Math 342: Elementary Number Theory, Spring 2026

The course syllabus is here.

Instructor

Dr. Katrina Honigs, khonigs@sfu.ca, Office SC K 10506
Office hours: Fridays 1:30-2:20 in K 10506

Lectures

Monday lectures 2:30-4:30 SWH 10041, Wednesday lectures 2:30-3:20 in WMC 3260

Tutorials

W 9:30-10:20, 10:30-11:20, 11:30-12:20 in WMC 2810 led by Pijush Sarmah

Test dates

June 10 (quiz), July 8 (midterm), final exam date to be announced

Textbooks

  • Rosen, Elementary Number Theory, 7th Edition

    • Assignments

  • Assignment 1, Due May 22

    • Lecture schedule:

    Dates and schedule Topics and reading
    Week 1
    Mon. May 11 - lecture
    Wed. May 13 - lecture    		 Mathematical reasoning and proofs, divisibility, prime numbers and gcd's
    Reading: §1.1, 1.5, 3.1
    Optional reading on logical statements: Ch.2 (Logic) of Book of Proof by Hammack
    Week 2
    Mon. May 18 - Victoria day, no class
    Wed. May 20 - tutorials start, lecture
    Fri. May 22 - Assignment 1 due     		Euclidean algorithm
    Reading: §3.2
    Week 3
    Mon. May 25 - lecture
    Wed. May 27 - tutorial, lecture
    Fri. May 29 - Assignment 2 due     		Linear Diophantine equations, the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic, Continued fraction expansions
    Reading: §3.3,4,1,4.3,13.2-13.3
    Week 4
    Mon. June 1 - lecture
    Wed. June 3 - tutorial, lecture
    Fri. June 5 - Assignment 3 due     		Introduction to congruences, Linear congruences
    Reading: §5.1-5.2
    Week 5
    Mon. June 8 - lecture
    Wed. June 10 - tutorial, lecture, Quiz    		 Systems of linear congruences, Sunzi's remainder theorem, Polynomial congruences
    Reading: §5.3-5.5
    Week 6
    Mon. June 15 - lecture
    Wed. June 17 - tutorial, lecture
    Fri. June 19 - Assignment 4 due     		Wilson's Theorem, Fermat's Little Theorem, Public key cryptography, Primitive factorization methods
    Reading: §7.1,7.3,9.4,4.4,5.6
    Week 7
    Mon. June 22 - lecture
    Wed. June 24 - tutorial, lecture
    Fri. June 26 - Assignment 5 due     		Primality tests, Euler phi function, Multiplicative functions
    Reading: §7.2,8.1-8.3
    Week 8
    Mon. June 29 - lecture
    Wed. July 1 - Canada Day, no lecture or tutorial     		Mobius inversion, Greatest integer function
    Reading: §8.2
    Week 9
    Mon. July 6 - lecture
    Wed. July 8 - tutorial, Midterm     		Primitive roots and power residues, Chebyshev's theorem, Discrete logarithms
    Reading: §10.1-10.3
    Week 10
    Mon. July 13 - lecture
    Wed. July 15 - tutorial, lecture
    Fri. July 17 - Assignment 6 due     		Elementary prime number estimates, Probability of two natural numbers being coprime
    Reading: §4.2
    Week 11
    Mon. July 20 - lecture
    Wed. July 22 - tutorial, lecture
    Fri. July 24 - Assignment 7 due     		Quadratic residues, Quadratic reciprocity, Jacobi symbol
    Reading: §12.1-12.3
    Week 12
    Mon. July 27 - lecture
    Wed. July 29 - tutorial, lecture
    Fri. July 31 - Assignment 8 due     		Quadratic reciprocity continued, sums of squares
    Reading: §14.3
    Week 13
    Mon. August 3 - lecture
    Wed. August 5 - tutorial, lecture
    Fri. August 7 - Assignment 9 due     		Pythagorean triples, survey of some Diophantine equations
    Reading: §14.1
    Week 14
    Mon. August 10 - lecture (last day)
    Final exam: To be announced, exam period is Aug. 12-23