The goal of this thesis is to explore the properties of a certain class of sequences, rigid divisibility sequences, generated by the iteration of certain polynomials whose coefficients are algebraic integers. The main goal is to provide, as far as is possible, a classification and description of those polynomials which generate rigid divisibility sequences.

This thesis describes properties of Abelian groups, and develops a study of the properties of divisibility in Abelian groups.

Thesis advisor: Jean-Luc Solère / Thesis advisor: Marius Stan / My dissertation focuses on the problem of matter's divisibility in the 17th-18th centuries. The problem of material divisibility is a focal point at which the metaphysical principle of simplicity and the mathematical principle of space's infinite divisibility conflict. The principle of simplicity is the metaphysical requirement that there must be a simple or indivisible being that is the constitutive foundation of all composite things in nature. Without simple beings, there cannot be composite beings. The mathematical principle of space's infinite divisibility is a staple of Euclidean geometry: space must be divisible into infinitely smaller parts because indivisibles or points cannot compose extension. Without reconciling these metaphysical and mathematical principles, one can call into question the integrity of mathematics and metaphysics. Metaphysical contradiction results from the application of metaphysical simplicity to the composition of material bodies that occupy infinitely divisible space. How can a simple being constitute a material object while occupying a space that lacks a smallest part? Should we assume that a composite material object (such as the paper in front of the reader) exists in an infinitely divisible space, then the simple beings must occupy a space that consists of ever smaller spaces. The simple being thereby appears to consist of parts simpler than itself--a metaphysical contradiction. Philosophers resolve this contradiction by either modifying the metaphysical principle of simplicity to allow for the occupation of infinitely divisible space, or have simply dismissed one principle for the sake of preserving the other principle. The rejection of one principle for preserving the other principle is an undesirable path. Philosophers would either forfeit any attempt to account for the composition of material reality by rejecting simplicity or deny understanding of geometry heretofore via the rejection of space's infinite divisibility. My objective in this dissertation is two-fold: 1.) to provide an historical analysis of various philosophers' attempts to reconcile simplicity and infinite divisibility or to argue for the exclusive nature of the said principles; 2.) to articulate a reconciliation between simplicity and infinite divisibility. Underlying both objectives is my attempt to draw a connection between the metaphysical principle of simplicity and the metaphysical principle of sufficient reason. Having shown in the historical section that each philosopher implicitly references a modified version of the principle of sufficient reason when articulating their theories of metaphysical simplicity, I will use this common principle to develop a Neo-Aristotelian solution to the problem of material divisibility. This Neo-Aristotelian solution differs from other accounts in the historical section by including a potential parts theory of material divisibility while modifying the principle of simplicity: simple beings are no longer conceived as constitutive parts of a material thing, but as the sources of unity for a natural composite being. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

I provide an interpretation of Hume’s argument in Treatise 1.2 Of the Ideas of Space and Time that finite extensions are only finitely divisible (hereafter Hume’s Finite Divisibility Argument). My most general claim is that Hume intends his Finite Divisibility Argument to be a demonstration in the Early Modern sense as involving the comparison and linking of ideas based upon their intrinsic contents. It is a demonstration of relations among ideas, meant to reveal the meaningfulness or absurdity of a given supposition, and to distinguish possible states of affairs from impossible ones. It is not an argument ending in an inference to an actual matter of fact. Taking the demonstrative nature of his Finite Divisibility Argument fully into account radically alters the way we understand it. Supported by Hume’s own account of demonstration, and reinforced by relevant Early Modern texts, I follow to its logical consequences, the simple premise that the Finite Divisibility Argument is intended to be a demonstration. Clear, abstract ideas in Early Modern demonstrations represent possible objects. By contrast, suppositions that are demonstrated to be contradictory have no clear ideas annexed to them and therefore cannot represent possible objects—their ‘objects,’ instead, are “impossible and contradictory.” Employing his Conceivability Principle, Hume argues that there is a clear idea of a finite extension containing a finite number of parts and therefore, finitely divisible extensions are possible. In contrast, the supposition of an infinitely divisible finite extension is “absurd” and “contradictory” and stands for no clear idea. Consequently, Hume deems this supposition “impossible and contradictory,” that is, without meaning and therefore, descriptive of no possible object. This interpretation allays concerns found in the recent literature and helps us better understand what drives Hume’s otherwise perplexing argument in the often neglected or belittled T 1.2.

