What proportion of integers $n \leq N$ may be expressed as $x^2 + dy^2$ for some $d \leq \Delta $, with $x,y$ integers? Writing $\Delta = (\log N)^{\log 2} 2^{\alpha \sqrt {\log \log N}}$ for some $\alpha \in (-\infty , \infty )$, we show that the answer is $\Phi (\alpha ) + o(1)$, where $\Phi $ is the Gaussian distribution function $\Phi (\alpha ) = \frac {1}{\sqrt {2\pi }} \int ^{\alpha }_{-\infty } e^{-x^2/2} dx$.

A consequence of this is a phase transition: Almost none of the integers $n \leq N$ can be represented by $x^2 + dy^2$ with $d \leq (\log N)^{\log 2 - \varepsilon }$, but almost all of them can be represented by $x^2 + dy^2$ with $d \leq (\log N)^{\log 2 + \varepsilon}\kern-1.5pt$.

Let K be an imaginary quadratic field different from $\open{Q}(\sqrt {-1})$ and $\open{Q}(\sqrt {-3})$. For a positive integer N, let KN be the ray class field of K modulo $N {\cal O}_K$. By using the congruence subgroup ± Γ1(N) of SL2(ℤ), we construct an extended form class group whose operation is basically the Dirichlet composition, and explicitly show that this group is isomorphic to the Galois group Gal(KN/K). We also present an algorithm to find all distinct form classes and show how to multiply two form classes. As an application, we describe Gal(KNab/K) in terms of these extended form class groups for which KNab is the maximal abelian extension of K unramified outside prime ideals dividing $N{\cal O}_K$.

While investigating the Doi–Naganuma lift, Zagier defined integral weight cusp forms $f_D$ which are naturally defined in terms of binary quadratic forms of discriminant $D$. It was later determined by Kohnen and Zagier that the generating function for the function $f_D$ is a half-integral weight cusp form. A natural preimage of $f_D$ under a differential operator at the heart of the theory of harmonic weak Maass forms was determined by the first two authors and Kohnen. In this paper, we consider the modularity properties of the generating function of these preimages. We prove that although the generating function is not itself modular, it can be naturally completed to obtain a half-integral weight modular object.

Among the values of a binary quadratic form, there are many twins of fixed distance. This is shown in quantitative form. For quadratic forms of discriminant −4 or 8 a corresponding result is obtained for triplets.