George E. Andrews

#2

Number Theory or arithmetic, as some prefer to call it, is the oldest, purest, liveliest, most elementary yet sophisticated field of mathematics. It is no coincidence that the fundamental science of numbers has come to be known as the "Queen of Mathematics." Indeed some of the most complex conventions of the mathematical mind have evolved from the study of basic problems of number theory. André Weil, one of the outstanding contributors to number theory, has written an historical exposition of this subject; his study examines texts that span roughly thirty-six centuries of arithmetical work — from an Old Babylonian tablet, datable to the time of Hammurapi to Legendre’s Essai sur la Théorie des Nombres (1798). Motivated by a desire to present the substance of his field to the educated reader, Weil employs an historical approach in the analysis of problems and evolving methods of number theory and their significance within mathematics. In the course of his study Weil accompanies the reader into the workshops of four major authors of modern number theory (Fermat, Euler, Lagrange and Legendre) and there he conducts a detailed and critical examination of their work. Enriched by a broad coverage of intellectual history, Number Theory represents a major contribution to the understanding of our cultural heritage.

#3

1999

"This treatise presents an overview of special functions, focusing primarily on hypergeometric functions and the associated hypergeometric series, including Bessel functions and classical orthogonal polynomials. The basic building block of the functions studied in this book is the gamma function. In addition to relatively new work on gamma and beta functions, such as Selberg's multidimensional integrals, a number of important but relatively unknown nineteenth century results are included."--BOOK JACKET. "The authors provide organizing ideas, motivation, and historical background for the study and application of some important special functions. This work can serve as a learning tool and lasting reference for students and researchers in special functions, mathematical physics, differential equations, mathematical computing, number theory, and combinatorics."--Jacket.