Another theorem of Cauchy which ‘admits exceptions’

Several exceptions are provided for a theorem in Cauchy’s Cours d’Analyse in the proof of which the need for uniform convergence has been ignored. A reconstruction of this theorem is offered.     

The dramatic episode of Sundman

In 1912 the Finnish mathematical astronomer Karl Sundman published a remarkable solution to the three-body problem, of a type that mathematicians such as Poincaré had believed impossible to achieve. Although lauded at the time, the result dimmed from view as the 20th century progressed and its significance was often overlooked. This article traces Sundman’s career and the path to his achievement, bringing to light the involvement of Ernst Lindelöf and Gösta Mittag-Leffler in Sundman’s research and professional development, and including an examination of the reception over time of Sundman’s result. A broader perspective on Sundman’s research is provided by short discussions of two of Sundman’s later papers: his contribution to Klein’s Encyklopädie and his design for a calculating machine for astronomy.     

What did Gauss read in the Appendix?

In a clear analogy with spherical geometry, Lambert states that in an “imaginary sphere” the sum of the angles of a triangle would be less than π$\pi$. In this paper we analyze the role played by this imaginary sphere in the development of non-Euclidean geometry, and how it served Gauss as a guide. More precisely, we analyze Gauss’s reading of Bolyai’s Appendix in 1832, five years after the publication of Disquisitiones generales circa superficies curvas, on the assumption that his investigations into the foundations of geometry were aimed at finding, among the surfaces in space, Lambert’s hypothetical imaginary sphere. We also wish to show that the close relation between differential geometry and non-Euclidean geometry is already present in János Bolyai’s Appendix, that is, well before its appearance in Beltrami’s Saggio. From this point of view, one is able to answer certain natural questions about the history of non-Euclidean geometry; for instance, why Gauss decided not to write further on the subject after reading the Appendix.     

Extending and interpreting Post’s programme

Computability theory concerns information with a causal-typically algorithmic-structure. As such, it provides a schematic analysis of many naturally occurring situations. Emil Post was the first to focus on the close relationship between information, coded as real numbers, and its algorithmic infrastructure. Having characterised the close connection between the quantifier type of a real and the Turing jump operation, he looked for more subtle ways in which information entails a particular causal context. Specifically, he wanted to find simple relations on reals which produced richness of local computability-theoretic structure. To this extent, he was not just interested in causal structure as an abstraction, but in the way in which this structure emerges in natural contexts. Post’s programme was the genesis of a more far reaching research project.In this article we will firstly review the history of Post’s programme, and look at two interesting developments of Post’s approach. The first of these developments concerns the extension of the core programme, initially restricted to the Turing structure of the computably enumerable sets of natural numbers, to the Ershov hierarchy of sets. The second looks at how new types of information coming from the recent growth of research into randomness, and the revealing of unexpected new computability-theoretic infrastructure. We will conclude by viewing Post’s programme from a more general perspective. We will look at how algorithmic structure does not just emerge mathematically from information, but how that emergent structure can model the emergence of very basic aspects of the real world.     

Die Habilitation von John von Neumann an der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin: Urteile über einen ungarisch-jüdischen Mathematiker in Deutschland im Jahr 1927

The mathematician John von Neumann was born in Hungary but principally received his scientific education and socialization in the German science system. He received his Habilitation from the Friedrich-Wilhelms–Universität in Berlin in 1927, where he lectured as a Privatdozent until his emigration to the USA. This article aims at making a contribution to this early part of Neumann’s scientific biography by analyzing in detail the procedure that led to his Habilitation as well as the beginnings of Neumann’s research on functional analysis. An analysis of the relevant sources shows that in Berlin in the year 1927 Neumann was not yet regarded as the outstanding mathematical genius of the 20th century. Furthermore it will be seen that Neumann had great difficulties in developing the fundamental concepts for his path breaking work in spectral theory and only managed to do so with the support of the Berlin mathematician Erhard Schmidt.     

Itô’s stochastic calculus: Its surprising power for applications

We trace Itô’s early work in the 1940s, concerning stochastic integrals, stochastic differential equations (SDEs) and Itô’s formula. Then we study its developments in the 1960s, combining it with martingale theory. Finally, we review a surprising application of Itô’s formula in mathematical finance in the 1970s. Throughout the paper, we treat Itô’s jump SDEs driven by Brownian motions and Poisson random measures, as well as the well-known continuous SDEs driven by Brownian motions.     

