Student Number Theory Seminar

Nickolas Rollick, Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Waterloo

“Integer points on genus zero curves”

Solving Diophantine equations is a favourite pastime of number theorists, albeit often a frustrating one... It has often been useful to think of the equation as describing a geometric object (an algebraic variety), and handling questions about integer points in terms of geometric characteristics of the variety. We will consider one such case: integer points on curves of genus zero with at most two places at infinity. After describing ”genus” and ”places at infinity”, we briefly discuss how to reduce the question to finding integer points on conics, and then take a closer look at this special case.

M3 4001

**Please Note Room**