This book is based on the AMS Short Course, The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Number Theory, held in Orono, Maine, in August 1991. This Short Course provided some views into the great breadth of applications of number theory outside cryptology and highlighted the power and applicability of number-theoretic ideas. Because number theory is one of the most accessible areas of mathematics, this book will appeal to a general mathematical audience as well as to researchers in other areas of science and engineering who wish to learn how number theory is being applied outside of mathematics. All of the chapters are written by leading specialists in number theory and provides excellent introduction to various applications.

Readership

General mathematical audience as well as researchers in other areas of science and engineering who wish to learn how number theory is being applied outside of mathematics.

Reviews

"The overall standard here is high ... it is more than useful to have a small book indicating so many applications in a subject long considered to be the most basic branch of mathematics."

-- Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society

Table of Contents

• M. R. Schroeder -- The unreasonable effectiveness of number theory in physics, communication, and music
• G. E. Andrews -- The reasonable and unreasonable effectiveness of number theory in statistical mechanics
• J. C. Lagarias -- Number theory and dynamical systems
• G. Marsaglia -- The mathematics of random number generators
• V. Pless -- Cyclotomy and cyclic codes
• M. D. McIlroy -- Number theory in computer graphics