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An Elementary Obstruction to the Existence of a Perfect Cuboid

General Mathematics 2026-02-10 v2

Abstract

We study arithmetic constraints arising from the three faces meeting along the space diagonal of a rectangular cuboid. Using a propagation mechanism along this diagonal, based on the appearance of a minimal odd prime in certain triangular remainders, we derive strong structural restrictions on possible configurations. These constraints induce an infinite descent along the space diagonal, preventing the existence of a compatible integral structure. This approach provides an elementary obstruction to the existence of a perfect cuboid, relying only on divisibility and congruence arguments, and avoiding the use of Gaussian integers or classical quadratic factorizations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.00239,
  title  = {An Elementary Obstruction to the Existence of a Perfect Cuboid},
  author = {Stéphane Yelle},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.00239},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

7 pages, 1 figure