The Diophantine equation $5(p^2+q^2+r^2+s^2+t^2)^2 – 7(p^4+q^4+r^4+s^4+t^4) = 90pqrst$

diophantine equations

I came across the Diophantine equation $5(p^2+q^2+r^2+s^2+t^2)^2 – 7(p^4+q^4+r^4+s^4+t^4) = 90pqrst$ many years ago in the 'Numbers Count' column of the March 1986 issue of 'Personal Computer World' magazine. The column was about Markoff Numbers and Markoff Triples, and simply described this equation as 'a related Diophantine equation'.

It presumably wasn't made up out of thin air, but I've never been able to find any earlier references to it, where it comes from, or if it is indeed related to Markoff numbers. Does anyone recognise it, or have any ideas as to where it might have come from?

(Note: a bit of googling will find the equation in 'Surfing on the Ocean of Numbers' by Henry Ibstedt, but this was in response to the PCW column, not prior to it.)

Edit 2020-12-14: I'm not looking for solutions to this equation, just it's origins.

Best Answer

You can find it in Hirzebruch and Zagier, "The Atiyah-Singer theorem and elementary number theory" (pg. 159, eqn. (7)).

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