From: Robin Chapman Subject: Re: Dirichlet's Theorem Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 18:06:44 GMT Newsgroups: sci.math Summary: [missing] In article , Jeremy Boden wrote: > > But just why is Dirichelet's theorem so difficult to prove? > Particular choices of A, B are reasonably easy - once you know what > "trick" to employ... In Esmonde and Murty's recent book "Problems in Algebraic Number Theory" they state that there is an elementary proof (of a precisely defined kind) in the given case a + nx iff a^2 = 1 (mod n). They don't give a proof, but cite a paper of Murty. -- Robin Chapman, http://www.maths.ex.ac.uk/~rjc/rjc.html "`The twenty-first century didn't begin until a minute past midnight January first 2001.'" John Brunner, _Stand on Zanzibar_ (1968) Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.