Essays in constructive mathematics

DOI10.1007/B138656MaRDI QIDQ4652400zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Publication date 25 February 2005

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/b138656

binary quadratic forms composition of forms constructivism factorization of polynomials Galois theory genus Newton's polygon splitting field Sylow's theorems theorem of Riemann-Roch

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to number theory (11-01) Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to field theory (12-01) Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to algebraic geometry (14-01)

Review text

``This book, as we can read on the back cover, ``aims to promote constructive mathematics, not by defining it or formalizing it, but by practicing it, by basing all definitions and proofs on finite algorithms. And this is exactly what the book does. The author chose to write about the fundamental theorem of algebra, Galois theory, Gauss's composition of binary quadratic forms and the quadratic reciprocity law, the genus of algebraic curves, as well as the spectral theorem in linear algebra. He does so by sticking to Kronecker's philosophy that everything in mathematics should be reduced to calculation with natural numbers. The first two chapters deal with polynomial rings and Galois theory; in particular, the author discusses the factorization of polynomials with integer coefficients. These two chapters are a must-read for anyone interested in how Galois theory was perceived by people like Abel, Galois and Kronecker. In Chapter 3, the theory of binary quadratic forms is discussed. Since the author chose not to use negative integers (giving ``the theory a pleasing economy of structure) or integrally closed rings, he bumps into all the problems that were resolved by Dedekind; in particular his class group is a semigroup. After stubbornly refusing to use negative numbers to the extent of remarking that the values of the Legendre symbol may be taken to be the residue classes \(1\) and \(3 \bmod 4\), he finally accepts them (``as Gauss did) when starting to discuss the composition of forms. Chapter 4 is about algebraic curves. After a few historical remarks on Abel's theorem and Euler's addition formula for elliptic integrals, he introduces the genus; this is followed by an interlude on Newton polygons, a description of an algorithm for determining the genus, and a discussion of the theorem of Riemann-Roch. This is again a beautiful introduction to the classical works of Abel and Riemann that cannot readily be found elsewhere. The last chapter contains remarks on the fundamental theorem of algebra, an existence proof (of the Sylow theorems) by contradiction that the author claims is not ``not constructive, and ends with a tongue-in-cheek comparison of the author's Linear Algebra (1995; Zbl 0823.15001) with \textit{S. Axler}'s Linear Algebra Done Right (1997; Zbl 0886.15001). A final essay deals with a remark often attributed to Kronecker according to which he once claimed that irrational numbers do not exist. In the preface the author claims that he believes that the most interesting parts of mathematics can be dealt with constructively. If this is true, then why is almost all the material covered in this book more than 150 years old? The formulation of the last two sentences does not convey the intended meaning, which was: 1. The author's constructive approach deals with time-honored topics; the development of the material, on the other hand, is original. 2. The reviewer would be highly (but pleasantly) surprised if a similar constructive approach in the spirit of Kronecker could be successfully applied to topics that have dominated algebra, number theory, and algebraic geometry in the last 50 years. (Revised version)

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