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Diophantine Equation

A Diophantine equation is an equation in which only integer solutions are allowed.

Hilbert's 10th problem asked if an algorithm existed for determining whether an

arbitrary Diophantine equation has a solution. Such an algorithm does exist for the

solution of first-order Diophantine equations. However, the impossibility of obtaining

a general solution was proven by Yuri Matiyasevich in 1970 (Matiyasevich 1970,

Davis 1973, Davis and Hersh 1973, Davis 1982, Matiyasevich 1993) by showing that

the relation (where is the th Fibonacci number) is Diophantine.

More specifically, Matiyasevich showed that there is a polynomial in , , and a

number of other variables , , , ... having the property that iff there exist

integers , , , ... such that .

Matiyasevich's result filled a crucial gap in previous work by Martin Davis, Hilary

Putnam, and Julia Robinson. Subsequent work by Matiyasevich and Robinson proved

that even for equations in thirteen variables, no algorithm can exist to determine

whether there is a solution. Matiyasevich then improved this result to equations in

only nine variables (Jones and Matiyasevich 1982).

Ogilvy and Anderson (1988) give a number of Diophantine equations with known and

unknown solutions.

A linear Diophantine equation (in two variables) is an equation of the general form
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where solutions are sought with , , and integers. Such equations can be solved

completely, and the first known solution was constructed by Brahmagupta. Consider

the equation

For example, 3x + 7y = 1 or x2 − y2= z3, where x, y, and z are integers. Named in

honour of the 3rd-century Greek mathematician Diophantus of Alexandria, these

equations were first systematically solved by Hindu mathematicians beginning

with Aryabhata (c. 476–550).

Diophantine equations fall into three classes: those with no solutions, those with only

finitely many solutions, and those with infinitely many solutions. For example, the

equation 6x − 9y = 29 has no solutions, but the equation 6x − 9y = 30, which upon

division by 3 reduces to 2x − 3y = 10, has infinitely many. For example, x = 20, y = 10

is a solution, and so is x = 20 + 3t, y = 10 + 2t for every integer t, positive, negative, or

zero. This is called a one-parameter family of solutions, with t being the

arbitrary parameter.
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LIFE OF DIOPHANTUS

Little is known about the life of Diophantus.

Diophantus was an Alexandrian Greek
mathematician and the auther of a series of books
called Arithmetica, many of which are now lost.
He lived in Alexandria, Egypt, probably from
between AD 200 and 214 to 284 or 298.
Diophantus wrote several other books besides
Arithmetica, but very few of them have survived.
Diophantus is often called “the father of algebra"
because he contributed greatly to number theory,
mathematical notation, and because Arithmetica
contains the earliest known use of syncopated
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notation. However, it seems that many of the

methods for solving linear and quadratic equations
used by Diophantus go back to Babylonian
mathematics. For this, and other, reasons
mathematical historian Kurt Vogel writes:
“Diophantus was not, as he has often been called,
the father of algebra. Nevertheless, his remarkable,
if unsystematic, collection of indeterminate
problems is a singular achievement that was not
fully appreciated and further developed until much
later.”
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