Camille Jordan

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Marie Ennemond Camille Jordan

Marie Ennemond Camille Jordan , called Camille Jordan, (born January 5, 1838 in Lyon , † January 21, 1922 in Paris ) was a French mathematician .

biography

Jordan's father was an engineer and his mother a sister of the painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes . He studied from 1855 at the École polytechnique in Paris and then worked as an engineer, first in Privas , then in Chalon-sur-Saône and finally in Paris. In addition, he found enough time to do mathematical research. In 1860 he received his doctorate under Victor Puiseux at the Faculté des Sciences ( Sorbonne ) in Paris. In 1876 he became professor of analysis at the École polytechnique, where he was an examiner from 1873, and from 1883 professor at the Collège de France . In 1912 he retired.

In 1869 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . In 1916 he became president of the Académie des sciences , of which he had been a member since 1881. In 1920 Jordan was elected to the National Academy of Sciences .

He has made fundamental contributions to analysis , group theory and topology . The term Jordan curve still reminds of his name today . His proof of the Jordanian curve theorem was criticized in 1905 by Oswald Veblen and it was later widely believed that Young gave the first rigorous proof. This was questioned by Thomas C. Hales in 2007. In particular, Hales sees one of the main criticisms, the lack of proof for polygons, as inconclusive, as this part of the proof is relatively easy to provide.

His textbook on group theory ( Traité des substitutions et des équations algébriques ) was very influential in the 19th century (it was the first book on group theory), as was his analysis textbook ( Cours d'Analyse ). The Jordan normal form in linear algebra and the theorems of Jordan-Hölder and Jordan-Schur in group theory are named after him.

Felix Klein used to tell his audience the following story in his group theory lecture:

“At the memorable Paris Mathematicians Congress in 1900, a simple ceremony was held to commemorate all the great mathematicians who had blessed the past ten years. Among other things, the group theorist Camille Jordan, born in 1838, died on November 7, 1898, named. Then a gaunt figure stood up in the back rows to announce to the assembly that at least the year on the date of his death could not be correct because he was still alive. "

Klein and Sophus Lie visited Paris in 1870, not least to study Jordan’s group theoretical concepts.

For his book on group theory, he received the Poncelet Prize of the Academie des Sciences. In 1890 he became an officer of the Legion of Honor. In 1920 he was honorary president of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Strasbourg . In 1880 he was president of the Société Mathématique de France .

From 1862 he was married to Marie-Isabelle Munet, daughter of the mayor of Lyon. He had eight children with her. Three of his six sons died in World War I. His son Camille was a minister, his son Edouard a history professor at the Sorbonne.

Fonts

  • Oeuvres de Camille Jordan , Paris, 4 volumes, 1961 to 1964 (publisher Jean Dieudonné )
  • Traité des substitutions et des equations algébriques , Gauthier-Villars 1870
  • Cours d'analysis de l'École polytechnique , 3 volumes, Gauthier-Villars 1893–1896 (first edition 1882–1887)

literature

  • Jean Dieudonné: Jordan, Camille . In: Charles Coulston Gillispie (Ed.): Dictionary of Scientific Biography . tape 7 : Iamblichus - Karl Landsteiner . Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1973, p. 167-169 .
  • Henri Lebesgue , obituary in: Mémoires Mémoires de l'Académie des sciences de l'Institut de France, 2nd ser., Volume 58, 1923, pp. 29-66 (reprinted in Jordan, Oeuvres IV)

Web links

Commons : Camille Jordan  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mathematics Genealogy Project
  2. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 125.
  3. ↑ Cours d'Analyse, Volume 3, 1887, pp. 587-594
  4. ^ Hales The Jordan curve theorem, formally and informally , The American Mathematical Monthly, Volume 114, 2007, pp. 882-894, Jordan's proof of the Jordan Curve theorem , Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric, Volume 10, 2007, pdf
personal data
SURNAME Jordan, Camille
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jordan, Marie Ennemond Camille (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Lyon
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1922
Place of death Paris