• Student home
• Things to know this week
• Student news
• Student events
• New students' welcome
• Studying at York
  • Semesters
  • Teaching hours
  • Enrolment
  • Manage your studies
    • Enrol or re-enrol
    • Your student record
    • Your timetable
    • Change your plan
    • Programmes and modules
      • Programme specifications
      • Studying beyond your department
      • Module catalogue
    • University study spaces
  • Student Visa holders
  • Study skills
  • Assessment and examination
  • Academic progress issues
  • Graduation
• Support and advice
• Health and wellbeing
• Work, volunteering and career planning
• Study and work abroad
• Accommodation
• IT and online services
• Finance
• Student life in York
• If things go wrong
• Student Centre

Metric Number Theory - MAT00049M

« Back to module search

• Department: Mathematics
• Module co-ordinator: Prof. Sanju Velani
• Credit value: 10 credits
• Credit level: M
• Academic year of delivery: 2021-22
  • See module specification for other years: 2022-23

Related modules

Additional information

Pre-requisite knowledge for MSc students: familiarity with and maturity in handling sets, functions, knowledge of (e.g. first courses in) both discrete and analytic number theory.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Autumn Term 2021-22

Module aims

• To continue the development of number theory.

• To provide a deeper and more quantitative understanding of the structure of the real numbers through Diophantine approximation.

• To illustrate the interplay of different branches of mathematics by the use of algebra, probability and basic results from the theory of Lebesgue measure and fractal geometry.

Module learning outcomes

At the end of the module you should be able to:

• Understand a range of ideas and techniques in Diophantine approximation.

• Be familiar with the basic use of algebraic and probabilistic ideas within metric number theory.

• Understand the role of fractals within number theory.

• Understand the interplay between number theory and basic dynamical systems.

Module content

 

Syllabus

• Continued fractions and best approximations to real numbers

• Hurwitz's theorem

• Continued fractions and quadratic irrationalities

• Badly approximable numbers

• The Borel-Cantelli Lemma

• Khintchine's theorem on approximations by rational numbers

• Hausdorff measures and dimension

• The middle third Cantor set and its dimension

• Hausdorff dimension and badly approximable numbers

• The Jarnik-Besicovitch theorem

• The Pigeonhole Principle and Dirichlet's theorem in higher dimensions

• Minkowski's theorem for convex bodies and systems of linear forms

Assessment

Task	Length	% of module mark
Closed/in-person Exam (Centrally scheduled) Metric Number Theory	2 hours	100

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task	Length	% of module mark
Closed/in-person Exam (Centrally scheduled) Metric Number Theory	2 hours	100

Module feedback

Current Department policy on feedback is available in the student handbook. Coursework and examinations will be marked and returned in accordance with this policy.

Indicative reading

G H Hardy and E M Wright, The Theory of Numbers, Oxford University Press.