2026 MAST30035 Number Theory and Cryptography

Many administrative details about the organisation of the subject can (as always) be found in the subject handbook entry.

Consultation hours

• TBA in Peter Hall room 166
• TBA in Peter Hall room 166

Lecture notes

General comment: the subject is brand new and is being actively developed as we go. I aim to have reasonably-polished notes available within a couple of days of each lecture.

Chapters:

1. Elementary number theory
2. Discrete logarithms
3. Elliptic curves over finite fields
4. Lattices
5. Further topics (if time permits)

Exercises

These are organised in the same manner as the lecture notes:

1. Elementary number theory
2. Discrete logarithms
3. Elliptic curves over finite fields
4. Lattices
5. Further topics (if time permits)

Tutorials

Tutorial classes start in week 2 of the semester. The tutorial sheets appear here at the start of the corresponding week, and solutions appear at the end of the week.

Assignments

The three assignments will be posted both here and on the subject's Canvas page. Your solutions should be submitted via Canvas and Gradescope.

Special consideration

Ed discussion board

Please see the subject's Canvas page for access to the discussion board.

Lecture recordings

Please see the subject's Canvas page for access to the lecture recordings.

Prerequisite knowledge

The main prerequisites for the subject are one of the University of Melbourne's subjects:

• MAST10009 Accelerated Mathematics 2
• MAST20026 Real Analysis
• MAST20033 Real Analysis: Advanced
• MAST20036 Introduction to Discrete Mathematics

For those of you arriving with a different background, this means familiarity with proofs, as well as a solid understanding of linear algebra (which is a prerequisite for all of the above).