Algebraic number theory is a branch of number theory that uses the techniques of abstract algebra to study the integers, rational numbers, and their generalizations. Number-theoretic questions are expressed in terms of properties of algebraic objects such as algebraic number fields and their rings of integers, finite fields, and function fields. These properties, such as whether a ring admits unique factorization, the behavior of ideals, and the Galois groups of fields, can resolve questions of primary importance in number theory, like the existence of solutions to Diophantine equations.
The beginnings of algebraic number theory can be traced to Diophantine equations, named after the 3rd-century Alexandrian mathematician, Diophantus, who studied them and developed methods for the solution of some kinds of Diophantine equations. A typical Diophantine problem is to find two integers x and y such that their sum, and the sum of their squares, equal two given numbers A and B, respectively:
Diophantine equations have been studied for thousands of years. For example, the solutions to the quadratic Diophantine equation x2 + y2 = z2 are given by the Pythagorean triples, originally solved by the Babylonians (1800 BC). Solutions to linear Diophantine equations, such as 26x + 65y = 13, may be found using the Euclidean algorithm (c. 5th century BC).
Diophantus' major work was the Arithmetica, of which only a portion has survived.
Fermat's Last Theorem was first conjectured by Pierre de Fermat in 1637, famously in the margin of a copy of Arithmetica where he claimed he had a proof that was too large to fit in the margin. No successful proof was published until 1995 despite the efforts of countless mathematicians during the 358 intervening years. The unsolved problem stimulated the development of algebraic number theory in the 19th century and the proof of the modularity theorem in the 20th century.
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This year's topic is "Adelic Number Theory" or how the language of adeles and ideles and harmonic analysis on the corresponding spaces can be used to revisit classical questions in algebraic number th
Algebraic number theory is the study of the properties of solutions of polynomial equations with integral coefficients; Starting with concrete problems, we then introduce more general notions like alg
Algebraic K-theory, which to any ring R associates a sequence of groups, can be viewed as a theory of linear algebra over an arbitrary ring. We will study in detail the first two of these groups and a
In number theory, Dirichlet's theorem, also called the Dirichlet prime number theorem, states that for any two positive coprime integers a and d, there are infinitely many primes of the form a + nd, where n is also a positive integer. In other words, there are infinitely many primes that are congruent to a modulo d. The numbers of the form a + nd form an arithmetic progression and Dirichlet's theorem states that this sequence contains infinitely many prime numbers.
In abstract algebra, a Dedekind domain or Dedekind ring, named after Richard Dedekind, is an integral domain in which every nonzero proper ideal factors into a product of prime ideals. It can be shown that such a factorization is then necessarily unique up to the order of the factors. There are at least three other characterizations of Dedekind domains that are sometimes taken as the definition: see below. A field is a commutative ring in which there are no nontrivial proper ideals, so that any field is a Dedekind domain, however in a rather vacuous way.
In number theory, the ideal class group (or class group) of an algebraic number field K is the quotient group JK/PK where JK is the group of fractional ideals of the ring of integers of K, and PK is its subgroup of principal ideals. The class group is a measure of the extent to which unique factorization fails in the ring of integers of K. The order of the group, which is finite, is called the class number of K. The theory extends to Dedekind domains and their field of fractions, for which the multiplicative properties are intimately tied to the structure of the class group.
Explores primes in arithmetic progression, focusing on L-functions, characters, and the divergence of the sum of 1 over p for p congruent to a modulo q.
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We examine the moments of the number of lattice points in a fixed ball of volume V for lattices in Euclidean space which are modules over the ring of integers of a number field K. In particular, denoting by ωK the number of roots of unity in K, we ...