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This is a special case of Fermats Last Theorem, which was expressed by Fermat in the
following way in the Arithmetic of Diophantus, edited by Fermats son, and published in
1670: "It is impossible to divide a cube into two cubes, a fourth power into two fourth
powers, and in general any power except the square into two powers with the same
exponents." Fermat added: "I have discovered a truly wonderful proof of this, but the
margin (of the notebook) is too narrow to hold it." Unfortunately, Fermat neglected to
disclose this "wonderful proof."
Fermats Last Theorem became very famous since many of the greatest
mathematicians since Fermat, including Euler, Legendre, Gauss, Dirichlet, Kummer, and
others tried unsuccessfully to prove it in general. Andrew Wiles finally proved Fermats Last
Theorem in 1994.
Euler proved the impossibility of x 3 y 3 z 3 (1770) as did Gauss (Complete Works, vol.
II) Eulers method was relatively complicated; Gauss on the other hand, proved simply and
clearly the impossibility of the more general equation
)3 *3 +3
for any complex numbers ), *, + of the form xJ yO, where x and y are integers and
1i 3 1"i 3
J and O
2 2
R ZJ xJ yO | x, y are integers
)3 *3 +3
We will use Greek letters to designate G-numbers and lower case Roman letters to
denote usual integers. First we make the substitutions ) 8, * 1 and + "0 to write the
1
equation in the form
(1) 8 3 1 3 0 3 0,
in which no two of the "bases" 8, 1, 0 have a common divisor. (Any G-prime divisor of two of
them would divide the third, and could then be divided out.)
Under the assumption that (1) is true for some non-zero G-numbers, we will prove
I. Exactly one of the bases 8, 1, 0 has the G-prime divisor = J " O i 3 .
II. There is another equation of the same form as (1) in which the base with prime factor
= contains the divisor = fewer times that the base in (1).
These two theorems, however, contradict each other. By repeated application of II., it is
possible to obtain an equation like (1) which has no base divisible by =, which contradicts I.
Proof of I.
If none of the three bases 8, 1, 0 were divisible by =, then by X.b. from the supplement
=|0, = 4 8, = 4 1.
Proof of II.
=|0 0 3 q 0 mod = 3 , and then from (1) 8 3 1 3 q 0 mod = 3 . Since 8 3 q e mod 9 and
1 3 q f mod 9, e f q 0 mod = 3 . = 3 "3i 3 , and thus e f q 0 mod 3, and it follows that
f "e. 8 3 1 3 q e f 0 mod 9, = 4 9, and thus 0 3 "8 3 1 3 q 0 mod = 4 . Since = is a
G-prime,
0 q 0 mod = 2 .
8 3 1 3 IED,
where
I 8J 1O, E 1J 8O, D 8 1
it follows that at least one of the factors I, E, D is divisible by =. In fact, each one is divisible
by =, because I " E 8 " 1 = and I E D. Let
I =I U , E =E U , D =D U .
2
I U , E U , D U are pairwise relatively prime. If for instance - divided both I U and E U , then - would
also divide I U " E U 8 " 1 and =I U E U 8 1, and thus - would divide 28 and 21; since 8
and 1 are relatively prime, it follows that - 2 (up to a unit factor). By the division algorithm
in R (see VI. below), we would have either
8 25 / and 1 26 / or
8 25 / and 1 26 " / with
/ 3 o1. (Note that / p 0, since that implies that 2|8 and 2|1. ) Then I 8J 1O
25J 6O / or
25J 6O /=,
03 "8 3 1 3 "IED
F3 "I U E U D U with I U E U D U .
= 3
= 3
=3
Since I U , E U and "D U are pairwise relatively prime, to within unit factors ), * and +, I U , E U and
"D U must be cubes of pairwise relatively prime G-numbers >, @ and A :
we conclude that )*+ J J 3 "1 n o1. Set )*+ E. Recall next that
n 3 n
0
0 q 0 mod = 2 so that =| = F. Since = is a G-prime, = divides >, @ or A (and just one of
them since I U , E U and "D U are pairwise relatively prime), say
Then, however (see X. below), > 3 q e mod 9 and @ 3 q f mod 9 with e 2 f 2 1, and by (2),
)e *f q 0 mod 3. (Note that =|A 3| "3 3 i = 3 |A 3 . ) Since
|)e *f| t |) ||e| |* ||f| 1 1 2, it follows that )e *f 0. Thus, with F "fe o1 , we
get
3
)> 3 *@ 3 +A 3 0
)> F)@ +A
3 3 3
0
F) 2 )> 3 F)@ 3 +A 3 0
or
F) 3 > 3 ) 3 @ 3 EA 3 0.
(3) 8 31 1 31 0 31 0
an equation of the same type as (1) with =|0 1 EA, since =|A, but to a lower power than =
F 0
divides 0, because A >@4 =>@4 and = is relatively prime to E. This finishes the proofs of
I and II, and thus the Fermat-Gauss Impossibility Theorem.
Supplement on R ZJ
1i 3
I. Recall J 2
.
iY
2i i
1+i 3
J2=e 3 =-O J=e 3 =
2
J3=-1 1=J+O
X
4i
5i
J4=e 3 =-J 1-i 3 5 3
O= =J =e =J=-J2
2
Then
J O 1, JO 1, J 2 O 0,
O 2 J 0, J 3 "1, O 3 "1.
II. R is a ring. It suffices to check that R is closed under addition, subtraction and
multiplication. Addition and subtraction are easy. For multiplication, note that
4
aJ bO cJ dO acJ 2 adJO bcOJ bdO 2
"acO ad bc " bdJ
ad bc " bd J ad bc " ac O
5
N+ N r
*0 J s
*0 O N*
2 2
r
*0 s
*0 " r
*0
s
*0 N*
t 1
4
1
4
1
4
N*
3
4
N* . R
produces the well-known Euclidean algorithm for finding the greatest common
divisor of two integers. It must eventually terminate with a remainder of 0, since
N* v 0 The last non-zero remainder + is the greatest common divisor (up
3 n
4
to a unit factor) of ) and *. If the GCD is a unit, then ) and * are said to be
relatively prime.
VIII. Just as with the (usual) integers, the theorems about divisibility, and unique
factorization follow from the Euclidean algorithm, and we have
If gcd), * is a unit, and *|)6, then *|6.
If gcd), + and gcd*, + are units, so is gcd)*, +.
A G-prime is a G-number that has no divisor other than its six associated
numbers and the six units.
= J " O i 3 is prime. (If = 56, then N= N5 N6 , i.e.,
3 N5 N6 , and then 5 or 6 has norm 1, making it a unit.)
2 is prime. (If 2 56, then N2 N5 N6 , i.e., 4 N5 N6 .
Since there are no G-numbers with norm 2, either 5 or 6 has norm
1, making it a unit.)
Every G-number can be written as a product of G-primes in only one way,
up to the order in which the factors are written, and in which associated
numbers are considered the same. For instance ) * + and )J * +O
are considered to be the same.
6
b. If = 4 4, then 4 is congruent to a G-unit / mod 3, and 4 3 q o1 mod 9.