Torsors, also known as principal bundles or principal homogeneous spaces, are ubiquitous in mathematics. The purpose of this book is to present expository lecture notes and cutting-edge research papers on the theory and applications of torsors and etale homotopy, all written from different perspectives by leading experts. Part one of the book contains lecture notes on recent uses of torsors in geometric invariant theory and representation theory, plus an introduction to the etale homotopy theory of Artin and Mazur. Part two of the book features a milestone paper on the etale homotopy approach to the arithmetic of rational points. Furthermore, the reader will find a collection of research articles on algebraic groups and homogeneous spaces, rational and K3 surfaces, geometric invariant theory, rational points, descent and the Brauer-Manin obstruction. Together, these give a state-of-the-art view of a broad area at the crossroads of number theory and algebraic geometry.

The book introduces new techniques that imply rigorous lower bounds on the com plexity of some number-theoretic and cryptographic problems. It also establishes certain attractive pseudorandom properties of various cryptographic primitives. These methods and techniques are based on bounds of character sums and num bers of solutions of some polynomial equations over finite fields and residue rings. Other number theoretic techniques such as sieve methods and lattice reduction algorithms are used as well. The book also contains a number of open problems and proposals for further research. The emphasis is on obtaining unconditional rigorously proved statements. The bright side of this approach is that the results do not depend on any assumptions or conjectures. On the downside, the results are much weaker than those which are widely believed to be true. We obtain several lower bounds, exponential in terms of logp, on the degrees and orders of o polynomials; o algebraic functions; o Boolean functions; o linear recurrence sequences; coinciding with values of the discrete logarithm modulo a prime p at sufficiently many points (the number of points can be as small as pI/2+O: ). These functions are considered over the residue ring modulo p and over the residue ring modulo an arbitrary divisor d of p - 1. The case of d = 2 is of special interest since it corresponds to the representation of the rightmost bit of the discrete logarithm and defines whether the argument is a quadratic residue."

Elliptic cohomology is an extremely beautiful theory with both geometric and arithmetic aspects. The former is explained by the fact that the theory is a quotient of oriented cobordism localised away from 2, the latter by the fact that the coefficients coincide with a ring of modular forms. The aim of the book is to construct this cohomology theory, and evaluate it on classifying spaces BG of finite groups G. This class of spaces is important, since (using ideas borrowed from 'Monstrous Moonshine') it is possible to give a bundle-theoretic definition of EU-(BG). Concluding chapters also discuss variants, generalisations and potential applications.

This book contains thirty-six papers from among the forty-five papers presented at the Third International Conference on Fibonacci Numbers and Their Applications which was held in Pisa, Italy from July 25 to July 29, 1988 in honor of Leonardo de Pisa. These papers have been selected after a careful review by well known referees in the field, and they range from elementary number theory to probability and statistics. The Fibonacci numbers are their unifying bond. It is anticipated that this book, like its two predecessors, will be useful to research workers and graduate students interested in the Fibonacci numbers and their applications. August 1989 The Editors Gerald E. Bergum South Dakota State University Brookings, South Dakota, U. S. A. Andreas N. Philippou Ministry of Education Nicosia, Cyprus Alwyn F. Horadam University of New England Armidale N. S. W. , Australia xv THE ORGANIZING COMMITTEES LOCAL COMMITTEE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE Dvornicich, Roberto, Chairman Horadam, A. F. (Australia), Co-chairman Filipponi, Piero Philippou, A. N. (Cyprus), Co-chairman Perelli, Alberto Ando, S. (Japan) Viola, Carlo Bergum, G. E. (U. S. A. ) Zannier, Umberto Johnson, M. B. (U. S. A. ) Kiss, P. (Hungary) Tijdeman, Robert (The Netherlands) Tognetti, K. (Australia) XVII LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS TO THE CONFERENCE' ADLER, I. , RR 1, Box 532, North Bennington, VT 05257-9748. "Separating the Biological from the Mathematical Aspects of Phyllotaxis. " *AKRITAS, A. G. , (coauthor P. G. Bradford). "The Role of the Fibonacci Sequence in the Isolation of the Real Roots of Polynomial Equations.

The aim of this book is to serve both as an introduction to profinite groups and as a reference for specialists in some areas of the theory. The book is reasonably self-contained. Profinite groups are Galois groups. As such they are of interest in algebraic number theory. Much of recent research on abstract infinite groups is related to profinite groups because residually finite groups are naturally embedded in a profinite group. In addition to basic facts about general profinite groups, the book emphasizes free constructions (particularly free profinite groups and the structure of their subgroups). Homology and cohomology is described with a minimum of prerequisites.

