Students enrolled in Math 254B for credit will be required to submit, in lieu of a final exam, a final paper of a topic on the students' choosing; the topic will be a subject that is related to class field theory but was not included in the course. It is my hope that all of the papers will be on different topics, but this is not compulsory. (See the syllabus for some suggested topics.)
I will schedule individual meetings with students to finalize their choices of topics and to establish what material will be included in the papers. These meetings should take place no later than the week after spring break; if you wish to have one sooner, let me know. I'm also happy to discuss topics by email.
Paper length will depend on the particular topic, but I am expecting them to be on the order of 10 pages (in TeX). Ideally, papers should be written in some flavor of TeX; if this will be an undue hardship, let me know.
The target reader for your paper should be another student in the course; this means you may assume without further comment any results from Math 254A or Math 254B, but you should at least provide a reference if you need to invoke additional material (e.g., elliptic curves).
I would like to make the final papers available online to the other participants in the course. When you submit your paper, please indicate whether you wish to grant permission for me to include your paper among those to be distributed.
Final papers will be due Monday, May 6. (Note: the final day of classes is May 13.) There will be no homework assigned for several weeks beforehand, so that you may focus your attention on the paper.