₁, y₁) as a pair of binary numbers may require a large number of bits, it may in many cases be represented more compactly in the form

${\displaystyle x_{1}+y_{1}{\sqrt {n}}=\prod _{i=1}^{t}(a_{i}+b_{i}{\sqrt {n}})^{c_{i}}}$

using much smaller integers a_i, b_i, and c_i.

For instance, Archimedes' cattle problem is equivalent to the Pell equation ${\displaystyle x^{2}-410286423278424y^{2}=1}$, the fundamental solution of which has 206545 digits if written out explicitly. However, the solution is also equal to

${\displaystyle x_{1}+y_{1}{\sqrt {n}}=u^{2329},}$

where

${\displaystyle u=x'_{1}+y'_{1}{\sqrt {4729494}}=(300426607914281713365{\sqrt {609}}+84129507677858393258{\sqrt {7766}})^{2}}$

and ${\displaystyle x'_{1}}$ and ${\displaystyle y'_{1}}$ only have 45 and 41 decimal digits, respectively.[17]

Methods related to the quadratic sieve approach for integer factorization may be used to collect relations between prime numbers in the number field generated by √n, and to combine these relations to find a product representation of this type. The resulting algorithm for solving Pell's equation is more efficient than the continued fraction method, though it still takes more than polynomial time. Under the assumption of the generalized Riemann hypothesis, it can be shown to take time

${\displaystyle \exp O({\sqrt {\log N\log \log N}}),}$

where N = log n is the input size, similarly to the quadratic sieve.[17]

Quantum algorithms

Hallgren showed that a quantum computer can find a product representation, as described above, for the solution to Pell's equation in polynomial time.[18] Hallgren's algorithm, which can be interpreted as an algorithm for finding the group of units of a real quadratic number field, was extended to more general fields by Schmidt and Völlmer.[19]

Example

As an example, consider the instance of Pell's equation for n = 7; that is,

${\displaystyle x^{2}-7y^{2}=1.}$

The sequence of convergents for the square root of seven are

h / k (Convergent)	h^2 − 7k^2 (Pell-type approximation)
2 / 1	−3
3 / 1	+2
5 / 2	−3
8 / 3	+1

Therefore, the fundamental solution is formed by the pair (8, 3). Applying the recurrence formula to this solution generates the infinite sequence of solutions

(1, 0); (8, 3); (127, 48); (2024, 765); (32257, 12192); (514088, 194307); (8193151, 3096720); (130576328, 49353213); ... (sequence A001081 (x) and A001080 (y) in OEIS)

The smallest solution can be very large. For example, the smallest solution to ${\displaystyle x^{2}-313y^{2}=1}$ is (32188120829134849, 1819380158564160), and this is the equation which Frenicle challenged Wallis to solve.[20] Values of n such that the smallest solution of ${\displaystyle x^{2}-ny^{2}=1}$ is greater than the smallest solution for any smaller value of n are

1, 2, 5, 10, 13, 29, 46, 53, 61, 109, 181, 277, 397, 409, 421, 541, 661, 1021, 1069, 1381, 1549, 1621, 2389, 3061, 3469, 4621, 4789, 4909, 5581, 6301, 6829, 8269, 8941, 9949, ... (sequence A033316 in the OEIS).

(For these records, see OEIS: A033315 for x and OEIS: A033319 for y.)

The smallest solution of Pell equations

The following is a list of the smallest solution (fundamental solution) to ${\displaystyle x^{2}-ny^{2}=1}$ with n ≤ 128. For square n, there is no solution except (1, 0). The values of x are sequence A002350 and those of y are sequence A002349 in OEIS.

