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Abc Conjecture
The ''abc'' conjecture (also known as the Oesterlé–Masser conjecture) is a conjecture in number theory that arose out of a discussion of Joseph Oesterlé and David Masser in 1985. It is stated in terms of three positive integers ''a'', ''b'' and ''c'' (hence the name) that are relatively prime and satisfy ''a'' + ''b'' = ''c''. The conjecture essentially states that the product of the distinct prime factors of ''abc'' is usually not much smaller than ''c''. A number of famous conjectures and theorems in number theory would follow immediately from the ''abc'' conjecture or its versions. Mathematician Dorian Goldfeld described the ''abc'' conjecture as "The most important unsolved problem in Diophantine analysis". The ''abc'' conjecture originated as the outcome of attempts by Oesterlé and Masser to understand the Szpiro conjecture about elliptic curves, which involves more geometric structures in its statement than the ''abc'' conjecture. The ''abc'' conjecture was sho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Number Theory
Number theory (or arithmetic or higher arithmetic in older usage) is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic function, integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) said, "Mathematics is the queen of the sciences—and number theory is the queen of mathematics."German original: "Die Mathematik ist die Königin der Wissenschaften, und die Arithmetik ist die Königin der Mathematik." Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects made out of integers (for example, rational numbers) or defined as generalizations of the integers (for example, algebraic integers). Integers can be considered either in themselves or as solutions to equations (Diophantine geometry). Questions in number theory are often best understood through the study of Complex analysis, analytical objects (for example, the Riemann zeta function) that encode properties of the integers, primes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prime Factor
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways of writing it as a product, or , involve 5 itself. However, 4 is composite because it is a product (2 × 2) in which both numbers are smaller than 4. Primes are central in number theory because of the fundamental theorem of arithmetic: every natural number greater than 1 is either a prime itself or can be factorized as a product of primes that is unique up to their order. The property of being prime is called primality. A simple but slow method of checking the primality of a given number n, called trial division, tests whether n is a multiple of any integer between 2 and \sqrt. Faster algorithms include the Miller–Rabin primality test, which is fast but has a small chance of error, and the AKS primality test, which always pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conditional Proof
A conditional proof is a proof that takes the form of asserting a conditional, and proving that the antecedent of the conditional necessarily leads to the consequent. Overview The assumed antecedent of a conditional proof is called the conditional proof assumption (CPA). Thus, the goal of a conditional proof is to demonstrate that if the CPA were true, then the desired conclusion necessarily follows. The validity of a conditional proof does not require that the CPA be true, only that ''if it were true'' it would lead to the consequent. Conditional proofs are of great importance in mathematics. Conditional proofs exist linking several otherwise unproven conjectures, so that a proof of one conjecture may immediately imply the validity of several others. It can be much easier to show a proposition's truth to follow from another proposition than to prove it independently. A famous network of conditional proofs is the NP-complete class of complexity theory. There is a large num ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fermat's Little Theorem
Fermat's little theorem states that if ''p'' is a prime number, then for any integer ''a'', the number a^p - a is an integer multiple of ''p''. In the notation of modular arithmetic, this is expressed as : a^p \equiv a \pmod p. For example, if = 2 and = 7, then 27 = 128, and 128 − 2 = 126 = 7 × 18 is an integer multiple of 7. If is not divisible by , that is if is coprime to , Fermat's little theorem is equivalent to the statement that is an integer multiple of , or in symbols: : a^ \equiv 1 \pmod p. For example, if = 2 and = 7, then 26 = 64, and 64 − 1 = 63 = 7 × 9 is thus a multiple of 7. Fermat's little theorem is the basis for the Fermat primality test and is one of the fundamental results of elementary number theory. The theorem is named after Pierre de Fermat, who stated it in 1640. It is called the "little theorem" to distinguish it from Fermat's Last Theorem.. History Pierre de Fermat first stated the theorem in a letter dated October ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prime Number
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways of writing it as a product, or , involve 5 itself. However, 4 is composite because it is a product (2 × 2) in which both numbers are smaller than 4. Primes are central in number theory because of the fundamental theorem of arithmetic: every natural number greater than 1 is either a prime itself or can be factorized as a product of primes that is unique up to their order. The property of being prime is called primality. A simple but slow method of checking the primality of a given number n, called trial division, tests whether n is a multiple of any integer between 2 and \sqrt. Faster algorithms include the Miller–Rabin primality test, which is fast but has a small chance of error, and the AKS primality test, which always pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little O Notation
