Written for advanced undergraduate and first-year graduate students, this book aims to introduce students to a serious level of p-adic analysis with important implications for number theory. The main object is the study of G-series, that is, power series y=aij=0 Ajxj with coefficients in an algebraic number field K. These series satisfy a linear differential equation Ly=0 with LIK(x) [d/dx] and have non-zero radii of convergence for each imbedding of K into the complex numbers. They have the further property that the common ...
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Written for advanced undergraduate and first-year graduate students, this book aims to introduce students to a serious level of p-adic analysis with important implications for number theory. The main object is the study of G-series, that is, power series y=aij=0 Ajxj with coefficients in an algebraic number field K. These series satisfy a linear differential equation Ly=0 with LIK(x) [d/dx] and have non-zero radii of convergence for each imbedding of K into the complex numbers. They have the further property that the common denominators of the first s coefficients go to infinity geometrically with the index s. After presenting a review of valuation theory and elementary p-adic analysis together with an application to the congruence zeta function, this book offers a detailed study of the p-adic properties of formal power series solutions of linear differential equations. In particular, the p-adic radii of convergence and the p-adic growth of coefficients are studied. Recent work of Christol, Bombieri, Andr�, and Dwork is treated and augmented. The book concludes with Chudnovsky's theorem: the analytic continuation of a G -series is again a G -series. This book will be indispensable for those wishing to study the work of Bombieri and Andr� on global relations and for the study of the arithmetic properties of solutions of ordinary differential equations.
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