n	x	y
1	–	–
2	3	2
3	2	1
4	–	–
5	9	4
6	5	2
7	8	3
8	3	1
9	–	–
10	19	6
11	10	3
12	7	2
13	649	180
14	15	4
15	4	1
16	–	–
17	33	8
18	17	4
19	170	39
20	9	2
21	55	12
22	197	42
23	24	5
24	5	1
25	–	–
26	51	10
27	26	5
28	127	24
29	9801	1820
30	11	2
31	1520	273
32	17	3

n	x	y
33	23	4
34	35	6
35	6	1
36	–	–
37	73	12
38	37	6
39	25	4
40	19	3
41	2049	320
42	13	2
43	3482	531
44	199	30
45	161	24
46	24335	3588
47	48	7
48	7	1
49	–	–
50	99	14
51	50	7
52	649	90
53	66249	9100
54	485	66
55	89	12
56	15	2
57	151	20
58	19603	2574
59	530	69
60	31	4
61	1766319049	226153980
62	63	8
63	8	1
64	–	–

n	x	y
65	129	16
66	65	8
67	48842	5967
68	33	4
69	7775	936
70	251	30
71	3480	413
72	17	2
73	2281249	267000
74	3699	430
75	26	3
76	57799	6630
77	351	40
78	53	6
79	80	9
80	9	1
81	–	–
82	163	18
83	82	9
84	55	6
85	285769	30996
86	10405	1122
87	28	3
88	197	21
89	500001	53000
90	19	2
91	1574	165
92	1151	120
93	12151	1260
94	2143295	221064
95	39	4
96	49	5

n	x	y
97	62809633	6377352
98	99	10
99	10	1
100	–	–
101	201	20
102	101	10
103	227528	22419
104	51	5
105	41	4
106	32080051	3115890
107	962	93
108	1351	130
109	158070671986249	15140424455100
110	21	2
111	295	28
112	127	12
113	1204353	113296
114	1025	96
115	1126	105
116	9801	910
117	649	60
118	306917	28254
119	120	11
120	11	1
121	–	–
122	243	22
123	122	11
124	4620799	414960
125	930249	83204
126	449	40
127	4730624	419775
128	577	51

Connections

Pell's equation has connections to several other important subjects in mathematics.

Algebraic number theory

Pell's equation is closely related to the theory of algebraic numbers, as the formula

${\displaystyle x^{2}-ny^{2}=(x+y{\sqrt {n}})(x-y{\sqrt {n}})}$

is the norm for the ring ${\displaystyle \mathbb {Z} [{\sqrt {n}}]}$ and for the closely related quadratic field ${\displaystyle \mathbb {Q} ({\sqrt {n}})}$. Thus, a pair of integers ${\displaystyle (x,y)}$ solves Pell's equation if and only if ${\displaystyle x+y{\sqrt {n}}}$ is a unit with norm 1 in ${\displaystyle \mathbb {Z} [{\sqrt {n}}]}$.[21] Dirichlet's unit theorem, that all units of ${\displaystyle \mathbb {Z} [{\sqrt {n}}]}$ can be expressed as powers of a single fundamental unit (and multiplication by a sign), is an algebraic restatement of the fact that all solutions to the Pell equation can be generated from the fundamental solution.[22] The fundamental unit can in general be found by solving a Pell-like equation but it does not always correspond directly to the fundamental solution of Pell's equation itself, because the fundamental unit may have norm −1 rather than 1 and its coefficients may be half integers rather than integers.

Chebyshev polynomials

Demeyer mentions a connection between Pell's equation and the Chebyshev polynomials: If T_i (x) and U_i (x) are the Chebyshev polynomials of the first and second kind, respectively, then these polynomials satisfy a form of Pell's equation in any polynomial ring R[x], with n = x² − 1:[23]

${\displaystyle T_{i}^{2}-(x^{2}-1)U_{i-1}^{2}=1.}$

Thus, these polynomials can be generated by the standard technique for Pell equations of taking powers of a fundamental solution:

${\displaystyle T_{i}+U_{i-1}{\sqrt {x^{2}-1}}=(x+{\sqrt {x^{2}-1}})^{i}.}$

It may further be observed that, if (x_i,y_i) are the solutions to any integer Pell equation, then x_i = T_i (x₁) and y_i = y₁U_i − 1(x₁).[24]

