Gateway to Mathematics: Number Theory

4 units · Undergraduate lower division (0-99)

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisites: courses 31A, 31B. Introductory number theory course for freshmen and sophomores. Topics include prime number theory and cryptographic applications, factorization theory (in integers and Gaussian integers), Pythagorean triples, Fermat descent (for sums of squares and Fermat quartic), Pell’s equation, and Diophantine approximation. P/NP or letter grading.