Abstract The dissertation consists of three articles in which irrationality measures for some values of certain special cases of the Gauss hypergeometric function are considered in both archimedean and non-archimedean metrics. The first presents a general result and a divisibility criterion for certain products of binomial coefficients upon which the sharpenings of the general result in special cases rely. The paper also provides an improvement concerning th e values of the logarithmic function. The second paper includes two other special cases, the first of which gives irrationality measures for some values of the arctan function, for example, and the second concerns values of the binomial function. All the results of the first two papers are effective, but no computation of the constants for explicit presentation is carried out. This task is fulfilled in the third article for logarithmic and binomial cases. The results of the latter case are applied to some Diophantine equations.

Groups of divisibility have played an important role in commutative algebra for many years. In 1932 Wolfgang Krull showed in [12] that every linearly ordered Abelian group can be realized as the group of divisibility of a valuation domain. Since then it has also been proven that every lattice-ordered Abelian group can be recognized as the group of divisibility of a Bezont domain. Knowing these two facts allows us to use groups of divisibility to find examples of rings with highly exotic properties. For instance, we use them here to find examples of rings which admit elements that factor uniquely as the product of uncountably many primes. In addition to allowing us to create examples, groups of divisibility can he used to characterize some of the most important rings most commonly encountered in factorization theory, including valuation domains, UFD's, GCD domains, and antimatter domains. We present some of these characterizations here in addition to using them to create many examples of our own, including examples of rings which admit chains of prime ideals in which there are uncountably many primes in the chain. Moreover, we use groups of divisibility to prove that every fragmented domain must have infinite Krull dimension.

Esta dissertação apresenta, aos alunos e professores do ensino Médio, uma noção elementar da criptografia, através de alguns tipos de cifras, a trinca americana e do método de criptografia RSA. Para que isso fosse possível houve a introdução de conceitos básicos entre eles, conjuntos, funções, divisibilidade, números primos, congruência, teorema de Fermat e teorema de Euler, que garantem o funcionamento de algumas dessas cifras, da trinca americana e do sistema RSA. Com relação à trinca americana, que é um sistema que permite comunicar uma troca de chave, iremos propor uma composição de cifras, para que haja uma troca de mensagens e seja um exemplo motivador que introduza o sistema de RSA. Além disso, esses conceitos básicos podem ser úteis ao serem levados à sala de aula como motivação para o aprendizado dos alunos, seja para calcular com mais agilidade e simplicidade determinados exercícios, seja para resolver uma situação problema ou mesmo para descobrir uma nova maneira de visualizar conteúdos já vistos em sala de aula. / This dissertation presentes, to students and high school teachers, an elementary notion of cryptography through some types of cyphers, the asymmetric key algorithm and the RSA encryption method. To make this possible, we introduce basic concepts among them, set theory, functions, divisibility, primes, congruence, Fermat\'s theorem and Euler\'s theorem, which guarantee the functioning of some of these encryptions. Relating to the asymmetric key algorithm, which is a system that allows you to communicate a key exchange, we will propose a set of cyphers, so that it is possible a secure message exchange, which is also a motivating example to introduce the RSA system. In addition, these basic concepts can be useful when being taken to the classroom as the motivation for the learning of students, whether to calculate with more agility and simplicity certain exercises, whether to resolve a situation-problem or even to discover a new way to discuss subjects usually seen in the classroom.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo oferecer ao professor de matemática subsídios que permitam desenvolver atividades pedagógicas relacionadas aos conceitos básicos de divisibilidade de números inteiros. Para tanto, optou-se por desenvolvê-las de modo a possibilitar ao aluno a compreensão das ideias matemáticas envolvidas na detecção de erros de digitação em códigos numéricos utilizados nos códigos de barras e também no RG, CPF e ISBN. Vale ressaltar que tais atividades foram inspiradas nas metodologias de Resolução de Problemas e Atividades Investigativas embora, em alguns momentos, fizeram-se necessárias determinadas adaptações de acordo com o conteúdo. Assim, munidos desses elementos, os professores poderão dar aos alunos a oportunidade de desenvolver habilidades e competências da teoria elementar de números, aprimorar seus conhecimentos relacionados a situações do cotidiano e explicitar relações entre matemática e tecnologia. Este trabalho busca, também, despertar o interesse do aluno, que fica motivado ao perceber a aplicabilidade, no cotidiano, dos conceitos matemáticos aqui tratados. / The main objective of the work is to develop educational activities related to the basic concepts of divisibility of integral numbers, providing tools to math school teachers. The way those concepts were presented, creates the proper environment for the student to understand the mathematic logic behind the detection of typing errors in numerical codes, like for example: barcodes, RG, CPF and ISBN. It is noteworthy that the methodology used was inspired by problem solving and investigative activities although, adjustments were made in order to comply with the content. Thus, it is expected that teachers will be able to provide opportunities to their students to develop skills and competences on the domain of elementary number theory, improve their knowledge on daily situations and explain the relationship between mathematics and technology. This work also seeks to arouse the interest of the students, who get motivated when they realize the applicability in daily life of the mathematical concepts covered here.

