Student Number Theory Seminar | Julius Frizzell | Lehmer's Conjecture and Related Problems

Julius Frizzell (University of Waterloo)

Lehmer's Conjecture and Related Problems

The Mahler measure of a polynomial is the product of the moduli of it's roots lying outside the unit disk. Lehmer's conjecture says that, among polynomials with integer coefficients that are not cyclotomic, there exists a polynomial with minimal Mahler measure. We will discuss the history and original motivation behind Lehmer's problem and the known partial results. We will also look at other problems related to Mahler measure, such as questions arising from looking at the divisors of Newman polynomials.

MC 5479