Timeline for Pseudonyms of famous mathematicians
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
20 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 20, 2022 at 4:48 | comment | added | Olaf Teschke | Thanks a lot for your comments! I completely agree with you, and opened the question mathoverflow.net/questions/416577 to discuss these matters further. | |
| Feb 11, 2022 at 19:17 | comment | added | KConrad | I am going to leave a link to the 1930 paper on the Nullstellensatz here in case I have to look it up again: eudml.org/doc/159393. That author is listed as J. L. Rabinowitsch. The Rainich at Michigan was George Yuri Rainich (also Yuri Germanovich Rabinovich). Why would he use middle initial L if he wrote the Nullstellansatz paper? It makes no sense. That together with the odd geography (Rainich from Michigan was not in the USSR after leaving the country in 1922) makes me think the Rabinowitsch from the Nullstellensatz was someone nobody knows anymore. | |
| Feb 11, 2022 at 19:06 | comment | added | KConrad | That work on quadratic fields was presented by G. Rabinovitch at the 1912 ICM. See page 418 here: mathunion.org/fileadmin/ICM/Proceedings/ICM1912.1/…. | |
| Feb 11, 2022 at 18:50 | comment | added | KConrad | For what it is worth, the Crelle article on quadratic fields by "Rabinowitsch from Odessa" in the Mordell story is probably this one: gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/id/PPN243919689_0142?tify={%22pages%22:[157],%22view%22:%22info%22}. | |
| Jun 30, 2019 at 5:45 | comment | added | KConrad | Rainich left the Soviet Union in 1922, was at Hopkins 1923-1926, and was at Michigan 1926-1956. The Rabinowitsch who published a paper on the Nullstellensatz did so in 1930 and that (short) paper lists him as being in Moscow (where Rainich never had a job while in the USSR). It all makes me think the Rabinowitsch trick is not due to Rainich. | |
| Jun 30, 2019 at 5:35 | comment | added | KConrad | In faculty-history.dc.umich.edu/faculty/george-yuri-rainich/… is quoted a similar story told by Mordell from 1923 (being at talk where Rainich was criticized for not mentioning Rabinovich) related to R's work on class numbers of quadratic fields. | |
| Jun 30, 2019 at 5:17 | comment | added | KConrad | The story appears also in faculty-history.dc.umich.edu/faculty/george-yuri-rainich/bio and is just copied from the Michigan alumni magazine. | |
| Jun 30, 2019 at 0:20 | comment | added | KConrad | Here is a link to the Michigan alumni magazine article that I mentioned: books.google.com/… | |
| Jun 30, 2019 at 0:17 | comment | added | KConrad | Rainich/Rabinovich/Rabinowitsch worked in mathematical physics, particularly general relativity. If he's the same person as the one who came up with the short proof of the Nullstellensatz (in 1930), it was not part of the main direction of his work. | |
| Jun 30, 2019 at 0:16 | comment | added | KConrad | I question if this story is true. Here is an event recalled in the 1924 Michigan Alumni magazine, reporting on hiring of Rainich on the faculty: An interesting story is told of an experience he had while lecturing at Columbia University. Speaking upon Relativity before the faculty he quoted a number of the foremost authorities known upon the subject. One of the members of the Columbia faculty spoke up saying "That is all very well but why don't you quote what Rabinovitch has said upon this subject" Professor Rainich was somewhat embarrassed as he replied "Well, you see, I am Rabinovitch." | |
| Oct 31, 2015 at 12:11 | history | edited | Danu | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
edited in link, cleaned up the second half by removing obsolete side-remarks unrelated to the answer itself
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| Jun 18, 2012 at 18:40 | history | edited | David White | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Fixed typo, since this was on the frontpage anyway
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| Nov 8, 2010 at 21:45 | comment | added | Georges Elencwajg | Dear fherzig, thank you: I think that was the page I actually meant originally! | |
| Nov 8, 2010 at 21:41 | history | edited | Georges Elencwajg | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
added anecdote from American Mathematical Monthly and explained how readers helped.
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| Nov 8, 2010 at 18:52 | comment | added | fherzig | Interesting. See also this: jstor.org/stable/4145290?seq=4 (and the following page). | |
| Nov 8, 2010 at 14:43 | comment | added | Georges Elencwajg | Yes, Gerry, I think you are right | |
| Nov 8, 2010 at 11:00 | comment | added | Gerry Myerson | This was a permanent name change, not a pseudonym, no? | |
| Nov 7, 2010 at 23:23 | history | edited | David Roberts♦ | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
added 1158 characters in body
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| Nov 7, 2010 at 20:50 | comment | added | Emerton | Dear Georges and Sandor, I have never known who Rabinowitsch was (although of course I know the trick!), and so I am very glad to have read this answer and the comments. Best wishes, Matt | |
| Nov 7, 2010 at 18:51 | history | answered | Georges Elencwajg | CC BY-SA 2.5 |