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Legendary Mathematician Sir Michael Atiyah Dies at Age 89 (bbc.com)
"One of the world's foremost mathematicians, Prof Sir Michael Atiyah, has died at the age of 89," reports the BBC.
"He has been described to me by more than one professor of mathematics as the best mathematician in this country since Sir Isaac Newton," his brother tells the BBC. Slashdot reader OneHundredAndTen shared their report: Sir Michael was best known for his co-development of a branch of mathematics called topological K-theory and the Atiyah-Singer index theorem. His research also involved deep insights relating to mathematical concepts known as "vector bundles". His work in these areas has helped theoretical physicists to advance their understanding of quantum field theory and general relativity.
In September, Atiyah also claimed to have proved the 160-year-old Riemann hypothesis.
"If the hypothesis is proven to be correct," New Scientist reported, "mathematicians would be armed with a map to the location of all such prime numbers, a breakthrough with far-reaching repercussions in the field."
"He has been described to me by more than one professor of mathematics as the best mathematician in this country since Sir Isaac Newton," his brother tells the BBC. Slashdot reader OneHundredAndTen shared their report: Sir Michael was best known for his co-development of a branch of mathematics called topological K-theory and the Atiyah-Singer index theorem. His research also involved deep insights relating to mathematical concepts known as "vector bundles". His work in these areas has helped theoretical physicists to advance their understanding of quantum field theory and general relativity.
In September, Atiyah also claimed to have proved the 160-year-old Riemann hypothesis.
"If the hypothesis is proven to be correct," New Scientist reported, "mathematicians would be armed with a map to the location of all such prime numbers, a breakthrough with far-reaching repercussions in the field."
Atiyah is well aware of this history of failure. “Nobody believes any proof of the Riemann hypothesis, let alone a proof by someone who’s 90,” he says, but he hopes his presentation will convince his critics.
New Scientist contacted a number of mathematicians to comment on the claimed proof, but all of them declined. Atiyah has produced a number of papers in recent years making remarkable claims which have so far failed to convince his peers.
Same, I do not care. YAWN.
This definitely qualifies as “News for Nerds”. But has Jonathan Coulton written a song about him?
#DeleteChrome
I have a saying that I say when ever I read these stories. "Better Him than Me.
Indeed, Atiyah had no proof. I did not say so in public, for the same reason others didn't; he was after all one of last century's great mathematicians [c.f. Littlewood at Jourdain's death-bed, see his Miscellany]. In private, I was asked and pointed out what should have been obvious: his not-clearly-spelled-out argument would nevertheless have applied not just to the zeta function but to any other analytic function as well! It's a quick sanity check very familiar to anyone confronted with a supposed new argument/proof method, "if this were correct what else would it prove".
in which every code monkey reads a bit in Wikipedia and begin pretending to know math for a little karma.
a great physicist but it is not as great of a mathematician. Leibniz's Calculus was superior to Newton.
Sorry but that is a good reason to comment very gently and respectfully but it is not a good reason to refuse to comment altogether and allow the public to believe that there was a solution.
Did he get 5 for 2+2 one day?
One time, Atiyah walked into a bar, and ordered a beer. After he had finished it, he then ordered half a beer. Some time later, he ordered a quarter of a beer. The bartender asks him "Why are you ordering that way?". Atiyah says "I know my limits..."