Η θεωρία της διαιρετότητας, η ιστορία της οποίας είναι πολύ παλιά, καλύπτει πολλούς κλάδους της σύγχρονης Άλγεβρας, όπως είναι η θεωρία των δακτυλίων, η θεωρία των διατεταγμένων ομάδων και φυσικά η θεωρία των αριθμών. Η θεωρία της διαιρετότητας ίσως θα μπορούσε να μελετηθεί σε δύο ενότητες: Α) Αυστηρή πολλαπλασιαστική θεωρία. Β) Θεωρία της διαιρετότητας των δακτυλίων. Η παρούσα εργασία προέρχεται από τις προσπάθειες να περιγραφούν λεπτομερώς κάποια αποτελέσματα τα οποία είναι συνδεδεμένα με το μέρος (Β) του παραπάνω διαχωρισμού της θεωρίας της διαιρετότητας και είναι πλήρως αφιερωμένο στην διερεύνηση της ομάδας διαιρετότητας G(A) μίας περιοχής A, όπου G(A) είναι η ομάδα πηλίκο K*IU(A) με K* την πολλαπλασιαστική ομάδα του σώματος πηλίκου της A και U(A) την ομάδα των ενάδων της A με διάταξη οριζόμενη από το θετικό κώνο G(A)+=A*IU(A). Σε αντίθεση προς την εργασία του Aubert που έχει σχέση με τις καθαρά πολλαπλασιαστικές ιδιότητες τής G(A), εμείς σκόπιμα κρατάμε στο μυαλό μας την προέλευση τής G(A) από μία περιοχή Α, δηλαδή συχνά χρησιμοποιούμε ιδιότητες τής G(A) οι οποίες δεν είναι πολλαπλασιαστικής μορφής. Αυτή η προσέγγιση εμφανίζεται εξ’ ολοκλήρου όταν έχουμε να κάνουμε με μία δομή d-ομάδας σε μία ομάδα διαιρετότητας, δηλ. όταν θεωρούμε ότι είναι μία μερικώς διατεταγμένη ομάδα με μία πλειότιμη πρόσθεση +A η οποία εξαρτάται από την A. Χρησιμοποιώντας αυτή την δομή d-ομάδας της G(A) είναι δυνατόν να ανακαλύπτουμε πολλές ιδιότητες της περιοχής A, χρησιμοποιώντας κάποιες ιδιότητες της (G(A), +A) ακόμη και στην περίπτωση όπου η υπό μελέτη ιδιότητα δεν μπορεί πιθανά να εκφραστεί στην γλώσσα των μερικώς διατεταγμένων ομάδων. Επιπλέον, είναι μία καλή αφορμή να σκεφτούμε ένα τέτοιο σύστημα από την στιγμή που μας επιτρέπει να μελετήσουμε τους δακτυλίους και τα μερικώς διατεταγμένα συστήματα με έναν ενιαίο τρόπο. / The theory of divisibility, the history of which is very old, covers a lot of modern algebra branches including the theory of rings, the theory of ordered groups and, of course, the theory of numbers. At present, the theory of divisibility may be divided into two parts: a) Strictly multiplicative theory, and b) Theory of divisibility of rings. This study has grown out of efforts to write up some results which are connected with part (b) of the above division of the theory of divisibility and it is fully devoted to the investigation of a group of divisibility G(A) of a domain A , where G(A) is the factor group K*IU(A) with K* the multiplicative group of the quotient field of A and U(A) the group of units of A with ordering defined by the positive cone (G(A)+=A*IU(A). Contrary to the excellent paper of Aubert dealing with the purely multiplicative properties of G(A), we purposely keep in mind the origin of G(A) from a domain A, i.e. we frequently employ properties of G(A) which are not of a multiplicative nature. This access appears fully when dealing with a d-group structure on a group of divisibility, i.e. when we consider G(A) to be a partially ordered group with a multivalued addition +A which depends essentially on A. Using this so called d-group structure of G(A) it is possible to derive a lot of properties of a domain A, using some properties of (G(A), +A) even in the case where the property under the question cannot possibly be to expressed in the language of partly ordered groups. Moreover, there is a good reason for considering such a system since it enables us to study rings and partly ordered systems in a unified way.

