Related papers: In Memoriam: James Earl Baumgartner (1943-2011)
Quantum mechanics challenges classical intuitions of space, time, and causality via the superposition principle, which allows systems to exist in multiple states simultaneously. Niels Bohr addressed these paradoxes through his…
The famous Descartes' rule of signs from 1637 giving an upper bound on the number of positive roots of a real univariate polynomials in terms of the number of sign changes of its coefficients, has been an indispensable source of inspiration…
John Mather is a great scholar who was dedicated to mathematics in his whole life. His works in mathematics can be characterized as original and foundational. He laid out the foundation of singularity theory while he was a graduate student.…
In this paper we discuss the relevance of the algebraic approach to quantum phenomena first introduced by von Neumann before he confessed to Birkoff that he no longer believed in Hilbert space. This approach is more general and allows us to…
Planck's introduction of the quantum of action in 1900 was followed by 25 years of trial and error in quest of the understanding of the quantum world; different ideas and directions had to be pursued until the path leading to the elementary…
With his research on Aristotle's syllogistic, Jan {\L}ukasiewicz (1934, 1939, 1957, 1963) initiates the branch of logic known as the calculus of names. This field deals with axiomatic systems that analyse various fragments of the logic of…
This paper presents a brief historical survey of iterative methods for solving linear systems of equations. The journey begins with Gauss who developed the first known method that can be termed iterative. The early 20th century saw good…
In his book A Practical Theory of Programming, Eric Hehner proposes and applies a remarkably radical reformulation of set theory, in which the collection and packaging of elements are seen as separate activities. This provides for…
This paper is a tribute to the genius of the legendary Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (22 December 1887 - 26 April 1920) in the centenary year of his death. The life story of Ramanujan is so well known that it needs no elaboration…
Ninety years ago in 1927, at an international congress in Como, Italy, Niels Bohr gave an address which is recognized as the first instance in which the term "complementarity", as a physical concept, was spoken publicly [1], revealing…
This contribution pays homage to Aaldert Wapstra, the founder of the Atomic Mass Evaluation (AME) in its present form. Producing an atomic mass table requires detailed evaluation and combination of the various decay and reaction energies as…
In the year 1876 the mathematician Charles Dodgson, who wrote fiction under the now more famous name of Lewis Carroll, devised a beautiful voting system that has long fascinated political scientists. However, determining the winner of a…
Jonathan M. Borwein (1951-2016) was a prolific mathematician whose career spanned several countries (UK, Canada, USA, Australia) and whose many interests included analysis, optimisation, number theory, special functions, experimental…
This article reviews the biography of the Swiss mathematician Marcel Grossmann (1878-1936) and his contributions to the emergence of the general theory of relativity. The first part is his biography, while the second part reviews his…
The Art of Memory started with Aristotle's questions on memory. During its long evolution, it had important contributions from alchemist, was transformed by Ramon Llull and apparently ended with Giordano Bruno, who was considered the best…
Keith Brueckner was a theoretical physicist of considerable technical power who came of age as the mysteries of the atomic nucleus were coming into focus. His fundamental contributions to the "many-body problem" had a lasting impact on our…
We prove the following theorem: For a partially ordered set Q such that every countable subset has a strict upper bound, there is a forcing notion satisfying ccc such that, in the forcing model, there is a basis of the null ideal of the…
Riemann sums, a classical method for approximating the definite integral of a function, have been extensively studied in the past. However, their monotonic properties, while still of great importance, particularly in approximation theory…
We briefly discuss new models of an `affine' theory of gravity in multidimensional space-times with symmetric connections. We use and generalize Einstein's proposal to specify the space-time geometry by use of the Hamilton principle to…
This paper re-evaluates Jozsef Sutak (1865-1954), a Hungarian scholar-priest and professor, as a grey eminence rather than a genius, offering a counter-narrative to the history of Hungarian university mathematics. By examining his career -…