This second edition contains three new appendices dealing with a new characterization of free profinite groups, presentations of pro-p groups and a new conceptually simpler approach to the proof of some classical subgroup theorems. Throughout the text there are additions in the form of new results, improved proofs, typographical corrections, and an enlarged bibliography. The list of open questions has been updated; comments and references have been added about those previously open problems that have been solved after the first edition appeared.

By focusing on quadratic numbers, this advanced undergraduate or master's level textbook on algebraic number theory is accessible even to students who have yet to learn Galois theory. The techniques of elementary arithmetic, ring theory and linear algebra are shown working together to prove important theorems, such as the unique factorization of ideals and the finiteness of the ideal class group. The book concludes with two topics particular to quadratic fields: continued fractions and quadratic forms. The treatment of quadratic forms is somewhat more advanced than usual, with an emphasis on their connection with ideal classes and a discussion of Bhargava cubes.

The numerous exercises in the text offer the reader hands-on computational experience with elements and ideals in quadratic number fields. The reader is also asked to fill in the details of proofs and develop extra topics, like the theory of orders. Prerequisites include elementary number theory and a basic familiarity with ring theory."

In 1995, Andrew Wiles completed a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. Although this was certainly a great mathematical feat, one shouldn't dismiss earlier attempts made by mathematicians and clever amateurs to solve the problem. In this book, aimed at amateurs curious about the history of the subject, the author restricts his attention exclusively to elementary methods that have produced rich results.

Neal Koblitz was a student of Nicholas M. Katz, under whom he received his Ph.D. in mathematics at Princeton in 1974. He spent the year 1974 -75 and the spring semester 1978 in Moscow, where he did research in p -adic analysis and also translated Yu. I. Manin's "Course in Mathematical Logic" (GTM 53). He taught at Harvard from 1975 to 1979, and since 1979 has been at the University of Washington in Seattle. He has published papers in number theory, algebraic geometry, and p-adic analysis, and he is the author of "p-adic Analysis: A Short Course on Recent Work" (Cambridge University Press and GTM 97: "Introduction to Elliptic Curves and Modular Forms (Springer-Verlag).

This book, which is based on Polya's method of problem solving, aids students in their transition from calculus (or precalculus) to higher-level mathematics. The book begins by providing a great deal of guidance on how to approach definitions, examples, and theorems in mathematics and ends with suggested projects for independent study. Students will follow Polya's four step approach: analyzing the problem, devising a plan to solve the problem, carrying out that plan, and then determining the implication of the result. In addition to the Polya approach to proofs, this book places special emphasis on reading proofs carefully and writing them well. The authors have included a wide variety of problems, examples, illustrations and exercises, some with hints and solutions, designed specifically to improve the student's ability to read and write proofs. Historical connections are made throughout the text, and students are encouraged to use the rather extensive bibliography to begin making connections of their own. While standard texts in this area prepare students for future courses in algebra, this book also includes chapters on sequences, convergence, and metric spaces for those wanting to bridge the gap between the standard course in calculus and one in analysis.

The history of continued fractions is certainly one of the longest among those of mathematical concepts, since it begins with Euclid's algorithm for the great est common divisor at least three centuries B.C. As it is often the case and like Monsieur Jourdain in Moliere's "Ie bourgeois gentilhomme" (who was speak ing in prose though he did not know he was doing so), continued fractions were used for many centuries before their real discovery. The history of continued fractions and Pade approximants is also quite im portant, since they played a leading role in the development of some branches of mathematics. For example, they were the basis for the proof of the tran scendence of 11' in 1882, an open problem for more than two thousand years, and also for our modern spectral theory of operators. Actually they still are of great interest in many fields of pure and applied mathematics and in numerical analysis, where they provide computer approximations to special functions and are connected to some convergence acceleration methods. Con tinued fractions are also used in number theory, computer science, automata, electronics, etc ..."

These notes are an expanded and updated version of a course of lectures which I gave at King's College London during the summer term 1979. The main topic is the Hermitian classgroup of orders, and in particular of group rings. Most of this work is published here for the first time. The primary motivation came from the connection with the Galois module structure of rings of algebraic integers. The principal aim was to lay the theoretical basis for attacking what may be called the "converse problem" of Galois module structure theory: to express the symplectic local and global root numbers and conductors as algebraic invariants. A previous edition of these notes was circulated privately among a few collaborators. Based on this, and following a partial solution of the problem by the author, Ph. Cassou-Nogues and M. Taylor succeeded in obtaining a complete solution. In a different direction J. Ritter published a paper, answering certain character theoretic questions raised in the earlier version. I myself disapprove of "secret circulation," but the pressure of other work led to a delay in publication; I hope this volume will make amends. One advantage of the delay is that the relevant recent work can be included. In a sense this is a companion volume to my recent Springer-Ergebnisse-Bericht, where the Hermitian theory was not dealt with. Our approach is via "Hom-groups," analogous to that followed in recent work on locally free classgroups.

