Prolegomena to a Middlebrow Arithmetic of Curves of Genus 2

The number theoretic properties of curves of genus 2 are attracting increasing attention. This book provides new insights into this subject; much of the material here is entirely new, and none has appeared in book form before. The authors include an explicit treatment of the Jacobian, which throws new light onto the geometry of the Kummer surface. Mathematicians can then determine the Mordell-Weil group for many curves, and in many nontrivial cases they can find all rational points. The results exemplify the power of computer algebra in diophantine contexts, but computer expertise is not assumed in the main text. Number theorists, algebraic geometers and workers in related areas will find that this book offers unique insights.