Overview
MATH3431 is a Mathematical Level III course. See the course overview below.
Units of Credit: 6
Prerequisites: 12 Units of Credit (UOC) in Level II Math courses
Exclusion: MATH3521 Algebraic Techniques in Number Theory
Cycle of offering: Term 3
Graduate attributes: The ability to provide logical and coherent proofs of number-theoretic results, and the ability to solve concrete number-theoretic problems will be paramount. It is planned that it will be suitable for students in both ordinary and advanced programs.
It is recommended to take it together with MATH3711, which will provide students with very useful complementing knowledge and skills.
More information: The course outline (pdf) contains information about course objectives, assessment, course materials and the syllabus.
The Online Handbook entry contains up-to-date timetabling information.
If you are currently enrolled in MATH3431, you can log into UNSW Moodle for this course.
Important additional information as of 2023
UNSW Plagiarism Policy
The University requires all students to be aware of its policy on plagiarism.
For courses convened by the School of Mathematics and Statistics no assistance using generative AI software is allowed unless specifically referred to in the individual assessment tasks.
If its use is detected in the no assistance case, it will be regarded as serious academic misconduct and subject to the standard penalties, which may include 00FL, suspension and exclusion.
Course aims
The course aims to provide students with basic knowledge of fundamental mathematical principles, to apply standard number theoretic techniques to a broad range of theoretic problems and to demonstrate a broad and advanced discriplinary knowledge and skills in number theory.
Course description
The course will cover some basic notions and techniques of number theory. The focus will be on such topics as divisibility, prime numbers, the arithmetic of residues rings, additive properties of integers and their powers and Diophantine approximations. Some applications of number theory to cryptography will be discussed as well. Students taking this course will develop an appreciation of the basic problems of number theory and will learn the interplay between number-theoretic problems and other areas of mathematics.