We make more accessible a neglected simple continued fraction based algorithm due to Lagrange, for deciding the solubility of $a{x}^2+bxy+c{y}^2=N$ in relatively prime integers $x,y$, where $N\ne 0$, gcd$(a,b,c)=\text{gcd}(a,N)=1\text{et}D=b^2-4ac\>0$ is not a perfect square. In the case of solubility, solutions with least positive y, from each equivalence class, are also constructed. Our paper is a generalisation of an earlier paper by the author on the equation $x^2-D{y}^2=N$. As in that paper, we use a lemma on unimodular matrices that gives a much simpler proof than Lagrange’s for...

We connect the discrete logarithm problem over prime fields in the safe prime case to the logarithmic derivative.

By using a generating function approach it is shown that the sum-of-digits function (related to specific finite and infinite linear recurrences) satisfies a central limit theorem. Additionally a local limit theorem is derived.

For a finite commutative ring $R$ and a positive integer $k⩾2$, we construct an iteration digraph $G(R,k)$ whose vertex set is $R$ and for which there is a directed edge from $a\in R$ to $b\in R$ if $b=a^k$. Let $R=R_1\oplus ...\oplus R_s$, where $s>1$ and $R_i$ is a finite commutative local ring for $i\in \{1,...,s\}$. Let $N$ be a subset of $\{R_1,\cdots ,R_s\}$ (it is possible that $N$ is the empty set $\varnothing$). We define the fundamental constituents $G_N^{*}(R,k)$ of $G(R,k)$ induced by the vertices which are of the form $\{(a_1,\cdots ,a_s)\in R:a_i\in \mathrm{D}\left(R_i\right)$ if $R_i\in N$, otherwise $a_i\in \mathrm{U}\left(R_i\right),i=1,...,s\},$ where U$\left(R\right)$ denotes the unit group of $R$ and D$\left(R\right)$ denotes the zero-divisor set of $R$. We investigate...