This is the webpage for the section of Undergraduate Seminars I focused on Fermat's last theorem. A tentative syllabus can be found here; further details and materials will appear soon.
Instructor: Avi Zeff
Time/place: Mondays 1 - 3 PM in 507 Mathematics
| Date | Speaker | Topic | Sources | Materials |
| September 16 | Avi | Introduction and logistics | ||
| September 23 | Elementary approaches: infinite descent, n = 3, 4, sums of two squares | [H, §1.4 - 1.7] | ||
| September 23 | Kummer's approach: proof for regular primes | [H, §1.8] | ||
| September 30 | Elliptic functions I | [H, §2.1 - 2.5] | ||
| September 30 | Elliptic functions II | [H, §2.5 - 2.12] | ||
| October 7 | Number fields I: global fields, places, and local fields | [H, §3.1 - 3.4] | ||
| October 7 | Number fields II: Galois theory and representations | [H, §3.5 - 3.7] | ||
| Elliptic curves I: definitions and first properties | [H, §4.1 - 4.5] | |||
| Elliptic curves II: endomorphisms and bounds | [H, §4.6 - 4.11] | |||
| Elliptic curves III: further properties and conjectures | [H, §4.12 - 4.15] | |||
| Modular forms I: theta functions | [H, §5.1 - 5.2] | |||
| Modular forms II: definitions and first properties | [H, §5.3 - 5.4] | |||
| Modular forms III: operations | [H, §5.5 - 5.9] | |||
| Modularity and Fermat's last theorem | ||||
| Addenda and related problems | ||||
| Further topics |
[H] Hellegouarch, Yves. Invitation to the mathematics of Fermat–Wiles. Elsevier, 2001.