All Questions
10 questions
84
votes
11
answers
12k
views
What are examples of (collections of) papers which "close" a field?
There is sometimes talk of fields of mathematics being "closed", "ended", or "completed" by a paper or collection of papers. It seems as though this could happen in two ways:
A total characterisation,...
73
votes
17
answers
9k
views
Mathematical research published in the form of poems
The article
Friedrich Wille: Galerkins Lösungsnäherungen bei monotonen Abbildungen,
Math. Z. 127 (1972), no. 1, 10-16
is written in the form of a lengthy poem, in a style similar to that
of the ...
40
votes
29
answers
8k
views
Autobiographies of mathematicians
According to Wikipedia, an autobiography is an account of the life of a person, written by that person sometimes with a collaborator.
An autobiography offers the author the ability to recreate history....
33
votes
24
answers
7k
views
Early two-author math papers
The middle of the twentieth-century featured several famous papers with two authors. For example, Eilenberg and Mac Lane's papers introducing categories and Eilenberg-MacLane spaces appeared in 1945. ...
29
votes
19
answers
39k
views
Good books on problem solving / math olympiad [closed]
I would want all book tips you could think of regarding problem solving and books in general, in elementary mathematics, with a certain flavour for "advanced problem solving". An example ...
23
votes
7
answers
7k
views
What are some Applications of Teichmüller Theory?
I'm trying to collect some specific examples of applications of Teichmüller Theory. Here are some things I have collected thus far:
No-wandering-domain Theorem (Sullivan)
Theorems of Thurston (...
22
votes
17
answers
5k
views
Which great mathematicians were also historians of mathematics?
As the question title suggests, which great mathematicians were also historians of mathematics?
We all know plenty of great mathematicians, but not many historians of mathematics. Not to mention that ...
19
votes
1
answer
883
views
Importance of textbooks in health of a sub-discipline
I am interested in published articles, and also more informal writing (blog posts, talk slides etc.) which discuss the importance of textbooks (where this word encompasses research monographs etc.) in ...
14
votes
29
answers
7k
views
Which great mathematicians had great political commitments? [closed]
Some mathematicians claim that their field has nothing to do with political concerns; others are deeply involved in political life.
Are there many great mathematicians with great political commitments?...
1
vote
0
answers
198
views
A zoo of derivations
Recall that given a $k$-algebra $A$, a derivation on $A$ is a $k$-linear morphism $d:A\to A$ such that $$d(ab)=d(a)b+ad(b).$$
The use of derivations is of paramount importance in mathematics. I think ...