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This is a list ofpublications inmathematics, organized by field.
Some reasons a particular publication might be regarded as important:
Among published compilations of important publications in mathematics areLandmark writings in Western mathematics 1640–1940 byIvor Grattan-Guinness[2] andA Source Book in Mathematics byDavid Eugene Smith.[3]
With linguistic evidence suggesting this text to have been written between the 8th and 5th centuries century BCE, this is one of the oldest mathematical texts. It laid the foundations ofIndian mathematics and was influential inSouth Asia. It was primarily a geometrical text and also contained some important developments, including the list of Pythagorean triples, geometric solutions of linear and quadratic equations and square root of 2.[4]
Contains the earliest description ofGaussian elimination for solving system of linear equations, it also contains method for finding square root and cubic root.
Contains the collection of 130 algebraic problems giving numerical solutions of determinate equations (those with a unique solution) and indeterminate equations.[5]
Contains the application of right angle triangles for survey of depth or height of distant objects.
Contains the earliest description ofChinese remainder theorem.
The text contains 33 verses covering mensuration (kṣetra vyāvahāra), arithmetic and geometric progressions, gnomon / shadows (shanku-chhAyA)[clarification needed], simple, quadratic, simultaneous, and indeterminate equations. It also gave the modern standard algorithm for solving first-orderdiophantine equations.
Jigu Suanjing (626 CE)
This book by Tang dynasty mathematician Wang Xiaotong contains the world's earliest third order equation.[citation needed]
Contained rules for manipulating both negative and positive numbers, rules for dealing with the number zero, a method for computing square roots, and general methods of solving linear and some quadratic equations, solution to Pell's equation.[6][7][8][9]
The first book on the systematicalgebraic solutions oflinear andquadratic equations by thePersian scholarMuhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī. The book is considered to be the foundation of modernalgebra andIslamic mathematics.[10] The word "algebra" itself is derived from theal-Jabr in the title of the book.[11]
One of the major treatises on mathematics byBhāskara II provides the solution for indeterminate equations of 1st and 2nd order.
Contains the earliest invention of 4th order polynomial equation.[citation needed]
This 13th-century book contains the earliest complete solution of 19th-centuryHorner's method of solving high order polynomial equations (up to 10th order)[clarification needed]. It also contains a complete solution ofChinese remainder theorem, which predatesEuler andGauss by several centuries.
Contains the application of high order polynomial equation in solving complex geometry problems.
Contains the method of establishing system of high order polynomial equations of up to four unknowns.
Otherwise known asThe Great Art, provided the first published methods for solvingcubic andquartic equations (due toScipione del Ferro,Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia, andLodovico Ferrari), and exhibited the first published calculations involving non-realcomplex numbers.[12][13]
Also known asElements of Algebra, Euler's textbook on elementary algebra is one of the first to set out algebra in the modern form we would recognize today. The first volume deals with determinate equations, while the second part deals withDiophantine equations. The last section contains a proof ofFermat's Last Theorem for the casen = 3, making some valid assumptions regarding that Euler did not prove.[14]
Gauss's doctoral dissertation,[15] which contained a widely accepted (at the time) but incomplete proof[16] of thefundamental theorem of algebra.
The title means "Reflections on the algebraic solutions of equations". Made the prescient observation that the roots of theLagrange resolvent of a polynomial equation are tied to permutations of the roots of the original equation, laying a more general foundation for what had previously been an ad hoc analysis and helping motivate the later development of the theory ofpermutation groups,group theory, andGalois theory. The Lagrange resolvent also introduced thediscrete Fourier transform of order 3.
Posthumous publication of the mathematical manuscripts ofÉvariste Galois byJoseph Liouville. Included are Galois' papersMémoire sur les conditions de résolubilité des équations par radicaux andDes équations primitives qui sont solubles par radicaux.
Online version:Online version
Traité des substitutions et des équations algébriques (Treatise on Substitutions and Algebraic Equations). The first book on group theory, giving a then-comprehensive study of permutation groups and Galois theory. In this book, Jordan introduced the notion of asimple group andepimorphism (which he calledisomorphisme mériédrique),[17] proved part of theJordan–Hölder theorem, and discussed matrix groups over finite fields as well as theJordan normal form.[18]
Publication data: 3 volumes, B.G. Teubner, Verlagsgesellschaft, mbH, Leipzig, 1888–1893.Volume 1,Volume 2,Volume 3.
The first comprehensive work ontransformation groups, serving as the foundation for the modern theory ofLie groups.
Description: Gave a complete proof of thesolvability of finite groups of odd order, establishing the long-standing Burnside conjecture that all finite non-abelian simple groups are of even order. Many of the original techniques used in this paper were used in the eventualclassification of finite simple groups.
Provided the first fully worked out treatment of abstract homological algebra, unifying previously disparate presentations of homology and cohomology forassociative algebras,Lie algebras, andgroups into a single theory.
Often referred to as the "Tôhoku paper", it revolutionizedhomological algebra by introducingabelian categories and providing a general framework for Cartan and Eilenberg's notion ofderived functors.
