Ten years after a 1989 meeting of number theorists and physicists at the Centre de Physique des Houches, a second event focused on the broader interface of number theory, geometry, and physics. This book is the first of two volumes resulting from that meeting. Broken into three parts, it covers Conformal Field Theories, Discrete Groups, and Renormalization, offering extended versions of the lecture courses and shorter texts on special topics.

This challenging problem book by renowned US Olympiad coaches, mathematics teachers, and researchers develops a multitude of problem-solving skills needed to excel in mathematical contests and in mathematical research in number theory. Offering inspiration and intellectual delight, the problems throughout the book encourage students to express their ideas in writing to explain how they conceive problems, what conjectures they make, and what conclusions they reach. Applying specific techniques and strategies, readers will acquire a solid understanding of the fundamental concepts and ideas of number theory.

In today's unsafe and increasingly wired world cryptology plays a vital role in protecting communication channels, databases, and software from unwanted intruders. This revised and extended third edition of the classic reference work on cryptology now contains many new technical and biographical details. The first part treats secret codes and their uses - cryptography. The second part deals with the process of covertly decrypting a secret code - cryptanalysis, where particular advice on assessing methods is given. The book presupposes only elementary mathematical knowledge. Spiced with a wealth of exciting, amusing, and sometimes personal stories from the history of cryptology, it will also interest general readers.

This book represents a collection of invited papers by outstanding mathematicians in algebra, algebraic geometry, and number theory dedicated to Vladimir Drinfeld. Original research articles reflect the range of Drinfeld's work, and his profound contributions to the Langlands program, quantum groups, and mathematical physics are paid particular attention. These ten original articles by prominent mathematicians, dedicated to Drinfeld on the occasion of his 50th birthday, broadly reflect the range of Drinfeld's own interests in algebra, algebraic geometry, and number theory.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Ant Colony Optimization and Swarm Intelligence, ANTS 2006, held in Brussels, Belgium, in September 2006.

The 27 revised full papers, 23 revised short papers, and 12 extended abstracts presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 115 submissions. The papers are devoted to theoretical and foundational aspects of ant algorithms, evolutionary optimization, ant colony optimization, and swarm intelligence and deal with a broad variety of optimization applications in networking, operations research, multiagent systems, robot systems, networking, etc.

The relation between mathematics and physics has a long history, in which the role of number theory and of other more abstract parts of mathematics has recently become more prominent.

More than ten years after a first meeting in 1989 between number theorists and physicists at the Centre de Physique des Houches, a second 2-week event focused on the broader interface of number theory, geometry, and physics.

This book is the result of that exciting meeting, and collects, in 2 volumes, extended versions of the lecture courses, followed by shorter texts on special topics, of eminent mathematicians and physicists.

The present volume has three parts: Random matrices, Zeta functions, Dynamical systems.

The companion volume is subtitled: On Conformal Field Theories, Discrete Groups and Renormalization and will be published in 2006 (Springer, 3-540-30307-3).

The fields of algebraic functions of one variable appear in several areas of mathematics: complex analysis, algebraic geometry, and number theory. This text adopts the latter perspective by applying an arithmetic-algebraic viewpoint to the study of function fields as part of the algebraic theory of numbers, where a function field of one variable is the analogue of a finite extension of Q, the field of rational numbers. The author does not ignore the geometric-analytic aspects of function fields, but leaves an in-depth examination from this perspective to others.

Key topics and features:

* Contains an introductory chapter on algebraic and numerical antecedents, including transcendental extensions of fields, absolute values on Q, and Riemann surfaces

* Focuses on the Riemanna "Roch theorem, covering divisors, adeles or repartitions, Weil differentials, class partitions, and more

* Includes chapters on extensions, automorphisms and Galois theory, congruence function fields, the Riemann Hypothesis, the Riemanna "Hurwitz Formula, applications of function fields to cryptography, class field theory, cyclotomic function fields, and Drinfeld modules

* Explains both the similarities and fundamental differences between function fields and number fields

* Includes many exercises and examples to enhance understanding and motivate further study

The only prerequisites are a basic knowledge of field theory, complex analysis, and some commutative algebra. The book can serve as a text for a graduate course in number theory or an advanced graduate topics course. Alternatively, chapters 1-4 can serve as the base of an introductory undergraduate course for mathematicsmajors, while chapters 5-9 can support a second course for advanced undergraduates. Researchers interested in number theory, field theory, and their interactions will also find the work an excellent reference.

