โ Scribed by Jean-Pierre Serre
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
This book is divided into two parts. The first one is purely algebraic. Its objective is the classification of quadratic forms over the field of rational numbers (Hasse-Minkowski theorem). It is achieved in Chapter IV. The first three chapters contain some preliminaries: quadratic reciprocity law, p-adic fields, Hilbert symbols. Chapter V applies the preceding results to integral quadratic forms of discriminant ยฑ I. These forms occur in various questions: modular functions, differential topology, finite groups. The second part (Chapters VI and VII) uses "analytic" methods (holomor phic functions). Chapter VI gives the proof of the "theorem on arithmetic progressions" due to Dirichlet; this theorem is used at a critical point in the first part (Chapter Ill, no. 2.2). Chapter VII deals with modular forms, and in particular, with theta functions. Some of the quadratic forms of Chapter V reappear here. The two parts correspond to lectures given in 1962 and 1964 to second year students at the Ecole Normale Superieure. A redaction of these lectures in the form of duplicated notes, was made by J.-J. Sansuc (Chapters I-IV) and J.-P. Ramis and G. Ruget (Chapters VI-VII). They were very useful to me; I extend here my gratitude to their authors.
๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES
A concentrated introduction to three major areas of number theory: quadratic forms; Dirichlet's density theorem; and modular forms. The text begins with fundamental concepts and progresses to more advanced problems.
Serre's A Course in Arithmetic is a concentrated, modern introduction to basically three areas of number theory, quadratic forms, Dirichlet's density theorem, and modular forms. The first edition was very well accepted and is now one of the leading introductory texts on the advanced undergraduate or
This book is very elegant, a pleasure to read, but not a great textbook -- after reading you are likely not to remember anything other than having enjoyed it (this is particularly true of the proof of Dirichlet's theorem). For actually learning to work in the subject (of analytic number theory), Dav
Serre's "A Course in Arithmetic" is a concentrated, modern introduction to basically three areas of number theory, quadratic forms, Dirichlet's density theorem, and modular forms. The first edition was very well accepted and is now one of the leading introductory texts on the advanced undergraduate