Math 103 Fall Semester 2019
Table of Contents
Text
Our text will be A first course in complex analysis (2018). The authors are Beck, M., Marchesi, G., Pixton, D., & Sabalka, L. The publisher is Orthogonal Publishing L3C. A pdf version of this book is available for free at its website. It is also available (and very inexpensive) in print at the College bookstore.
General Game Plan
We will aim to study and master everything in our text. This includes all of the problems. While not every student will have the time to carefully solve every problem, such completeness should be the (perhaps unattainable) ideal.
From time to time, we will go deeper into some of the topics presented in the text or cover topics that go a bit beyond our text. Any such further topics will be chosen based on student interest. Possibilities include: proof of the Riemann mapping theorem, elliptic functions, analytic continuation, and the theory of Weierstrass.
Several excellent sources for such material are held in reserve for this course in the College library.
Prerequisite
Prerequisite: A grade of B or better in MATH 063 or permission of the instructor.
Seminar Meetings
We will meet Fridays from 2:15 until 5:30 in Science Center 149. These meetings will contain prepared student presentations and discussion of the work students have done prior to the meeting on the problems for the week.
This course is a seminar and unlike a traditional course, almost all of the talking in our meetings is done by the students. Thus, students must prepare in advance for each seminar meeting. All students should thoroughly engage with many of the week's problems before seminar. Students presenting material in any given week must thoroughly prepare those presentations in advance. Students not presenting material should still study all of the material to be presented in advance so that they may ask good questions and participate fully in the discussions.
Missing one seminar meeting is like missing a week of a lecture course. Thus you should miss a meeting only in the most dire circumstances. If—despite this warning—you find yourself considering missing a seminar meeting, talk to me about it as early as you possibly can.