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Gruber P. Convex and Discrete Geometry

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358 <strong>Geometry</strong> of Numbers<br />

Particular Bases of a Lattice; Reduction<br />

Since, for d ≥ 2, there are infinitely many integer unimodular d×d-matrices, any lattice<br />

in E d , d ≥ 2, has infinitely many different bases. A major problem of reduction<br />

theory is to single out bases which have particularly nice geometric properties, e.g.<br />

bases consisting of short vectors or bases where the vectors are almost orthogonal.<br />

For more information, see Sect. 28.<br />

The Bravais Classification of Lattices<br />

A square lattice <strong>and</strong> a hexagonal lattice in E 2 , clearly, are different, but what makes<br />

them different? One way to distinguish lattices is to classify them by means of their<br />

groups of isometries, keeping the origin fixed. This is the Bravais classification of<br />

lattices from crystallography, see Engel [296,297], Erdös, <strong>Gruber</strong> <strong>and</strong> Hammer [307]<br />

<strong>and</strong> [295] <strong>and</strong> Engel, Michel <strong>and</strong> Senechal [301].<br />

Fundamental Parallelotope <strong>and</strong> Determinant of a Lattice<br />

Given a basis {b1,...,bd} of a lattice L, the corresponding fundamental parallelotope<br />

F is defined by:<br />

F = � α1b1 +···+αdbd : 0 ≤ αi < 1 � .<br />

The determinant d(L) of the lattice L is the volume of F,<br />

d(L) = V (F) =|det(b1,...,bd)|.<br />

It follows from Theorem 21.1 that d(L) is independent of the particular choice of a<br />

basis of E d .<br />

A Linear Diophantine Equation<br />

There are many known proofs of the following result, in particular proofs based on<br />

the Euclidean algorithm. See, e.g. Mordell [754]. The first indication of such a proof<br />

is due to Āryabhata about 500 AD. A later contributor is Brahmagupta in the seventh<br />

century. The proof presented later resulted from a discussion with Keith Ball [55].<br />

Proposition 21.1. Let u,v be positive integers with greatest common divisor 1. Then<br />

there are integers x, y such that<br />

uy − vx = 1.<br />

Proof. The point (u,v) is a primitive point of the integer lattice Z 2 , i.e. there is no<br />

lattice point on the line segment [o,(u,v)] except for o,(u,v). Consider the line<br />

segment [o,(u,v)] <strong>and</strong> move it parallel to itself to the left until it first hits a point of<br />

Z 2 ,say(x, y). We assert that (u,v),(x, y) form a basis of Z 2 . By construction, the

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