Continued fractions

A general development of solutions of Pell's equation ${\displaystyle x^{2}-ny^{2}=1}$ in terms of continued fractions of ${\displaystyle {\sqrt {n}}}$ can be presented, as the solutions x and y are approximates to the square root of n and thus are a special case of continued fraction approximations for quadratic irrationals.[16]

The relationship to the continued fractions implies that the solutions to Pell's equation form a semigroup subset of the modular group. Thus, for example, if p and q satisfy Pell's equation, then

${\displaystyle {\begin{pmatrix}p&q\\nq&p\end{pmatrix}}}$

is a matrix of unit determinant. Products of such matrices take exactly the same form, and thus all such products yield solutions to Pell's equation. This can be understood in part to arise from the fact that successive convergents of a continued fraction share the same property: If p_k−1/q_k−1 and p_k/q_k are two successive convergents of a continued fraction, then the matrix

${\displaystyle {\begin{pmatrix}p_{k-1}&p_{k}\\q_{k-1}&q_{k}\end{pmatrix}}}$

has determinant (−1)^k.

Smooth numbers

Størmer's theorem applies Pell equations to find pairs of consecutive smooth numbers, positive integers whose prime factors are all smaller than a given value.[25][26] As part of this theory, Størmer also investigated divisibility relations among solutions to Pell's equation; in particular, he showed that each solution other than the fundamental solution has a prime factor that does not divide n.[25]

The negative Pell equation

The negative Pell equation is given by

${\displaystyle x^{2}-ny^{2}=-1.}$

It has also been extensively studied; it can be solved by the same method of continued fractions and will have solutions if and only if the period of the continued fraction has odd length. However it is not known which roots have odd period lengths and therefore not known when the negative Pell equation is solvable. A necessary (but not sufficient) condition for solvability is that n is not divisible by 4 or by a prime of form 4k + 3.[note 3] Thus, for example, x² − 3ny² = −1 is never solvable, but x² − 5ny² = −1 may be.[27]

The first few numbers n for which x² − ny² = −1 is solvable are

1, 2, 5, 10, 13, 17, 26, 29, 37, 41, 50, 53, 58, 61, 65, 73, 74, 82, 85, 89, 97, ... (sequence A031396 in the OEIS).

The proportion of square-free n divisible by k primes of the form 4m + 1 for which the negative Pell equation is solvable is at least 40%.[28] If the negative Pell equation does have a solution for a particular n, its fundamental solution leads to the fundamental one for the positive case by squaring both sides of the defining equation:

${\displaystyle (x^{2}-ny^{2})^{2}=(-1)^{2}}$

implies

${\displaystyle (x^{2}+ny^{2})^{2}-n(2xy)^{2}=1.}$

As stated above, if the negative Pell equation is solvable, a solution can be found using the method of continued fractions as in the positive Pell's equation. The recursion relation works slightly differently however. Since ${\displaystyle (x+{\sqrt {n}}y)(x-{\sqrt {n}}y)=-1}$, the next solution is determined in terms of ${\displaystyle \imath (x_{k}+{\sqrt {n}}y_{k})=(\imath (x+{\sqrt {n}}y))^{k}}$ whenever there is a match, i.e. when k is odd. The resulting recursion relation is (modulo a minus sign which is immaterial due to the quadratic nature of the equation)

${\displaystyle x_{k}=x_{k-2}x_{1}^{2}+nx_{k-2}y_{1}^{2}+2ny_{k-2}y_{1}x_{1}}$

${\displaystyle y_{k}=y_{k-2}x_{1}^{2}+ny_{k-2}y_{1}^{2}+2x_{k-2}y_{1}x_{1}}$

which gives an infinite tower of solutions to the negative Pell's equation.

Generalized Pell's equation

The equation

${\displaystyle x^{2}-dy^{2}=N}$

is called the generalized (or general[16]) Pell's equation. The equation ${\displaystyle u^{2}-dv^{2}=1}$ is the corresponding Pell's resolvent.[16] A recursive algorithm was given by Lagrange in 1768 for solving the equation, reducing the problem to the case ${\displaystyle \left\vert N\right\vert <{\sqrt {d}}}$.[29][30] Such solutions can be derived using the continued fractions method as outlined above.

