MATHEMATICS COLLOQUIUM

 WHEN:
On Thursday, March 6, 2003 at 2:30PM

WHERE:
Durham Science Center, Room 255

WHAT:

Griff Elder
University of Nebraska - Omaha, Mathematics

will give a talk on

Abstract:
The history of local-global problems begins with diophantine equations. And so we will begin there -- proving that certain equations cannot have integer solutions because they don't mod p. Very quickly we will find ourselves led to the p-adic numbers. And then because of a method of Euler (solving a problem of Fermat) we will find ourselves forced to work with algebraic number fields. Here the story becomes very rich indeed, and we will need to restrict our attention to one beautiful example. (This talk should be accessible to students.)