André Lichnerowicz

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André Lichnerowicz

André Léon Jean Maurice Lichnerowicz (born January 21, 1915 in Bourbon-l'Archambault , † December 11, 1998 in Paris ) was a French mathematician , mathematical physicist and university professor .

Career

Lichnerowicz's parents were both teachers. His father was originally from Poland , his mother came from a family of paper manufacturers and was a math teacher. Lichnerowicz studied from 1933 at the École normal supérieure in Paris , where he graduated in 1936 (aggregation). He continued studying as a member of the Center national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), focusing on differential geometry, which he heard from Élie Cartan . In 1939 he received his doctorate under Georges Darmois on a topic from the general theory of relativity (the work contained, among other things, Lichnerowicz's connection conditions). He then taught from 1941 (as Maître de conférences in mechanics) at the University of Strasbourg , which was relocated to Clermont-Ferrand after the German occupation . From 1945 to 1949 he was again in Strasbourg, then until 1952 at the University of Paris, where he introduced the diploma course in mathematical physics, and from 1952 until his retirement in 1986 at the Collège de France in Paris on the chair of mathematical physics. In 1963 he became a member of the French Academy of Sciences . In addition to his main field of work, differential geometry and general relativity (including quantum field theory, Dirac equation and spinor fields in curved spacetime, electromagnetic waves and gravitational waves in general relativity, relativistic hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics), he was also one of the pioneers in symplectic geometry around 1978 (where erplectic geometry introduced deformation quantization) and active in mathematics education: he organized conferences in Caen in 1956 and in Amiens in 1960 with the aim of university reform and was chairman of a commission in the Ministry of Education for mathematics didactics (called the "Lichnerowicz Commission") from 1966 to 1973.

Lichnerowicz was the teacher of a large number of mathematical physicists in France, where he "popularized" the differential geometric methods of Elie Cartan in particular, but also introduced general modern mathematical methods into French teaching in parallel with the efforts of Bourbaki (his Algèbre et analyze was particularly influential linéaires from 1947). His doctoral students include Thierry Aubin , Marcel Berger , Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat , Paul Gauduchon , Thibault Damour , Moshé Flato and Yvette Kosmann-Schwarzbach .

In 1954 he gave a plenary lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Amsterdam (Les groupes d'holonomie et leur application) and in 1970 he was invited speaker at the ICM in Nice (Magnetohydrodynamique relativiste et ondes de choc). In 1959 he was President of the Société Mathématique de France .

Fonts

  • Introduction to tensor analysis. Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim 1966 (English: Elements of Tensor Calculus. John Wiley and Sons and Methuen, 1962, French: Paris, Colin 1951).
  • Relativistic Hydrodynamics and Magnetohydrodynamics - lectures on the existence of solutions. WA Benjamin, 1967.
  • Linear algebra and analysis (= university books for mathematics . Vol. 28). Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1956 (translation of Algèbre et analyze linéaires. Masson, Paris 1947; English: Linear Algebra and Analysis. Holden Day, 1967).
  • Geometry of Groups of Transformations. Noordhoff, Leiden 1958, 1976, Springer 1977 (French: Dunod, Paris 1958).
  • Global Theory of Connection and Holonomy Groups. Noordhoff, Leiden 1955, 1976.
  • Magnetohydrodynamics: Waves and Shock Waves in Curved Space-Time. Springer, Kluwer 1994, ISBN 0-7923-2805-1 .
  • Theories relativistes de la gravitation et de l'electromagnetism: relativite generale et theories unitaires. Masson, Paris 1955.
  • with Alexandre Favre, Henri Guitton, Jean Guitton: Chaos and Determinism. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
  • with Alain Connes , Marco Schutzenberger: Triangle of Thoughts. American Mathematical Society , 2000.
  • Propagateurs, Commutateurs et Anti-Commutateurs en relativite general. In: de Witt (Ed.): Relativity, groups and topology. Les Houches 1963, New York 1964.

literature

  • M. Cahen, Lichnerowicz, Moshé Flato (Eds.): Differential Geometry and Relativity: A Volume in Honor of André Lichnerowicz on his 60th Birthday. Dordrecht, Reidel 1976, ISBN 90-277-0745-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter L. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 13, 2020 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Lichnerowicz, André
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lichnerowicz, André Léon Jean Maurice (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French mathematician and physicist
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Bourbon-l'Archambault , Allier department , France
DATE OF DEATH December 11, 1998
Place of death Paris , Paris department , France