Requiring no more than a basic knowledge of abstract algebra, this text presents the mathematics of number fields in a straightforward, "down-to-earth" manner. It thus avoids local methods, for example, and presents proofs in a way that highlights the important parts of the arguments. Readers are assumed to be able to fill in the details, which in many places are left as exercises.

Inhalt

1: A Special Case of Fermat's Conjecture.- 2: Number Fields and Number Rings.- 3: Prime Decomposition in Number Rings.- 4: Galois Theory Applied to Prime Decomposition.- 5: The Ideal Class Group and the Unit Group.- 6: The Distribution of Ideals in a Number Ring.- 7: The Dedekind Zeta Function and the Class Number Formula.- 8: The Distribution of Primes and an Introduction to Class Field Theory.- Appendix 1: Commutative Rings and Ideals.- Appendix 2: Galois Theory for Subfields of C.- Appendix 3: Finite Fields and Rings.- Appendix 4: Two Pages of Primes.- Further Reading.- Index of Theorems.- List of Symbols.