Submitted by Franciele Moreira (francielemoreyra@gmail.com) on 2018-10-04T12:33:28Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Raul Rodrigues dos Santos - 2018.pdf: 1879658 bytes, checksum: 96c8a59837af9f467513e7904dbac69e (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-10-05T14:11:09Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Raul Rodrigues dos Santos - 2018.pdf: 1879658 bytes, checksum: 96c8a59837af9f467513e7904dbac69e (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-10-05T14:11:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Raul Rodrigues dos Santos - 2018.pdf: 1879658 bytes, checksum: 96c8a59837af9f467513e7904dbac69e (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-07-27 / This dissertation will present a proposal of Arithmetic teaching, starting from the initial years of Education to Higher Education. The reader will find in this work the following contents: Topics of the History of Mathematics, Arithmetic Progressions, Divisibility, Congruence and Summaries. In the sections, we will have examples solved and proposed activities to be solved by the reader. We have two objectives in this research, the first one is to present a proposal that interrelates mathematical contents of Arithmetic, knowing some historical curiosities and demonstrating Theorems, Propositions, Corollaries, solving examples and questions of the Brazilian Games of Mathematics of the Public Schools (OBMEP). And the second is to propose two Theorems and two Corollas of divisibility and congruence. The theorems, definitions, corollaries, demonstrations and etc. of this bibliographical research were, to a large extent, based on established authors as [12], [14], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [22] e [23]. / Esta dissertação apresentará uma proposta de ensino de Aritmética, partindo dos anos iniciais da Educação Básica até o Ensino Superior. O leitor encontrará neste trabalho os seguintes conteúdos: Tópicos da História da Matemática, Progressões Aritméticas, Divisibilidade, Congruência e Somatórios. Nas seções, teremos exemplos resolvidos e atividades propostas a serem solucionados pelo leitor. Temos dois objetivos nesta pesquisa, o primeiro é apresentar uma proposta que inter-relaciona conteúdos matemáticos da Aritmética, conhecendo algumas curiosidades históricas e demonstrando Teoremas, Proposições, Corolários, resolvendo exemplos e questões das Olimpíadas Brasileiras de Matemática das Escolas Públicas (OBMEP). E o segundo é, propor dois Teoremas e dois Corolários de divisibilidade e congruência. Os teoremas, definições, corolários, demonstrações e etc., desta pesquisa bibliográfica, foram, em grande parte, baseados em autores consagrados como [12], [14], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [22] e [23].