Publication data:Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik
Developed the concept ofRiemann surfaces and their topological properties beyond Riemann's 1851 thesis work, proved an index theorem for the genus (the original formulation of theRiemann–Hurwitz formula), proved the Riemann inequality for the dimension of the space of meromorphic functions with prescribed poles (the original formulation of theRiemann–Roch theorem), discussed birational transformations of a given curve and the dimension of the corresponding moduli space of inequivalent curves of a given genus, and solved more general inversion problems than those investigated byAbel andJacobi.André Weil once wrote that this paper "is one of the greatest pieces of mathematics that has ever been written; there is not a single word in it that is not of consequence."[19]
Publication data:Annals of Mathematics, 1955
FAC, as it is usually called, was foundational for the use ofsheaves in algebraic geometry, extending beyond the case ofcomplex manifolds. Serre introducedČech cohomology of sheaves in this paper, and, despite some technical deficiencies, revolutionized formulations of algebraic geometry. For example, thelong exact sequence in sheaf cohomology allows one to show that some surjective maps of sheaves induce surjective maps on sections; specifically, these are the maps whose kernel (as a sheaf) has a vanishing first cohomology group. The dimension of a vector space of sections of acoherent sheaf is finite, inprojective geometry, and such dimensions include many discrete invariants of varieties, for exampleHodge numbers. While Grothendieck'sderived functor cohomology has replaced Čech cohomology for technical reasons, actual calculations, such as of the cohomology of projective space, are usually carried out by Čech techniques, and for this reason Serre's paper remains important.
Inmathematics,algebraic geometry andanalytic geometry are closely related subjects, whereanalytic geometry is the theory ofcomplex manifolds and the more generalanalytic spaces defined locally by the vanishing ofanalytic functions ofseveral complex variables. A (mathematical) theory of the relationship between the two was put in place during the early part of the 1950s, as part of the business of laying the foundations of algebraic geometry to include, for example, techniques fromHodge theory. (NB: Whileanalytic geometry as use of Cartesian coordinates is also in a sense included in the scope of algebraic geometry, that is not the topic being discussed in this article.) The major paper consolidating the theory wasGéometrie Algébrique et Géométrie Analytique bySerre, now usually referred to asGAGA. AGAGA-style result would now mean any theorem of comparison, allowing passage between a category of objects from algebraic geometry, and their morphisms, and a well-defined subcategory of analytic geometry objects and holomorphic mappings.
Borel and Serre's exposition of Grothendieck's version of theRiemann–Roch theorem, published after Grothendieck made it clear that he was not interested in writing up his own result. Grothendieck reinterpreted both sides of the formula thatHirzebruch proved in 1953 in the framework ofmorphisms between varieties, resulting in a sweeping generalization.[20] In his proof, Grothendieck broke new ground with his concept ofGrothendieck groups, which led to the development ofK-theory.[21]
Written with the assistance ofJean Dieudonné, this isGrothendieck's exposition of his reworking of the foundations of algebraic geometry. It has become the most important foundational work in modern algebraic geometry. The approach expounded in EGA, as these books are known, transformed the field and led to monumental advances.
These seminar notes on Grothendieck's reworking of the foundations of algebraic geometry report on work done atIHÉS starting in the 1960s. SGA 1 dates from the seminars of 1960–1961, and the last in the series, SGA 7, dates from 1967 to 1969. In contrast to EGA, which is intended to set foundations, SGA describes ongoing research as it unfolded in Grothendieck's seminar; as a result, it is quite difficult to read, since many of the more elementary and foundational results were relegated to EGA. One of the major results building on the results in SGA isPierre Deligne's proof of the last of the openWeil conjectures in the early 1970s. Other authors who worked on one or several volumes of SGA includeMichel Raynaud,Michael Artin,Jean-Pierre Serre,Jean-Louis Verdier,Pierre Deligne, andNicholas Katz.
Brahmagupta'sBrāhmasphuṭasiddhānta is the first book that mentions zero as a number, hence Brahmagupta is considered the first to formulate the concept of zero. The current system of the four fundamental operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) based on the Hindu-Arabic number system also first appeared in Brahmasphutasiddhanta. It was also one of the first texts to provide concrete ideas on positive and negative numbers.
First presented in 1737, this paper[22] provided the first then-comprehensive account of the properties ofcontinued fractions. It also contains the first proof that the numbere is irrational.[23]
Developed a general theory ofbinary quadratic forms to handle the general problem of when an integer is representable by the form. This included a reduction theory for binary quadratic forms, where he proved that every form is equivalent to a certain canonically chosen reduced form.[24][25]
TheDisquisitiones Arithmeticae is a profound and masterful book onnumber theory written byGermanmathematicianCarl Friedrich Gauss and first published in 1801 when Gauss was 24. In this book Gauss brings together results in number theory obtained by mathematicians such asFermat,Euler,Lagrange andLegendre and adds many important new results of his own. Among his contributions was the first complete proof known of theFundamental theorem of arithmetic, the first two published proofs of the law ofquadratic reciprocity, a deep investigation ofbinary quadratic forms going beyond Lagrange's work inRecherches d'Arithmétique, a first appearance ofGauss sums,cyclotomy, and the theory ofconstructible polygons with a particular application to the constructibility of the regular17-gon. Of note, in section V, article 303 of Disquisitiones, Gauss summarized his calculations ofclass numbers of imaginary quadratic number fields, and in fact found all imaginary quadratic number fields of class numbers 1, 2, and 3 (confirmed in 1986) as he hadconjectured.[26] In section VII, article 358, Gauss proved what can be interpreted as the first non-trivial case of the Riemann Hypothesis for curves over finite fields (theHasse–Weil theorem).[27]
Pioneering paper inanalytic number theory, which introducedDirichlet characters and theirL-functions to establishDirichlet's theorem on arithmetic progressions.[28] In subsequent publications, Dirichlet used these tools to determine, among other things, the class number for quadratic forms.
