New Advances In Transcendence Theory

This is an account of the proceedings of a very successful symposium of Transcendental Number Theory held in Durham in 1986. Most of the leading international specialists were present and the lectures reflected the great advances that have taken place in this area. The papers cover all the main branches of the subject, and include not only definitive research but valuable survey articles.

This volume is an account of the proceedings of a conference on transcendence theory and its applications held in the University of Cambridge during January and February, 1976. The sixteen papers reflect the considerable current activity in this area, and establish a wide variety of original results. The papers have been arranged in groups with a common themes, such as the theory of linear forms in the logarithms of algebraic numbers and its applications, the transcendence theory of elliptic and Abelian functions, and linear and algebraic independence of meromorphic functions, and arithmetical properties of polynomials in several variables.

This book is a survey of the most important directions of research in transcendental number theory. For readers with no specific background in transcendental number theory, the book provides both an overview of the basic concepts and techniques and also a guide to the most important results and references.

The Indian National Science Academy on the occasion ofthe Golden Jubilee Celebration (Fifty years of India's Independence) decided to publish a number of monographs on the selected fields. The editorial board of INS A invited us to prepare a special monograph in Number Theory. In reponse to this assignment, we invited several eminent Number Theorists to contribute expository/research articles for this monograph on Number Theory. Al though some ofthose invited, due to other preoccupations-could not respond positively to our invitation, we did receive fairly encouraging response from many eminent and creative number theorists throughout the world. These articles are presented herewith in a logical order. We are grateful to all those mathematicians who have sent us their articles. We hope that this monograph will have a significant impact on further development in this subject. R. P. Bambah v. C. Dumir R. J. Hans-Gill A Centennial History of the Prime Number Theorem Tom M. Apostol The Prime Number Theorem Among the thousands of discoveries made by mathematicians over the centuries, some stand out as significant landmarks. One of these is the prime number theorem, which describes the asymptotic distribution of prime numbers. It can be stated in various equivalent forms, two of which are: x (I) K(X) '" -I - as x --+ 00, ogx and Pn '" n log n as n --+ 00. (2) In (1), K(X) denotes the number of primes P ::s x for any x > O.

This book gives an introduction to some central results in transcendental number theory with application to periods and special values of modular and hypergeometric functions. It also includes related results on Calabi–Yau manifolds. Most of the material is based on the author's own research and appears for the first time in book form. It is presented with minimal of technical language and no background in number theory is needed. In addition, except the last chapter, all chapters include exercises suitable for graduate students. It is a nice book for graduate students and researchers interested in transcendence.

This is a selection of high quality articles on number theory by leading figures.

Proceedings of the International Conference on Number Theory organized by the Stefan Banach International Mathematical Center in Honor of the 60th Birthday of Andrzej Schinzel, Zakopane, Poland, June 30-July 9, 1997.

In the last five years there has been very significant progress in the development of transcendence theory. A new approach to the arithmetic properties of values of modular forms and theta-functions was found. The solution of the Mahler-Manin problem on values of modular function j(tau) and algebraic independence of numbers pi and e^(pi) are most impressive results of this breakthrough. The book presents these and other results on algebraic independence of numbers and further, a detailed exposition of methods created in last the 25 years, during which commutative algebra and algebraic geometry exerted strong catalytic influence on the development of the subject.