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Mordell's Review, Siegel's Ietter to Mordell, Diophantine Geometry, and 20Th Century Mathematics by Serge Lang

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Mordell's Review, Siegel's Ietter to Mordell, Diophantine Geometry, and 20Th Century Mathematics by Serge Lang Serge Lang lativitätstheorie erwiesen, und auch von der Entwick­ Prof. Dr. W. Frühwald lung der Spektraltheorie durch Hilbert bis zu ihrer Präsident der DFG Anwendung in Schroedingers Quantenmechanik ver­ Kennedyallee 40 gingen zwanzig Jahre, aber umso bemerkenswerter 53175 Bonn waren die Früchte. Prof. Dr. J ürgen Moser ETH Zürich, Mathematik Anschriften der Autoren: CH - 8092 Zürich Prof. Dr. G. Jasper Rektor der Universität Erlangen Nürnberg Prof. Dr. Stefan Hildebrandt Schloßplatz 4 Drachenfelsstr. 23 91054 Erlangen 53757 Sankt Augustin Mordell's review, Siegel's Ietter to Mordell, diophantine geometry, and 20th century mathematics by Serge Lang In 1962, I published Diophantine Geometry. Mordeil - that "just now, Lang has published another book reviewed this book (Mor 1964](note 1) , and the re­ on algebraic numbers which, in my opinion, is view became famous. Immediately after the review still worse than the former one. I see a pig bro­ appeared, in that same year, Siegel wrote a Ietter to ken into a beautiful garden and rooting up all Mordeil to express his agreement with Mordell's re­ ftowers and trees"; view concerning the overallnature of the book, and to express more generally hisnegative reaction to trends - that "unfortunately, there are many 'fellow tra­ in mathematics of the 1950's and 1960's. I learned velers' who have already disgraced a large part of Siegel's Ietter to Mordeil only in the seventies by of algebra and function theory"; hearsay, without knowing its precise content. At that - that "these people remind (Siegel] of the im­ time, in a Ietter dated 11 December 1975, I wrote to pudent behaviour of the national socialists who Siegel to teil him I got the message, and I sent a copy sang: 'Wir werden weiter marschieren, bis alles of my Ietter to many people. There was considerable in Scherben zerfällt!'" ; gossip about Siegel's Ietter to Mordell, but I saw the Ietter for the first time only in March 1991, when I - and that "mathematics will perish before the end received from Michel Waldschmidt a copy which he of this century if the present trend for senseless made from the original in the Cambridge library of abstraction - I call it: theory of the empty set - St John College. cannot be blocked up" . Siegel's Ietter is a historical document of interest I shall also deal with some concrete instances of from many points of view. I would like to deal here the more general problern mathematicians face in de­ with one of these points of view having to do with the aling with advances in mathematics which may pass relation between number theory and algebraic geo­ them by. metry, or what has come to be known as the number field case and the function field case. I shall document part of the 20th century history of the way these two §1. From Dedekind-Weber to the Rie­ cases have benefited from each other, and the extent mann Hypothesis in function fields over to which both Mordeil and Siegel failed to under­ finite fields stand the accomplishments of the fifties and sixties in connection with them (note 2). Among other things, The analogy between number fields and function Siegel wrote to Mordell: fields has been realized since the latter part of the 19th century. Kronecker was already in some sense - that "the whole style of the author (of Diaphanti­ aware of some of its aspects. Dedekind originated a ne Geometry] contradicts the sense for simplicity terminology in his study of number fields which he and honesty which we admire in the works of the and Weber applied to function fields in one varia­ masters in number theory... " ; ble (Ded-W 1882]. Rensei-Landsberg then provided 20 DMV Mitteilungen 4/94 .D~~~ .. ' _/ 1t--kl-- fv- ~ ~ ~ ~ -~ c/-~'s~· ~ J r s~ ~ ~) ~a.~7) J~ kr.k-L ~ ~ v-r .:..., - ~.L r ~ ~-.A.:o---:7 ~ K s-4-j,-A. t__,( /~ ~- + ;~ ~ ~ ~Y'4. Ar~~ ~ ~ ureli ~­ ~.-Q.>OJ ..,..L. t- ~ ·Rr .;---. LJ~.I 70._ ~.s+4-~~~~ ~:fo-~~~~ ~- ~4 ~ a..L~.:...... -14<_ r....-.:-r--l-.. .rf- ~ ~ ~ ~ d ~r - ~if.) '-~ , er-; o-- a... s--..lL -c-4.) ~, ~ · J_-L ~ ~ ~ .' ~ ~~~ ~ ..f.yl-o_:_~ ~ u-L.-J.- .:.... --{., ~~ ·~ ~ ~L ~ K.c_ ~~. J ~ ) . 0 J . ~ ~ /~ ~ ~ ~ ~ a-J ~J- --t oß ~~~- ~ ~~~ ,~-~-~~~~~ ~L-.~~ Q.~~~~ cv 1 ~ .ft~j ~/~ ~/ ~ ~ k--1_ ~h-~~. ·~ ~~~c~-~~~~~~ - ~ ~--"'.1.:-)~ .......La s~ : r l[J..;_ ~~ ~ ~~ J h ~ ~ 5~~.1" Jo--~~~~~~A~ of- U-:" ~ --1~ ~ ~ fo-A~ ~~ .-J~·.A-: ~~~~~~- ~k~'7 LI-~ ~ ~ ~ ~(1_4-0J ~ k l.JJ,f--f. J ~ ~ ~ ~ .;._.___ ~ L.__,(_ ~ ~ / ~ ~-vJ_ -.:-. ~~ . L):)/._ /~ .'V-i..