"Über die Anzahl der Primzahlen unter einer gegebenen Grösse" (or "On the Number of Primes Less Than a Given Magnitude") is a seminal 8-page paper by Bernhard Riemann published in the November 1859 edition of theMonthly Reports of the Berlin Academy. Although it is the only paper he ever published on number theory, it contains ideas which influenced dozens of researchers during the late 19th century and up to the present day. The paper consists primarily of definitions, heuristic arguments, sketches of proofs, and the application of powerful analytic methods; all of these have become essential concepts and tools of modernanalytic number theory. It also contains the famousRiemann Hypothesis, one of the most important open problems in mathematics.[29]
Vorlesungen über Zahlentheorie (Lectures on Number Theory) is a textbook ofnumber theory written byGerman mathematicians P. G. Lejeune Dirichlet and R. Dedekind, and published in 1863.TheVorlesungen can be seen as a watershed between the classical number theory ofFermat,Jacobi andGauss, and the modern number theory of Dedekind,Riemann andHilbert. Dirichlet does not explicitly recognise the concept of thegroup that is central tomodern algebra, but many of his proofs show an implicit understanding of group theory.
Unified and made accessible many of the developments inalgebraic number theory made during the nineteenth century. Although criticized byAndré Weil (who stated "more than half of his famous Zahlbericht is little more than an account ofKummer's number-theoretical work, with inessential improvements")[30] andEmmy Noether,[31] it was highly influential for many years following its publication.
Generally referred to simply asTate's Thesis, Tate'sPrinceton PhD thesis, underEmil Artin, is a reworking ofErich Hecke's theory of zeta- andL-functions in terms ofFourier analysis on theadeles. The introduction of these methods into number theory made it possible to formulate extensions of Hecke's results to more generalL-functions such as those arising fromautomorphic forms.
This publication offers evidence towards Langlands' conjectures by reworking and expanding the classical theory ofmodular forms and theirL-functions through the introduction of representation theory.
Proved the Riemann hypothesis for varieties over finite fields, settling the last of the openWeil conjectures.
Faltings proves a collection of important results in this paper, the most famous of which is the first proof of theMordell conjecture (a conjecture dating back to 1922). Other theorems proved in this paper include an instance of theTate conjecture (relating thehomomorphisms between twoabelian varieties over anumber field to the homomorphisms between theirTate modules) and some finiteness results concerning abelian varieties over number fields with certain properties.
This article proceeds to prove a special case of theShimura–Taniyama conjecture through the study of thedeformation theory ofGalois representations. This in turn implies the famedFermat's Last Theorem. The proof's method of identification of adeformation ring with aHecke algebra (now referred to as anR=T theorem) to prove modularity lifting theorems has been an influential development in algebraic number theory.
Harris and Taylor provide the first proof of thelocal Langlands conjecture forGL(n). As part of the proof, this monograph also makes an in depth study of the geometry and cohomology of certain Shimura varieties at primes of bad reduction.
Ngô Bảo Châu proved a long-standing unsolved problem in the classical Langlands program, using methods from the Geometric Langlands program.
Peter Scholze introducedPerfectoid space.
The eminent historian of mathematicsCarl Boyer once called Euler'sIntroductio in analysin infinitorum the greatest modern textbook in mathematics.[32] Published in two volumes,[33][34] this book more than any other work succeeded in establishinganalysis as a major branch of mathematics, with a focus and approach distinct from that used in geometry and algebra.[35] Notably, Euler identified functions rather than curves to be the central focus in his book.[36] Logarithmic, exponential, trigonometric, and transcendental functions were covered, as were expansions into partial fractions, evaluations ofζ(2k) fork a positive integer between 1 and 13, infinite series and infinite product formulas,[32]continued fractions, andpartitions of integers.[37] In this work, Euler proved that every rational number can be written as a finite continued fraction, that the continued fraction of an irrational number is infinite, and derived continued fraction expansions fore and.[33] This work also contains a statement ofEuler's formula and a statement of thepentagonal number theorem, which he had discovered earlier and would publish a proof for in 1751.
Written inIndia in 1530,[38][39] and served as a summary of theKerala School's achievements in infinite series,trigonometry andmathematical analysis, most of which were earlier discovered by the 14th century mathematicianMadhava. Some of its important developments includesinfinite series andTaylor series expansion of some trigonometry functions and π approximation.
Leibniz's first publication on differential calculus, containing the now familiar notation for differentials as well as rules for computing the derivatives of powers, products and quotients.
ThePhilosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Latin: "mathematical principles of natural philosophy", oftenPrincipia orPrincipia Mathematica for short) is a three-volume work byIsaac Newton published on 5 July 1687. Perhaps the most influential scientific book ever published, it contains the statement ofNewton's laws of motion forming the foundation ofclassical mechanics as well as hislaw of universal gravitation, and derivesKepler's laws for the motion of theplanets (which were first obtained empirically). Here was born the practice, now so standard we identify it with science, of explaining nature by postulating mathematical axioms and demonstrating that their conclusion are observable phenomena. In formulating his physical theories, Newton freely used his unpublished work on calculus. When he submitted Principia for publication, however, Newton chose to recast the majority of his proofs as geometric arguments.[40]

Published in two books,[41] Euler's textbook on differential calculus presented the subject in terms of the function concept, which he had introduced in his 1748Introductio in analysin infinitorum. This work opens with a study of the calculus offinite differences and makes a thorough investigation of how differentiation behaves under substitutions.[42] Also included is a systematic study ofBernoulli polynomials and theBernoulli numbers (naming them as such), a demonstration of how the Bernoulli numbers are related to the coefficients in theEuler–Maclaurin formula and the values of ζ(2n),[43] a further study ofEuler's constant (including its connection to thegamma function), and an application of partial fractions to differentiation.[44]
Written in 1853, Riemann's work on trigonometric series was published posthumously. In it, he extended Cauchy's definition of the integral to that of theRiemann integral, allowing some functions with dense subsets of discontinuities on an interval to be integrated (which he demonstrated by an example).[45] He also stated theRiemann series theorem,[45] proved theRiemann–Lebesgue lemma for the case of bounded Riemann integrable functions,[46] and developed the Riemann localization principle.[47]
Lebesgue'sdoctoral dissertation, summarizing and extending his research to date regarding his development ofmeasure theory and theLebesgue integral.
Riemann's doctoral dissertation introduced the notion of aRiemann surface,conformal mapping, simple connectivity, theRiemann sphere, the Laurent series expansion for functions having poles and branch points, and theRiemann mapping theorem.
The first mathematical monograph on the subject oflinearmetric spaces, bringing the abstract study offunctional analysis to the wider mathematical community. The book introduced the ideas of anormed space and the notion of a so-calledB-space, acomplete normed space. TheB-spaces are now calledBanach spaces and are one of the basic objects of study in all areas of modern mathematical analysis. Banach also gave proofs of versions of theopen mapping theorem,closed graph theorem, andHahn–Banach theorem.
Grothendieck's thesis introduced the notion of anuclear space,tensor products of locally convex topological vector spaces, and the start of Grothendieck's work on tensor products of Banach spaces.[48]
Alexander Grothendieck also wrote a textbook ontopological vector spaces:
IntroducedFourier analysis, specificallyFourier series. Key contribution was to not simply usetrigonometric series, but to modelall functions by trigonometric series:
Multiplying both sides by, and then integrating from to yields:
When Fourier submitted his paper in 1807, the committee (which includedLagrange,Laplace,Malus andLegendre, among others) concluded:...the manner in which the author arrives at these equations is not exempt of difficulties and [...] his analysis to integrate them still leaves something to be desired on the score of generality and even rigour. Making Fourier series rigorous, which in detail took over a century, led directly to a number of developments in analysis, notably the rigorous statement of the integral via theDirichlet integral and later theLebesgue integral.
In his habilitation thesis on Fourier series, Riemann characterized this work of Dirichlet as "the first profound paper about the subject".[50] This paper gave the first rigorous proof of the convergence ofFourier series under fairly general conditions (piecewise continuity and monotonicity) by considering partial sums, which Dirichlet transformed into a particularDirichlet integral involving what is now called theDirichlet kernel. This paper introduced the nowhere continuousDirichlet function and an early version of theRiemann–Lebesgue lemma.[51]
SettledLusin's conjecture that the Fourier expansion of any function convergesalmost everywhere.
Believed to have been written around the 8th century BCE, this is one of the oldest mathematical texts. It laid the foundations ofIndian mathematics and was influential inSouth Asia . Though this was primarily a geometrical text, it also contained some important algebraic developments, including the list of Pythagorean triples discovered algebraically, geometric solutions of linear equations, the use of quadratic equations and square root of 2.
Publication data: c. 300 BC
Online version:Interactive Java version
This is often regarded as not only the most important work ingeometry but one of the most important works in mathematics. It contains many important results in plane and solidgeometry, algebra (books II and V), andnumber theory (book VII, VIII, and IX).[52] More than any specific result in the publication, it seems that the major achievement of this publication is the promotion of an axiomatic approach as a means for proving results. Euclid'sElements has been referred to as the most successful and influential textbook ever written.[53]
This was a Chinesemathematics book, mostly geometric, composed during theHan dynasty, perhaps as early as 200 BC. It remained the most important textbook inChina andEast Asia for over a thousand years, similar to the position of Euclid'sElements in Europe. Among its contents: Linear problems solved using the principle known later in the West as therule of false position. Problems with several unknowns, solved by a principle similar toGaussian elimination. Problems involving the principle known in the West as thePythagorean theorem. The earliest solution of amatrix using a method equivalent to the modern method.
