Andrew Wiles proof.

**MathematicalPhysicist** · Mar22-09, 08:42 AM

What fields of interest in number theory should I learn to fully understand his and Taylor's proof?
Is there a comprehensible list?

**matt grime** · Mar22-09, 09:39 AM

Start with the book of the proof (Springer, I think). It will have a comprehensive bibliography for when you need to recursively learn something.

**MathematicalPhysicist** · Mar22-09, 10:11 AM

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?...eorem+springer

Which one of them are you reffering to?

**matt grime** · Mar22-09, 10:35 AM

Read the reviews, decide which one's best for you. Silverman is a good author, for what it's worth.

**Dragonfall** · Mar24-09, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by matt grime

recursively learn something.

Kinda goes against the standard math pedagogical philosophy. I bet when machines go sentient that's how they'll learn.

**matt grime** · Mar25-09, 02:31 AM

The mathematical pedagogy to which you refer is aimed at teaching a broad canvas of essentials. This is good if someone has decided what those are on your behalf.

Sometimes, though, if you need to just learn something, say to understand a paper or a particular result, you need to find out what you need to learn, and this is perhaps a case in point.

To learn basic graduate level algebraic and analytic number theory would be a few years, from scratch. And then you find out that you spent too long on cubic reciprocity when you needed to learn more about L functions and modular forms..