Prime Numbers: A Computational Perspective - Tapa dura

From the reviews: MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS "There are many books about the theory of prime numbers and a few about computations concerning primes. This book bridges the gap between theoretical and computational aspects of prime numbers. It considers such matters as how to recognize primes, how to compute them, how to count them, and how to test conjectures about them??The book is clearly written and is a pleasure to read. It is largely self-contained. A first course in number theory and some knowledge of computer algorithms should be sufficient background for reading it???Each chapter concludes with a long list of interesting exercises and research problems." BULLETIN OF THE AMS "The book is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to understand these algorithms, learn how to implement them, and make them go fast. It's also a lot of fun to read! It's rare to say this of a math book, but open Prime Numbers to a random page and it's hard to put down. Crandall and Pomerance have written a terrific book." AMERICAN SCIENTIST "???a welcome addition to the literature of number theory ??? comprehensive, up-to-date and written with style. It will be useful to anyone interested in algorithms dealing with the arithmetic of the integers and related computational issues." SIAM REVIEW "Overall, this book by Crandall and Pomerance fills a unique niche a deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone with more than a passing interest in prime numbers. It would provide a gold mine of information and problems for a graduate class on computationl number theory." From the reviews of the second edition: "This book is a very successful attempt of the authors to describe thecurrent state-of-the-art of computational number theory ??? . One of the many attractive features of this book is the rich and beautiful set of exercises and research problems ??? . the authors have managed to lay down their broad and deep insight in primes into this book in a very lucid and vivid way. ??? The book provides excellent material for graduate and undergraduate courses on computational theory. Warmly recommended ??? ." (H.J.J. te Riele, Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde, Vol. 7 (3), 2006) "An absolutely wonderful book! Written in a readable and enthusiastic style the authors try to share the elegance of the prime numbers with the readers ??? . Weaving together a wealth of ideas and experience from theory and practice they enable the reader to have more than a glimpse into the current state of the knowledge ??? . any chapter or section can be singled out for high praise. ??? Indeed it is destined to become a definitive text on ??? prime numbers and factoring." (Peter Shiu, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1088 (14), 2006)

Prime numbers beckon to the beginner, the basic notion of primality being accessible to a child. Yet, some of the simplest questions about primes have stumped humankind for millennia. In this book, the authors concentrate on the computational aspects of prime numbers, such as recognizing primes and discovering the fundamental prime factors of a given number. Over 100 explicit algorithms cast in detailed pseudocode are included in the book. Applications and theoretical digressions serve to illuminate, justify, and underscore the practical power of these algorithms. This book can be read on several levels. For those wanting a taste of the lore of prime numbers and the principal methods to deal with them, the book provides a friendly introduction. For those wanting to delve deeper into the essential details of the most up-to-date methods for prime number computations, the book has such details and many references to the huge literature on the subject. Students can test their understanding with interesting exercises, including some entertaining, nonstandard ones. And for those wishing to start or enrich a research program in computational prime number theory, the many unsolved problems in the text, and research problems in the exercises, provide rich ground for further work.