Max Deuring

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Max Deuring, 1973

Max Friedrich Deuring (born December 9, 1907 in Göttingen ; † December 20, 1984 ibid) was a German mathematician who mainly dealt with algebra and number theory.

life and work

Deuring went to school in his hometown of Göttingen and studied mathematics and physics there from 1926 to 1930 (apart from the winter semester of 1928/1929 in Rome with Francesco Severi ), where he joined Emmy Noether's group, where he studied arithmetic in 1930 PhD in theory of algebraic functions . As the title suggests, an algebraic structure parallel to the class field theory for algebraic number fields is sought, which also includes the theory of the function fields over the rational numbers and over finite fields. A program that kept Deuring busy until the 1940s. In the 1930s he also worked on the theory of algebras and summarized the stormy development of this area in the hands of the groups of Emmy Noether and Helmut Hasse in a " report on results" from Springer-Verlag ( Algebren 1935) Standard work.

He also dealt with analytical number theory, e.g. B. with the Gaussian class number problem. After working as an assistant at van der Waerden in Leipzig (also from the group around Emmy Noether and a friend of Deuring's), he completed his habilitation in Göttingen in 1935, but only got a lectureship in Jena in 1938 and a professorship in Posen in 1943 (his liberal views were the Nazis a thorn in the side). In the 1940s he worked on the construction of the algebraic theory of elliptical and higher function fields (correspondences, etc.), with the aim of proving the Riemann hypothesis for them (Helmut Hasse had already done the special case of elliptic function fields in the 1930s). Here, however, André Weil, who was also working on it in competition with him, came before him. With his algebraic theory of elliptical function fields he was also able to re-establish the theory of complex multiplication (summarized in his report in the new edition of the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences). Here too, Weil and Gorō Shimura and Taniyama soon went further by looking at Abelian manifolds.

In the 1950s he dealt with the zeta function of elliptical function bodies with complex multiplication (following Weil et al.). After the war, Deuring took up professorship positions in Marburg in 1947 and Hamburg in 1948 as the successor to Gustav Herglotz in Göttingen in 1950, where he stayed until his retirement in 1976, from longer stays at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay apart.

In a work from 1968 he “saves” Kurt Heegner's proof of the number of imaginary square number fields with class number 1, which, in contrast to the later proof of Harold Stark, was not recognized by the mathematical public.

Deuring was a member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen , the Academy of Sciences and Literature (Mainz) and the Leopoldina in (Halle / Saale). In 1958 he was invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Edinburgh (recent results on algebraic function fields).

Works (selection)

  • Algebras , Springer 1935
  • Meaning and importance of mathematical knowledge , Felix Meiner, Hamburg 1949
  • Lectures on the theory of algebraic functions of one variable , 1973 (from lectures at the Tata Institute, Bombay)

literature

  • Peter Roquette On the algebraic-number-theoretical work of Max Deuring , Annual Report DMV Vol. 91, 1989, p. 109
  • Martin Kneser Max Deuring , Annual Report DMV Vol. 89, 1987, p. 135
  • Martin Kneser, Martin Eichler The scientific work of Max Deuring , Acta Arithmetica Vol. 47, 1986, p. 187

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Deuring, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Deuring, Max Friedrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Goettingen
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1984
Place of death Goettingen