New characterization of the norm of the fundamental unit of $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt M)$

Abstract

We give an elementary criterion for the norm of the fundamental unit $\varepsilon_K$ of $K=\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt M)$, $M$ square-free. More precisely, if $\varepsilon_K = a+b\sqrt M$, $a,b \in \mathbb{Z}$ or $\frac{1}{2}\mathbb{Z}$, its norm ${\bf S}_K$ only depends on $m := {\bf gcd} \big(\frac{a+1}{{\bf gcd}(a+1,b)}, M\big)$ and $m' := {\bf gcd} \big(\frac{a-1}{{\bf gcd}(a-1,b)}, M\big)$ as follows when $-1$ is a global norm: ${\bf S}_K = -1$ if and only if $m=m'=1$ (resp. $m=m'=2$) for $M$ odd (resp. even) (Theorems 1.1 or 2.4).