If ${\displaystyle (x_{0},y_{0})}$ is a solution to ${\displaystyle x^{2}-dy^{2}=N}$ and ${\displaystyle (u_{n},v_{n})}$ is a solution to ${\displaystyle u^{2}-dv^{2}=1}$ then ${\displaystyle (x_{n},y_{n})}$ such that ${\displaystyle x_{n}+y_{n}{\sqrt {d}}=(x_{0}+y_{0}{\sqrt {d}})(u_{n}+v_{n}{\sqrt {d}})}$ is a solution to ${\displaystyle x^{2}-dy^{2}=N}$, a principle named the multiplicative principle.[16]

Solutions to the generalized Pell's equation are used for solving certain Diophantine equations and units of certain rings,[31][32] and they arise in the study of SIC-POVMs in quantum information theory.[33]

The equation

${\displaystyle x^{2}-dy^{2}=4}$

is similar to the resolvent ${\displaystyle x^{2}-dy^{2}=1}$ in that if a minimal solution to ${\displaystyle x^{2}-dy^{2}=4}$ can be found then all solutions of the equation can be generated in a similar manner to the case ${\displaystyle N=1}$. For certain ${\displaystyle d}$, solutions to ${\displaystyle x^{2}-dy^{2}=1}$ can be generated from those with ${\displaystyle x^{2}-dy^{2}=4}$, in that if ${\displaystyle d\equiv 5{\pmod {8}}}$ then every third solution to ${\displaystyle x^{2}-dy^{2}=4}$ has x,y even, generating a solution to ${\displaystyle x^{2}-dy^{2}=1}$.[16]

Notes

1. In Euler's Vollständige Anleitung zur Algebra (pp. 227 ff), he presents a solution to Pell's equation which was taken from John Wallis' Commercium epistolicum, specifically, Letter 17 (Epistola XVII) and Letter 19 (Epistola XIX) of:
   • Wallis, John, ed. (1658). Commercium epistolicum, de Quaestionibus quibusdam Mathematicis nuper habitum [Correspondence, about some mathematical inquiries recently undertaken] (in English, Latin, and French). Oxford, England: A. Lichfield. The letters are in Latin. Letter 17 appears on pp. 56–72. Letter 19 appears on pp. 81–91.
   • French translations of Wallis' letters: Fermat, Pierre de (1896). Tannery, Paul; Henry, Charles (eds.). Oeuvres de Fermat (in French and Latin). 3rd vol. Paris, France: Gauthier-Villars et fils. Letter 17 appears on pp. 457–480. Letter 19 appears on pp. 490–503.
   Wallis' letters showing a solution to the Pell's equation also appear in volume 2 of Wallis' Opera mathematica (1693), which includes articles by John Pell:
   • Wallis, John (1693). Opera mathematica: de Algebra Tractatus; Historicus & Practicus [Mathematical works: Treatise on Algebra; historical and as presently practiced] (in Latin, English, and French). 2nd vol. Oxford, England. Letter 17 is on pp. 789–798; letter 19 is on pp. 802–806. See also Pell's articles, where Wallis mentions (pp. 235, 236, 244) that Pell's methods are applicable to the solution of Diophantine equations:

   • De Algebra D. Johannis Pellii; & speciatim de Problematis imperfecte determinatis. (On Algebra by Dr. John Pell and especially on an incompletely determined problem), pp. 234–236.
   • Methodi Pellianae Specimen. (Example of Pell's method), pp. 238–244.
   • Specimen aliud Methodi Pellianae. (Another example of Pell's method), pp. 244–246.

   See also:
   • Whitford, Edward Everett (1912) "The Pell equation," doctoral thesis, Columbia University (New York, New York, USA), p. 52.
   • Heath, Thomas L. (1910). Diophantus of Alexandria : A Study in the History of Greek Algebra. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 286.
2. Teutsch is an obsolete form of Deutsch, meaning "German". Free E-book: Teutsche Algebra (Google Books)
3. This is because the Pell equation implies that −1 is a quadratic residue modulo n.

