scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1061190

Publication date 15 September 1997

Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to number theory (11-01) Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to number theory (11-02) Structure of modular groups and generalizations; arithmetic groups (11F06) Siegel modular groups; Siegel and Hilbert-Siegel modular and automorphic forms (11F46) Elliptic curves over global fields (11G05) Quadratic extensions (11R11) Class numbers, class groups, discriminants (11R29) Equations in general fields (12E12) Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to algebraic geometry (14-01) Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to algebraic geometry (14-02) Elliptic curves (14H52) Elliptic functions and integrals (33E05)

Review text

This book offers an introductory account of the classical theory of elliptic curves and the hereto related topics from algebraic number theory. The subject of elliptic curves, which has been one of the jewels of nineteenth-century mathematics, is still of great fascination. Apart from having been one of the historical origins of modern complex analysis, algebraic geometry and arithmetic geometry, elliptic functions and their allied theories are of apparently increasing significance and ubiquity in these areas and their applications. According to the importance and fascination that the subject transpires, there are numerous (old and new) textbooks on elliptic curves. The present book is not just another text on a basically familiar, extensively treated subject, and that is because the authors have chosen both a particular strategy and a highly individual style of presentation. Their main methodological principles seem to have been the following ones: (1) The development of the theory of elliptic curves as well as the style of its presentation should vividly reflect the original approaches created once by the discoverers of the subject. (2) Accordingly, the style of presentation should preferably be rather informal, avoiding the modern definition-proposition-proof-example method, and motivating examples and illustrations should be given priority over dryly numbered theorems. (3) The treatment should organically combine the three fundamental themes centred around the theory of elliptic curves: complex function theory, geometry, and arithmetic. In fact, the authors have converted this purpose into a highly valuable textbook on elliptic curves, which rewardingly throws a bridge between the classical origin and the modern viewpoint of the subject. As to the contents, the text consists of seven chapters, which essentially follow the historical path, beginning with the first examples of elliptic integrals and concluding with an outlook to the arithmetic of elliptic curves. Chapter 1 provides an informal preparatory account on rational functions, Riemann surfaces, projective curves, and uniformization theory of Riemann surfaces. Chapter 2 treats elliptic functions along the approach by Abel, Gauss, Weierstrass, and others via elliptic integrals. This is in contrast to the approach via periodic meromorphic functions, period lattices, and algebraic tori (after Liouville-Burkhardt-Hurwitz), that is to the modern approach adapted by most contemporary textbooks on elliptic functions. This chapter contains, among other things, brief discussions of the Weierstrass \(\wp\)-function, projective plane cubics, Abel's theorem, the inversion problem for abelian integrals, and Jacobi functions. Chapter 3 turns to Jacobi's theta functions, as an interlude, and touches upon the Lefschetz theorem on embeddings of one-dimensional complex tori, theta identities, Euler identities, Jacobi substitutions, Ramanujan's continued fractions, and quadratic reciprocity. Chapter 4 discusses, along with arithmetic applications, the Siegel modular group and its level-2 congruence subgroup, modular forms, Eisenstein series, Landen's transformation, Jacobi's modular equation, the modular equations of level two and five, and gives a brief outlook to arithmetic subgroups of the Siegel modular group in higher genus. Chapter 5 gives some arithmetic applications and illustrations, chiefly with a view towards the classical problem of solvability of algebraic equations, Galois theory, Klein's icosaeder and the quintic equation, and Hermite's approach via modular equations. This chapter concludes with the geometric interpretation of the analysis of the quintic equation. Chapter 6 explains the applications of the modular equation to the arithmetic of imaginary quadratic number fields, including class invariants and Kronecker's ``Jugendtraum, the class polynomial, class invariants at a prime level, and explicit computations of the class invariants. The concluding chapter 7 deals with old and new results on the arithmetic of elliptic curves, culminating in a proof of the Mordell-Weil theorem following Weil's original ideas. One particular feature of the book is that the proofs of most theorems are prepared by carefully selected examples, and then decomposed into a series of steps, each of which is frequently given as an exercise with precise hints for solution. On the other hand, many of these exercises come with complete solutions. Altogether, this highly non-standard textbook provides the reader with a wealth of historically original ideas, a deep insight into historically grown mathematical interrelations, and references to modern developments in the analysis, geometry, and arithmetic of elliptic curves. The book reflects the authors' profound knowledge of and deep devotion to the historical development of the theory of elliptic curves. In these days, it is certainly very profitable for the mathematical community to have such a book among the increasing number of others on the subject. Requiring only a first acquaintance with complex function theory, this book is not only a perfect, culturally valuable primer for beginners in the field, but also an excellent source for researchers in various areas of mathematics and physics.

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