In this paper we give a lower bound with respect to block length for the trace of non-elliptic conjugacy classes of the Hecke groups. One consequence of our bound is that there are finitely many conjugacy classes of a given trace in any Hecke group. We show that another consequence of our bound is that class numbers are finite for related hyperbolic \( \mathbb{Z}[\lambda] \)-binary quadratic forms. We give canonical class representatives and calculate class numbers for some classes of hyperbolic \( \mathbb{Z}[\lambda] \)-binary quadratic forms.

Let $p$ be a prime, and let $\zeta_p$ be a primitive $p$-th root of unity. The lattices in Craig's family are $(p-1)$-dimensional and are geometrical representations of the integral $\mathbb Z[\zeta_p]$-ideals $\langle 1-\zeta_p \rangle^i$, where $i$ is a positive integer. This lattice construction technique is a powerful one. Indeed, in dimensions $p-1$ where $149 \leq p \leq 3001$, Craig's lattices are the densest packings known. Motivated by this, we construct $(p-1)(q-1)$-dimensional lattices from the integral $\mathbb Z[\zeta _{pq}]$-ideals $\langle 1-\zeta_p \rangle^i \langle 1-\zeta_q \rangle^j$, where $p$ and $q$ are distinct primes and $i$ and $j$ are positive integers. In terms of sphere-packing density, the new lattices and those in Craig's family have the same asymptotic behavior. In conclusion, Craig's family is greatly extended while preserving its sphere-packing properties.

The splitting pattern of a quadratic form $q$ over a field $k$ consists of all distinct Witt indices that occur for $q$ over extension fields of $k$. In small dimensions, the complete list of splitting patterns of quadratic forms is known. We show that {\it all\/} splitting patterns of quadratic forms of dimension at most nine can be realized by trace forms.