Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ii Paper 2 20H iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Suppose . Its positive left side gives . Reduction modulo four shows that is odd and even. Moreover would make the valuation of at 3 equal to one, impossible for a cube. The same argument excludes .
In , factor . Any common prime ideal divisor divides both and , so must lie above 2, 3 or 7. The odd norm excludes 2, and the previous divisibility arguments exclude 3 and 7. The two ideals are therefore coprime. Unique factorization of ideals gives . The class group has exponent two, so implies . Thus , and the only units, , can be absorbed into a cube. It follows thatComparing the coefficient of gives , an impossibility over the integers. Consequently there are no integer solutions: this is the no integer solutions of the Mordell equation with constant minus twenty-one result. The class-group argument is essential: element factorization was not assumed to be unique.