The Conics was written by Apollonius of Perga, aGreek mathematician. His innovative methodology and terminology, especially in the field ofconics, influenced many later scholars includingPtolemy,Francesco Maurolico,Isaac Newton, andRené Descartes. It was Apollonius who gave theellipse, theparabola, and thehyperbola the names by which we know them.
It describes the archeo-astronomy theories, principles and methods of the ancient Hindus. This siddhanta is supposed to be the knowledge that the Sun god gave to an Asura called Maya. It uses sine (jya), cosine (kojya or "perpendicular sine") and inverse sine (otkram jya) for the first time . Later Indian mathematicians such as Aryabhata made references to this text, while later Arabic and Latin translations were very influential in Europe and the Middle East.
This was a highly influential text during the Golden Age of mathematics in India. The text was highly concise and therefore elaborated upon in commentaries by later mathematicians. It made significant contributions to geometry and astronomy, including introduction of sine/ cosine, determination of the approximate value of pi and accurate calculation of the earth's circumference.
La Géométrie waspublished in 1637 andwritten byRené Descartes. The book was influential in developing theCartesian coordinate system and specifically discussed the representation ofpoints of aplane, viareal numbers; and the representation ofcurves, viaequations.
Online version:English
Publication data:Hilbert, David (1899).Grundlagen der Geometrie. Teubner-Verlag Leipzig.ISBN 978-1-4020-2777-2.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Hilbert's axiomatization of geometry, whose primary influence was in its pioneering approach to metamathematical questions including the use of models to prove axiom independence and the importance of establishing the consistency and completeness of an axiomatic system.
Regular Polytopes is a comprehensive survey of the geometry ofregular polytopes, the generalisation of regularpolygons and regularpolyhedra to higher dimensions. Originating with an essay entitledDimensional Analogy written in 1923, the first edition of the book took Coxeter 24 years to complete. Originally written in 1947, the book was updated and republished in 1963 and 1973.
Publication data: Mémoires de l'académie des sciences de Berlin16 (1760) pp. 119–143; published 1767. (Full text and an English translation available from the Dartmouth Euler archive.)
Established the theory ofsurfaces, and introduced the idea ofprincipal curvatures, laying the foundation for subsequent developments in thedifferential geometry of surfaces.
Publication data:"Disquisitiones generales circa superficies curvas",Commentationes Societatis Regiae Scientiarum Gottingesis Recentiores Vol.VI (1827), pp. 99–146; "General Investigations of Curved Surfaces" (published 1965) Raven Press, New York, translated by A.M.Hiltebeitel and J.C.Morehead.
Groundbreaking work indifferential geometry, introducing the notion ofGaussian curvature and Gauss's celebratedTheorema Egregium.
Publication data:"Über die Hypothesen, welche der Geometrie zu Grunde Liegen",Abhandlungen der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Vol. 13, 1867.English translation
Riemann's famous Habiltationsvortrag, in which he introduced the notions of amanifold,Riemannian metric, andcurvature tensor.Richard Dedekind reported on the reaction of the then 77 year oldGauss to Riemann's presentation, stating that it had "surpassed all his expectations" and that he spoke "with the greatest appreciation, and with an excitement rare for him, about the depth of the ideas presented by Riemann."[54]
Publication data:Darboux, Gaston (1887,1889,1896) (1890).Leçons sur la théorie génerale des surfaces. Gauthier-Villars.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Volume I,Volume II,Volume III,Volume IV
Leçons sur la théorie génerale des surfaces et les applications géométriques du calcul infinitésimal (on the General Theory of Surfaces and the Geometric Applications of Infinitesimal Calculus). A treatise covering virtually every aspect of the 19th centurydifferential geometry ofsurfaces.
Description: Poincaré'sAnalysis Situs and his Compléments à l'Analysis Situs laid the general foundations foralgebraic topology. In these papers, Poincaré introduced the notions ofhomology and thefundamental group, provided an early formulation ofPoincaré duality, gave theEuler–Poincaré characteristic forchain complexes, and mentioned several important conjectures including thePoincaré conjecture, demonstrated byGrigori Perelman in 2003.
These twoComptes Rendus notes of Leray from 1946 introduced the novel concepts ofsheafs,sheaf cohomology, andspectral sequences, which he had developed during his years of captivity as a prisoner of war. Leray's announcements and applications (published in other Comptes Rendus notes from 1946) drew immediate attention from other mathematicians. Subsequent clarification, development, and generalization byHenri Cartan,Jean-Louis Koszul,Armand Borel,Jean-Pierre Serre, and Leray himself allowed these concepts to be understood and applied to many other areas of mathematics.[55] Dieudonné would later write that these notions created by Leray "undoubtedly rank at the same level in the history of mathematics as the methods invented by Poincaré and Brouwer".[56]
In this paper, Thom proved theThom transversality theorem, introduced the notions oforiented andunoriented cobordism, and demonstrated that cobordism groups could be computed as the homotopy groups of certainThom spaces. Thom completely characterized the unoriented cobordism ring and achieved strong results for several problems, includingSteenrod's problem on the realization of cycles.[57][58]
The first paper on category theory. Mac Lane later wrote inCategories for the Working Mathematician that he and Eilenberg introduced categories so that they could introduce functors, and they introduced functors so that they could introducenatural equivalences. Prior to this paper, "natural" was used in an informal and imprecise way to designate constructions that could be made without making any choices. Afterwards, "natural" had a precise meaning which occurred in a wide variety of contexts and had powerful and important consequences.
