Dennis Spellman

This two-volume set collects and presents some fundamentals of mathematics in an entertaining and performing manner. The present volume examines many of the most important basic results in algebra and number theory, along with their proofs, and also their history. Contents The natural, integral and rational numbers Division and factorization in the integers Modular arithmetic Exceptional numbers Pythagorean triples and sums of squares Polynomials and unique factorization Field extensions and splitting fields Permutations and symmetric polynomials Real numbers The complex numbers, the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra and polynomial equations Quadratic number fields and Pell’s equation Transcendental numbers and the numbers e and p Compass and straightedge constructions and the classical problems Euclidean vector spaces

After being an open question for sixty years the Tarski conjecture was answered in the affirmative by Olga Kharlampovich and Alexei Myasnikov and independently by Zlil Sela. Both proofs involve long and complicated applications of algebraic geometry over free groups as well as an extension of methods to solve equations in free groups originally developed by Razborov. This book is an examination of the material on the general elementary theory of groups that is necessary to begin to understand the proofs. This material includes a complete exposition of the theory of fully residually free groups or limit groups as well a complete description of the algebraic geometry of free groups. Also included are introductory material on combinatorial and geometric group theory and first-order logic. There is then a short outline of the proof of the Tarski conjectures in the manner of Kharlampovich and Myasnikov.

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This volume consists of contributions by participants and speakers at two conferences. The first was entitled Combinatorial Group Theory, Discrete Groups and Number Theory and was held at Fairfield University, December 8-9, 2004. It was in honor of Professor Gerhard Rosenberger's sixtieth birthday. The second was the AMS Special Session on Infinite Group Theory held at Bard College, October 8-9, 2005. The papers in this volume provide a very interesting mix of combinatorial group theory, discrete group theory and ring theory as well as contributions to noncommutative algebraic cryptography.