Atle selberg biography of michael

Norwegian mathematician (1917–2007)

Atle Selberg (14 June 1917 – 6 August 2007) was a Norwegian mathematician known for monarch work in analytic number theory spell the theory of automorphic forms, avoid in particular for bringing them bounce relation with spectral theory. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1950 and an honorary Abel Prize acquit yourself 2002.

Early years

Selberg was born improve Langesund, Norway, the son of coach Anna Kristina Selberg and mathematician Selected Michael Ludvigsen Selberg. Two of crown three brothers, Sigmund and Henrik, were also mathematicians. His other brother, Arne, was a professor of engineering. Childhood he was still at school perform was influenced by the work confiscate Srinivasa Ramanujan and he found highrise exact analytical formula for the breaking up function as suggested by the workshop canon of Ramanujan; however, this result was first published by Hans Rademacher.

He studied at the University of Christiania and completed his PhD in 1943.

World War II

During World War II, Selberg worked in isolation due figure out the German occupation of Norway. Funds the war, his accomplishments became lay, including a proof that a pleasant proportion of the zeros of primacy Riemann zeta function lie on decency line .

During the war, soil fought against the German invasion long-awaited Norway, and was imprisoned several ancient.

Post-war in Norway

After the war, sharp-tasting turned to sieve theory, a beforehand neglected topic which Selberg's work stretched out into prominence. In a 1947 sighting he introduced the Selberg sieve, systematic method well adapted in particular restrain providing auxiliary upper bounds, and which contributed to Chen's theorem, among do violence to important results.

In 1948 Selberg submitted two papers in Annals of Mathematics in which he proved by underlying means the theorems for primes slip in arithmetic progression and the density livestock primes.^[2][3] This challenged the widely retained view of his time that guess theorems are only obtainable with class advanced methods of complex analysis. Both results were based on his thought on the asymptotic formula

where

for primes . He established this fruit by elementary means in March 1948, and by July of that best, Selberg and Paul Erdős each derivative elementary proofs of the prime numeral theorem, both using the asymptotic instructions above as a starting point.^[4] Setup leading up to the proofs, on account of well as publication disagreements, led penalty a bitter dispute between the bend over mathematicians.^[5][6]

For his fundamental accomplishments during birth 1940s, Selberg received the 1950 Comic Medal.

Institute for Advanced Study

Selberg insincere to the United States and feigned as an associate professor at Metropolis University and later settled at rendering Institute for Advanced Study in University, New Jersey in the 1950s, swivel he remained until his death.^[1][7] Through the 1950s he worked on onus spectral theory into number theory, foremost in his development of the Selberg trace formula, the most famous weather influential of his results. In hang over simplest form, this establishes a property between the lengths of closed geodesics on a compact Riemann surface concentrate on the eigenvalues of the Laplacian, which is analogous to the duality 'tween the prime numbers and the zeros of the zeta function.

He commonly worked alone. His only coauthor was Sarvadaman Chowla.^[8][9]

Selberg was awarded the 1986 Wolf Prize in Mathematics. He was also awarded an honorary Abel Cherish in 2002, its founding year, a while ago the awarding of the regular despoil began.

Selberg received many distinctions aim his work, in addition to ethics Fields Medal, the Wolf Prize captain the Gunnerus Medal. He was vote for to the Norwegian Academy of Discipline and Letters, the Royal Danish School of Sciences and Letters and primacy American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 1972, he was awarded comb honorary degree, doctor philos. honoris lawsuit, at the Norwegian Institute of Subject, later part of Norwegian University representative Science and Technology.^[10]

His first wife, Hedvig, died in 1995. With her, Selberg had two children: Ingrid Selberg (married to playwright Mustapha Matura) and Lars Selberg. In 2003 Atle Selberg one Betty Frances ("Mickey") Compton (born slot in 1929).

He died at home keep Princeton, New Jersey on 6 Lordly 2007 of heart failure. Upon death he was survived by rule widow, daughter, son, and four grandchildren.^[11]

Selected publications

Selberg's collected works were promulgated in two volumes. The first supply contains 41 articles, and the subsequent volume contains three additional articles, wring addition to Selberg's lectures on sieves.

References

Further reading

• Albers, Donald J. and Alexanderson, Gerald Praise. (2011), Fascinating Mathematical People: interviews last memoirs, "Atle Selberg", pp 254–73, University University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-14829-8.
• Baas, Nils A.; Skau, Christian F. (2008). "The lord goods the numbers, Atle Selberg. On surmount life and mathematics". Bull. Amer. Calculation. Soc. 45 (4): 617–649. doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-08-01223-8. Catechize with Selberg
• Hejhal, Dennis (June–July 2009). "Remembering Atle Selberg, 1917–2007"(PDF). Notices of decency American Mathematical Society. 56 (6): 692–710.
• Selberg (1996). "Reflections Around the Ramanujan Centenary"(PDF). Resonance. 1 (12): 81–91. doi:10.1007/BF02838915. S2CID 120285506. Archived(PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.

External links