On the Convex Hull of the Points on Modular Hyperbolas

Abstract

Given integers $a$ and $m\ge 2$, let $\Hm$ be the following set of integral points $$ \Hm= \{(x,y) \ : \ xy \equiv a \pmod m,\ 1\le x,y \le m-1\} $$ We improve several previously known upper bounds on $v_a(m)$, the number of vertices of the convex closure of $\Hm$, and show that uniformly over all $a$ with $\gcd (a,m)=1$ we have $v_a(m)\le m^{1/2+o(1)}$ and furthermore, we have $v_a(m)\le m^{5/12+o(1)}$ for $m$ which are almost squarefree.