~ J ~ h ~. / ~~) ~ 5~ Serge Lang a first systematic book treatment of basic facts con­ ( with a quite different intent and meaning from Sie­ cerning these function fields [Hen-1 1902], using the gel's "senseless abstraction"). A !arge body of mate­ Dedekind-Weber approach. Artin in his thesis [Art rial, recognized to be fairly dry by some of its crea­ 1921] translated the Riemann hypothesis to the func­ tors, had to be systematically worked out to provide tion field analogue (actually for quadratic fields). Se­ appropriate background for more extensive applica­ veral years later F. K. Schmidt treated general analy­ tions. The dryness was unavoidable. tic number theory including the functional equation One also saw the simultaneaus development of of the zeta function for function fields of arbitrary commutative algebra. One of its motivations was that genus [Schm 1931]. However, Artin thought that the in the context of algebraic geometry, a curve over a Riemann hypothesis in the function field case would number field can be defined by equations whose coef­ be as difficult as in the classical case of the ordina­ ficients lie in the ring of algebraic integers, and so can ry Riemann or Dedekind zeta function (he told me be viewed as a family of curves obtained by reducing so around 1950). It was Hasse in 1934 and 1936 who mod p for all primes p, or even mod pn for higher n so pointed out the "key for the problem" in the func­ as to include infinitesimal properties. This case can tion field case through the theory of correspondences, be unified with the case of algebraic families of cur­ as Weil writes in [Wei 1940] . (Hasse also indicated ves over an arbitrary field, including curves over the another way through reduction mod p using complex complex numbers. Furthermore, one wants to treat multiplication in characteristic zero.) Hasse hirnself higher dimensional varieties in the same fashion, in proved the Riemann hypothesis (Artin's conjecture) an algebraic and analytic context. For the analytic for curves of genus 1 [Has 1934], [Has 1936] (note context one is led to work over power series rings, 3). Then Deuring pursued the higher dimensional ge­ and more generally over complete local rings because neralization of Hasse's theory of endomorphisms on of the presence of singularities and the infinitesimal elliptic curves and correspondences [Deu 1937], [Deu aspects. One was also led to globalize from modules 1940], by showing that some results of Severi [Sev to sheaves, in a context involving both homological 1926] could be proved so that they applied in cha­ algebra and commutative algebra, thus leading to fur­ racteristic p, especially to curves over finite fields. ther abstractions. Weil went much further than Hasse and Deuring in These developments were a prelude to the sub­ this direction. "Directly inspired" [Wei 1948a, p. 28] sequent conceptual unification of topology, complex by works of Severi [Sev 1926] and Castelnuovo [Cas differential geometry and algebraic geometry during 1905], [Cas 1906], [Cas 1921], Weil developed a purely the sixties, the seventies, and beyond. For such a uni­ algebraic theory of correspondences and abelian va­ fication to take place, it was necessary to develop not rieties; and he formulated the positive definiteness of only a language, but an extensive theory containing his trace (which he related to Castelnuovo's equiva­ very substantial results as weil, starting with commu­ lence defect), thus yielding the Riemann- Hypothesis tative algebra and merging into algebraic geometry. in the function field case for curves of higher genus In the fifties and sixties, these developments appeared [Wei 1940], [Wei 1948a], [Wei 1948b]. as "senseless abstractions" to some people, including Hasse also defined a zeta function for arbitrary va­ Siegel, who writes as if these developments deal only rieties over number fields and conjectured its analytic with the "theory of the empty set". But it is precisely continuation and functional equation. This point of the insights of Grothendieck which led to an extensi­ view was promoted by Weil in the fifties. There was on - including an abstraction - of algebraic geometry a serious problern of algebraic geometry even dealing whereby he defined the cohomology functors algebrai­ with varieties of higher dimension over finite fields , cally; whereby he proved the Lefschetz formula [Gro Iet alone number fields, because as Weil conjectured, 1964] ; and whereby finally a decade later, Deligne fi­ the analogue of the functional equation and Riemann nally proved the analogue of the Riemann hypothesis hypothesis in this case would depend on finding alge­ for varieties in the higher dimensional case [Del1974]. braic analogues of homology groups (homology func­ Deligne also proved related applications, because in a tors) satisfying the Lefschetz fixed point formula [Wei Bourbaki seminar talk [Dei 1969], he had previously 1949]. shown how to reduce the Ramanujan-Petersson con­ In the forties and fifties several subjects in ma­ jecture for eigenvalues of modular forms under Hecke thematics, including algebraic topology and algebraic operators to this Riemann hypothesis, in a direction geometry, systematically developed new foundations first foreseen by Sato and also using some insights and internal results.
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