Lectures: A. Auslander, R. Tolimeri: Nilpotent groups and abelian varieties.- M Cowling: Unitary and uniformly bounded representations of some simple Lie groups.- M. Duflo: Construction de representations unitaires d un groupe de Lie.- R. Howe: On a notion of rank for unitary representations of the classical groups.- V.S. Varadarajan: Eigenfunction expansions of semisimple Lie groups.- R. Zimmer: Ergodic theory, group representations and rigidity.- Seminars: A. Koranyi: Some applications of Gelfand pairs in classical analysis.

The applications of ergodic theory to metric number theory are well known; part of the latter theory turns out to be essentially a special case of general ergodic theorems. In the present book other applications of ergodic concepts are presented. Constructing "flows" of integral points on certain algebraic manifolds given by systems of integral polynomials, we are able to prove individual ergodic theorems and mixing theorems in certain cases. These theorems permit asymptotic calculations of the distributions of integral points on such manifolds, and we arrive at results inaccessible up to now by the usual methods of analytic number theory. Typical in this respect is the theorem concerning the asymptotic distribution and ergodic behavior of the set of integral points on the sphere X2+ y2+z2=m for increasing m. It is not known up until now how to obtain the simple and geometrically obvious regularity of the distribution of integral points on the sphere other than by ergodic methods. Systems of diophantine equations are studied with our method, and flows of integral points introduced for this purpose turn out to be closely connected with the behavior of ideal classes of the corresponding algebraic fields, and this behavior shows certain ergodic regularity in sequences of algebraic fields. However, in this book we examine in this respect only quadratic fields in sufficient detail, studying fields of higher degrees only in chapter VII.

This basic introduction to number theory is ideal for those with no previous knowledge of the subject. The main topics of divisibility, congruences, and the distribution of prime numbers are covered. Of particular interest is the inclusion of a proof for one of the most famous results in mathematics, the prime number theorem. With many examples and exercises, and only requiring knowledge of a little calculus and algebra, this book will suit individuals with imagination and interest in following a mathematical argument to its conclusion.

Rainbow connections are natural combinatorial measures that are used in applications to secure the transfer of classified information between agencies incommunication networks. "Rainbow Connections of Graphs" covers this new and emerging topicin graph theory and brings together a majority of the results that deal with the concept of rainbow connections, first introduced by Chartrand et al. in 2006.

The authors begin with an introduction to rainbow connectedness, rainbow coloring, and rainbow connection number. The work is organized into the followingcategories, computation of the exact valuesof the rainbow connection numbers for some special graphs, algorithms and complexity analysis, upper bounds in terms of other graph parameters, rainbow connection for dense and sparse graphs, for some graph classes andgraph products, rainbow k-connectivity and k-rainbow index, and, rainbow vertex-connection number.
"Rainbow Connections of Graphs" appeals to researchers and graduate students in the field of graph theory. Conjectures, open problems and questions are given throughout the text with the hope for motivating young graph theorists and graduate students to do further study in this subject.

"

This book contains 33 papers from among the 41 papers presented at the Eighth International Conference on Fibonacci Numbers and Their Applications which was held at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, from June 22 to June 26, 1998. These papers have been selected after a careful review by well known referees in the field, and they range from elementary number theory to probability and statistics. The Fibonacci numbers and recurrence relations are their unifying bond. It is anticipated that this book, like its seven predecessors, will be useful to research workers and graduate students interested in the Fibonacci numbers and their applications. June 1, 1999 The Editor F. T. Howard Mathematics and Computer Science Wake Forest University Box 7388 Reynolda Station Winston-Salem, NC USA xvii THE ORGANIZING COMMITTEES LOCAL COMMITTEE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE Anderson, Peter G. , Chairman Horadam, A. F. (Australia), Co-Chair Arpaya, Pasqual Philippou, A. N. (Cyprus), Co-Chair Biles, John Bergum, G. E. (U. S. A. ) Orr, Richard Filipponi, P. (Italy) Radziszowski, Stanislaw Harborth, H. (Germany) Rich, Nelson Horibe, Y. (Japan) Howard, F. (U. S. A. ) Johnson, M. (U. S. A. ) Kiss, P. (Hungary) Phillips, G. M. (Scotland) Turner, J. (New Zealand) Waddill, M. E. (U. S. A. ) xix LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS TO THE CONFERENCE AGRATINI, OCTAVIAN, "Unusual Equations in Study. " *ANDO, SHIRO, (coauthor Daihachiro Sato), "On the Generalized Binomial Coefficients Defined by Strong Divisibility Sequences. " *ANATASSOVA, VASSIA K. , (coauthor J. C.

