English

A polynomial analogue of Berggren's theorem on Pythagorean triples

Number Theory 2023-10-04 v1

Abstract

Say that (x,y,z)(x, y, z) is a positive primitive integral Pythagorean triple if x,y,zx, y, z are positive integers without common factors satisfying x2+y2=z2x^2 + y^2 = z^2. An old theorem of Berggren gives three integral invertible linear transformations whose semi-group actions on (3,4,5)(3, 4, 5) and (4,3,5)(4, 3, 5) generate all positive primitive Pythagorean triples in a unique manner. We establish an analogue of Berggren's theorem in the context of a one-variable polynomial ring over a field of characteristic 2\neq 2. As its corollaries, we obtain some structure theorems regarding the orthogonal group with respect to the Pythagorean quadratic form over the polynomial ring.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2310.02144,
  title  = {A polynomial analogue of Berggren's theorem on Pythagorean triples},
  author = {Byungchul Cha and Ricardo Conceição},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.02144},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

A version of this paper will appear in the Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society