Discriminant equations are an important class of Diophantine equations with close ties to algebraic number theory, Diophantine approximation and Diophantine geometry. This book is the first comprehensive account of discriminant equations and their applications. It brings together many aspects, including effective results over number fields, effective results over finitely generated domains, estimates on the number of solutions, applications to algebraic integers of given discriminant, power integral bases, canonical number systems, root separation of polynomials and reduction of hyperelliptic curves. The authors' previous title, Unit Equations in Diophantine Number Theory, laid the groundwork by presenting important results that are used as tools in the present book. This material is briefly summarized in the introductory chapters along with the necessary basic algebra and algebraic number theory, making the book accessible to experts and young researchers alike.

Diophantine number theory is an active area that has seen tremendous growth over the past century, and in this theory unit equations play a central role. This comprehensive treatment is the first volume devoted to these equations. The authors gather together all the most important results and look at many different aspects, including effective results on unit equations over number fields, estimates on the number of solutions, analogues for function fields and effective results for unit equations over finitely generated domains. They also present a variety of applications. Introductory chapters provide the necessary background in algebraic number theory and function field theory, as well as an account of the required tools from Diophantine approximation and transcendence theory. This makes the book suitable for young researchers as well as experts who are looking for an up-to-date overview of the field.

This book provides the first thorough treatment of effective results and methods for Diophantine equations over finitely generated domains. Compiling diverse results and techniques from papers written in recent decades, the text includes an in-depth analysis of classical equations including unit equations, Thue equations, hyper- and superelliptic equations, the Catalan equation, discriminant equations and decomposable form equations. The majority of results are proved in a quantitative form, giving effective bounds on the sizes of the solutions. The necessary techniques from Diophantine approximation and commutative algebra are all explained in detail without requiring any specialized knowledge on the topic, enabling readers from beginning graduate students to experts to prove effective finiteness results for various further classes of Diophantine equations.

The 13 chapters of this book centre around the proof of Theorem 1 of Faltings' paper "Diophantine approximation on abelian varieties," Ann. Math.133 (1991) and together give an approach to the proof that is accessible to Ph.D-level students in number theory and algebraic geometry. Each chapter is based on an instructional lecture given by its author ata special conference for graduate students, on the topic of Faltings' paper.