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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."
> If other mathematicians refuse to comment or present enough evidence that his Riemann hypothesis is wrong that means he could be right.
No. It's very, very wrong. He confused basic definitions of simple group theoretic objects. And then used theorems about the correct objects as if they also hold for his doppelgÃngers. So wrong a strong undergraduate would have been able to spot the error. Atiyah has been known to be off his rocker for the last few years and it was embarrassing for the conference organizers to let his talk go through. Mathematicians refused to comment to the press out of respect for Atiyah, because the community believes his legacy does not deserved to be intertwined with his old-age delusions. No one wants to give a quote about a respected mathematician like Atiyah, during his waning days or in his obituary, that comes out as "this dude's a fuckin dumbass now, lol".
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".
Notable mathematicians are still evaluating Atiyah's proof.
Name three.
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..."