Discriminant Equations In Diophantine Number Theory

The first comprehensive and up-to-date account of discriminant equations and their applications. For graduate students and researchers.

The first comprehensive and up-to-date account of discriminant equations and their applications. For graduate students and researchers.

Growing out of a course designed to teach Gauss's Disquisitiones Arithmeticae to honors-level undergraduates, Flath's Introduction to Number Theory focuses on Gauss's theory of binary quadratic forms. It is suitable for use as a textbook in a course or self-study by advanced undergraduates or graduate students who possess a basic familiarity with abstract algebra. The text treats a variety of topics from elementary number theory including the distribution of primes, sums of squares, continued factions, the Legendre, Jacobi and Kronecker symbols, the class group and genera. But the focus is on quadratic reciprocity (several proofs are given including one that highlights the p−q symmetry) and binary quadratic forms. The reader will come away with a good understanding of what Gauss intended in the Disquisitiones and Dirichlet in his Vorlesungen. The text also includes a lovely appendix by J. P. Serre titled Δ=b2−4ac. The clarity of the author's vision is matched by the clarity of his exposition. This is a book that reveals the discovery of the quadratic core of algebraic number theory. It should be on the desk of every instructor of introductory number theory as a source of inspiration, motivation, examples, and historical insight.

A comprehensive, graduate-level treatment of unit equations and their various applications.

The central theme of this book is the solution of Diophantine equations, i.e., equations or systems of polynomial equations which must be solved in integers, rational numbers or more generally in algebraic numbers. This theme, in particular, is the central motivation for the modern theory of arithmetic algebraic geometry. In this text, this is considered through three of its most basic aspects. The book contains more than 350 exercises and the text is largely self-contained. Much more sophisticated techniques have been brought to bear on the subject of Diophantine equations, and for this reason, the author has included five appendices on these techniques.

This textbook presents an elementary introduction to number theory and its different aspects: approximation of real numbers, irrationality and transcendence problems, continued fractions, diophantine equations, quadratic forms, arithmetical functions and algebraic number theory. These topics are covered in 12 chapters and more than 200 solved exercises. Clear, concise, and self-contained, this textbook may be used by undergraduate and graduate students, as well as highschool mathematics teachers. More generally, it will be suitable for all those who are interested in number theory, this fascinating branch of mathematics.

Pell’s Equation is a very simple Diophantine equation that has been known to mathematicians for over 2000 years. Even today research involving this equation continues to be very active, as can be seen by the publication of at least 150 articles related to this equation over the past decade. However, very few modern books have been published on Pell’s Equation, and this will be the first to give a historical development of the equation, as well as to develop the necessary tools for solving the equation. The authors provide a friendly introduction for advanced undergraduates to the delights of algebraic number theory via Pell’s Equation. The only prerequisites are a basic knowledge of elementary number theory and abstract algebra. There are also numerous references and notes for those who wish to follow up on various topics.