This book has grown out of a course of lectures on elliptic functions, given in German, at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, during the summer semester of 1982. Its aim is to give some idea of the theory of elliptic functions, and of its close connexion with theta-functions and modular functions, and to show how it provides an analytic approach to the solution of some classical problems in the theory of numbers. It comprises eleven chapters. The first seven are function-theoretic, and the next four concern arithmetical applications. There are Notes at the end of every chapter, which contain references to the literature, comments on the text, and on the ramifications, old and new, of the problems dealt with, some of them extending into cognate fields. The treatment is self-contained, and makes no special demand on the reader's knowledge beyond the elements of complex analysis in one variable, and of group theory.

Published for the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule Zurich

Carl Ludwig Siegel gave a course of lectures on the Geometry of Numbers at New York University during the academic year 1945-46, when there were hardly any books on the subject other than Minkowski's original one. This volume stems from Siegel's requirements of accuracy in detail, both in the text and in the illustrations, but involving no changes in the structure and style of the lectures as originally delivered. This book is an enticing introduction to Minkowski's great work. It also reveals the workings of a remarkable mind, such as Siegel's with its precision and power and aesthetic charm. It is of interest to the aspiring as well as the established mathematician, with its unique blend of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and analysis, and its easy readability.