Number Theory In Progress Elementary And Analytic Number Theory

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.

To observe the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Ramanujan Mathematical Society, an international conference on Discrete Mathematics and Number Theory was held in January 1996 in Tiruchirapalli, India. This volume contains proceedings from the number theory component of that conference. Papers are divided into four groups: arithmetic algebraic geometry, automorphic forms, elementary and analytic number theory, and transcendental number theory. This work deals with recent progress in current aspects of number theory and covers a wide variety of topics.

This valuable book focuses on a collection of powerful methods of analysis that yield deep number-theoretical estimates. Particular attention is given to counting functions of prime numbers and multiplicative arithmetic functions. Both real variable (”elementary”) and complex variable (”analytic”) methods are employed. The reader is assumed to have knowledge of elementary number theory (abstract algebra will also do) and real and complex analysis. Specialized analytic techniques, including transform and Tauberian methods, are developed as needed.Comments and corrigenda for the book are found at www.math.uiuc.edu/~diamond/.

"This book is the first volume of a two-volume textbook for undergraduates and is indeed the crystallization of a course offered by the author at the California Institute of Technology to undergraduates without any previous knowledge of number theory. For this reason, the book starts with the most elementary properties of the natural integers. Nevertheless, the text succeeds in presenting an enormous amount of material in little more than 300 pages."-—MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS

Aimed at a level between textbooks and the latest research monographs, this book is directed at researchers, teachers, and graduate students interested in number theory and its connections with other branches of science. Choosing to emphasize topics not sufficiently covered in the literature, the author has attempted to give as broad a picture as possible of the problems of analytic number theory.

This is a book about prime numbers, congruences, secret messages, and elliptic curves that you can read cover to cover. It grew out of undergr- uate courses that the author taught at Harvard, UC San Diego, and the University of Washington. The systematic study of number theory was initiated around 300B. C. when Euclid proved that there are in?nitely many prime numbers, and also cleverly deduced the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, which asserts that every positive integer factors uniquely as a product of primes. Over a thousand years later (around 972A. D. ) Arab mathematicians formulated the congruent number problem that asks for a way to decide whether or not a given positive integer n is the area of a right triangle, all three of whose sides are rational numbers. Then another thousand years later (in 1976), Di?e and Hellman introduced the ?rst ever public-key cryptosystem, which enabled two people to communicate secretely over a public communications channel with no predetermined secret; this invention and the ones that followed it revolutionized the world of digital communication. In the 1980s and 1990s, elliptic curves revolutionized number theory, providing striking new insights into the congruent number problem, primality testing, publ- key cryptography, attacks on public-key systems, and playing a central role in Andrew Wiles’ resolution of Fermat’s Last Theorem.

"One might have thought that number theory was simply the study of numbers, but that is too broad a definition, since numbers are almost ubiquitous in mathematics. Number theory is a vast and fascinating field of mathematics, sometimes called ""higher arithmetic,"" consisting of the study of the properties of whole numbers. Primes and prime factorization are especially important in number theory, as are a number of functions such as the divisor function, Riemann zeta function, and totient function. Analytic number theory is a branch of number theory that uses methods from mathematical analysis to solve problems about the integers. Analytic number theory, and its applications and interactions, are currently experiencing intensive progress, in sometimes unexpected directions. In recent years, many important classical questions have seen spectacular advances based on new techniques; conversely, methods developed in analytic number theory have led to the solution of striking problems in other fields. Recent advances in analytic number theory have had repercussions in various mathematical subjects, such as harmonic analysis, ergodic theory and dynamics, additive and multiplicative combinatorics and theoretical computer science. The biggest technical change after 1950 has been the development of sieve methods, particularly in multiplicative problems. These are combinatorial in nature, and quite varied. The extremal branch of combinatorial theory has in return been greatly influenced by the value placed in analytic number theory on quantitative upper and lower bounds. Another recent development is probabilistic number theory, which uses methods from probability theory to estimate the distribution of number theoretic functions, such as how many prime divisors a number has. Problems in Analytic Number Theory present a problem-solving approach to the difficult subject of analytic number theory. This book is focused at researchers, teachers, and graduate students interested in number theory and its links with other branches of science."

In this student-friendly text, Strayer presents all of the topics necessary for a first course in number theory. Additionally, chapters on primitive roots, Diophantine equations, and continued fractions allow instructors the flexibility to tailor the material to meet their own classroom needs. Each chapter concludes with seven Student Projects, one of which always involves programming a calculator or computer. All of the projects not only engage students in solving number-theoretical problems but also help familiarize them with the relevant mathematical literature.