Related papers: Several special cases of a square problem
Using Voisin's method we prove that a very general hypersurface of degree at least 4 in complex projective space of dimension 6, 7, 8 or 9 is not stably rational and so, in particular, not rational. We obtain the same conclusion for the…
If $S$ is a given regular $d$-simplex of edge length $a$ in the $d$-dimensional Euclidean space $\mathcal{E}$, then the distances $t_1$, $\cdots$, $t_{d+1}$ of an arbitrary point in $\mathcal{E}$ to the vertices of $S$ are related by the…
Refining an argument of the second author, we improve the known bounds for the number of rational points near a submanifold of $\mathbb{R}^d$ of intermediate dimension under a natural curvature condition. Furthermore, in the codimension $2$…
According to a classical result of Spencer, Szemer\'edi, and Trotter (1984), the maximum number of times the unit distance can occur among $n$ points in the plane is $O(n^{4/3})$. This is far from Erd\H{o}s's lower bound, $n^{1+O(1/\log\log…
We consider generalizations of the familiar fifteen-piece sliding puzzle on the 4 by 4 square grid. On larger grids with more pieces and more holes, asymptotically how fast can we move the puzzle into the solved state? We also give a…
We prove that if a linear equation, whose coefficients are continuous rational functions on a nonsingular real algebraic surface, has a continuous solution, then it also has a continuous rational solution. This is known to fail in higher…
We survey recent progress on efficient algorithms for approximately diagonalizing a square complex matrix in the models of rational (variable precision) and finite (floating point) arithmetic. This question has been studied across several…
It is easy to find a right-angled triangle with integer sides whose area is 6. There is no such triangle with area 5, but there is one with rational sides (a `\emph{Pythagorean triangle}'). For historical reasons, integers such as 6 or 5…
Pascal's Theorem gives a synthetic geometric condition for six points $a,\ldots,f$ in $\mathbb{P}^2$ to lie on a conic. Namely, that the intersection points $\overline{ab}\cap\overline{de}$, $\overline{af}\cap\overline{dc}$,…
In this paper, we consider a conjecture of Erd\H{o}s and Rosenfeld when the number is a perfect square. In particular, we show that every perfect square $n$ can have at most five divisors between $\sqrt{n} - c \sqrt[4]{n}$ and $\sqrt{n} + c…
We study triples {a,b,c} of distinct nonzero rational numbers such that a+1,b+1,c+1,ab+1,ac+1,bc+1 and abc+1 are all perfect squares. We prove that there exist infinitely many such triples. In contrast, we show that no triple of positive…
The correspondence between right triangles with rational sides, triplets of rational squares in arithmetic succession and integral solutions of certain quadratic forms is well known. We show how this correspondence can be extended to the…
A perfect cuboid is a rectangular parallelepiped with integer edges and integer face diagonals whose space diagonal is also integer. The existence of such cuboids is neither proved, nor disproved. A rational perfect cuboid is a natural…
A rationality condition is derived for the existence of odd perfect numbers involving the square root of a product, which consists of a sequence of repunits, multiplied by twice the base of one of the repunits. This constraint also provides…
This paper presents geometric proofs for the irrationality of square roots of select integers, extending classical approaches. Building on known geometric methods for proving the irrationality of sqrt(2), the authors explore whether similar…
One could begin a study like the present one by simply postulating that our universe is four-dimensional. There are ample reasons for doing this. Experience, observation and experiment all point to the fact that we inhabit a…
We show that a wide class of hypersurfaces in all dimensions are not stably rational. Namely, for all d at least about 2n/3, a very general complex hypersurface of degree d in P^{n+1} is not stably rational. The statement generalizes…
Let $X$ be a del Pezzo surface of degree $5$ defined over a field $F$. A theorem of Yu. I. Manin and P. Swinnerton-Dyer asserts that every Del Pezzo surface of degree $5$ is rational. In this paper we generalize this result as follows.…
We prove that a perfect four-feet square table, posed in a continuous irregular ground with a local slope of at most 15 degrees can be put in equilibrium on the ground by a "rotation" of less than 90 degrees. We also discuss the case of…
In this paper we discuss the relationship between the moving planes of a rational parametric surface and the singular points on it. Firstly, the intersection multiplicity of several planar curves is introduced. Then we derive an equivalent…