LINEAR DIOPHANTINE EQUATIONS

A Diophantine equation is an equation which is to be solved over the integers.

A linear Diophantine equation of the form

has solutions if and only
if
. There is a similar result for linear Diophantine equations in more
than 2 variables.

A Diophantine problem is one in which the solutions are required to be integers.

Abusing terminology, I'll refer to Diophantine equations, meaning equations which
are to be solved over the integers.

Example.

has many solutions over the reals; for example,

However, this equation has no nonzero integer solutions.

Example. Since

, there are integers x and y such that

For example,
Diophantine equation

Theorem. Let

(a) If
(b) If

, and
. That is, the
has solutions --- in fact, infinitely many solutions.

. Consider the Diophantine equation

, there are no solutions.

, there are infinitely many solutions of the form

Here

is a particular solution, and

Before I give the proof, I'll give some examples, and also discuss the three variable
equation
.

Example. Solve
Since
error,

.
, there are infinitely many solutions. By trial and
, is a particular solution. Hence, the general solution is

For example, setting

produces the solution

Example. Solve
Since

.
, the equation has no solutions.

Example. Solve

First, I'll factor

out of the first two coefficients:

Notice that

, so those two fractions are actually integers. I'm not

simplifying

so that you can see what's going on.

Let

The equation becomes

, so this two variable equation is solvable.

solution, so the general solution is

, is a particular

Now I have to find x and y:

Thus,

This is a two variable equation. Since

, it's solvable.
is a particular solution. Therefore, the general solution is

All together, the general solution to the original three variable equation is

In general, if there is a solution to the linear Diophantine equation

the solution will depend on

algebra.

parameters --- exactly as you'd expect from linear

Proof. (two variable case) Consider the linear Diophantine equation

Case 1. Suppose

. If x and y solve the equation, then

This contradiction shows that there cannot be a solution.

Case 2. Suppose
such that

. Write

for

. There are integers m and n

Then

Hence,

, is a solution.

Suppose

, is a particular solution. Then

This proves that

is a solution for every

Finally, I want to show that every solution has this form. Suppose then that
solution. Then
and
imply

Therefore,

Now
However,

Thus,

divides the left side, so it divides the right side.

. Therefore,

is a

Substitute this back into the last x-y equation:

This is the result stated in the theorem (with an unimportant switch of k and

.)

DIOPHANTINE EQUATION
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In mathematics, a Diophantine equation is a polynomial equation in two or
more unknowns such that only the integer solutions are searched or studied (an integer
solution is a solution such that all the unknowns take integer values). A linear
Diophantine equation is an equation between two sums of monomials of degree zero
or one.
Diophantine problems have fewer equations than unknown variables and involve
finding integers that work correctly for all equations. In more technical language, they
define analgebraic curve, algebraic surface, or more general object, and ask about
the lattice points on it.
The
word Diophantine refers
to
the Hellenistic
mathematician of
the
3rd
century, Diophantus of Alexandria, who made a study of such equations and was one of
the first mathematicians to introduce symbolism into algebra. The mathematical study of
Diophantine problems that Diophantus initiated is now called Diophantine analysis.
While individual equations present a kind of puzzle and have been considered
throughout history, the formulation of general theories of Diophantine equations (beyond
the theory ofquadratic forms) was an achievement of the twentieth century.

How to Solve a Linear Diophantine Equation

Edited by Peter, Nic Perry, Sailesh Patel, Maniac and 6 others
A Diophantine equation is an algebraic equation with the additional restriction that we
are only concerned with solutions in which the variables are integers. In general,
Diophantine equations are very difficult to solve and there are many approaches.
(Fermat's Last Theorem is a famous Diophantine equation that sat unsolved for over
350 years.)

However, linear Diophantine equations of the form ax + by = c can be solved relatively

easily by the algorithm described here. By using this method, we can find (4,7) as the
only solution in positive integers to 31x + 8y = 180. Division in modular arithmetic can
also be expressed as a linear Diophantine equation. For example, 12/7 (mod 18) asks
for the solution to 7x = 12 (mod 18) and can be rewritten as 7x = 12 + 18y or 7x - 18y =
12. While some of the diophantine equations are extremely difficult to solve, you can
give this one a try.

1 If it isn't already, put the equation in the form ax + by = c.

2 Apply Euclid's Algorithm to the coefficients a and b. This has two purposes. First,
we want to know if a and b have a common factor. If we are trying to solve 4x+ 10y = 3,
we can then quickly assert that since the left-hand side is always even and the righthand side always odd, no integer solutions exist. Similarly, if we had 4x + 10y = 2, we
could simplify the problem to 2x + 5y = 1. The second reason is that, provided a solution
exists, we can construct one from the sequence of quotients obtained from Euclid's
Algorithm.
3 If a, b, and c have a common factor, then simplify the equation by dividing the
left and right sides of the equation by that factor. If a and b have a common factor
not shared by c, then stop. There are no integer solutions.
4 Build a three row table as shown.
5 Populate the top row of the table with the quotients from Euclid's Algorithm.
The image shows how this would look for solving 87x - 64y = 3.
6
Populate the bottom two rows from left to right by the following procedure:For
each cell, compute the product of the top cell of that column and the cell immediately to
the left of the empty cell. Fill the empty cell with that product plus the value two cells to
the left.
7
Look at the last two columns in the completed table. The final column should
contain a and b, the coefficients from the equation in step 3. (If not, recheck your

calculations.) The second to last column will contain two other numbers. In the example
with a = 87 and b = 64, the penultimate column contains 34 and 25.
8
Notice that 87*25 - 64*34 = -1. The determinant of the 2x2 matrix in the lower right will
always be either plus or minus 1. If negative, multiply both sides of the identity by -1 to
get -87*25 + 64*34 = 1. This observation is the starting point from which we can build a
solution.
9
Return to the original equation. Rewrite the identity in the previous step as either
87*(-25) + 64*(34) = 1 or 87*(-25) - 64*(-34) = 1, whichever best resembles the original
equation. For the example, the second choice is preferred since it matches the 64y term in the original when y = -34.
10
Only now do we need to look at the constant term c on the right-hand side of the
equation. Since the previous equation demonstrates a solution to ax + by = 1,
multiplying both sides by c to get a(cx) + b(cy) = c. If (-25, -34) is a solution to 87x 64y = 1, then (-75, -102) is a solution to 87x-64y = 3.
11
If a linear Diophantine equation has any solutions, then it has infinitely many
solutions. This is because ax + by = a(x+b) + b(y-a) = a(x+2b) + b(y-2a), and in general
ax + by = a(x+kb) + b(y-ka) for any integer k. Therefore, since (-75,-102) is a solution to
87x-64y = 3, other solutions are (-11,-15), (53,72), (117,159), etc. The general solution
could be written as (53+64k, 72+87k) where k is any integer.