ENGLISH

Local Fields (London Mathematical Society Student Texts No.3)

By J. W. S. Cassels

Book information

Year
1986
ISBN
0521315255, 9780521315258
Language
english
Format
DJVU
Filesize
2 MB (2577503 bytes)
Pages
376\373
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

The p-adic numbers, the earliest of local fields, were introduced by Hensel some 70 years ago as a natural tool in algebra number theory. Today the use of this and other local fields pervades much of mathematics, yet these simple and natural concepts, which often provide remarkably easy solutions to complex problems, are not as familiar as they should be. This book, based on postgraduate lectures at Cambridge, is meant to rectify this situation by providing a fairly elementary and self-contained introduction to local fields. After a general introduction, attention centres on the p-adic numbers and their use in number theory. There follow chapters on algebraic number theory, diophantine equations and on the analysis of a p-adic variable. This book will appeal to undergraduates, and even amateurs, interested in number theory, as well as to graduate students.

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