Mathematics Graduate Student Colloquium

MGSC Website: http://math.uci.edu/~mgsc/

Exponentially Interesting Sums

Timothy Choi
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
4:00 pm - 4:50 pm
PSCB 120

Talk Abstract:

Like gamma and beta functions are ubiquitous in analysis, Gauss sums and Jacobi sums are everywhere in number theory. Gauss introduced the Gauss sums in his Disquisitiones Arithmeticae in 1801, and he wrote in his diary that he devoted some time every week for more than four years before he was able to prove his conjecture on the sign of (quadratic) Gauss sums. We will study motivation of exponential sums in number theory and look at Kloosterman sums, yet another exponentially interesting sums.

About the Speaker:

Timothy Choi is a fifth-year graduate student here are UCI. He earned his B.A. in pure mathematics at UC San Diego in 2002. His past research has included study of exponential sums over finite fields. His current work continues his earlier work on exponential sums. When Timothy isn't researching, he enjoys studying differential geometry.

Refreshments:

Pizza will be served after the talk.