A deep understanding of prime numbers is one of the great challenges in mathematics. In this book, fundamental theorems, challenging open problems, and the most recent computational records are presented in a language without secrets. The impressive wealth of material and references will make this book a favorite companion and a source of inspiration to all readers. Paulo Ribenboim is Professor Emeritus at Queen's University in Canada, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and recipient of the George Pรณlya Award of the Mathematical Association of America. He is the author of 13 books and more than 150 research articles. From the reviews of the First Edition: Number Theory and mathematics as a whole will benefit from having such an accessible book exposing advanced material. There is no question that this book will succeed in exciting many new people to the beauty and fascination of prime numbers, and will probably bring more young people to research in these areas. - Andrew Granville, Zentralblatt Ribenboim is a rare creature - an academic who writes in an unstuffy way - and his book gives an overview of what is currently known about primes. - Robert Matthews, The Sunday Telegraph โฆThis genially reader-friendly tour de force, by a scientist with an encyclopedic and up-to-the-minute knowledge of the subject, is a wholly admirable addition to anyone's bookshelf. - John H. Halton, American Scientist
CONTENT
How Many Prime Numbers Are There? -- How to Recognize Whether a Natural Number is a Prime -- Are There Functions Defining Prime Numbers? -- How Are the Prime Numbers Distributed? -- Which Special Kinds of Primes Have Been Considered? -- Heuristic and Probabilistic Results About Prime Numbers