A beautiful and relatively elementary account of a part of mathematics where three main fields - algebra, analysis and geometry - meet. The book provides a broad view of these subjects at the level of calculus, without being a calculus book. Its roots are in arithmetic and geometry, the two opposite poles of mathematics, and the source of historic conceptual conflict. The resolution of this conflict, and its role in the development of mathematics, is one of the main stories in the book. Stillwell has chosen an array of exciting and worthwhile topics and elegantly combines mathematical history with mathematics. He covers the main ideas of Euclid, but with 2000 years of extra insights attached. Presupposing only high school algebra, it can be read by any well prepared student entering university. Moreover, this book will be popular with graduate students and researchers in mathematics due to its attractive and unusual treatment of fundamental topics. A set of well-written exercises at the end of each section allows new ideas to be instantly tested and reinforced.

'Et moi, ..., si j'avait su comment en revcnrr, One service mathematics has rendered the je n'y serais point aile.' human race. It has put common sense back. Jules Verne where it belongs, on the topmost shelf next to the dusty canister labelled 'discarded non The series is divergent; therefore we may be sense'. able to do something with it. Eric T. Bell O. Heaviside Mathematics is a tool for thought. A highly necessary tool in a world where both feedback and non linearities abound. Similarly, all kinds of parts of mathematics serve as tools for other parts and for other sciences. Applying a simple rewriting rule to the quote on the right above one finds such statements as: 'One service topology has rendered mathematical physics .. .'; 'One service logic has rendered com puter science .. .'; 'One service category theory has rendered mathematics .. .'. All arguably true. And all statements obtainable this way form part of the raison d'etre of this series."

Cryptography is a key technology in electronic security systems. Modern cryptograpic techniques have many uses, such as to digitally sign documents, for access control, to implement electronic money, and for copyright protection. Because of these important uses it is necessary that users be able to estimate the efficiency and security of cryptographic techniques. It is not sufficient for them to know only how the techniques work. This book is written for readers who want to learn about mod- ern cryptographic algorithms and their mathematical foundation but who do not have the necessary mathematical background. It is my goal to explain the basic techniques of modern cryptography, including the necessary mathematical results from linear algebra, algebra, number theory, and probability theory. I assume only basic mathematical knowledge. The book is based on courses in cryptography that I have been teaching at the Technical University, Darmstadt, since 1996. I thank all students who attended the courses and who read the manuscript carefully for their interest and support. In particular, I would like to thank Harald Baier, Gabi Barking, Manuel Breuning, Sa- fuat Hamdy, Birgit Henhapl, Michael Jacobson (who also corrected my English), Andreas Kottig, Markus Maurer, Andreas Meyer, Stefan v vi Preface Neis, Sachar Paulus, Thomas Pfahler, Marita Skrobic, Edlyn Thske, Patrick Theobald, and Ralf-Philipp Weinmann. I also thank the staff at Springer-Verlag, in particular Martin Peters, Agnes Herrmann, Claudia Kehl, Ina Lindemann, and Thrry Kornak, for their support in the preparation of this book.

This book reproduces, with minor changes, the notes prepared for a course given at Brigham Young University during the academic year 1984-1985. It is intended to be an introduction to the theory of numbers. The audience consisted largely of undergraduate students with no more background than high school mathematics. The presentation was thus kept as elementary and self-contained as possible. However, because the discussion was, generally, carried far enough to introduce the audience to some areas of current research, the book should also be useful to graduate students. The only prerequisite to reading the book is an interest in and aptitude for mathe matics. Though the topics may seem unrelated, the study of diophantine equations has been our main goal. I am indebted to several mathematicians whose published as well as unpublished work has been freely used throughout this book. In particular, the Phillips Lectures at Haverford College given by Professor John T. Tate have been an important source of material for the book. Some parts of Chapter 5 on algebraic curves are, for example, based on these lectures."