Saunders Mac Lane, one of the founders of category theory, wrote this exposition to bring categories to the masses. Mac Lane brings to the fore the important concepts that make category theory useful, such asadjoint functors anduniversal properties.
This purpose of this book is twofold: to provide a general introduction to higher category theory (using the formalism of "quasicategories" or "weak Kan complexes"), and to apply this theory to the study of higher versions of Grothendieck topoi. A few applications to classical topology are included. (see arXiv.)
Online version:Online version
Contains the first proof that the set of all real numbers is uncountable; also contains a proof that the set of algebraic numbers is countable. (SeeGeorg Cantor's first set theory article.)
First published in 1914, this was the first comprehensive introduction to set theory. Besides the systematic treatment of known results in set theory, the book also contains chapters onmeasure theory and topology, which were then still considered parts of set theory. Here Hausdorff presents and develops highly original material which was later to become the basis for those areas.
Gödel proves the results of the title. Also, in the process, introduces theclass L of constructible sets, a major influence in the development of axiomatic set theory.
Cohen's breakthrough work proved the independence of thecontinuum hypothesis and axiom of choice with respect toZermelo–Fraenkel set theory. In proving this Cohen introduced the concept offorcing which led to many other major results in axiomatic set theory.
Published in 1854,The Laws of Thought was the first book to provide a mathematical foundation for logic. Its aim was a complete re-expression and extension of Aristotle's logic in the language of mathematics. Boole's work founded the discipline of algebraic logic and would later be central forClaude Shannon in the development of digital logic.
Published in 1879, the titleBegriffsschrift is usually translated asconcept writing orconcept notation; the full title of the book identifies it as "aformulalanguage, modelled on that ofarithmetic, of purethought". Frege's motivation for developing hisformal logical system was similar toLeibniz's desire for acalculus ratiocinator. Frege defines a logical calculus to support his research in thefoundations of mathematics.Begriffsschrift is both the name of the book and the calculus defined therein. It was arguably the most significant publication inlogic sinceAristotle.
First published in 1895, theFormulario mathematico was the first mathematical book written entirely in aformalized language. It contained a description ofmathematical logic and many important theorems in other branches of mathematics. Many of the notations introduced in the book are now in common use.
ThePrincipia Mathematica is a three-volume work on the foundations ofmathematics, written byBertrand Russell andAlfred North Whitehead and published in 1910–1913. It is an attempt to derive all mathematical truths from a well-defined set of axioms and inference rules insymbolic logic. The questions remained whether a contradiction could be derived from the Principia's axioms, and whether there exists a mathematical statement which could neither be proven nor disproven in the system. These questions were settled, in a rather surprising way, byGödel's incompleteness theorem in 1931.
(On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems)
Online version:Online version
Inmathematical logic,Gödel's incompleteness theorems are two celebrated theorems proved byKurt Gödel in 1931.The first incompleteness theorem states:
For any formal system such that (1) it is-consistent (omega-consistent), (2) it has arecursively definable set ofaxioms andrules of derivation, and (3) everyrecursive relation of natural numbers is definable in it, there exists a formula of the system such that, according to the intended interpretation of the system, it expresses a truth about natural numbers and yet it is not atheorem of the system.
Settled a conjecture ofPaul Erdős andPál Turán (now known asSzemerédi's theorem) that if a sequence of natural numbers has positive upper density then it contains arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions. Szemerédi's solution has been described as a "masterpiece of combinatorics"[59] and it introduced new ideas and tools to the field including a weak form of theSzemerédi regularity lemma.[60]
Euler's solution of theKönigsberg bridge problem inSolutio problematis ad geometriam situs pertinentis (The solution of a problem relating to the geometry of position) is considered to be the first theorem ofgraph theory.
Provides a detailed discussion of sparserandom graphs, including distribution of components, occurrence of small subgraphs, and phase transitions.[61]
Presents theFord–Fulkerson algorithm for solving themaximum flow problem, along with many ideas on flow-based models.
Seelist of important publications in statistics.
Went well beyondÉmile Borel's initial investigations into strategic two-person game theory by proving theminimax theorem for two-person, zero-sum games.
This book led to the investigation of modern game theory as a prominent branch of mathematics. This work contained the method for finding optimal solutions for two-person zero-sum games.
The book is in two, {0,1|}, parts. The zeroth part is about numbers, the first part about games – both the values of games and also some real games that can be played such asNim,Hackenbush,Col and Snort amongst the many described.
A compendium of information onmathematical games. It was first published in 1982 in two volumes, one focusing onCombinatorial game theory andsurreal numbers, and the other concentrating on a number of specific games.
An article, later expanded into a book, which developed the concepts ofinformation entropy andredundancy, and introduced the termbit (which Shannon credited toJohn Tukey) as a unit of information.
