Three Lectures on Binary Quadratic Forms and Conway’s Topographs, by Nikita Kalinin
Lecture Outline 1. Introduction to Binary Quadratic Forms and Conway’s Topographs We will begin with the basics of binary quadratic forms and their classification, followed by an introduction to Conway’s topographs—a visual and geometric framework for understanding them. Lecture Outline 2. Class Number Formula and Summation over Topographs Building on the first lecture, we will explore the class number formula and how summation identities arise naturally from the structure of topographs. Lecture Outline 3. Evaluation of Lattice Sums via Telescoping over Topographs The final lecture will focus on telescoping techniques, demonstrating how they can be used to evaluate intricate lattice sums—such as the one above—with geometric meaning.