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Since Karl Dilcher and I began our collaboration in May 2007 we have completed four papers:
A. John B. Cosgrave and Karl Dilcher, Extensions of the Gauss-Wilson theorem, Integers: Electronic Journal of Combinatorial Number Theory, Vol. 8, #A39, 2008.
B. John B. Cosgrave and Karl Dilcher, Mod p^3 analogues of theorems of Gauss and Jacobi on binomial coefficients, Acta Arithmetica, Vol. 142, No. 2, 103-118, 2010.
C. John B. Cosgrave and Karl Dilcher, The multiplicative orders of certain Gauss factorials, accepted March 2010 by the International Journal of Number Theory.
D. John B. Cosgrave and Karl Dilcher, An Introduction to Gauss factorials. Submitted November 2010, after my fourth research visit to Karl Dilcher.
Note of February 2011. Seminar talks (based on work from above papers) given since 2007:
Dalhousie university colloquium, Mon. May 14th 2007. Gauss-4 primes (a beautiful new sequence of primes)
University College Dublin, Wed 26th March 2008. Extensions of the Gauss-Wilson theorem
Rutgers university colloquium, Thurs. 10th April 2008. Extensions of the Gauss-Wilson theorem (link to prepared Maple worksheet of talk)
City University of New York (CUNY), Fri. 11th April 2008. Repeat of previous day's Rutgers talk.
Brigham Young University, Mon. and Wed. 2nd and 4th Feb. 2009. Two classic theorems of Gauss (the Gauss-Wilson theorem, and Gauss's binomial coefficient congruence) - Then and Now".
(While visiting BYU I also gave my Bill Clinton, Bertie Ahern, and digital signatures talk, on Tues. 3rd Feb. 2009).
Bogazici university (Istanbul, Turkey) colloquium, Wed. 7th Oct. 2009. The (new) world of Gauss factorials.
St Patrick's College (Drumcondra), Tues. 16th Feb. 2010. Gauss-Jacobi advances.
University College Cork colloquium, Fri. 19th Feb. 2010. Gauss-Jacobi advances.
NUI Galway. Thurs. 25th Feb. 2010. Gauss-Jacobi advances.
Manchester university colloquium, Wed. 13th Oct. 2010. What is a Gauss factorial?
Dalhousie university colloquium, Mon. 8th Nov. 2010. What is a Gauss factorial?
Some earlier papers of mine:
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Remark on Euclid’s Proof of the Infinitude of
Primes, American
Mathematical Monthly, p. 239-241, Vol 96, No 4, April 1989.
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Teaching Mathematics by Questioning – The Socratic
Method,
Newsletter of Irish Mathematics Teachers Association, Nos 81-82, 1993, 32-47.
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A Halmos Problem and a Related
Problem, American Mathematical Monthly, p. 993-996, Vol 101, No 10, December 1994.
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From divisibility by 6 to the Euclidean Algorithm and the RSA
cryptographic method, The American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges Review, Vol 19, No 1, Fall 1997, 38-45.
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An Introduction to Number Theory with Talented
Youth, USA School Science and Mathematics, Vol 99, No 6, October 1999 (Special issue devoted to gifted and talented Mathematics and Science students).
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Number Theory and Cryptography (using
Maple), in David Joyner USNA (Ed.), Coding Theory and Cryptography: From Enigma to Geheimschreiber to Quantum Theory (Unites States Naval Academy
Conference), Springer-Verlag, 2000, pp 124-143. That paper is now available
from the US Naval Academy web site here.
The core content of my 3rd year Number Theory and Cryptography course
is available here.
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Two papers read at
at the fourth International Conference on the use of Technology in Mathematics Teaching (ICTMT4), in Plymouth
University (UK) August 1999:
(a) Tuesday 10th August 1999 I
gave a talk - The mathematical context of the recent (25th July 1999)
discovery of the largest known composite Fermat number. The Maple files of my lecture: fermat.mws (56 KB),
or fermat.zip
(15 KB). A html version of that lecture is available here.
(b) on Thursday 12th August 1999 I
gave a talk - Using Maple programming to investigate L- and R-approximations to
quadratic irrationalities. The Maple files of my lecture: ictm4.mws (34 KB)
, or ictm4.zip (9 KB).
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A Prime For The
Millennium, Folding
Landscapes, 2000.
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Fermat’s ‘little’
theorem, a paper read (rather introduced) at the Fifth International Conference on Technology in Teaching Mathematics (ICTM5, Klagenfurt University, Austria, August 2001) is available
here.
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On Thursday 28th October,
1999, I gave a public lecture (using Maple) entitled The history of Fermat numbers
from August 1640. Here are the Maple files of my lecture: fer_1640.mws
(135 KB), or fer_1640.zip
(35 KB). The html version is available here.
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At 4.00 P.M. on Thursday 23rd March,
2000, in Room AL8 of University College Cork (UCC), I gave a talk entitled:
Could there exist a sixth
Fermat prime? I believe it is not impossible.
An abstract:
Fermat believed the Fermat numbers {F[n]} (F[n] = 2^(2^n) + 1) to be
prime for all n = 0,1,2,3,...), but, as is well known, they are prime for n = 0,1,2,3 and
4, and for no other known value of n. An orthodoxy has now developed that F[n] is
composite for all n>4, but with not the remotest sign of any proof. Only in September
1999 did Richard Crandall's team settle that F[24] is composite (now the smallest
undecided case is F[31]), and last July - as a participant in Yves Gallot's Proth Prime
Search - I fortuitously discovered the largest known composite Fermat number, F[382447]
(having more than 10100000 digits). Last March I rediscovered a generally
unknown unification of Fermat and Mersenne numbers, an outcome of which was to make an
observation which - I believe (though my point of view has opponents) - should cause
open-minded people to question the above orthodoxy. This talk will be of an entirely
elementary nature, and will be suitable for undergraduate students.
Also on that day I gave a
talk to the UCC student mathematics society:
A Prime For The
Millennium (primality testing, with special reference to a wonderful idea of Henry Cabourn Pocklington (1870-1952))
Maple files of that talk are
available here.
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To mark the 400th
anniversary (on 17th August 2001) of the birth of Pierre de Fermat I
presented a survey paper using Maple on his renowned 'little' theorem.
- Fermat's little theorem - at the 5th International Conference
- 6th to 9th August 2001 -
on the use of Technology in Mathematics Teaching, Klagenfurt University, Austria. I
chose this topic partly because of my personal admiration for this
fundamental theorem, but mainly because of the time coincidence that August 17th
2001 will be the 400th anniversary of Fermat's birth. That Maple work - in mws and html versions - may be accessed here.
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An
unpublished paper on e squared etc.
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In Chicago,
October-November 2003, at the 16th International Conference on
the use of Technology in Collegiate Mathematics (ICTCM16)
I gave a Bill
Clinton, Bertie Ahern, and digital signatures (96 KB in size) talk. A
html version is available here.
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My best work begins in the Jacobi
section of my site, and continues at Gauss.
I have begun a collaboration with Karl
Dilcher, and I expect that Karl and I will produce many papers over the
coming years. Note added February 2011: see above for some details.

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