This book provides insight into the mathematics of Galerkin finite element method as applied to parabolic equations. The revised second edition has been influenced by recent progress in application of semigroup theory to stability and error analysis, particulatly in maximum-norm. Two new chapters have also been added, dealing with problems in polygonal, particularly noncovex, spatial domains, and with time discretization based on using Laplace transformation and quadrature.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Algorithmic Number Theory Symposium, ANTS 2006, held in Berlin, July 2006. The book presents 37 revised full papers together with 4 invited papers selected for inclusion. The papers are organized in topical sections on algebraic number theory, analytic and elementary number theory, lattices, curves and varieties over fields of characteristic zero, curves over finite fields and applications, and discrete logarithms.

The subject of the book is Diophantine approximation and Nevanlinna theory. Not only does the text provide new results and directions, it also challenges open problems and collects latest research activities on these subjects made by the authors over the past eight years. Some of the significant findings are the proof of the Green-Griffiths conjecture by using meromorphic connections and Jacobian sections, and a generalized abc-conjecture. The book also presents the state of the art in the studies of the analogues between Diophantine approximation (in number theory) and value distribution theory (in complex analysis), with a method based on Vojta's dictionary for the terms of these two fields. The approaches are relatively natural and more effective than existing methods.

The book is self-contained and appended with a comprehensive and up-to-date list of references. It is of interest to a broad audience of graduate students and researchers specialized in pure mathematics.

This volume is the proceedings of a conference on Finite Geometries, Groups, and Computation that took place on September 4-9, 2004, at Pingree Park, Colorado (a campus of Colorado State University). Not accidentally, the conference coincided with the 60th birthday of William Kantor, and the topics relate to his major research areas. Participants were encouraged to explore the deeper interplay between these fields. The survey papers by Kantor, O'Brien, and Penttila should serve to introduce both students and the broader mathematical community to these important topics and some of their connections while the volume as a whole gives an overview of current developments in these fields.

Undergraduate courses in mathematics are commonly of two types. Onthe one hand are courses in subjects - such as linear algebra or realanalysis - with which it is considered that every student of mathematicsshould be acquainted. On the other hand are courses given by lecturersin their own areas of specialization, which are intended to serve as apreparation for research. But after taking courses of only these twotypes, students might not perceive the sometimes surprisinginterrelationships and analogies between different branches ofmathematics, and students who do not go on to become professionalmathematicians might never gain a clear understanding of the natureand extent of mathematics.

Number Theory: Tradition and Modernization is a collection of survey and research papers on various topics in number theory. Though the topics and descriptive details appear varied, they are unified by two underlying principles: first, making everything readable as a book, and second, making a smooth transition from traditional approaches to modern ones by providing a rich array of examples. The chapters are presented in quite different in depth and cover a variety of descriptive details, but the underlying editorial principle enables the reader to have a unified glimpse of the developments of number theory. Thus, on the one hand, the traditional approach is presented in great detail, and on the other, the modernization of the methods in number theory is elaborated. The book emphasizes a few common features such as functional equations for various zeta-functions, modular forms, congruence conditions, exponential sums, and algorithmic aspects.

The square root of 2 is a fascinating number if a little less famous than such mathematical stars as pi, the number e, the golden ratio, or the square root of 1. (Each of these has been honored by at least one recent book.) Here, in an imaginary dialogue between teacher and student, readers will learn why v2 is an important number in its own right, and how, in puzzling out its special qualities, mathematicians gained insights into the illusive nature of irrational numbers. Using no more than basic high school algebra and geometry, David Flannery manages to convey not just why v2 is fascinating and significant, but how the whole enterprise of mathematical thinking can be played out in a dialogue that is imaginative, intriguing, and engaging. Original and informative, The Square Root of 2 is a one-of-a-kind introduction to the pleasure and playful beauty of mathematical thinking.

