In 1880 Andrei A. Markov discovered beautiful connections between minima of binary real quadratic forms, badly approximable numbers by rationals, and a certain Diophantine equation which describes an affine cubic surface, now and days called Markov surface. We will use Markov's theory as a unifying thread to talk about quadratic forms, Diophantine approximation and hyperbolic geometry.
Objective
Content
Continued fractions; representation of real numbers by rationals; Hurwitz's theorem; Lagrange spectrum; badly approximable numbers; binary quadratic forms; Markov numbers; Markov tree; geometric interpretation of Markov numbers; the still open Unicity Conjecture