I'm Jamie Weigandt, I am graduate student in the department of mathematics specializing in Algorithmic Number Theory, Arithmetic Algebraic Geometry, and Arithmetic Statistics.

Note on this page

For the time being I will use LaTeX code freely when editing this page.

Thought for Later

It seems likely that jsmath functionality could easily be added to Rhea so that this code would TeX on the fly as people opened it. As far as I recall from a question on math overflow, this only requires one to place a one-liner in the page source code provided jsmath is installed on the server. Perhaps Rhea, or at least the portion of Rhea that is intended for use by mathematicians should have this feature.

The Bigfoot Project

As a motivating project for learning a lot of background material I am engaged in what I consider a mythical quest to find an elliptic curve over $\Bbb Q$ with torsion subgroup $Z_2 \times Z_8$ and Mordell-Weil rank at least 4. Such a curve is affectionally referred to by my friends and I as "The Bigfoot." This nomenclature is somewhat misleading, such a curve, should it exist is not by any stretch of the imagination expected to be unique. I hope to expound on the status of this project at a later date.

For now I will be motivated in my development of this page by 3 facts:

• My bank account is suffering from conference fatigue.
• There is an essay contest for which I can win $100.
• I'd like to stop eating at Taco Bell.

That being said I'll get right to this following section:

Why do I "math"?

Note about the Development of this Essay

As this is a wiki page, I will take the liberty to develop my essay freely on this page. That being said, there will initially be a lot of material that is unclear. I won't make sense to anyone but myself, or perhaps not even myself. Hopefully, since a record of these edits will remain, it will provide insight anyone trying to write a similar essay. This seems quite similar to one of those "Statement of Purpose" type questions that anyone wanting to go to grad school will have to write about.