Mathematics Atlas

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Mathematicians

Bernhard Riemann

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German mathematician whose short career reshaped analysis, geometry and number theory. His 1854 habilitation lecture, On the Hypotheses which lie at the Foundations of Geometry, founded what is now called Riemannian geometry, curved spaces of any dimension described by a metric, which became the mathematical language of Einstein's general relativity six decades later. His 1859 paper on the distribution of primes introduced the Riemann zeta function and conjectured, without proving, what is now called the Riemann Hypothesis: that all its nontrivial zeros lie on a single critical line. He died of tuberculosis at thirty nine.

Facts
Birth Date
1826-09-17 1
Birth Year
1826 1
Death Date
1866-07-20 1
Death Year
1866 1
Birthplace
Breselenz, Kingdom of Hanover 1
Death Place
Selasca, Kingdom of Italy, of tuberculosis 1
Nationality / Culture
German 1
Defining Contribution
Founded Riemannian geometry, the mathematics of curved space later used by general relativity; conjectured the Riemann Hypothesis about the zeta function and the primes. 1
Notable Work
Ueber die Hypothesen, welche der Geometrie zu Grunde liegen (1854); Ueber die Anzahl der Primzahlen unter einer gegebenen Groesse (1859) 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Manifold, Concepts

Conjectures Posed

Additional Source Riemann Hypothesis (Wikipedia)Opening paragraph

In Branch

Sources
1. MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
University of St Andrews, School of Mathematics and Statistics
Manifold (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Manifold, history section
Quote, Associated With: Manifold, history section
Riemann was the first one to do extensive work generalizing the idea of a surface to higher dimensions.
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Complex Analysis (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIn Branch: Complex Analysis, History section
Quote, In Branch: Complex Analysis, History section
Important mathematicians associated with complex numbers include Euler, Gauss, Riemann, Cauchy, Weierstrass, and many more in the 20th century.
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Differential Geometry (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIn Branch: Differential Geometry, Intrinsic geometry section
Quote, In Branch: Differential Geometry, Intrinsic geometry section
Riemann introduced the notion of a Riemannian metric and the Riemannian curvature tensor for the first time, and began the systematic study of differential geometry in higher dimensions.
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Riemann Hypothesis (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationConjectures Posed: Riemann Hypothesis, Opening paragraph
Quote, Conjectures Posed: Riemann Hypothesis, Opening paragraph
It was proposed by Bernhard Riemann, after whom it is named.
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