In memoriam Israel Gohberg August 23, 1928-October 12, 2009

This obituary for Israel Gohberg consists of a general introduction, separate contributions of the six authors, all of whom worked closely with him, and a final note. The material gives an impression of the life of this great mathematician, of his monumental impact in the areas he worked in, of how he cooperated with colleagues, and of his ability to stimulate people in their mathematical activities.     

A dialogue on the use of arithmetic in geometry: Van Ceulen’s and Snellius’s Fundamenta Arithmetica et Geometrica

Snellius’s Fundamenta Arithmetica et Geometrica (1615) is much more than a Latin translation of Ludolph van Ceulen’s Arithmetische en Geometrische Fondamenten. Willebrord Snellius both adapted and commented on the Dutch original in his Fundamenta, and thus his Latin version can be read as a dialogue between representatives of two different approaches to mathematics in the early modern period: Snellius’s humanist approach and Van Ceulen’s practitioner’s approach. This article considers the relationship between the Dutch and Latin versions of the text and, in particular, puts some of their statements on the use of numbers in geometry under the microscope. In addition, Snellius’s use of the Fundamenta as an instrument to further his career is explained.     

Leonhard Euler’s use and understanding of mathematical transcendence

Leonhard Euler primarily applied the term “transcendental” to quantities which could be variable or determined. Analyzing Euler’s use and understanding of mathematical transcendence as applied to operations, functions, progressions, and determined quantities as well as the eighteenth century practice of definition allows the author to evaluate claims that Euler provided the first modern definition of a transcendental number. The author argues that Euler’s informal and pragmatic use of mathematical transcendence highlights the general nature of eighteenth century mathematics and proposes an alternate perspective on the issue at hand: transcendental numbers inherited their transcendental classification from functions.     

Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia and Descartes’ letters (1650–1665)

After Descartes’ death in 1650, Princess Elizabeth generously shared with others several letters she had received from the philosopher, which contained philosophically as well as mathematically exciting material. In this article I place the transmission of these copies in context, revealing that Elizabeth steadily became an intellectually inspiring figure, attracting international attention. In the 1650s she stayed at Heidelberg where she discussed Cartesian philosophy with professors and students alike, including the professor of philosophy and mathematics Johann von Leuneschlos. In the mid-1660s, an initiative was taken from the English side of the Channel (Pell, More) to obtain Descartes’ mathematical letters to Elizabeth that had not yet been published. One letter of Elizabeth herself on this very subject has been preserved. The letter, addressed to Theodore Haak, will be published here for the first time. It is of special interest, because the princess supplies a general outline of her solution to the mathematical problem Descartes gave her to solve in 1643. It substantiates the hypothesis regarding Elizabeth’s solution earlier proposed by Henk Bos.     

Sets versus trial sequences,Hausdorff versus von Mises: “Pure” mathematics prevails in the foundations of probability around 1920

The paper discusses the tension which occurred between the notions of set (with measure) and (trial-) sequence (or—to a certain degree—between nondenumerable and denumerable sets) when used in the foundations of probability theory around 1920. The main mathematical point was the logical need for measures in order to describe general nondiscrete distributions, which had been tentatively introduced before (1919) based on von Mises’s notion of the “Kollektiv.” In the background there was a tension between the standpoints of pure mathematics and “real world probability” (in the words of J.L. Doob) at the time. The discussion and publication in English translation (in Appendix) of two critical letters of November 1919 by the “pure” mathematician Felix Hausdorff to the engineer and applied mathematician Richard von Mises compose about one third of the paper. The article also investigates von Mises’s ill-conceived effort to adopt measures and his misinterpretation of an influential book of Constantin Carathéodory. A short and sketchy look at the subsequent development of the standpoints of the pure and the applied mathematician—here represented by Hausdorff and von Mises—in the probability theory of the 1920s and 1930s concludes the paper.     

