Prolegomena to a Middlebrow Arithmetic of Curves of Genus 2 (London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series, Series Number 230) - Softcover

Cassels, J. W. S.; Flynn, E. V.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521483700 ISBN 13: 9780521483704

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1996

Synopsis

The number theoretic properties of curves of genus 2 are attracting increasing attention. This book provides new insights into this subject; much of the material here is entirely new, and none has appeared in book form before. The authors include an explicit treatment of the Jacobian, which throws new light onto the geometry of the Kummer surface. Mathematicians can then determine the Mordell-Weil group for many curves, and in many nontrivial cases they can find all rational points. The results exemplify the power of computer algebra in diophantine contexts, but computer expertise is not assumed in the main text. Number theorists, algebraic geometers and workers in related areas will find that this book offers unique insights.

About this title

Book Description

The authors include an explicit treatment of the Jacobian, which throws new light onto the geometry of the Kummer surface. Mathematicians can then determine the Mordell-Weil group for many curves, and in many nontribial cases they can find all rational points.

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: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0521483700
• ISBN 13: 9780521483704
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 236