Prime Suspects: The Anatomy of Integers and Permutations
ISBN: 9780691188737
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Princeton University Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Mathematics ; Language & Literature;

An outrageous graphic novel that investigates key concepts in mathematics

Integers and permutations--two of the most basic mathematical objects--are born of different fields and analyzed with separate techniques. Yet when the Mathematical Sciences Investigation team of crack forensic mathematicians, led by Professor Gauss, begins its autopsies of the victims of two seemingly unrelated homicides, Arnie Integer and Daisy Permutation, they discover the most extraordinary similarities between the structures of each body.

Prime Suspects is a graphic novel that takes you on a voyage of forensic discovery, exploring some of the most fundamental ideas in mathematics. Travel with Detective von Neumann as he leaves no clue unturned, from shepherds' huts in the Pyrenees to secret societies in the cafés of Paris, from the hidden codes in the music of the stones to the grisly discoveries in Finite Fields. Tremble at the ferocity of the believers in deep and rigid abstraction. Feel the frustration--and the excitement--of our young heroine, Emmy Germain, as she blazes a trail for women in mathematical research and learns from Professor Gauss, the greatest forensic detective of them all.

Beautifully drawn and exquisitely detailed, Prime Suspects is unique, astonishing, and witty--a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience mathematics like never before.

Andrew Granville is the Canada Research Chair in Number Theory at the University of Montreal and professor of mathematics at University College London. Jennifer Granville is an educator, award-winning film and theater producer, writer, and director. Robert J. Lewis is a Toronto-based graphic designer and storyboard artist for film and television.

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