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Addictive Number Theory

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Additive Number Theory

Abstract

In 1996, just after Springer-Verlag published my books Additive Number Theory: The Classical Bases [34] and Additive Number Theory: Inverse Problems and the Geometry of Sumsets [35], I went into my local Barnes and Noble superstore on Route 22 in Springfield, New Jersey, and looked for them on the shelves. Suburban bookstores do not usually stock technical mathematical books, and, of course, the books were not there. As an experiment, I asked if they could be ordered. The person at the information desk typed in the titles, and told me that his computer search reported that the books did not exist. However, when I gave him the ISBN numbers, he did find them in the Barnes and Noble database. The problem was that the book titles had been cataloged incorrectly. The data entry person had written Addictive Number Theory.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I have told this story many times, and like every good story, it has acquired an independent existence. I have heard others tell variations on the tale, always with the same additive–addictive punch line.

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Acknowledgements

I want to thank David and Gregory Chudnovsky for organizing and editing this volume. Back in 1982, the Chudnovskys and I, together with Harvey Cohn, created the New York Number Theory Seminar at the CUNY Graduate Center, and we have been running this weekly seminar together for more than a quarter century. It has been a pleasure to know them and work with them.

Most of all, I acknowledge the love and support of my wife Marjorie and children Becky and Alex.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics, Lehman College (CUNY), Bronx, New York, 10468, USA

    Melvyn B. Nathanson

  2. CUNY Graduate Center, New York, 10016, USA

    Melvyn B. Nathanson

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  1. Melvyn B. Nathanson
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Correspondence to Melvyn B. Nathanson .

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  1. New York University, Department of Mathematics, Polytechnic Institute of, Metrotech Center 6, Brooklyn, 11201, USA

    David Chudnovsky

  2. New York University, Department of Mathematics, Polytechnic Institute of, Metrotech Center 6, Brooklyn, 11201, USA

    Gregory Chudnovsky

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Nathanson, M.B. (2010). Addictive Number Theory. In: Chudnovsky, D., Chudnovsky, G. (eds) Additive Number Theory. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68361-4_1

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