English

Euclid meets Popeye: The Euclidean Algorithm for $2\times 2$ matrices

Number Theory 2022-09-21 v1

Abstract

An analogue of the Euclidean algorithm for square matrices of size 2 with integral non-negative entries and strictly positive determinant nn defines a finite set R(n)\mathcal{R}(n) of Euclid-reduced matrices corresponding to elements of {(a,b,c,d)N4n=abcd, 0c,d<a,b}\{(a, b, c, d) \in \mathbb{N}^4 | n = ab - cd,\ 0 \le c, d < a, b\}. With Popeye's help[2] on the use of sails of lattices we show that R(n)\mathcal{R}(n) contains dn,d2n(d+1n/d)\sum{d|n, d^2 \ge n} (d + 1 - n/d) elements.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2209.09529,
  title  = {Euclid meets Popeye: The Euclidean Algorithm for $2\times 2$ matrices},
  author = {Roland Bacher},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2209.09529},
  year   = {2022}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T01:43:04.217Z