For the most part, this book is the translation from Japanese of the earlier book written jointly by Koji Doi and the author who revised it substantially for the English edition. It sets out to provide the reader with the basic knowledge of elliptic modular forms necessary to understand the recent developments in number theory. The first part gives the general theory of modular groups, modular forms and Hecke operators, with emphasis on the Hecke-Weil theory of the relation between modular forms and Dirichlet series. The second part is on the unit groups of quaternion algebras, which are seldom dealt with in books. The so-called Eichler-Selberg trace formula of Hecke operators follows next and the explicit computable formula is given. In the last chapter, written for the English edition, Eisenstein series with parameter are discussed following the recent work of Shimura: Eisenstein series are likely to play a very important role in the future progress of number theory, and this chapter provides a good introduction to the topic.

This volume contains refereed papers related to the lectures and talks given at a conference held in Siena (Italy) in June 2004. Also included are research papers that grew out of discussions among the participants and their collaborators. All the papers are research papers, but some of them also contain expository sections which aim to update the state of the art on the classical subject of special projective varieties and their applications and new trends like phylogenetic algebraic geometry. The topic of secant varieties and the classification of defective varieties is central and ubiquitous in this volume. Besides the intrinsic interest of the subject, it turns out that it is also relevant in other fields of mathematics like expressions of polynomials as sums of powers, polynomial interpolation, rank tensor computations, Bayesian networks, algebraic statistics and number theory.

This handbook covers a wealth of topics from number theory, special attention being given to estimates and inequalities. As a rule, the most important results are presented, together with their refinements, extensions or generalisations. These may be applied to other aspects of number theory, or to a wide range of mathematical disciplines. Cross-references provide new insight into fundamental research.

Audience: This is an indispensable reference work for specialists in number theory and other mathematicians who need access to some of these results in their own fields of research.

A Classical Introduction to Cryptography: Applications for Communications Security introduces fundamentals of information and communication security by providing appropriate mathematical concepts to prove or break the security of cryptographic schemes.

This advanced-level textbook covers conventional cryptographic primitives and cryptanalysis of these primitives; basic algebra and number theory for cryptologists; public key cryptography and cryptanalysis of these schemes; and other cryptographic protocols, e.g. secret sharing, zero-knowledge proofs and undeniable signature schemes.

A Classical Introduction to Cryptography: Applications for Communications Security is designed for upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level students in computer science. This book is also suitable for researchers and practitioners in industry. A separate exercise/solution booklet is available as well, please go to www.springeronline.com under author: Vaudenay for additional details on how to purchase this booklet.

A fascinating journey into the mind-bending world of prime numbers
Cicadas of the genus Magicicada appear once every 7, 13, or 17 years. Is it just a coincidence that these are all prime numbers? How do twin primes differ from cousin primes, and what on earth (or in the mind of a mathematician) could be sexy about prime numbers? What did Albert Wilansky find so fascinating about his brother-in-law's phone number?
Mathematicians have been asking questions about prime numbers for more than twenty-five centuries, and every answer seems to generate a new rash of questions. In Prime Numbers: The Most Mysterious Figures in Math, you'll meet the world's most gifted mathematicians, from Pythagoras and Euclid to Fermat, Gauss, and Erd?o?s, and you'll discover a host of unique insights and inventive conjectures that have both enlarged our understanding and deepened the mystique of prime numbers. This comprehensive, A-to-Z guide covers everything you ever wanted to know--and much more that you never suspected--about prime numbers, including:
* The unproven Riemann hypothesis and the power of the zeta function
* The ""Primes is in P"" algorithm
* The sieve of Eratosthenes of Cyrene
* Fermat and Fibonacci numbers
* The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search
* And much, much more

Global class field theory is a major achievement of algebraic number theory, based on the functorial properties of the reciprocity map and the existence theorem. The author works out the consequences and the practical use of these results by giving detailed studies and illustrations of classical subjects (classes, idèles, ray class fields, symbols, reciprocity laws, Hasse's principles, the Grunwald-Wang theorem, Hilbert's towers,...). He also proves some new or less-known results (reflection theorem, structure of the abelian closure of a number field) and lays emphasis on the invariant (/cal T) p, of abelian p-ramification, which is related to important Galois cohomology properties and p-adic conjectures. This book, intermediary between the classical literature published in the sixties and the recent computational literature, gives much material in an elementary way, and is suitable for students, researchers, and all who are fascinated by this theory.

