This book links two subjects: algebraic geometry and coding theory. It uses a novel approach based on the theory of algebraic function fields. Coverage includes the Riemann-Rock theorem, zeta functions and Hasse-Weil's theorem as well as Goppa' s algebraic-geometric codes and other traditional codes. It will be useful to researchers in algebraic geometry and coding theory and computer scientists and engineers in information transmission.

The fields of algebraic functions of one variable appear in several areas of mathematics: complex analysis, algebraic geometry, and number theory. This text adopts the latter perspective by applying an arithmetic-algebraic viewpoint to the study of function fields as part of the algebraic theory of numbers. The examination explains both the similarities and fundamental differences between function fields and number fields, including many exercises and examples to enhance understanding and motivate further study. The only prerequisites are a basic knowledge of field theory, complex analysis, and some commutative algebra.

Early in the development of number theory, it was noticed that the ring of integers has many properties in common with the ring of polynomials over a finite field. The first part of this book illustrates this relationship by presenting analogues of various theorems. The later chapters probe the analogy between global function fields and algebraic number fields. Topics include the ABC-conjecture, Brumer-Stark conjecture, and Drinfeld modules.

This textbook equips graduate students and advanced undergraduates with the necessary theoretical tools for applying algebraic geometry to information theory, and it covers primary applications in coding theory and cryptography. Harald Niederreiter and Chaoping Xing provide the first detailed discussion of the interplay between nonsingular projective curves and algebraic function fields over finite fields. This interplay is fundamental to research in the field today, yet until now no other textbook has featured complete proofs of it. Niederreiter and Xing cover classical applications like algebraic-geometry codes and elliptic-curve cryptosystems as well as material not treated by other books, including function-field codes, digital nets, code-based public-key cryptosystems, and frameproof codes. Combining a systematic development of theory with a broad selection of real-world applications, this is the most comprehensive yet accessible introduction to the field available. Introduces graduate students and advanced undergraduates to the foundations of algebraic geometry for applications to information theory Provides the first detailed discussion of the interplay between projective curves and algebraic function fields over finite fields Includes applications to coding theory and cryptography Covers the latest advances in algebraic-geometry codes Features applications to cryptography not treated in other books

This book is an introduction to the theory of algebraic numbers and algebraic functions of one variable. The basic development is the same for both using E Artin's legant approach, via valuations. Number Theory is pursued as far as the unit theorem and the finiteness of the class number. In function theory the aim is the Abel-Jacobi theorem describing the devisor class group, with occasional geometrical asides to help understanding. Assuming only an undergraduate course in algebra, plus a little acquaintance with topology and complex function theory, the book serves as an introduction to more technical works in algebraic number theory, function theory or algebraic geometry by an exposition of the central themes in the subject.

This book gives an introduction to algebraic functions and projective curves. It covers a wide range of material by dispensing with the machinery of algebraic geometry and proceeding directly via valuation theory to the main results on function fields. It also develops the theory of singular curves by studying maps to projective space, including topics such as Weierstrass points in characteristic p, and the Gorenstein relations for singularities of plane curves.

Develops the theory of algebraic curves over finite fields, their zeta and L-functions and the theory of algebraic geometric Goppa codes.