References

1. O'Connor, J. J.; Robertson, E. F. (February 2002). "Pell's Equation". School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
2. Dunham, William. "Number theory – Number theory in the East". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
3. As early as 1732–1733 Euler believed that John Pell had developed a method to solve Pell's equation, even though Euler knew that Wallis had developed a method to solve it (although William Brouncker had actually done most of the work):
   • Euler, Leonhard (1732–1733). "De solutione problematum Diophantaeorum per numeros integros" [On the solution of Diophantine problems by integers]. Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae (Memoirs of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg). 6: 175–188. From p. 182: "At si a huiusmodi fuerit numerus, qui nullo modo ad illas formulas potest reduci, peculiaris ad invenienda p et q adhibenda est methodus, qua olim iam usi sunt Pellius et Fermatius." (But if such an a be a number that can be reduced in no way to these formulas, the specific method for finding p and q is applied which Pell and Fermat have used for some time now.) From p. 183: "§. 19. Methodus haec extat descripta in operibus Wallisii, et hanc ob rem eam hic fusius non-expono." (§. 19. This method exists described in the works of Wallis, and for this reason I do not present it here in more detail.)
   • Lettre IX. Euler à Goldbach, dated 10 August 1750 in: Fuss, P.H., ed. (1843). Correspondance Mathématique et Physique de Quelques Célèbres Géomètres du XVIIIeme Siècle … [Mathematical and physical correspondence of some famous geometers of the 18th century …] (in French, Latin, and German). St. Petersburg, Russia. p. 37. From page 37: "Pro hujusmodi quaestionibus solvendis excogitavit D. Pell Anglus peculiarem methodum in Wallisii operibus expositam." (For solving such questions, the Englishman Dr. Pell devised a singular method [which is] shown in Wallis' works.)
   • Euler, Leonhard (1771). Vollständige Anleitung zur Algebra, II. Theil [Complete Introduction to Algebra, Part 2] (in German). Kayserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Imperial Academy of Sciences): St. Petersburg, Russia. p. 227. From p. 227: "§98. Hierzu hat vormals ein gelehrter Engländer, Namens Pell, eine ganz sinnreiche Methode erfunden, welche wir hier erklären wollen." (§.98 Concerning this, a learned Englishman by the name of Pell has previously found a quite ingenious method, which we will explain here.)
   • English translation: Euler, Leonhard (1810). Elements of Algebra …. 2nd vol. (2nd ed.). London, England: J. Johnson. p. 78.
   • Heath, Thomas L. (1910). Diophantus of Alexandria : A Study in the History of Greek Algebra. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 286. See especially footnote 4.
4. Tattersall, James (2000). "Elementary Number Theory in Nine Chapters" (PDF). Choice Reviews Online. Cambridge. 37 (10): 274. doi:10.5860/choice.37-5721. S2CID 118948378.
5. Knorr, Wilbur R. (1976), "Archimedes and the measurement of the circle: a new interpretation", Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 15 (2): 115–140, doi:10.1007/bf00348496, MR 0497462, S2CID 120954547.
6. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Baudhayana", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.
7. Vardi, I. (1998). "Archimedes' Cattle Problem". American Mathematical Monthly. Mathematical Association of America. 105 (4): pp. 305–319. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.33.4288. doi:10.2307/2589706. JSTOR 2589706.
8. Fraser, Peter M. (1972). Ptolemaic Alexandria. Oxford University Press.
9. Weil, André (1972). Number Theory, an Approach Through History. Birkhäuser.
