In mathematics, the rational points on the unit circle are those points (x, y) such that both x and y are rational numbers ("fractions") and satisfy x2 + y2 = 1. The set of such points turns out to be closely related to primitive Pythagorean triples. Consider a primitive right triangle, that is, with integral side lengths a, b, c, with c the hypotenuse, such that the sides have no common factor larger than 1. Then on the unit circle there exists the rational point (a/c, b/c), which, in the complex plane, is just a/c + ib/c, where i is the imaginary unit. Conversely, if (x, y) is a rational point on the unit circle in the 1st quadrant of the coordinate system (i.e. x > 0, y > 0), then there exists a primitive right triangle with sides xc, yc, c, with c being the least common multiple of x and y denominators. There is a correspondence between points (x,y) in the x-y plane and points x + iy in the complex plane which will be used below, with (a, b) taken as equal to a + ib.
Contents
Group operation
The set of rational points forms an infinite abelian group under rotations, which shall be called G in this article. The identity element is the point (1, 0) = 1 + i0 = 1. The group operation, or "product" is (x, y) * (t, u) = (xt − uy, xu + yt). This product is angle addition since x = cosine(A) and y = sine(A), where A is the angle the radius vector (x, y) makes with the radius vector (1,0), measured counter clockwise. So with (x, y) and (t, u) forming angles A and B, respectively, with (1, 0), their product (xt − uy, xu + yt) is just the rational point on the unit circle with angle A + B. But we can do these group operations in a way that may be easier, with complex numbers: Write the point (x, y) as x + iy and write (t, u) as t + iu. Then the product above is just the ordinary multiplication (x + iy)(t + iu) = xt − yu + i(xu + yt), which corresponds to the (xt − uy, xu + yt) above.
Example
The points on the unit circle: 3/5 + i4/5 and 5/13 + i12/13 (corresponding to the two most famous Pythagorean right triangles:3,4,5 and 5,12,13) are elements of G, and their group product is (−33/65 + i56/65), which corresponds to a 33,56,65 Pythagorean right triangle. The sum of the squares of the numerators 33 and 56 is 1089 + 3136 = 4225, which is the square of the denominator 65.
The set of all 2×2 rotation matrices with rational entries coincides with G.This follows from the fact that the circle group
Group structure
The structure of G is an infinite sum of cyclic groups. Let G2 denote the subgroup of G generated by the point 0 + 1i. G2 is a cyclic subgroup of order 4. For a prime p of form 4k + 1, let Gp denote the subgroup of elements with denominator pn, n a nonnegative integer. Gp is an infinite cyclic group. The point (a2 − b2)/p + (2ab/p)i is a generator of Gp. Furthermore, by factoring the denominators of an element of G, it can be shown that G is a direct sum of G2 and the Gp. That is:
Since it is a direct sum rather than direct product, only finitely many of the values in the Gps differ from zero.
Example
Suppose we take the element in G corresponding to ({0};2,0,1,0,0,...0,...) where the first coordinate 0 is in C4 and the other coordinates give the powers of (a2 − b2)/p(r) + i2ab/p(r) where p(r) is the rth prime of form 4k + 1. Then this corresponds to, in G, the rational point (3/5 + i4/5)2 · (8/17 + i15/17)1 = −416/425 + i87/425). The denominator 425 is the product of the denominator 5 twice, and the denominator 17 once, and as in the previous example, the square of the numerator −416 plus the square of the numerator 87 is equal to the square of the denominator 425. It should also be noted, as a connection to help retain understanding, that the denominator 5 = p(1) is the 1st prime of form 4k + 1, and the denominator 17 = p(3) is the 3rd prime of form 4k + 1.
The unit hyperbola's group of rational points
There is a close connection between this group on the unit hyperbola and the group discussed above. If
Copies inside a larger group
There are isomorphic copies of both groups, as subgroups,(and as geometric objects) of the group of the rational points on the abelian variety in four-dimensional space given by
For the group on the unit circle, the appropriate subgroup is points of form (w,x,1,0), with