The Riemann Hypothesis

Collecting papers never before published in book form, this volume presents an analysis of the Riemann Hypothesis as well as connected problems. It also supplies a generous helping of the body of theory developed towards the problem’s solution. In addition, the work contains recent advances and results in number theory. Almost all the material here is accessible to any senior mathematics student, and much is accessible to anyone with some university mathematics. The appendices include a selection of original papers that encompass the most important milestones in the evolution of theory connected to the Riemann Hypothesis. The appendices also include some authoritative expository papers. These are the “expert witnesses” whose insight into this field is both invaluable and irreplaceable.

The Riemann Hypothesis has become the Holy Grail of mathematics in the century and a half since 1859 when Bernhard Riemann, one of the extraordinary mathematical talents of the 19th century, originally posed the problem. While the problem is notoriously difficult, and complicated even to state carefully, it can be loosely formulated as "the number of integers with an even number of prime factors is the same as the number of integers with an odd number of prime factors."

The Hypothesis makes a very precise connection between two seemingly unrelated mathematical objects, namely prime numbers and the zeros of analytic functions. If solved, it would give us profound insight into number theory and, in particular, the nature of prime numbers.

This book is an introduction to the theory surrounding the Riemann Hypothesis. Part I serves as a compendium of known results and as a primer for the material presented in the 20 original papers contained in Part II. The original papers place the material into historical context and illustrate the motivations for research on and around the Riemann Hypothesis. Several of these papers focus on computation of the zeta function, while others give proofs of the Prime Number Theorem, since the Prime Number Theorem is so closely connected to the Riemann Hypothesis.

The text is suitable for a graduate course or seminar or simply as a reference for anyone interested in this extraordinary conjecture.