Synopses & Reviews
Since its publication, C.F. Gauss's Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (1801) has acquired an almost mythical reputation, standing as an ideal of exposition in notation, problems and methods; as a model of organisation and theory building; and as a source of mathematical inspiration. Eighteen authors - mathematicians, historians, philosophers - have collaborated in this volume to assess the impact of the Disquisitiones, in the two centuries since its publication.
Review
Aus den Rezensionen: "... Im Buch wird Wert darauf gelegt, die Herausbildung der Zahlentheorie auch in eine breitere Geschichte der Mathematik einzubetten. ... Für mathematisch vorgebildete Leserinnen und Leser finden sich je nach Geschmack verschiedene Schmuckstücke. So wirft die Publikation und Auswertung eines Manuskripts von Kummer durch Bölling ein aufschlussreiches Licht auf die Entstehung der Kummer'schen idealen Zahlen. ... Insgesamt gesehen handelt sich um ein beeindruckendes und empfehlenswertes Werk über die Geschichte der Zahlentheorie des 19. Jahrhunderts mit Ausblicken auf das folgende." (Erhard Scholz, in: NTM - Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin, 2009, Issue 17, S. 235ff)
Review
From the reviews: "A book that traces the profound effect Gauss's masterpiece has had on mathematics over the past two centuries. ... The shaping of arithmetic is a major accomplishment, one which will stand as an important reference work on the history of number theory for many years. ... The editors and authors deserve our thanks for their efforts." (Victor J. Katz, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2008 h) "It's a big book, with eighteen authors and almost six hundred pages, and it mixes the work of well-established scholars with that of recent Ph.D.'s. ... This volume deserves a wide audience, both among the mathematically able and among historians of nineteenth-century science." (Thomas Archibald, Institute for Science and International Security, Vol. 102 (2), June, 2011)
Synopsis
The cultural historian Theodore Merz called it "that great book with seven seals," the mathematician Leopold Kronecker, "the book of all books." Already one century after its publication, C.F. Gauss's Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (1801) had acquired an almost mythical reputation, standing as an ideal of exposition in notation, problems and methods; as a model of organization and theory building; and as a source of mathematical inspiration. Various readings of the Disquisitiones Arithmeticae have left their mark on developments as different as Galois's theory of algebraic equations, Lucas's primality tests, and Dedekind's theory of ideals. In this volume, eighteen authors--mathematicians, historians, and philosophers among them-- assess the impact of the Disquisitiones since its publication.
About the Author
Catherine Goldstein is Directrice de recherches du CNRS and works at the Institut de mathématiques de Jussieu (Paris, France). She is the author of "Un théorème de Fermat et ses lecteurs" (1995) and a coeditor
Table of Contents
I. A Book's History. - C. Goldstein, N. Schappacher. II. Algebraic Equations, Quadratic Forms, Higher Congruences: Key Mathematical Techniques of the Disquistiones. - O. Neumann: The Disquisitiones Arithmeticae and the Theory of Equations.- H.M. Edwards: Composition of Binary Quadratic Forms and the Foundations of Mathematics.- D. Fenster, J. Schwermer: Composition of Quadratic Forms: An Algebraic Perspective.- G. Frei: Gauss's Unpublished Section Eight: On the Way to Function Fields over a Finite Field.- III. The German Reception of the Disquisitiones Arithmeticae: Institutions and Ideas. - H. Pieper: A Network of Scientific Philanthropy: Humboldt's Relations with Number Theorists.- J. Ferreirós: The Rise of Pure Mathematics as Arithmetic after Gauss.- IV. Complex Numbers and Complex Functions in Arithmetic.- R. Bölling: From Reciprocity Laws to Ideal Numbers: An (Un)Known 1844 Manuscript by E.E. Kummer.- C. Houzel: Elliptic Functions and Arithmetic. V. Numbers as Model Objects of Mathematics.- J. Boniface: The Concept of Number from Gauss to Kronecker.- B. Petri, N. Schappacher: On Arithmetization. VI. Number Theory in France in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century.- C. Goldstein: Hermitian Forms of Reading the Disquisitiones Arithmeticae.- A.-M. Décaillot: Number Theory at the Association francaise pour l'avancement des sciences.- VII. Spotlighting Some Later Reactions.- A. Brigaglia: An Overview on Italian Arithmeitc after the Disquistiones Arithmeticae. P. Piazza: Zolotarev's Theory of Algebraic Numbers.- D. Fenster: Gauss Goes West: The Reception of the Disquistiones Arithmeticae in the USA. VIII. Gauss's Theorem in the Long Run: Three Case Studies.- J. Schwermer: Reduction Theory of Quadratic Forms: Toward Räumliche Anschauung in Minkowski's Early Work.- S. J. Patterson: Gauss Sums.- F. Lemmermeyer: The Principal Genus Theorem.- List of Illustrations.- Index.- Author's Addresses.