• Adam Kanigowski Awarded European Mathematical Society Prize

    He is the first member of UMD’s Department of Mathematics to receive this prestigious award for young mathematicians. The European Mathematical Society (EMS) awarded a 2024 EMS Prize to Adam Kanigowski, a Polish-born associate professor in the University of Maryland’s Department of Mathematics. Established in 1992, the prize is presented every four years to… Read More

  • Jonathan Poterjoy and Kayo Ide join new $6.6 million NOAA consortium

    Congratulations to AOSC's Jonathan Poterjoy and Kayo Ide (also of math and IPST) on joining a new NOAA consortium to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts.  Called CADRE, the $6.6 million initiative will focus on data assimilation, which uses observations to improve model predictions of natural systems, like Earth's atmosphere, over time.… Read More

  • Alfio Quarteroni receives the Blaise Pascal Medal in Mathematics

    Congratulations to Alfio Quarteroni for winning the 2024 Blaise Pascal Medal in Mathematics The message from the European Academy of Sciences reads: We are excited to announce that Professor Alfio Quarteroni has been awarded the esteemed 2024 Blaise Pascal Medal in Mathematics for his outstanding contributions to the field, particularly in… Read More

  • Archana Receives the Donna B. Hamilton Award

    Archana Khurana has been selected to receive the Donna B. Hamilton Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in a General Education Course.  Awards are based solely on student nominations and are solicited from across campus.  From the many nominations received, the selection committee was very impressed by the student experience… Read More

  • Yanir Receives a Do Good Campus Fund Grant

    Yanir’s proposal on “Incorporating outreach into the curriculum via experiential learning” is one of the only 27 projects out of 140 submissions that were funded by the UMD Do Good Campus Fund. Read More
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Description

Integers, divisibility, prime numbers, unique factorization, congruences, quadratic reciprocity, Diophantine equations and arithmetic functions.

Prerequisites

1 course with a minimum grade of C- from (MATH240, MATH241, MATH246, MATH340, MATH341, MATH461)


Level of Rigor

Standard


Sample Textbooks

Intro to Number Theory w/Cryptography, by Kraft and Washington

Elementary Number Theory and its Applications, by Rosen


Applications

Computer Science (cryptography)


If you like this course, you might also consider the following courses

MATH456, MATH402 or MATH403


Additional Notes

Students interested in grad school in MATH should consider this course. It is a good course to take before Math 403.

Topics

The integers

Divisibility

Prime numbers

Greatest common divisor

Euclidean algorithm

Unique factorization

Congruences

Basic properties

Modular arithmetic

Euler's phi function

Fermat's, Euler's and Wilson's theorems

Chinese remainder theorem

Legendre and Jacobi symbols

Law of quadratic reciprocity (possibility skip proof to allow time for other topics)

Additional Topics, (as time allows)

Diophantine equations: Pythagoras, Fermat, Pell

Primitive roots: Lagrange's Theorem

Primality testing

Factoring

RSA Algorithm

Arithmetic functions, Moebius inversion formula, Mersenne primes

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