Yitang Zhang

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Yitang Zhang, 2014

Yitang Zhang , called Tom Zhang, ( Chinese  张 益 唐 , Pinyin Zhāng Yìtáng ; * 1955 ) is a Chinese mathematician who deals with number theory.

Life

Zhang and his family were sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution , where their parents did simple farm labor. He earned his Bachelor Accounts at the University of Beijing , went in 1985 to the United States in 1991 at Tzuong-Tsieng Moh at Purdue University doctorate on a difficult problem of algebraic geometry that Jacobi conjecture (The Jacobean conjecture and the degree of field extension). He then worked as an accountant before becoming a lecturer at the University of New Hampshire in 1999 . He held analysis lectures there , but had no tenure until 2013 (permanent position for professors at US universities).

In 2013 he proved a theorem that is considered to be progress in the field of the twin prime conjecture. He proved that there are infinitely many pairs of prime numbers with a difference smaller than 70 million (according to Zhang, the limit can be reduced even further). The twin prime conjecture asserts the existence of an infinite number of prime number pairs with a distance of 2. Despite the obvious discrepancy, this was rated as progress, since it was the first result of its kind. It builds on the work of Dan Goldston , Cem Yildirim and János Pintz and used analytical number theory techniques from John B. Friedlander , Enrico Bombieri and Henryk Iwaniec from the 1980s. After the publication of Zhang's article, a joint project was started to optimize the parameters in Zhang's formulas. As a result, the upper limit of 70 million could already be reduced to 246 by August 2014. However, fundamental limits were also shown that prevent the lowering of the limit to 2 and thus a proof of the twin prime conjecture with Zhang's approach. Using an independent method, James Maynard was able to lower the limit to 600 in November 2013 .

After his breakthrough in number theory in 2013, on which he researched secretly for four years and was virtually unknown to his colleagues in analytical number theory, he was invited to numerous guest lectures and research stays, such as at the Institute for Advanced Study . He also received offers to professorships in China and a full professorship at the University of New Hampshire in 2014. In September 2015, he was offered a full professorship at the University of California, Santa Barbara .

Zhang received the Ostrowski Prize in 2013 and the Cole Prize for Number Theory in 2014 . In 2014 he was invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul (Small gaps between primes and primes in arithmetic progressions to large moduli). Also in 2014 he received a MacArthur Fellowship .

Works

Web links

Commons : Yitang Zhang  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mathematics Genealogy Project .
  2. ↑ Gretyl Macalaster: Math world stunned by UNH lecturer's place. New Hampshire Union Leader, December 14, 2013
  3. ^ Maggie McKee: First proof that infinitely many prime numbers come in pairs. Nature Online, May 14, 2013
  4. ↑ Kenneth Chang: Solving a Riddle of Primes. In: The New York Times . May 20, 2013
  5. ^ DJH Polymath: Variants of the Selberg sieve, and bounded intervals containing many primes. In: Research in the Mathematical Sciences. 1:12, July 18, 2014, doi: 10.1186 / s40687-014-0012-7
  6. ^ Terence Tao : Bounded gaps between primes (Polymath8) - a progress report. 30th of June 2013
  7. ↑ Erica Klarreich: Together and Alone, Closing the Prime Gap. ( Memento of the original from November 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Quanta Magazine. 19th November 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.simonsfoundation.org
  8. ↑ Elaine Kehoe: 2014 Cole Prize in Number Theory. In: Notices AMS. Volume 61, No. 4, April 2014, pp. 399-401
  9. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.science.ucsb.edu
  10. ↑ http://dailynexus.com/2015-09-17/celebrity-mathematician-joins-ucsb-faculty/
personal data
SURNAME Zhang, Yitang
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zhang, Tom; 张 益 唐 (Chinese); Zhāng Yìtáng (Pinyin Romanization)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH 1955