Diophantine Equations – Quartic Equation in Four Variables

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Comments from a recent Question, Cyclic quadrilateral with equal area and perimeter, ask about such cases with (positive) integer lengths.

Using Brahmagupta's formula for the area of a cyclic quadrilateral (which generalizes Heron's formula for area of a triangle), we can get a Diophantine equation in positive integer unknowns $w,x,y,z$:

$$ wxyz = (w+x+y+z)^2 $$

I'll provide the derivation below as a Community Wiki.

Cases from rectangles give us (up to permutations of unknowns) two solutions:

$$ w = x = y = z = 4 $$

$$ w = x = 3 ; y = z = 6 $$

What are all the positive integer solutions of this equation?

Best Answer

The equation,

$$wxyz=(w+x+y+z)^2\tag{1}$$

can be solved as a quadratic in $z$,

$$(w + x + y)^2 + \big(2(w + x + y) - w x y\big) z + z^2=0\tag{2}$$

Its discriminant is $wxy(wxy-4\big(w+x+y)\big)$ and must be made a square. It can be shown an initial solution $a,x,y$ can generate an infinite more. Define,

$$axy(axy-4\big(a+x+y)\big)=c^2\tag{3}$$

$$a^2xy(xy-4) =d\tag{4}$$

then a family of solutions to (2) can be given as,

$$w =\frac{a(p-cq)^2}{p^2-dq^2}\tag{5}$$

$$z =-(w+x+y)+\frac{1}{2}\left(wxy\pm\frac{(p-cq)(cp-dq)}{p^2-dq^2}\right)\tag{6}$$

for arbitrary $p,q$. If we want integers, then one can solve the Pell equation $p^2-dq^2=1$. Some examples are,

$$w,x,y = 4,\;4,\;4(p-q)^2;\;\;z=4(p+q)^2\;\text{or}\;\;4(3p-5q)^2,\;\;\text{where}\;p^2-3q^2=1\tag{7}$$

or,

$$w,x,y = 3,\;3,\;6(p-q)^2;\;\;z=6(p+q)^2\;\text{or}\;\;24(p-2q)^2,\;\;\text{where}\;p^2-5q^2=1\tag{8}$$

and so on.