10. Izadi, Farzali (2015). "Congruent numbers via the Pell equation and its analogous counterpart" (PDF). Notes on Number Theory and Discrete Mathematics. 21: 70–78.
11. John Stillwell (2002), Mathematics and its history (2nd ed.), Springer, pp. 72–76, ISBN 978-0-387-95336-6
12. In February 1657, Pierre de Fermat wrote two letters about Pell's equation. One letter (in French) was addressed to Bernard Frénicle de Bessy, and the other (in Latin) was addressed to Kenelm Digby, whom it reached via Thomas White and then William Brouncker.
    • Fermat, Pierre de (1894). Tannery, Paul; Henry, Charles (eds.). Oeuvres de Fermat (in French and Latin). 2nd vol. Paris, France: Gauthier-Villars et fils. pp. 333–335. The letter to Frénicle appears on pp. 333–334; the letter to Digby, on pp. 334–335.
    The letter in Latin to Digby is translated into French in:
    • Fermat, Pierre de (1896). Tannery, Paul; Henry, Charles (eds.). Oeuvres de Fermat (in French and Latin). 3rd vol. Paris, France: Gauthier-Villars et fils. pp. 312–313.
    Both letters are translated (in part) into English in:
    • Struik, Dirk Jan, ed. (1986). A Source Book in Mathematics, 1200–1800. Princeton, New Jersey, USA: Princeton University Press. pp. 29–30. ISBN 9781400858002.
13. In January 1658, at the end of Epistola XIX (letter 19), Wallis effusively congratulated Brouncker for his victory in a battle of wits against Fermat regarding the solution of Pell's equation. From p. 807 of (Wallis, 1693): "Et quidem cum Vir Nobilissimus, utut hac sibi suisque tam peculiaria putaverit, & altis impervia, (quippe non omnis fert omnia tellus) ut ab Anglis haud speraverit solutionem; profiteatur tamen qu'il sera pourtant ravi d'estre destrompé par cet ingenieux & scavant Signieur; erit cur & ipse tibi gratuletur. Me quod attinet, humillimas est quod rependam gratias, quod in Victoriae tuae partem advocare dignatus es, … " (And indeed, Most Noble Sir [i.e., Viscount Brouncker], he [i.e., Fermat] might have thought [to have] all to himself such an esoteric [subject, i.e., Pell's equation] with its impenetrable profundities (for all land does not bear all things [i.e., not every nation can excel in everything]), so that he might hardly have expected a solution from the English; nevertheless, he avows that he will, however, be thrilled to be disabused by this ingenious and learned Lord [i.e., Brouncker]; it will be for that reason that he [i.e., Fermat] himself would congratulate you. Regarding myself, I requite with humble thanks your having deigned to call upon me to take part in your Victory, … ) [Note: The date at the end of Wallis' letter is "Jan. 20. 1657"; however, that date was according to the old Julian calendar that Britain finally discarded in 1752: most of the rest of Europe would have regarded that date as January 31, 1658. See Old Style and New Style dates#Transposition of historical event dates and possible date conflicts)
14. Rahn, Johann Heinrich (1668) [1659], Brancker, Thomas; Pell (eds.), An introduction to algebra
15. "Solution d'un Problème d'Arithmétique", in Joseph Alfred Serret (Ed.), Œuvres de Lagrange, vol. 1, pp. 671–731, 1867.
16. Andreescu, Titu; Andrica, Dorin (2015). Quadratic Diophantine Equations. New York: Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-35156-8.
17. Lenstra, H. W., Jr. (2002), "Solving the Pell Equation" (PDF), Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 49 (2): 182–192, MR 1875156
18. Hallgren, Sean (2007), "Polynomial-time quantum algorithms for Pell's equation and the principal ideal problem", Journal of the ACM, 54 (1): 1–19, doi:10.1145/1206035.1206039, S2CID 948064