The emergence of open sets,closed sets,and limit points in analysis and topology

General topology has its roots in real and complex analysis, which made important uses of the interrelated concepts of open set, of closed set, and of a limit point of a set. This article examines how those three concepts emerged and evolved during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, thanks especially to Weierstrass, Cantor, and Lebesgue. Particular attention is paid to the different forms of the Bolzano–Weierstrass Theorem found in the latter's unpublished lectures. An abortive early, unpublished introduction of open sets by Dedekind is examined, as well as how Peano and Jordan almost introduced that concept. At the same time we study the interplay of those three concepts (together with those of the closure of a set and of the derived set of a set) in the struggle to determine the ultimate foundations on which general topology was built, during the first half of the 20th century.     

Cauchy and the infinitely small

We consider Cauchy's use of the infinitely small in his textbooks. He never examined fully his concept of variables with limit zero, and he sometimes argued as if he were using actual infinitesimals. Occasionally he adopted an epsilon-delta approach. The author argues that historical evaluations of mathematical analysis may and should be made in the light of both standard and non-standard analysis. From this point of view, Cauchy's move toward founding analysis entirely on the standard real number system does not seem to have been inevitable. Some historical observations by the founder of non-standard analysis, Abraham Robinson, are extended, and in one case contested. It is shown that some of Cauchy's alleged errors are explained if he is admitted to have been thinking of actual infinitesimals and infinitely large integers. Cauchy's definitions of differential in his textbooks are examined, and the author shows that the earlier of his two definitions of total differential works well, but the later does not.     

Ostrowski’s fourth-order iterative method speedily solves cubic equations of state

Pressure-volume-temperature (P-V-T) data are required in simulating chemical plants because the latter usually involve production, separation, transportation, and storage of fluids. In the absence of actual experimental data, the pertinent mathematical model must rely on phase behaviour prediction by the so-called equations of state (EOS). When the plant model is a combination of differential and algebraic equations, simulation generally relies on numerical integration which proceeds in a piecewise fashion unless an approximate solution is needed at a single point. Needless to say, the constituent algebraic equations must be efficiently re-solved before each update of derivatives. Now, Ostrowski’s fourth-order iterative technique is a partial substitution variant of Newton’s popular second-order method. Although simple and powerful, this two-point variant has been utilised very little since its publication over forty years ago. After a brief introduction to cubic equations of state and their solution, this paper solves five of them. The results clearly demonstrate the superiority of Ostrowski’s method over Newton’s, Halley’s, and Chebyshev’s solvers.     

Cristoforo Borri and the epistemological status of mathematics in seventeenth-century Portugal

This paper argues that the epistemological promotion of mathematics by the Jesuit Cristoforo Borri, while he was teaching at the Coimbra Jesuit College in the late 1620s, played a decisive role in the updating of cosmological ideas in 17th-century Portugal. The paper focuses on Borri's position on the celebrated quaestio de certitudine mathematicarum and on his understanding of the classification of sciences. It argues that by conferring on mathematics the status of Aristotelian causal science, Borri made it possible to integrate mathematical data into the philosophical debate, particularly with regard to the new cosmology.     

A new interpretation of Problem 10 of the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus

Although much discussed, the original intent of Problem 10 of the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus continues to be an unresolved question. This essay proposes a possible solution to the issue by joining together aspects of two theories on the subject advanced in the 1930s by W. W. Struve and T. E. Peet. From this point of beginning it is shown that the problem’s “basket” may originally have been intended to be understood as being of a specific actual size, thus revealing a set of correlations and insights regarding early Middle Kingdom mathematical capabilities and grain measurement concerns.     

A characterization of mean values for Csiszár’s inequality and applications

We characterize all mean values for Csiszár’s inequality in information theory as well as all mean values for the triangle inequality. Several examples are given as well. Also, as an application, we improve the Cauchy–Schwarz operator inequality.     

Spaces of orders and their Turing degree spectra

We investigate computability theoretic and topological properties of spaces of orders on computable orderable groups. A left order on a group G is a linear order of the domain of G, which is left-invariant under the group operation. Right orders and bi-orders are defined similarly. In particular, we study groups for which the spaces of left orders are homeomorphic to the Cantor set, and their Turing degree spectra contain certain upper cones of degrees. Our approach unifies and extends Sikora’s (2004) [28] investigation of orders on groups in topology and Solomon’s (2002) [31] investigation of these orders in computable algebra. Furthermore, we establish that a computable free group F_n of rank n>1 has a bi-order in every Turing degree.