From its birth (in Babylon?) till 1936 the theory of quadratic forms dealt almost exclusively with forms over the real field, the complex field or the ring of integers. Only as late as 1937 were the foundations of a theory over an arbitrary field laid. This was in a famous paper by Ernst Witt. Still too early, apparently, because it took another 25 years for the ideas of Witt to be pursued, notably by Albrecht Pfister, and expanded into a full branch of algebra. Around 1960 the development of algebraic topology and algebraic K-theory led to the study of quadratic forms over commutative rings and hermitian forms over rings with involutions. Not surprisingly, in this more general setting, algebraic K-theory plays the role that linear algebra plays in the case of fields. This book exposes the theory of quadratic and hermitian forms over rings in a very general setting. It avoids, as far as possible, any restriction on the characteristic and takes full advantage of the functorial aspects of the theory. The advantage of doing so is not only aesthetical: on the one hand, some classical proofs gain in simplicity and transparency, the most notable examples being the results on low-dimensional spinor groups; on the other hand new results are obtained, which went unnoticed even for fields, as in the case of involutions on 16-dimensional central simple algebras. The first chapter gives an introduction to the basic definitions and properties of hermitian forms which are used throughout the book.

This volume contains the refereed proceedings of the Workshop on Cryptography and Computational Number Theory, CCNT'99, which has been held in Singapore during the week of November 22-26, 1999. The workshop was organized by the Centre for Systems Security of the Na tional University of Singapore. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Singapore National Science and Technology Board under the grant num ber RP960668/M. The idea for this workshop grew out of the recognition of the recent, rapid development in various areas of cryptography and computational number the ory. The event followed the concept of the research programs at such well-known research institutions as the Newton Institute (UK), Oberwolfach and Dagstuhl (Germany), and Luminy (France). Accordingly, there were only invited lectures at the workshop with plenty of time for informal discussions. It was hoped and successfully achieved that the meeting would encourage and stimulate further research in information and computer security as well as in the design and implementation of number theoretic cryptosystems and other related areas. Another goal of the meeting was to stimulate collaboration and more active interaction between mathematicians, computer scientists, practical cryptographers and engineers in academia, industry and government."

This book is an outgrowth of the Workshop on "Regulators in Analysis, Geom etry and Number Theory" held at the Edmund Landau Center for Research in Mathematical Analysis of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1996. During the preparation and the holding of the workshop we were greatly helped by the director of the Landau Center: Lior Tsafriri during the time of the planning of the conference, and Hershel Farkas during the meeting itself. Organizing and running this workshop was a true pleasure, thanks to the expert technical help provided by the Landau Center in general, and by its secretary Simcha Kojman in particular. We would like to express our hearty thanks to all of them. However, the articles assembled in the present volume do not represent the proceedings of this workshop; neither could all contributors to the book make it to the meeting, nor do the contributions herein necessarily reflect talks given in Jerusalem. In the introduction, we outline our view of the theory to which this volume intends to contribute. The crucial objective of the present volume is to bring together concepts, methods, and results from analysis, differential as well as algebraic geometry, and number theory in order to work towards a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of regulators and secondary invariants. Our thanks go to all the participants of the workshop and authors of this volume. May the readers of this book enjoy and profit from the combination of mathematical ideas here documented."

Rigid (analytic) spaces were invented to describe degenerations, reductions, and moduli of algebraic curves and abelian varieties. This work, a revised and greatly expanded new English edition of an earlier French text by the same authors, presents important new developments and applications of the theory of rigid analytic spaces to abelian varieties, "points of rigid spaces," etale cohomology, Drinfeld modular curves, and Monsky-Washnitzer cohomology. The exposition is concise, self-contained, rich in examples and exercises, and will serve as an excellent graduate-level text for the classroom or for self-study."

February 14, 1968 marked the thirtieth year since the death of Edmund Landau. The papers of this volume are dedicated by friends, students, and admirers to the memory of this outstanding scholar and teacher. To mention but one side of his original and varied scientific work, the results and effects of which cannot be dis cussed here, Edmund Landau performed one of his greatest services in developing the analytic theory of prime numbers from a subject accessible only with great difficulty even to the initiated few to the general estate of mathematicians. With the exception of the work of Chebyshev, Riemann, and Mertens, before Landau the problems of this theory were attempted only in a number of papers which were filled with gaps and errors. These problems were such that even Gauss abandoned them after several attempts in his youth, and they were described by N. H. Abel in a letter of 1823 and by O. Toeplitz in a lecture in 1930 as the deepest part of mathe matics. Clarification first began with the papers of Hadamard, de la Vallee Poussin, and von Mangoldt. At the end ofthe foreword to his work" Handbuch der Lehre von der Verteilung der Primzahlen" which appeared in 1909, Landau could thus remark with complete justification: " . . . The difficulty of the previously unsolved problems has frightened nearly everyone away from the theory of prime numbers.