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Computational Evidence Against Quadratic-Cubic Factorization for the Second Cuboid Quintic

General Mathematics 2026-01-23 v2

Abstract

Let Qp,q(t)Z[t]Q_{p,q}(t)\in\mathbb{Z}[t] be Sharipov's even monic degree-1010 second cuboid polynomial depending on coprime integers pq>0p\neq q>0. Writing Qp,q(t)Q_{p,q}(t) as a quintic in t2t^{2} produces an associated monic quintic polynomial. After the weighted normalization r=p/qr=p/q and s=r2s=r^{2} we obtain a one-parameter family Ps(x)Q[x]P_s(x)\in\mathbb{Q}[x] such that Qp,q(t)=q20Ps ⁣(t2q4)withs=(pq)2. Q_{p,q}(t)=q^{20}\,P_s\!\left(\frac{t^{2}}{q^{4}}\right)\qquad\text{with}\qquad s=\left(\frac{p}{q}\right)^{2}. Assuming a quadratic divisor x2+ax+bx^{2}+ax+b with a,bQa,b\in\mathbb{Q}, we reduce divisibility of Ps(x)P_s(x) to the vanishing of an explicit remainder R(x)=R1(s,a,b)x+R0(s,a,b). R(x)=R_{1}(s,a,b)\,x+R_{0}(s,a,b). A key structural observation is that R1R_1 and R0R_0 are quadratic in bb and that, on the equation R1=0R_1=0, the second condition becomes linear in bb. This yields a one-direction elimination to a plane obstruction curve F(s,a)=0F(s,a)=0 with FZ[s,a]F\in\mathbb{Z}[s,a], without any lifting-back issues: when the linear coefficient is nonzero, the parameter bb is forced to be the rational value b=C/Lb=C/L. We isolate the degenerate locus L=C=0L=C=0 and show it produces only s=±1s=\pm 1 (hence only s=1s=1 in the cuboid domain s>0s>0). Let CP2\overline{C}\subset\mathbb{P}^{2} be the projective closure of F(s,a)=0F(s,a)=0. Using Magma we perform a height-bounded search for rational points on C\overline{C}. With bound H=109H=10^{9}, the search returns 88 rational points, whose affine part has s{1,0,1}s\in\{-1,0,1\}. In particular, no affine rational point with s>0s>0 and s1s\neq 1 is found up to this bound. This provides strong computational evidence that for rational s>0s>0, s1s\neq 1, the quintic Ps(x)P_s(x) admits no quadratic factor over Q\mathbb{Q} (equivalently, no 2+32+3 (quadratic-cubic) factorization over Q\mathbb{Q}), and yields a conditional exclusion assuming completeness of the rational-point enumeration on C\overline{C}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.07899,
  title  = {Computational Evidence Against Quadratic-Cubic Factorization for the Second Cuboid Quintic},
  author = {Valery Asiryan and Randall L. Rathbun},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.07899},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Partial progress on the irreducibility of the second cuboid polynomial (Sharipov's second conjecture): computational evidence against 2+3 factorization for the associated quintic

R2 v1 2026-07-01T09:01:27.059Z