Karl Prachar

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Karl Prachar (born October 29, 1925 in Vienna ; † November 27, 1994 ibid) was an Austrian mathematician . He worked in the field of analytical number theory and is best known for his book on prime number distribution .

Karl Prachar, Vienna 1967

Prachar was born in Vienna in 1925. His parents had a bicycle / radio shop in the 16th district on Thaliastraße, and Prachar was also a trained radio technician. He studied mathematics at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate in 1947 with the thesis On the quadratic deviation of integer polynomials from zero , which followed on from a work by David Hilbert from 1894 and had a number theoretical background. First he dealt with the geometry of numbers , which had a great tradition in Vienna, beginning with the work of Philipp Furtwängler and not least through his teacher Edmund Hlawka . He also dealt with the theory of infinite series , for example in his habilitation in 1950 on conditionally convergent vector series in Banach space , and with differential equations. At the University of Vienna he was Hlawka's assistant.

Since 1951 he has worked almost exclusively in the field of analytical number theory , inspired by the work of Atle Selberg and Iwan Matwejewitsch Winogradow . In 1957 he wrote the important standard work Prime number distribution .

Since 1960 he has been a full university professor for mathematics at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna .

In 1993 he received the Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class .

In 1994 he died of suicide in Vienna . His grave is in Vienna on the Ottakringer Friedhof (Gallitzinstrasse 5, group 22, grave number 1A).

literature

  • Karl Prachar. Prime number distribution . Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Göttingen-Heidelberg, 1957.
  • Edmund Hlawka . Memories of Karl Prachar . Monthly booklets for mathematics 121, Springer Verlag 1996.
  • Peter M. Gruber , obituary, Alm. Österr. Akad. Wiss. Vol. 145, 1994/95, pp. 485-491.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Prachar, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria
DATE OF DEATH November 27, 1994
Place of death Vienna , Austria