A discussion of self-similar curves that have fractional dimensions between 1 and 2. These curves are examples of fractals, although Mandelbrot does not use this term in the paper, as he did not coin it until 1975.Shows Mandelbrot's early thinking on fractals, and is an example of the linking of mathematical objects with natural forms that was a theme of much of his later work.
Method of Fluxions was a book written byIsaac Newton. The book was completed in 1671, and published in 1736. Within this book, Newton describes a method (theNewton–Raphson method) for finding the real zeroes of afunction.
Major early work on thecalculus of variations, building upon some of Lagrange's prior investigations as well as those ofEuler. Contains investigations of minimal surface determination as well as the initial appearance ofLagrange multipliers.
Kantorovich wrote the first paper on production planning, which used Linear Programs as the model. He received the Nobel prize for this work in 1975.
Dantzig's is considered the father oflinear programming in the western world. He independently invented thesimplex algorithm. Dantzig and Wolfe worked on decomposition algorithms for large-scale linear programs in factory and production planning.
Klee and Minty gave an example showing that thesimplex algorithm can take exponentially many steps to solve alinear program.
Khachiyan's work on the ellipsoid method. This was the first polynomial time algorithm for linear programming.
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These are publications that are not necessarily relevant to a mathematician nowadays, but are nonetheless important publications in thehistory of mathematics.
This is one of the earliest mathematical treatises that still survives today. The Papyrus contains 25 problems involving arithmetic, geometry, and algebra, each with a solution given. Written in Ancient Egypt at approximately 1850 BC.[62]
One of the oldest mathematical texts, dating to theSecond Intermediate Period ofancient Egypt. It was copied by the scribeAhmes (properlyAhmose) from an olderMiddle Kingdompapyrus. It laid the foundations ofEgyptian mathematics and in turn, later influencedGreek and Hellenistic mathematics. Besides describing how to obtain an approximation of π only missing the mark by less than one per cent, it is describes one of the earliest attempts atsquaring the circle and in the process provides persuasive evidence against the theory that theEgyptians deliberately built theirpyramids to enshrine the value of π in the proportions. Even though it would be a strong overstatement to suggest that the papyrus represents even rudimentary attempts at analytical geometry, Ahmes did make use of a kind of an analogue of thecotangent.
Although the only mathematical tools at its author's disposal were what we might now consider secondary-schoolgeometry, he used those methods with rare brilliance, explicitly usinginfinitesimals to solve problems that would now be treated by integral calculus. Among those problems were that of thecenter of gravity of a solid hemisphere, that of the center of gravity of a frustum of a circular paraboloid, and that of the area of a region bounded by aparabola and one of its secant lines. For explicit details of the method used, seeArchimedes' use of infinitesimals.
Online version:Online version
The first known (European)system of number-naming that can be expanded beyond the needs of everyday life.
Dummit and Foote has become the modern dominant abstract algebra textbook following Jacobson's Basic Algebra.
Arithmetika Horvatzka (1758) was the first Croatian language arithmetic textbook, written in the vernacularKajkavian dialect ofCroatian language. It established a complete system ofarithmetic terminology inCroatian, and vividly used examples from everyday life inCroatia to present mathematical operations.[63] Although it was clear that Šilobod had made use of words that were in dictionaries, this was clearly insufficient for his purposes; and he made up some names by adaptingLatin terminology to Kaikavian use.[64] Full text ofArithmetika Horvatszka is available via archive.org.
Contains over 6000 theorems of mathematics, assembled by George Shoobridge Carr for the purpose of training his students for the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos exams. Studied extensively byRamanujan.(first half here)
One of the most influential books in French mathematical literature. It introduces some of the notations and definitions that are now usual (the symbol ∅ or the term bijective for example). Characterized by an extreme level of rigour, formalism and generality (up to the point of being highly criticized for that), its publication started in 1939 and is still unfinished today.
Written in 1542, it was the first really popular arithmetic book written in the English Language.
Textbook of arithmetic published in 1678 by John Hawkins, who claimed to have edited manuscripts left by Edward Cocker, who had died in 1676. This influential mathematics textbook used to teach arithmetic in schools in the United Kingdom for over 150 years.
An early and popular English arithmetic textbook published inAmerica in the 18th century. The book reached from the introductory topics to the advanced in five sections.
Publication data: 1892
The most widely used and influential textbook in Russian mathematics. (See Kiselyov page.)
A classic textbook in introductorymathematical analysis, written byG. H. Hardy. It was first published in 1908, and went through many editions. It was intended to help reform mathematics teaching in the UK, and more specifically in theUniversity of Cambridge, and in schools preparing pupils to study mathematics at Cambridge. As such, it was aimed directly at "scholarship level" students – the top 10% to 20% by ability. The book contains a large number of difficult problems. The content covers introductorycalculus and the theory ofinfinite series.
The first introductory textbook (graduate level) expounding the abstract approach to algebra developed by Emil Artin and Emmy Noether. First published in German in 1931 by Springer Verlag. A later English translation was published in 1949 byFrederick Ungar Publishing Company.
A definitive introductory text for abstract algebra using acategory theoretic approach. Both a rigorous introduction from first principles, and a reasonably comprehensive survey of the field.
The first comprehensive introductory (graduate level) text in algebraic geometry that used the language of schemes and cohomology. Published in 1977, it lacks aspects of the scheme language which are nowadays considered central, like thefunctor of points.
