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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2011

Peter D. T. A. Elliott
Affiliation:
University of Colorado, Boulder
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Summary

Du Doppeltgänger! du bleicher Geselle!

H. Heine.

In this volume I give a unified account of a method in the analytic theory of numbers: the method of the stable dual. The method is particularly effective in the study of arithmetic functions possessing algebraic structure.

The reader may check details of selected applications of the method; turn to the continuing developments discussed in the penultimate chapter; press on to the new. However, works in analysis, especially in analytic number theory, can seem formless. The leading thread, as Hadamard would have called it, [91] p. 105, becomes obscured by a mass of detail. All too often the conclusion will appear atop a pyramid of small steps, each step apparently insignificant. Sometimes this is due to the nature of the subject; sometimes it is not.

As footnote 2 on page 136 of his book [114], Lakatos makes the following remark:

Rationalists doubt that there are methodological discoveries at all. They think that method is unchanging, eternal. Indeed methodological discovers are very badly treated. Before their method is accepted, it is treated like a cranky theory; after it is treated as a trivial commonplace.

Experience has convinced me of the validity of this statement. Analytic number theory is a dynamic subject, with partial results as moments of clarity. There rarely comes a static final result. Indeed, analytic number theory is largely concerned with method. An heterogeneous nature, allowing opportunities to exhibit frailties of human psychology, gives it a forbidding aspect.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1997

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  • Introduction
  • Peter D. T. A. Elliott, University of Colorado, Boulder
  • Book: Duality in Analytic Number Theory
  • Online publication: 05 November 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511983405.003
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  • Introduction
  • Peter D. T. A. Elliott, University of Colorado, Boulder
  • Book: Duality in Analytic Number Theory
  • Online publication: 05 November 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511983405.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Peter D. T. A. Elliott, University of Colorado, Boulder
  • Book: Duality in Analytic Number Theory
  • Online publication: 05 November 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511983405.003
Available formats
×