DATE: Tuesday, November 10 (2009), at 10:40am
PLACE: LIT 305
SPEAKER: Frank Patane
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TITLE:
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Genus theory according to Gauss (Part 1)
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ABSTRACT:
The concept of genus provides a method of separating reduced binary
quadratic forms of the same discriminant according to congruence
classes represented by the binary quadratic forms. Many credit the
original idea of genus to Lagrange. However, Gauss is the first to
explicitly discuss the concept of genus. More importantly, he is the
first to put it to use. I will take time to explain his ideas in my three talks.
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