An undergraduate introduction to not-very-naive set theory which has lasted for decades. It is still considered by many to be the best introduction to set theory for beginners. While the title states that it is naive, which is usually taken to mean without axioms, the book does introduce all the axioms ofZermelo–Fraenkel set theory and gives correct and rigorous definitions for basic objects. Where it differs from a "true" axiomatic set theory book is its character: There are no long-winded discussions of axiomatic minutiae, and there is next to nothing about topics likelarge cardinals. Instead it aims, and succeeds, in being intelligible to someone who has never thought about set theory before.
Thenec plus ultra reference for basic facts about cardinal and ordinal numbers. If you have a question about the cardinality of sets occurring in everyday mathematics, the first place to look is this book, first published in the early 1950s but based on the author's lectures on the subject over the preceding 40 years.
This book is not really for beginners, but graduate students with some minimal experience in set theory and formal logic will find it a valuable self-teaching tool, particularly in regard toforcing. It is far easier to read than a true reference work such as Jech,Set Theory. It may be the best textbook from which to learn forcing, though it has the disadvantage that the exposition of forcing relies somewhat on the earlier presentation ofMartin's axiom.
First published round 1935, this text was a pioneering "reference" text book in topology, already incorporating many modern concepts from set-theoretic topology, homological algebra and homotopy theory.
First published in 1955, for many years the only introductory graduate level textbook in the US, teaching the basics of point set, as opposed to algebraic, topology. Prior to this the material, essential for advanced study in many fields, was only available in bits and pieces from texts on other topics or journal articles.
This short book introduces the main concepts of differential topology in Milnor's lucid and concise style. While the book does not cover very much, its topics are explained beautifully in a way that illuminates all their details.
An historical study of number theory, written by one of the 20th century's greatest researchers in the field. The book covers some thirty six centuries of arithmetical work but the bulk of it is devoted to a detailed study and exposition of the work of Fermat, Euler, Lagrange, and Legendre. The author wishes to take the reader into the workshop of his subjects to share their successes and failures. A rare opportunity to see the historical development of a subject through the mind of one of its greatest practitioners.
An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers was first published in 1938, and is still in print, with the latest edition being the 6th (2008). It is likely that almost every serious student and researcher into number theory has consulted this book, and probably has it on their bookshelf. It was not intended to be a textbook, and is rather an introduction to a wide range of differing areas of number theory which would now almost certainly be covered in separate volumes. The writing style has long been regarded as exemplary, and the approach gives insight into a variety of areas without requiring much more than a good grounding in algebra, calculus and complex numbers.
Bronshtein and Semendyayev is the informal name of a comprehensive handbook of fundamental working knowledge of mathematics and table of formulas originally compiled by the Russian mathematicianIlya Nikolaevich Bronshtein and engineerKonstantin Adolfovic Semendyayev. The work was first published in 1945 in Russia and soon became a "standard" and frequently used guide for scientists, engineers, and technical university students. It has been translated into German, English, and many other languages. The latest edition was published in 2015 bySpringer.
CRC Standard Mathematical Tables is a comprehensive one-volume handbook of fundamental working knowledge of mathematics and table of formulas. The handbook was originally published in 1928. The latest edition was published in 2018 byCRC Press, withDaniel Zwillinger as the editor-in-chief.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, first published in 1979 by Basic Books.It is a book about how the creative achievements of logician Kurt Gödel, artist M. C. Escher and composer Johann Sebastian Bach interweave. As the author states: "I realized that to me, Gödel and Escher and Bach were only shadows cast in different directions by some central solid essence. I tried to reconstruct the central object, and came up with this book."
The World of Mathematics was specially designed to make mathematics more accessible to the inexperienced. It comprises nontechnical essays on every aspect of the vast subject, including articles by and about scores of eminent mathematicians, as well as literary figures, economists, biologists, and many other eminent thinkers. Includes the work of Archimedes, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Gregor Mendel, Edmund Halley, Jonathan Swift, John Maynard Keynes, Henri Poincaré, Lewis Carroll, George Boole, Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead, John von Neumann, and many others. In addition, an informative commentary by distinguished scholar James R. Newman precedes each essay or group of essays, explaining their relevance and context in the history and development of mathematics. Originally published in 1956, it does not include many of the exciting discoveries of the later years of the 20th century but it has no equal as a general historical survey of important topics and applications.
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)Brahmagupta is believed to have composed many important works of mathematics and astronomy. However, two of his most important works are: Brahmasphutasiddhanta (BSS) written in 628 AD, and the Khandakhadyaka...
many important results from astronomy, arithmetic and algebra", "major work
holds a remarkable place in the history of Eastern civilization", "most important work", "remarkably modern in outlook", "marvelous piece of pure mathematics", "more remarkable algebraic contributions", "important step towards the integral solutions of [second-order indeterminate] equations", "In geometry, Brahmagupta's achievements were equally praiseworthy.
Brahmagupta's masterpiece", "a great deal of important algebra", "TheBrahma-sphuta-siddhānta was quickly recognized by Brahmagupta's contemporaries as an important and imaginative work. It inspired numerous commentaries by many generations of mathematicians.