J.S. Chahal - Böcker

This book reproduces, with minor changes, the notes prepared for a course given at Brigham Young University during the academic year 1984-1985. It is intended to be an introduction to the theory of numbers. The audience consisted largely of undergraduate students with no more background than high school mathematics. The presentation was thus kept as elementary and self-contained as possible. However, because the discussion was, generally, carried far enough to introduce the audience to some areas of current research, the book should also be useful to graduate students. The only prerequisite to reading the book is an interest in and aptitude for mathe­ matics. Though the topics may seem unrelated, the study of diophantine equations has been our main goal. I am indebted to several mathematicians whose published as well as unpublished work has been freely used throughout this book. In particular, the Phillips Lectures at Haverford College given by Professor John T. Tate have been an important source of material for the book. Some parts of Chapter 5 on algebraic curves are, for example, based on these lectures.

This book offers the basics of algebraic number theory for students and others who need an introduction and do not have the time to wade through the voluminous textbooks available. It is suitable for an independent study or as a textbook for a first course on the topic.The author presents the topic here by first offering a brief introduction to number theory and a review of the prerequisite material, then presents the basic theory of algebraic numbers. The treatment of the subject is classical but the newer approach discussed at the end provides a broader theory to include the arithmetic of algebraic curves over finite fields, and even suggests a theory for studying higher dimensional varieties over finite fields. It leads naturally to the Weil conjecture and some delicate questions in algebraic geometry.About the AuthorDr. J. S. Chahal is a professor of mathematics at Brigham Young University. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and after spending a couple of years at the University of Wisconsin as a post doc, he joined Brigham Young University as an assistant professor and has been there ever since. He specializes and has published several papers in number theory. For hobbies, he likes to travel and hike. His book, Fundamentals of Linear Algebra, is also published by CRC Press.

Fundamentals of Linear Algebra is like no other book on the subject. By following a natural and unified approach to the subject it has, in less than 250 pages, achieved a more complete coverage of the subject than books with more than twice as many pages. For example, the textbooks in use in the United States prove the existence of a basis only for finite dimensional vector spaces. This book proves it for any given vector space. With his experience in algebraic geometry and commutative algebra, the author defines the dimension of a vector space as its Krull dimension. By doing so, most of the facts about bases when the dimension is finite, are trivial consequences of this definition. To name one, the replacement theorem is no longer needed. It becomes obvious that any two bases of a finite dimensional vector space contain the same number of vectors. Moreover, this definition of the dimension works equally well when the geometric objects are nonlinear.Features: Presents theories and applications in an attempt to raise expectations and outcomes The subject of linear algebra is presented over arbitrary fields Includes many non-trivial examples which address real-world problems

Fundamentals of Linear Algebra is like no other book on the subject. By following a natural and unified approach to the subject it has, in less than 250 pages, achieved a more complete coverage of the subject than books with more than twice as many pages. For example, the textbooks in use in the United States prove the existence of a basis only for finite dimensional vector spaces. This book proves it for any given vector space. With his experience in algebraic geometry and commutative algebra, the author defines the dimension of a vector space as its Krull dimension. By doing so, most of the facts about bases when the dimension is finite, are trivial consequences of this definition. To name one, the replacement theorem is no longer needed. It becomes obvious that any two bases of a finite dimensional vector space contain the same number of vectors. Moreover, this definition of the dimension works equally well when the geometric objects are nonlinear.Features: Presents theories and applications in an attempt to raise expectations and outcomes The subject of linear algebra is presented over arbitrary fields Includes many non-trivial examples which address real-world problems