You are here

An Introduction to the Geometry of Numbers

J. W. S. Cassels
Publisher: 
Springer
Publication Date: 
1997
Number of Pages: 
344
Format: 
Paperback
Series: 
Classics in Mathematics
Price: 
69.95
ISBN: 
978-3-540-61788-4
Category: 
Monograph
BLL Rating: 

The Basic Library List Committee recommends this book for acquisition by undergraduate mathematics libraries.

[Reviewed by
Darren Glass
, on
01/11/2011
]

As its name suggests, the area of mathematics known as “the geometry of numbers” involves using geometric methods to answer questions arising in number theory. These methods often give very elegant solutions to problems that seem intractable without them. The origin of the field goes back to Minkowski, but the first comprehensive book on the subject was J. W. S. Cassels’ An Introduction To The Geometry of Numbers, originally published in 1959 and now available in Springer Verlag’s Classics in Mathematics series.

In the prologue of his book, Cassels gives several of the concepts and results that he considers at the core of this area of mathematics, including the following question: Let f(x1,…,xn) be a real-valued function of real variables xi. How small can we make |f(x1,…,xn)| if we impose the additional restriction that the xi be integers? Often we want to consider cases in which f is a homogeneous polynomial, in which case it is trivial that f(0,…,0)=0, so we exclude that choice of xi. How small can we make the value of |f|?

One approach to this kind of question involves looking at the geometric regions defined by considering the values where f(x1,…,xn) ≤ k for various values of k. Often, we can understand the geometry of these regions and then invoke results such as a classical theorem of Minkowski which states that any convex, symmetric region which has large enough area must include points with integer coordinates. In this way, the geometry allows us to answer what originally appeared to be a purely number theoretic question.

These types of Diophantine questions turn up throughout mathematics and Minkowski’s theorem has found particularly important applications in computing ideal class groups in algebraic number theory and in addressing the types of sphere-packing and sphere-covering problems that coding theorists ask. As is common in mathematics, many of these applications were discovered long after the original theory was developed, and some of them were developed long after Cassels wrote this book. This is perhaps the biggest drawback in reading Cassels’ book in 2011 — there have been many advances in the field in the half century since he wrote it, and several other good books have been written in the area that cover these advances and put the work in a more modern context. See, for example, books by Burger, Conway, Olds, Lax, & Davidoff, or Beck & Robins, each of which touches on similar topics.

That said, it is Cassels’ book that I have found myself returning to over the years. It is very clearly written, and assumes little in the way of prerequisites. In particular, it is accessible to an undergraduate who is willing to work a bit, and I speak from experience as I first read the book the summer before I started graduate school. At the same time, it is a serious work giving an exhaustive (and not at all watered down) account of Minkowski’s theory. The questions that Cassels discusses will be interesting to anyone who has thought about Diophantine questions in number theory, and the techniques he uses to discuss them are simultaneously sophisticated and accessible. This book certainly earns its place in a series on the “Classics in Mathematics.”


Darren Glass is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Gettysburg College whose research interests include number theory, algebraic geometry, and cryptography. He can be reached at dglass@gettysburg.edu.


 

 Notation Prologue Chapter I. Lattices 1. Introduction 2. Bases and sublattices 3. Lattices under linear transformation 4. Forms and lattices 5. The polar lattice Chapter II. Reduction 1. Introduction 2. The basic process 3. Definite quadratic forms 4. Indefinite quadratic forms 5. Binary cubic forms 6. Other forms Chapter III. Theorems of Blichfeldt and Minkowski 1. Introduction 2. Blichfeldt's and Mnowski's theorems 3. Generalisations to non-negative functions 4. Characterisation of lattices 5. Lattice constants 6. A method of Mordell 7. Representation of integers by quadratic forms Chapter IV. Distance functions 1. Introduction 2. General distance-functions 3. Convex sets 4. Distance functions and lattices Chapter V. Mahler's compactness theorem 1. Introduction 2. Linear transformations 3. Convergence of lattices 4. Compactness for lattices 5. Critical lattices 6. Bounded star-bodies 7. Reducibility 8. Convex bodies 9. Speres 10. Applications to diophantine approximation Chapter VI. The theorem of Minkowski-Hlawka 1. Introduction 2. Sublattices of prime index 3. The Minkowski-Hlawka theorem 4. Schmidt's theorems 5. A conjecture of Rogers 6. Unbounded star-bodies Chapter VII. The quotient space 1. Introduction 2. General properties 3. The sum theorem Chapter VIII. Successive minima 1. Introduction 2. Spheres 3. General distance-functions Chapter IX. Packings 1. Introduction 2. Sets with V(/varphi) =n^2/Delta(/varphi) 3. Voronoi's results 4. Preparatory lemmas 5. Fejes Tóth's theorem 6. Cylinders 7. Packing of spheres 8. The proudctio of n linear forms Chapter X. Automorphs 1. Introduction 2. Special forms 3. A method of Mordell 4. Existence of automorphs 5. Isolation theorems 6. Applications of isolation 7. An infinity of solutions 8. Local methods Chapter XI. Ihomogeneous problems 1. Introduction 2. Convex sets 3. Transference theorems for convex sets 4. The producti of n linear forms Appendix References Index quotient space. successive minima. Packings. Automorphs. Inhomogeneous problems.