This work has become the standard introduction to the theory of p-adic numbers. The 2nd edition adds a deeper treatment of p-adic functions, including the Iwasawa logarithm and the p-adic gamma-function, plus new exercises and an appendix of answers and hints.

The most important revision in the second edition are the enlargment of the treatment of p-adic functions in Ch. 4 to include the Iwasawa logarithm and the p-adic gamma-function, the rearrangement and addition of some exercises, the inclusion of an extensive appendix of answers and hints to the exercises, and numerous corrections and clarifications. The first edition has become the standard introduction to the theory of p-adic numbers on the advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate level.

Autorentext

Neal Koblitz is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Washington in the Department of Mathematics. He is also an adjunct professor with the Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research at the University of Waterloo. He is the creator of hyperelliptic curve cryptography and the independent co-creator of elliptic curve cryptography. Professor Koblitz received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, where he was a Putnam Fellow, in 1969. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1974 under the direction of Nickolas Katz.

Zusammenfassung
The first edition of this work has become the standard introduction to the theory of p-adic numbers at both the advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate level.

Inhalt
I p-adic numbers.- 1. Basic concepts.- 2. Metrics on the rational numbers.- Exercises.- 3. Review of building up the complex numbers.- 4. The field of p-adic numbers.- 5. Arithmetic in ?p.- Exercises.- II p-adic interpolation of the Riemann zeta-function.- 1. A formula for ?(2k).- 2. p-adic interpolation of the function f(s) = as.- Exercises.- 3. p-adic distributions.- Exercises.- 4. Bernoulli distributions.- 5. Measures and integration.- Exercises.- 6. The p-adic ?-function as a Mellin-Mazur transform.- 7. A brief survey (no proofs).- Exercises.- III Building up ?.- 1. Finite fields.- Exercises.- 2. Extension of norms.- Exercises.- 3. The algebraic closure of ?p.- 4. ?.- Exercises.- IV p-adic power series.- 1. Elementary functions.- Exercises.- 2. The logarithm, gamma and Artin-Hasse exponential functions.- Exercises.- 3. Newton polygons for polynomials.- 4. Newton polygons for power series.- Exercises.- V Rationality of the zeta-function of a set of equations over a finite field.- 1. Hypersurfaces and their zeta-functions.- Exercises.- 2. Characters and their lifting.- 3. A linear map on the vector space of power series.- 4. p-adic analytic expression for the zeta-function.- Exercises.- 5. The end of the proof.- Answers and Hints for the Exercises.