English

On a generalization of R. Chapman's "evil determinant"

Number Theory 2024-05-06 v1

Abstract

Let pp be an odd prime and xx be an indeterminate. Recently, Z.-W. Sun proposed the following conjecture: det[x+(jip)]0i,jp12={(2p)pbpxap\mboxif p1(mod4),1\mboxif p3(mod4),\det\left[x+\left(\frac{j-i}{p}\right)\right]_{0\le i,j\le \frac{p-1}{2}}=\begin{cases} (\frac{2}{p})pb_px-a_p & \mbox{if}\ p\equiv 1\pmod4, 1 & \mbox{if}\ p\equiv 3\pmod4, \end{cases} where apa_p and bpb_p are rational numbers related to the fundamental unit and class number of the real quadratic field Q(p)\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{p}). In this paper, we confirm the above conjecture of Sun based on Vsemirnov's decomposition of Chapman's "evil determinant".

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2405.02112,
  title  = {On a generalization of R. Chapman's "evil determinant"},
  author = {Li-Yuan Wang and Hai-Liang Wu and He-Xia Ni},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.02112},
  year   = {2024}
}