This is the first (of two) talks which will be given concerning the Birch--Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture.
A brief overview of consonance by way of continued fractions and modular arithmetic.
Defined in terms of $\zeta(\frac{1}{2} +it)$ are the Riemann-Siegel functions, $\theta(t)$ and $Z(t)$. A zero of $\zeta(s)$ on the critical line corresponds to a sign change in $Z(t)$, since $Z$ is a real function. Points where $\theta(t) = n\pi$ are called Gram points, and the so called Gram's Law states between each Gram point there is a zero of $Z(t)$, and hence of $\zeta(\frac{1}{2} +it)$. This is known to be false in general and work will be presented to attempt to quantify how frequently this fails.
I will review the construction of algebraic de Rham cohomology, relative de Rham cohomology, and the Gauss-Manin connection. I will then show how we can find a basis for the cohomology and the matrix for the connection with respect to this basis for certain families of curves sitting in weighted projective spaces.