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Stark–Heegner theorem
States precisely which quadratic imaginary number fields admit unique factorisation

In number theory, the Heegner theorem[inconsistent] establishes the complete list of the quadratic imaginary number fields whose rings of integers are principal ideal domains. It solves a special case of Gauss's class number problem of determining the number of imaginary quadratic fields that have a given fixed class number.

Let Q denote the set of rational numbers, and let d be a square-free integer. The field Q(√d) is a quadratic extension of Q. The class number of Q(√d) is one if and only if the ring of integers of Q(√d) is a principal ideal domain. The Baker–Heegner–Stark theorem[inconsistent] can then be stated as follows:

If d < 0, then the class number of Q(√d) is one if and only if d ∈ { − 1 , − 2 , − 3 , − 7 , − 11 , − 19 , − 43 , − 67 , − 163 } . {\displaystyle d\in \{\,-1,-2,-3,-7,-11,-19,-43,-67,-163\,\}.}

These are known as the Heegner numbers.

By replacing d with the discriminant D of Q(√d) this list is often written as:

D ∈ { − 3 , − 4 , − 7 , − 8 , − 11 , − 19 , − 43 , − 67 , − 163 } . {\displaystyle D\in \{-3,-4,-7,-8,-11,-19,-43,-67,-163\}.}
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History

This result was first conjectured by Gauss in Section 303 of his Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (1798). It was essentially proven by Kurt Heegner in 1952, but Heegner's proof was not accepted until an academic mathematician Harold Stark published a proof in 1967 which had many commonalities to Heegner's work, though Stark considers the proofs to be different.3 Heegner "died before anyone really understood what he had done".4 Stark formally paraphrases Heegner's proof in 1969; other contemporary papers produced various similar proofs using modular functions.5

Alan Baker's slightly earlier 1966 proof used completely different principles which reduced the result to a finite amount of computation, with Stark's 1963/4 thesis already providing this computation; he won the Fields Medal for his methods. Stark later pointed out that Baker's proof, involving linear forms in 3 logarithms, could be reduced to a statement about only 2 logarithms which was already known from 1949 by Gelfond and Linnik.6

Stark's 1969 paper (Stark 1969a) also cited the 1895 text by Heinrich Martin Weber and noted that if Weber had "only made the observation that the reducibility of [a certain equation] would lead to a Diophantine equation, the class-number one problem would have been solved 60 years ago". Bryan Birch notes that Weber's book, and essentially the whole field of modular functions, dropped out of interest for half a century: "Unhappily, in 1952 there was no one left who was sufficiently expert in Weber's Algebra to appreciate Heegner's achievement."7

Deuring, Siegel, and Chowla all gave slightly variant proofs by modular functions in the immediate years after Stark.8 Other versions in this genre have also cropped up over the years. For instance, in 1985, Monsur Kenku gave a proof using the Klein quartic (though again utilizing modular functions).9 And again, in 1999, Imin Chen gave another variant proof by modular functions (following Siegel's outline).10

The work of Gross and Zagier (1986) (Gross & Zagier 1986) combined with that of Goldfeld (1976) also gives an alternative proof.11

Real case

On the other hand, it is unknown whether there are infinitely many d > 0 for which Q(√d) has class number 1. Computational results indicate that there are many such fields. Number Fields with class number one provides a list of some of these.

Notes

References

  1. Elkies (1999) calls this the Heegner theorem (cognate to Heegner points as in page xiii of Darmon (2004)) but omitting Baker's name is atypical.[inconsistent]Chowla (1970) gratuitously adds Deuring and Siegel in his paper's title. - Elkies, Noam D. (1999), "The Klein Quartic in Number Theory" (PDF), in Levy, Silvio (ed.), The Eightfold Way: The Beauty of Klein's Quartic Curve, MSRI Publications, vol. 35, Cambridge University Press, pp. 51–101, MR 1722413 http://library.msri.org/books/Book35/files/elkies.pdf ↩

  2. Elkies (1999), p. 93. - Elkies, Noam D. (1999), "The Klein Quartic in Number Theory" (PDF), in Levy, Silvio (ed.), The Eightfold Way: The Beauty of Klein's Quartic Curve, MSRI Publications, vol. 35, Cambridge University Press, pp. 51–101, MR 1722413 http://library.msri.org/books/Book35/files/elkies.pdf ↩

  3. Stark (2011) page 42 - Stark, H. M. (2011), The Origin of the "Stark" conjectures, vol. appearing in Arithmetic of L-functions https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0821886983 ↩

  4. Goldfeld (1985). - Goldfeld, Dorian (1985), "Gauss's class number problem for imaginary quadratic fields", Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 13: 23–37, doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-1985-15352-2, MR 0788386 https://doi.org/10.1090%2FS0273-0979-1985-15352-2 ↩

  5. Stark (1969a) - Stark, H. M. (1969a), "On the gap in the theorem of Heegner" (PDF), Journal of Number Theory, 1 (1): 16–27, Bibcode:1969JNT.....1...16S, doi:10.1016/0022-314X(69)90023-7, hdl:2027.42/33039 http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/33039/1/0000425.pdf ↩

  6. Stark (1969b) - Stark, H. M. (1969b), "A historical note on complex quadratic fields with class-number one.", Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 21: 254–255, doi:10.1090/S0002-9939-1969-0237461-X https://doi.org/10.1090%2FS0002-9939-1969-0237461-X ↩

  7. Birch (2004) - Birch, Bryan (2004), "Heegner Points: The Beginnings" (PDF), MSRI Publications, 49: 1–10 http://library.msri.org/books/Book49/files/01birch.pdf ↩

  8. Chowla (1970) - Chowla, S. (1970), "The Heegner–Stark–Baker–Deuring–Siegel Theorem", Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik, 241: 47–48, doi:10.1515/crll.1970.241.47 http://eudml.org/doc/150996 ↩

  9. Kenku (1985). - Kenku, M. Q. (1985), "A note on the integral points of a modular curve of level 7", Mathematika, 32: 45–48, doi:10.1112/S0025579300010846, MR 0817106 https://doi.org/10.1112%2FS0025579300010846 ↩

  10. Chen (1999) - Chen, Imin (1999), "On Siegel's Modular Curve of Level 5 and the Class Number One Problem", Journal of Number Theory, 74 (2): 278–297, doi:10.1006/jnth.1998.2320 https://doi.org/10.1006%2Fjnth.1998.2320 ↩

  11. Goldfeld (1985) - Goldfeld, Dorian (1985), "Gauss's class number problem for imaginary quadratic fields", Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 13: 23–37, doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-1985-15352-2, MR 0788386 https://doi.org/10.1090%2FS0273-0979-1985-15352-2 ↩