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On the smallest number of terms of vanishing sums of units in number fields

2018/06/01 by Csanád Bertók, Kálmán Győry, Bertók, Csanád +5
Arts and Humanities · Mathematics · #11D72 #11D85 #11R27 #Algebraic Geometry and Number Theory #Analytic Number Theory Research #FOS: Mathematics #Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis #Number Theory (math.NT) #math.NT #msc:11D72 #msc:11D85 #msc:11R27

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1806.00296

We expand the proof of Theorem 2.4. Although the original proof is correct we feel that it is worth to give more explanation in one of the cases

openalex publication_date 2018/06/01 · arxiv created 2018/10/08 · arxiv updated 2018/10/09 · openalex created_date 2022/10/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Let K be a number field. In the terminology of Nagell a unit ε of K is called \it exceptional if 1-ε is also a unit. The existence of such a unit is equivalent to the fact that the unit equation ε123=0 is solvable in units ε123 of K. Numerous number fields have exceptional units. They have been investigated by many authors, and they have important applications. In this paper we deal with a generalization of exceptional units. We are interested in the smallest integer k with k≥ 3, denoted by ℓ(K), such that the unit equation ε1+…+εk=0 is solvable in units ε1,…,εk of K. If no such k exists, we set ℓ(K)=∞. Apart from trivial cases when ℓ(K)=∞, we give an explicit upper bound for ℓ(K). We obtain several results for ℓ(K) in number fields of degree at most 4, cyclotomic fields and general number fields of given degree. We prove various properties of ℓ(K), including its magnitude, parity as well as the cardinality of number fields K with given degree and given odd resp. even value ℓ(K). Finally, as an application, we deal with certain arithmetic graphs, namely we consider the representability of cycles. We conclude the paper by listing some problems and open questions.

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