Yuri F. Bilu, Yann Bugeaud, Maurice Mignotte

The Problem of Catalan

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

In 1842 the Belgian mathematician Eugène Charles Catalan asked whether 8 and 9 are the only consecutive pure powers of non-zero integers. 160 years after, the question was answered affirmatively by the Swiss mathematician of Romanian origin Preda Mihailescu. In other words, 32 - 23 = 1 is the only solution of the equation xp - yq = 1 in integers x, y, p, q with xy 0 and p, q 2.

In this book we give a complete and (almost) self-contained exposition of Mihailescu's work, which must be understandable by a curious university student, not necessarily specializing in Number Theory. We assume a very modest background:a standard university course of algebra, including basic Galois theory, and working knowledge of basic algebraic number theory.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Springer / Springer International Publishing / Springer, Berlin
• Artikelnr. des Verlages: 978-3-319-36255-7
• Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2014
• Seitenzahl: 260
• Erscheinungstermin: 10. September 2016
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 235mm x 155mm x 15mm
• Gewicht: 400g
• ISBN-13: 9783319362557
• ISBN-10: 3319362550
• Artikelnr.: 45678438

Inhaltsangabe

An Historical Account.- Even Exponents.- Cassels' Relations.- Cyclotomic Fields.- Dirichlet L-Series and Class Number Formulas.- Higher Divisibility Theorems.- Gauss Sums and Stickelberger's Theorem.- Mihailescu's Ideal.- The Real Part of Mihailescu's Ideal.- Cyclotomic units.- Selmer Group and Proof of Catalan's Conjecture.- The Theorem of Thaine.- Baker's Method and Tijdeman's Argument.- Appendix A: Number Fields.- Appendix B: Heights.- Appendix C: Commutative Rings, Modules, Semi-Simplicity.- Appendix D: Group Rings and Characters.- Appendix E: Reduction and Torsion of Finite G-Modules.- Appendix F: Radical Extensions.