Big ''O'' notation is a mathematical notation that describes the limiting behavior of a function when the argument tends towards a particular value or infinity. Big O is a member of a family of notations invented by Paul Bachmann, Edmund Landau, and others, collectively called Bachmann–Landau notation or asymptotic notation. The letter O was chosen by Bachmann to stand for ''Ordnung'', meaning the order of approximation. In computer science, big O notation is used to classify algorithms according to how their run time or space requirements grow as the input size grows. In analytic number theory, big O notation is often used to express a bound on the difference between an arithmetical function and a better understood approximation; a famous example of such a difference is the remainder term in the prime number theorem. Big O notation is also used in many other fields to provide similar estimates. Big O notation characterizes functions according to their growth rates: diff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Real Number
In mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measure a ''continuous'' one-dimensional quantity such as a distance, duration or temperature. Here, ''continuous'' means that values can have arbitrarily small variations. Every real number can be almost uniquely represented by an infinite decimal expansion. The real numbers are fundamental in calculus (and more generally in all mathematics), in particular by their role in the classical definitions of limits, continuity and derivatives. The set of real numbers is denoted or \mathbb and is sometimes called "the reals". The adjective ''real'' in this context was introduced in the 17th century by René Descartes to distinguish real numbers, associated with physical reality, from imaginary numbers (such as the square roots of ), which seemed like a theoretical contrivance unrelated to physical reality. The real numbers include the rational numbers, such as the integer and the fraction . The rest of the real number ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pairwise Coprime
In mathematics, two integers and are coprime, relatively prime or mutually prime if the only positive integer that is a divisor of both of them is 1. Consequently, any prime number that divides does not divide , and vice versa. This is equivalent to their greatest common divisor (GCD) being 1. One says also '' is prime to '' or '' is coprime with ''. The numbers 8 and 9 are coprime, despite the fact that neither considered individually is a prime number, since 1 is their only common divisor. On the other hand, 6 and 9 are not coprime, because they are both divisible by 3. The numerator and denominator of a reduced fraction are coprime, by definition. Notation and testing Standard notations for relatively prime integers and are: and . In their 1989 textbook ''Concrete Mathematics'', Ronald Graham, Donald Knuth, and Oren Patashnik proposed that the notation a\perp b be used to indicate that and are relatively prime and that the term "prime" be used instead of coprime (as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coprime
In mathematics, two integers and are coprime, relatively prime or mutually prime if the only positive integer that is a divisor of both of them is 1. Consequently, any prime number that divides does not divide , and vice versa. This is equivalent to their greatest common divisor (GCD) being 1. One says also '' is prime to '' or '' is coprime with ''. The numbers 8 and 9 are coprime, despite the fact that neither considered individually is a prime number, since 1 is their only common divisor. On the other hand, 6 and 9 are not coprime, because they are both divisible by 3. The numerator and denominator of a reduced fraction are coprime, by definition. Notation and testing Standard notations for relatively prime integers and are: and . In their 1989 textbook ''Concrete Mathematics'', Ronald Graham, Donald Knuth, and Oren Patashnik proposed that the notation a\perp b be used to indicate that and are relatively prime and that the term "prime" be used instead of coprime (as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radical Of An Integer
In number theory, the radical of a positive integer ''n'' is defined as the product of the distinct prime numbers dividing ''n''. Each prime factor of ''n'' occurs exactly once as a factor of this product: \displaystyle\mathrm(n)=\prod_p The radical plays a central role in the statement of the abc conjecture. Examples Radical numbers for the first few positive integers are : 1, 2, 3, 2, 5, 6, 7, 2, 3, 10, 11, 6, 13, 14, 15, 2, 17, 6, 19, 10, 21, 22, 23, 6, 5, 26, 3, 14, 29, 30, 31, 2, 33, 34, 35, 6, 37, 38, 39, 10, 41, 42, 43, 22, 15, 46, 47, 6, 7, 10, ... . For example, 504 = 2^3 \cdot 3^2 \cdot 7 and therefore \operatorname(504) = 2 \cdot 3 \cdot 7 = 42 Properties The function \mathrm is multiplicative (but not completely multiplicative). The radical of any integer n is the largest square-free divisor of n and so also described as the square-free kernel of n. There is no known polynomial-time algorithm for computing the square-free part of an integer. The definition i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elliptic Curve
In mathematics, an elliptic curve is a smooth, projective, algebraic curve of genus one, on which there is a specified point . An elliptic curve is defined over a field and describes points in , the Cartesian product of with itself. If the field's characteristic is different from 2 and 3, then the curve can be described as a plane algebraic curve which consists of solutions for: :y^2 = x^3 + ax + b for some coefficients and in . The curve is required to be non-singular, which means that the curve has no cusps or self-intersections. (This is equivalent to the condition , that is, being square-free in .) It is always understood that the curve is really sitting in the projective plane, with the point being the unique point at infinity. Many sources define an elliptic curve to be simply a curve given by an equation of this form. (When the coefficient field has characteristic 2 or 3, the above equation is not quite general enough to include all non-singular cubic cu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