19. Schmidt, A.; Völlmer, U. (2005), "Polynomial time quantum algorithm for the computation of the unit group of a number field" (PDF), Proceedings of the thirty-seventh annual ACM symposium on Theory of computing - STOC '05, New York: ACM, Symposium on Theory of Computing, pp. 475–480, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.420.6344, doi:10.1145/1060590.1060661, ISBN 1581139608, S2CID 6654142
20. Prime Curios!: 313
21. Clark, Pete. "The Pell Equation" (PDF). University of Georgia.
22. Conrad, Keith. "Dirichlet's Unit Theorem" (PDF). Retrieved 14 July 2020.
23. Demeyer, Jeroen (2007), Diophantine Sets over Polynomial Rings and Hilbert's Tenth Problem for Function Fields (PDF), PhD thesis, Universiteit Gent, p. 70, archived from the original (PDF) on 2 July 2007, retrieved 27 February 2009
24. Barbeau, Edward J. (2003), Pell's Equation, Problem Books in Mathematics, Springer-Verlag, pp. Ch. 3, ISBN 0-387-95529-1, MR 1949691
25. Størmer, Carl (1897). "Quelques théorèmes sur l'équation de Pell ${\displaystyle x^{2}-Dy^{2}=\pm 1}$ et leurs applications". Skrifter Videnskabs-selskabet (Christiania), Mat.-Naturv. Kl. I (2).
26. Lehmer, D. H. (1964). "On a Problem of Størmer". Illinois Journal of Mathematics. 8: 57–79. doi:10.1215/ijm/1256067456. MR 0158849.
27. Wang, Jiaqi; Cai, Lide (December 2013). "The solvability of negative Pell equation" (PDF). Tsinghua College: 5–6.
28. Cremona, John E.; Odoni, R. W. K. (1989), "Some density results for negative Pell equations; an application of graph theory", Journal of the London Mathematical Society, Second Series, 39 (1): 16–28, doi:10.1112/jlms/s2-39.1.16, ISSN 0024-6107
29. Lagrange, Joseph-Louis (1736-1813) Auteur du texte (1867–1892). Oeuvres de Lagrange. T. 2 / publiées par les soins de M. J.-A. Serret [et G. Darboux] ; [précédé d'une notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de J.-L. Lagrange, par M. Delambre].
30. Matthews, Keith. "The Diophantine Equation x2 − Dy2 = N, D > 0" (PDF). Retrieved 20 July 2020.
31. Bernstein, Leon (1 October 1975). "Truncated units in infinitely many algebraic number fields of degreen ≧4". Mathematische Annalen. 213 (3): 275–279. doi:10.1007/BF01350876. ISSN 1432-1807. S2CID 121165073.
32. Bernstein, Leon (1 March 1974). "On the Diophantine Equation x(x + d)(x + 2d) +y(y + d)(y + 2d) = z(z + d)(z + 2d)". Canadian Mathematical Bulletin. 17 (1): 27–34. doi:10.4153/CMB-1974-005-5. ISSN 0008-4395.
33. Appleby, Marcus; Flammia, Steven; McConnell, Gary; Yard, Jon (August 2017). "SICs and Algebraic Number Theory". Foundations of Physics. 47 (8): 1042–1059. arXiv:1701.05200. Bibcode:2017FoPh...47.1042A. doi:10.1007/s10701-017-0090-7. ISSN 0015-9018. S2CID 119334103.

Further reading

• Edwards, Harold M. (1996) [1977]. Fermat's Last Theorem: A Genetic Introduction to Algebraic Number Theory. Graduate Texts in Mathematics. 50. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-387-90230-9. MR 0616635.
• Pinch, R. G. E. (1988). "Simultaneous Pellian equations". Math. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 103 (1): 35–46. Bibcode:1988MPCPS.103...35P. doi:10.1017/S0305004100064598.
• Whitford, Edward Everett (1912). "The Pell equation" (Phd Thesis). Columbia University.
• Williams, H. C. (2002). "Solving the Pell equation". In Bennett, M. A.; Berndt, B.C.; Boston, N.; Diamond, H.G.; Hildebrand, A.J.; Philipp, W. (eds.). Surveys in number theory: Papers from the millennial conference on number theory. Natick, MA: A K Peters. pp. 325–363. ISBN 1-56881-162-4. Zbl 1043.11027.

External links

• Weisstein, Eric W. "Pell's equation". MathWorld.
• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Pell's equation", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.
• Pell equation solver (n has no upper limit)
• Pell equation solver (n<10^10, can also return the solution to x^2-ny^2 = +-1, +-2, +-3, and +-4)