Arithmetic tales. Transl. from the French by Véronique Bordellès (Q425115)

The book under review, which comes with the lyric, very promising title ``Arithmetic tales'', is the English version of the author's earlier French textbook ``Thèmes d'arithmétique'' published six years ago [Universitext. Paris: Ellipses. 228 p. (2006; Zbl 1244.11002)]. As the author points out in the preface, his initial intent was simply to have that French original translated into English. However, things turned out differently, and the present book is in fact a largely extended, much more complete version of the original French edition. As for the most significant changes, the single chapters have actually doubled in size, many exercises have been added, new topics have been included, and the sections titled ``Further developments'' in each chapter have been considerably amplified. As a result, the current book ``Arithmetic tales'' provides a comprehensive introduction to various central topics in number theory, with a particular emphasis on classical themes of analytic number theory. Keeping the arithmetical prerequisites to a minimum, the book is essentially self-contained and, in such a manner, a suitable primer for upper-level undergraduates. But also masters-level students and more advanced graduates will find a wealth of fundamental and fascinating arithmetic topics in this panoramic textbook. As to the precise contents, the book consists of seven chapters, each of which is divided into several sections and their subsections. Chapters 1 and 2 are to supply the main basic tools for beginners, including Euclidean division of integers, the classical summation fomulae, Bézout's theorem, the Euclidean algorithm, linear Diophantine equations, congruences, the ring \(\mathbb Z/n\mathbb Z\), generating functions, and some further elementary number theory. Chapter 3 is devoted to a rather comprehensive study of prime numbers, ranging from the classical works of Euclid, Fermat, Lagrange, Wilson, and others to the modern analysis relating the Riemann zeta function to the distribution of primes. In this context, Chebyshev's method, Mertens' theorems, the gamma and theta functions, Dirichlet characters and \(L\)-functions, and prime numbers in arithmetic progressions are also treated in detail. In the section on further developments, sieve methods, the Prime Number Theorem, additive characters and Gaussian sums, and the Riemann Hypothesis are discussed as well. Chapter 4 deals with a large number of multiplicative arithmetic functions and their properties, thereby extending the analysis already begun in the previous chapter. The Möbius inversion formula, special summation methods, and further tools for the study of average orders of arithmetic functions are presented, along with a fairly complete study of Dirichlet series and a brief account of Selberg's sieve and the large sieve. As the study of multiplicative arithmetic functions is related to integer points close to smooth algebraic plane curves, Chapter 5 turns to this very topic. The author depicts a number of both classical and more recent results of the theory in a very detailed and intricate, but nevertheless elementary arithmetic way. The focus is on the methods developed by L. Huxley and P. Sargos between 1995 and 2006, on the one hand, and those established by M. Filaseta and O. Trifonov on the other. These ingenious combinatorial methods extend the related classical work due to H. Halberstam, K. Roth, H.-E. Richert, H. P. F. Swinnerton-Dyer, and others in very instructive and effective manner. Chapter 6 returns to the topic of exponential sums in analytic number theory, and gives a more systematic picture of the theory. In this context, various methods of investigating exponential sums are touched upon, among them being the classical methods developed by H. Weyl, J. G. van der Corput, I. M. Vinogradov, and others. As the author points out, this chapter should be viewed as an analytic counterpart of the foregoing Chapter 5. Chapter 7 finally provides an introduction to algebraic number theory, thereby treating rings of algebraic integers and their ideal theory, the prime ideal decomposition in quadratic number fields, class groups, multiplicative aspects of ideals in rings of algebraic integers, the Dedekind zeta function, the class number and its lower bounds, the Brauer-Siegel Theorem, Abelian extensions and the Kronecker-Weber Theorem, class field theory over \(\mathbb Q\), primes of the form \(x^2+ ny^2\), analytic methods for the study of ideal classes, and lower bounds for the regulator of a number field. Each chapter contains an extra section with a large number of related exercises, which either illustrate the course material or lead the reader to further results and allied topics, respectively. Hints and answers to all the exercises are given in an appendix at the end of the book, and each chapter contains its own list of references for additional reading. As already mentioned in the beginning of this review, each chapter also contains a section titled ``Further developments'', where more complicated notions, more advanced parts of the theory, or more recent approaches are treated. Most results presented in the text are completely proved, whereas the reader is cross-referred to the more advanced standard sources whenever the proof goes beyond the scope of the book. All together, the present book provides a very lucid, comprehensive, versatile, and enlightening introduction to some of the most fascinating topics in number theory. Moreover, the very instructive exposition offers various extras such as a nearly exhaustive treatment of the recent development of the discrete Hardy-Littlewood method for exponential sums (à la E. Bombieri and others), a description of the identities of R. C. Vaughan and D. R. Heath-Brown for primes in short intervals, and a useful analysis of some analytic methods in algebraic number theory, among many other things. It is very gratifying to have an English version of this excellent textbook of number theory by O. Bordellès, and that in the present, significantly extended and improved form. No doubt, this book will find many interested readers within the international mathematical community.