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Determinantal representations of x4+y4+z4

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

W. L. Edge
W. L. Edge
Affiliation:
Trinity College
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Extract

A ternary form of degree n can be expressed as a symmetrical determinant, of n rows and columns, whose elements are linear forms; furthermore, not only is such a mode of expression known to be possible, but A. C. Dixon, in 1902, gave* a process by which the determinant can be obtained when the ternary form is given. This process, however, although it admits of such a straightforward theoretical description, cannot be carried through in practice, for a general ternary form, without the introduction of complicated algebraical irrationalities, even if we restrict ourselves to forms of the fourth degree; consequently no application of Dixon's process to an actual example seems to have been published. If then a choice can be made of a quartic form for which the reduction to a symmetrical determinant can be carried out without undue complication, it seems fitting to give some account of it. The following pages are therefore devoted to the study, from this aspect, of the form x4+y4+z4, for which the reduction can be accomplished without introducing any irrationality other than the fourth root of − 1.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , January 1938 , pp. 6 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1938

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References

* Dixon, A. C., Proc. Cambridge Phil. Soc. 11 (1902), 350.Google Scholar

† Hesse, O., Journal für Math. 49 (1855), 279–332;Google Scholar see, in particular, 306–18.

* Sylvester, J. J., Collected mathematical papers, 1 (Cambridge, 1904), 243;Google Scholar or Phil. Mag. 1 (1851), 297.Google Scholar

† Hesse, loc. cit. p. 293.

* The equations of the bitangents, which all occur in § 8 below, were obtained by Cayley, A., Educational Times, 36 (1881), 64;Google ScholarPapers, vol. 10, p. 603.Google Scholar

* This is another example of Sylvester's theorem.

* Cf. Hesse, loc. cit., p. 297.

* Cf. Hesse, loc. cit. pp. 308–9.

* Cf. Hesse, loc. cit. pp. 294–5.

* Cayley, A., Collected mathematical papers, 7, p. 123.Google Scholar

† Hesse, loc. cit. p. 307.

‡ Hesse, loc. cit. p. 312.

§ Cf. Hesse, loc. cit. p. 313.

* Salmon, G., Higher plane curves, 3rd ed. (Dublin, 1879), 233.Google Scholar

* Cf. Encyklopädie der Math. Wissenschaften, iii C 5, p. 545. In the sixth line of this page the word übrigen has been omitted; unless it is supplied the text reads incorrectly.

† Cf. Ciani, E., Palermo Rendiconti, 13 (1899), 367.Google Scholar