On the Insolubility of a Class of Diophantine Equations and the Nontriviality of the Class Numbers of Related Real Quadratic Fields of Richaud-Degert Type

Abstract

Many authors have studied the relationship between nontrivial class numbers h(n) of real quadratic fields and the lack of integer solutions for certain diophantine equations. Most such results have pertained to positive square-free integers of the form n = l2 + r with integer >0, integer r dividing 4l and — l<r<l. For n of this form, is said to be of Richaud-Degert (R-D) type (see [3] and [8]; as well as [2], [6], [7], [12] and [13] for extensions and generalizations of R-D types.)