Stalking the Riemann hypothesis : the quest to find the hidden law of prime numbers

For 150 years the Riemann hypothesis has been the holy grail of mathematics. Now, at a moment when mathematicians are finally moving in on a proof, Dartmouth professor Dan Rockmore tells the riveting history of the hunt for a solution.In 1859 German professor Bernhard Riemann postulated a law capable of describing with an amazing degree of accuracy the occurrence of the prime numbers. Rockmore takes us all the way from Euclid to the mysteries of quantum chaos to show how the Riemann hypothesis lies at the very heart of some of the most cutting-edge research going on today in physics and mathematics. Acknowledgements / ix 1 / Prologue: It All Begins with Zero /3 2 / The God-Given Natural Numbers / 7 3 / The Shape of the Primes / 21 4 / Primal Cartographers / 30 5 / Shoulders to Stand Upon / 46 6 / Riemann and His "Very Likely" Hypothesis / 63 7 / A Dutch Red Herring / 95 8 / A Prime Number Theorem , After All.... and More /105 9 / Good, but Not Good Enough / 118 10 / First Steps / 128 11 / A Chance Meeting of Two Minds / 154 12 / God Created the Natural Numbers ... but in a Billiard Hall? /186 13 / Making Order Out of (Quantum) Chaos / 213 14 / God May Not Play Dice, but What about Cards? / 232 15 / The Millennium Meeting / 261 Glossary / 267 Further Reading and Sources / 277 Index /279 Stalking The Riemann Hyothesis Takes You On A Guided Tour Of The Deepest Mystery In Mathematics. Prologue -- It All Begins With Zero -- The God-given Natural Numbers -- The Shape Of The Primes -- Primal Cartographers -- Shoulders To Stand Upon -- Riemann And His Very Likely Hypothesis -- A Dutch Red Herring -- A Prime Number Theorem, After All--and More -- Good, But Not Good Enough -- First Steps -- A Chance Meeting Of Two Minds -- God Created The Natural Numbers-- But, In A Billiard Hall? -- Making Order Out Of (quantum) Chaos -- God May Not Play Dice, But What About Cards? -- The Millennium Meeting. Dan Rockmore. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [277]-278) And Index. Presents a study of one of the great unsolved mysteries of mathematics, the mid-nineteenth-century Riemann hypothesis, which describes the occurrence of prime numbers, and of the quest to prove or disprove the theory.