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Bryan Birch

Modern

British mathematician who, with Peter Swinnerton-Dyer at the University of Cambridge, formulated the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture between 1962 and 1965, using early EDSAC computer calculations to relate the rank of an elliptic curve's rational points to the behavior of its L-function. He also introduced modular symbols and the Birch-Tate conjecture in algebraic K-theory, and studied Heegner points on elliptic curves.

Facts
Birth Date
1931-09-25 2
Birth Year
1931 1
Birthplace
Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England 2
Nationality / Culture
British 2
Defining Contribution
With Peter Swinnerton-Dyer, formulated the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture, 1962 to 1965, relating the rank of an elliptic curve's group of rational points to its Hasse-Weil L-function. 2
Notable Work
Notes on elliptic curves II, with Peter Swinnerton-Dyer (Journal fur die reine und angewandte Mathematik, 1965) 2
Award
Fellow of the Royal Society (1972); Senior Whitehead Prize (1993); De Morgan Medal (2007); Sylvester Medal (2020) 2
Biography
Gender
Male 1
Connections

Associated With

Co-formulated the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture in the 1960s using numerical computation on the EDSAC-2 computer at the University of Cambridge.

Conjectures Posed

Source MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive

In Branch

Co-formulated the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture on elliptic curves, one of number theory's Millennium Prize problems.

Source Bryan Birch (Wikipedia)

Namesake Of

Birch's Theorem, Theorems

Derived from the theorem's own name (unambiguous possessive-token match to exactly one live mathematician entity, w-bfill-g5-0924 browse backfill)

In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Bryan Birch (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • infobox
    Born (1931-09-25) 25 September 1931 (age 94) Burton-upon-Trent, England ... Awards Senior Whitehead Prize (1993) De Morgan Medal (2007) Sylvester Medal (2020)
  • Lead section, gender reference
    His name has been given to the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture.
View the Source
2. MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
University of St Andrews, School of Mathematics and Statistics
  • https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Birch/
    Bryan Birch is a British mathematician who is well known for his work in number theory, and in particular for his outstanding contributions to the arithmetic of elliptic curves.
  • Conjectures Posed: Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture, Biography section, paragraph beginning Two years later, in May 1964
    Two years later, in May 1964, they submitted Notes on elliptic curves II which continues their investigation and contains what today is known as the Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture.
View the Source

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