Universal Pairs for Diophantine Equations

Marco David 📧, Théo André, Mathis Bouverot-Dupuis, Eva Brenner, Loïc Chevalier, Anna Danilkin 📧, Charlotte Dorneich, Kevin Lee 📧, Xavier Pigé, Timothé Ringeard, Quentin Vermande, Paul Wang, Annie Yao, Zhengkun Ye 📧 and Jonas Bayer 📧

July 29, 2025

Abstract

We formalize a universal construction of Diophantine equations with bounded complexity. This is a formalization of our own work in number theory.
Hilbert's Tenth Problem was answered negatively by Yuri Matiyasevich, who showed that there is no general algorithm to decide whether an arbitrary Diophantine equation has a solution. However, the problem remains open when generalized to the field of rational numbers, or contrarily, when restricted to Diophantine equations with bounded complexity, characterized by the number of variables $\nu$ and the degree $\delta$. If every Diophantine set can be represented within the bounds $(\nu, \delta)$, we say that this pair is universal, and it follows that the corresponding class of equations is undecidable. In a separate mathematics article, we have determined the first non-trivial universal pair for the case of integer unknowns.
This AFP entry contributes the main construction required to establish said universal pair. In doing so, we markedly extend previous work on multivariate polynomials, and develop classical theory on Diophantine equations. Additionally, our work includes metaprogramming infrastructure designed to efficiently handle complex definitions of multivariate polynomials. Our mathematical draft has been formalized while the mathematical research was ongoing, and benefitted largely from the help of the theorem prover.

License

BSD License

Topics

Related publications

  • Bayer, J., & David, M. (2025). A Formal Proof of Complexity Bounds on Diophantine Equations (Version 1). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2505.16963
  • Bayer, J., David, M., Hassler, M., Matiyasevich, Y., & Schleicher, D. (2025). Diophantine Equations over $\mathbb Z$: Universal Bounds and Parallel Formalization (Version 2). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2506.20909

Session Diophantine_Universal_Pairs