Day/Time: TTh 12:30 - 2pm; Location: PMA 11.176; Unique: 54550

Instructor

Mirela Ciperiani (mirela at math dot utexas dot edu); Office: PMA 12.164

Office Hours Thursday 10-11am

Grader

TBA; Office Hours: Monday 10-11am & 5-6pm
The purpose of the grader's office hours is to help get you on the right path with your proof writing by correcting your proofs in real time. You are expected to come to the office hour with a written up attempt to a solution of at least one homework problem.

Text

A Course in Arithmetic by Jean-Pierre Serre. The book is available at the University Co-op.
The book is not required but it is the main reference book for this course.

Objectives of the Course

This course aims introduce the students to more advanced number theory including an introduction to quadratic forms and the related local to global principle.

Prerequisites

Mathematics 373K with a grade of at least B.

Exams

Midterm Exam I: Thursday, February 27, 12:30 - 2pm in PMA 11.176

Midterm Exam II: Thursday, April 10, 12:30 - 2pm in PMA 11.176

Final Exam: none

• Notes, books, computers, phones, and calculators cannot be used or even be visible during exams.
• Students will be excused from the exams only because of a serious illness or another emergency of similar gravity. In such a case you must contact me via email before the exam (if physically possible) and have documentation indicating your inability to take the exam at the scheduled time.

Participation

I will post a list of problems on Thursdays. Your participation grade is based on your volunteering to present these. Whatever problem you are willing to present you must write up and email to the grader on Canvas. The grader will let you know if you can present. We need to do it this way in the interest of time. I encourage you to work together but the writing should be done on your own. You can split the presentation of a problem with a classmate if the problem slits naturally in two non-trivial subproblems. On Wednesday after the presentation you will need to email the grader the final version of your solution which will by posted on Canvas for your classmates to see.
Points: You get 3 points each time you present a problem (and submit a fully correct solution) and 1 for being present (and ideally engaged, i.e., asking questions etc.) in class during the presentation of the solutions. The total number of points required for full credit in this component of the course will depend on the number of students that are registered for the course and will be announced during the first two weeks of classes.

Presentations

Each student will choose a topic to present at the end of the course. To find these topics, you can look at the second part of 'A course in arithmetic' or elsewhere for topics for example in algebraic number theory. Presentations can be in groups of 1-3 students but each presenter will be responsible for a clearly defined portion. A written sketch of the presentation must be submitted at least two days prior to the presentation. When choosing a topic, each (group of ) student(s) must discuss it with me during office hours or extra appointment. I will then announce it to the class on Canvas in order to avoid repetition. Each student must select a presentation topic by the end of February.

Grading

Participation 20%

Midterms 25% (each)

Presentations 30%

• Plus/minus grades will be assigned for the final grade in this course.
• All your grades will be posted on Canvas. It is your responsibility to insure that your grades are recorded correctly on Canvas. If an error occurs you must alert the professor within two weeks from the date when the correct grade should have appeared.
• On all work, your grade will be computed as a percentage: the number of points you earned divided by the number of points possible. The percentages of each type of work that will be used to compute your final grade are given above. Your letter grade will be given based on your numerical average earned in the class, on a scale not stricter than the following: you are guaranteed a D for 40 or above, C- for 50 or above, C for 55 or above, C+ for 65 or above, B- for 70 or above, B for 75 or above, B+ for 85 or above, A- for 90 or above, and an A for 93 or above.

Conflicts

Students with special concerns, be they athletes who might miss class meetings, students with religious observances that interfere with class meetings, or students with disabilities who need special accommodation, are all supposed to notify the instructor about these special needs as soon as possible.

Disabilities

Students with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations from the Disability and Access (D&A) office, 512-471-6259.

Student Conduct

• Attendance: This course is structured with the expectation that you will attend every class. Please join the class on time; joining late will affect your ability to benefit from the class and may disturb others.
• Academic Honesty: Copying your written work from somebody else or from any other source without proper citation is considered cheating and will be dealt with severely. Cheating will be penalized as harshly as possible under the rules of UT.