The 'Arithmetic and Geometry' trimester, held at the Hausdorff Research Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, focussed on recent work on Serre's conjecture and on rational points on algebraic varieties. The resulting proceedings volume provides a modern overview of the subject for graduate students in arithmetic geometry and Diophantine geometry. It is also essential reading for any researcher wishing to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field. Highlights include Tim Browning's survey on applications of the circle method to rational points on algebraic varieties and Per Salberger's chapter on rational points on cubic hypersurfaces.

The four contributions collected in this volume deal with several advanced results in analytic number theory. Friedlander's paper contains some recent achievements of sieve theory leading to asymptotic formulae for the number of primes represented by suitable polynomials. Heath-Brown's lecture notes mainly deal with counting integer solutions to Diophantine equations, using among other tools several results from algebraic geometry and from the geometry of numbers. Iwaniec's paper gives a broad picture of the theory of Siegel's zeros and of exceptional characters of L-functions, and gives a new proof of Linnik's theorem on the least prime in an arithmetic progression. Kaczorowski's article presents an up-to-date survey of the axiomatic theory of L-functions introduced by Selberg, with a detailed exposition of several recent results.

The Riemann zeta-function embodies both additive and multiplicative structures in a single function, making it our most important tool in the study of prime numbers. This volume studies all aspects of the theory, starting from first principles and probing the function's own challenging theory, with the famous and still unsolved "Riemann hypothesis" at its heart. The second edition has been revised to include descriptions of work done in the last forty years and is updated with many additional references; it will provide stimulating reading for postgraduates and workers in analytic number theory and classical analysis.