Math 322: Number Theory
Fall 2016

Office: Fowler 305
Email: gdaigle@oxy.edu

Office Hours:

Often in office:

Course Information

Lecture:

Course Goals

In Math 322 we will gain a broad understanding of number theory, a mathematical topic that has been of great interest since the ancient Greeks. The two major topics we will study are the distribution of prime numbers and solution sets to Diophantine equations. We will explore connections with modular arithmetic and with cryptography and learn Gauss’s law of quadratic reciprocity. We will also practice good mathematical writing and clear communication of mathematical and technical ideas.

The course syllabus is available here.

Course Notes

 

Homework

Tests

 

Project Information

All students in this course will be required to submit an approximately 3 page paper on some number theory related topic. I will hand out a separate sheet with topic suggestions. (If you are still looking for a Senior Comps topic, some of these would make good topics for that as well, although your senior comps paper will of course be longer and more in-depth; you may not submit identical papers for both assignments).

A partial reference for project ideas is available here. There is also a rubric for the paper, which should guide you on what to do and include.

Here is a relatively clean sample document and the LaTeX source code for it, along with a sample bibliography file.

A first draft of the paper will be due on the Monday before Thanksgiving, November 21. Submitting this draft (at all) will be worth 5% of your final grade. I will give feedback and a preliminary grade; your final submission, worth 10% of your final grade, will be due Monday, December 5. (Note: by college policy I can not give extensions on this date).

References

There is no mandatory textbook for this course. I will post complete lecture notes and homework assignments on this page.

The following references may be helpful to you if you’re looking for extra reading; I will try to include pointers to specific chapters in the notes.