Rational Quadratic Forms (Dover Books on Mathematics) - Softcover

Cassels, J. W. S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486466701 ISBN 13: 9780486466705

Publisher: Dover Publications, 2008

Synopsis

This exploration of quadratic forms over rational numbers and rational integers offers an excellent elementary introduction to many aspects of a classical subject, including recent developments. The author, a Professor Emeritus at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, offers a largely self-contained treatment that develops most of the prerequisites.Topics include the theory of quadratic forms over local fields, forms with integral coefficients, genera and spinor genera, reduction theory for definite forms, and Gauss' composition theory. The final chapter explains how to formulate the proofs in earlier chapters independently of Dirichlet's theorems related to the existence of primes in arithmetic progressions. Specialists will particularly value the several helpful appendixes on class numbers, Siegel's formulas, Tamagawa numbers, and other topics. Each chapter concludes with many exercises and hints, plus notes that include historical remarks and references to the literature.

About this title

About the Author

Biography of J.W.S. Cassels

J. W. S. Cassels (known to his friends by the Gaelic form "Ian" of his first name) was born of mixed English-Scottish parentage on 11 July 1922 in the picturesque cathedral city of Durham. With a first degree from Edinburgh, he commenced research in Cambridge in 1946 under L. J. Mordell, who had just succeeded G. H. Hardy in the Sadleirian Chair of Pure Mathematics. He obtained his doctorate and was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 1949. After a year in Manchester, he returned to Cambridge and in 1967 became Sadleirian Professor. He was Head of the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics from 1969 until he retired in 1984.
Cassels has contributed to several areas of number theory and written a number of other expository books:
- An introduction to diophantine approximations
- Rational quadratic forms
- Economics for mathematicians
- Local fields
- Lectures on elliptic curves
- Prolegomena to a middlebrow arithmetic of curves of genus 2 (with E. V. Flynn).

Edition details

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0486466701
• ISBN 13: 9780486466705
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432