Václav Šimerka: quadratic forms and factorization
Franz Lemmermeyer · LMS Journal of Computation and Mathematics · 2013
Abstract In this article we show that the Czech mathematician Václav Šimerka discovered the factorization of $\frac{1}{9} (1{0}^{17} - 1)$ using a method based on the class group of binary quadratic forms more than 120 years before Shanks and Schnorr developed similar algorithms. Šimerka also gave the first examples of what later became known as Carmichael numbers.