This handbook focuses on some important topics from Number Theory and Discrete Mathematics. These include the sum of divisors function with the many old and new issues on Perfect numbers; Euler's totient and its many facets; the M bius function along with its generalizations, extensions, and applications; the arithmetic functions related to the divisors or the digits of a number; the Stirling, Bell, Bernoulli, Euler and Eulerian numbers, with connections to various fields of pure or applied mathematics. Each chapter is a survey and can be viewed as an encyclopedia of the considered field, underlining the interconnections of Number Theory with Combinatorics, Numerical mathematics, Algebra, or Probability Theory.

This reference work will be useful to specialists in number theory and discrete mathematics as well as mathematicians or scientists who need access to some of these results in other fields of research.

The book presents the theory of multiple trigonometric sums constructed by the authors. Following a unified approach, the authors obtain estimates for these sums similar to the classical I. M. VinogradovAs estimates and use them to solve several problems in analytic number theory. They investigate trigonometric integrals, which are often encountered in physics, mathematical statistics, and analysis, and in addition they present purely arithmetic results concerning the solvability of equations in integers.

The legacy of Helmut Hasse, consisting of letters, manuscripts and other - pers, is kept at theHandschriftenabteilung of the University Library at Gottin- ] gen.Hassehadanextensivecorrespondence;helikedtoexchangemathematical ideas, results and methods freely with his colleagues. There are more than 8000 documents preserved. Although not all of them are of equal mathematical - terest, searching through this treasure can help us to assess the development of Number Theory through the 1920's and 1930's. Unfortunately, most of the correspondence is preserved on one side only, i.e., the letterssenttoHasse are availablewhereasmanyoftheletterswhichhadbeensentfromhim, oftenha- written, seem to be lost. So we have to interpolate, as far as possible, from the repliestoHasseandfromothercontexts, inorderto?ndoutwhathehadwritten 1 in his outgoing letters. The present article is largely based on the letters and other documents which I have found concerning the Brauer-Hasse-NoetherTheorem in the theory of algebras; this covers the years around 1931. Besides the do- ments from the Hasse and the Brauer legacy in Gottingen, ] I shall also use some letters from Emmy Noether to Richard Brauer which are preserved at the Bryn Mawr College Library (Pennsylvania, USA)."

It has become clear that problem solving plays an extremely important role in mathematical research. This book is a collection of about 500 problems in algebraic number theory. They are systematically arranged to reveal the evolution of concepts and ideas of the subject. For this new edition the authors have added a new chapter and revised several sections.

This open access textbook presents a comprehensive treatment of the arithmetic theory of quaternion algebras and orders, a subject with applications in diverse areas of mathematics. Written to be accessible and approachable to the graduate student reader, this text collects and synthesizes results from across the literature. Numerous pathways offer explorations in many different directions, while the unified treatment makes this book an essential reference for students and researchers alike. Divided into five parts, the book begins with a basic introduction to the noncommutative algebra underlying the theory of quaternion algebras over fields, including the relationship to quadratic forms. An in-depth exploration of the arithmetic of quaternion algebras and orders follows. The third part considers analytic aspects, starting with zeta functions and then passing to an idelic approach, offering a pathway from local to global that includes strong approximation. Applications of unit groups of quaternion orders to hyperbolic geometry and low-dimensional topology follow, relating geometric and topological properties to arithmetic invariants. Arithmetic geometry completes the volume, including quaternionic aspects of modular forms, supersingular elliptic curves, and the moduli of QM abelian surfaces. Quaternion Algebras encompasses a vast wealth of knowledge at the intersection of many fields. Graduate students interested in algebra, geometry, and number theory will appreciate the many avenues and connections to be explored. Instructors will find numerous options for constructing introductory and advanced courses, while researchers will value the all-embracing treatment. Readers are assumed to have some familiarity with algebraic number theory and commutative algebra, as well as the fundamentals of linear algebra, topology, and complex analysis. More advanced topics call upon additional background, as noted, though essential concepts and motivation are recapped throughout.