Norbert Schappacher

Periods of Hecke characters

Algebraic hecke characters.- Motives for algebraic hecke characters.- The periods of algebraic hecke characters.- Elliptic integrals and the gamma function.- Abelian integrals with complex multiplication.- Motives of CM modular forms.

Regulators in Analysis, Geometry and Number Theory

This volume higlights progress in the theory regulators and secondary invariants, bringing together concepts, methods, results from analysis, differential geometry, algebraic geometry and number theory. A historical and mathematical overview of the theory of regulators is presented followed by articles written and refereed by experts in their respective fields.

Fachverband ??? Institut ??? Staat

Das hier folgende erste Kapitel dieses Bandes zum 100jahrigen Bestehen der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung ist im Gegensatz zu den spateren Beitragen nicht einem Teilgebiet der Mathematik gewidmet, sondern ihrer ‚auseren‘Entwicklung in Deutschland seit Grundung der DMV. Was wir dabei genauer im Auge haben, soll in dieser Einleitung vorlaufig erlautert werden. Sie hat auserdem den Zweck, die mitunter etwas verschlungene Anordnung verschiedener Themen im Text durchsichtig zu machen.

From Abel to Kronecker: Episodes from 19th Century Algebra

This paper is about Leopold Kronecker reading Niels Henrik Abel’s results and ideas on the resolution of algebraic equations. When the young Kronecker began to work on algebraic equations, he went back and forth between Abel’s works and his own ideas. And throughout his career he continued to position himself much nearer to Abel than to Galois. At the same time, his own creativity transformed Abel’s results and questions into something more arithmetic and fairly different. For instance, already in his very first publication on algebraic equations [41], when unfolding Abel’s problems on solvable equations, Kronecker essentially claimed both what is known today as the ‘Theorem of Kronecker and Weber,’ to the effect that every abelian extension of Q is cyclotomic, and its analogue for abelian extensions of \( Q(\sqrt { - 1} ) \) , and even indicated further generalizations.

Zionist Internationalism through Number Theory: Edmund Landau at the Opening of the Hebrew University in 1925

This article gives the background to a public lecture delivered in Hebrew by Edmund Landau at the opening ceremony of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1925. On the surface, the lecture appears to be a slightly awkward attempt by a distinguished German-Jewish mathematician to popularize a few number-theoretical tidbits. However, quite unexpectedly, what emerges here is Landaus personal blend of Zionism, German nationalism, and the proud ethos of pure, rigorous mathematics – against the backdrop of the situation of Germany after World War I. Landaus Jerusalem lecture thus shows how the Zionist cause was inextricably linked to, and determined by political agendas that were taking place in Europe at that time. The lecture stands in various historical contexts - Landaus biography, the history of Jewish scientists in the German Zionist movement, the founding of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the creation of a modern Hebrew mathematical language. This article provides a broad historical introduction to the English translation, with commentary, of the original Hebrew text.

The Nazi era: the Berlin way of politicizing mathematics

The first impact of the Nazi regime on mathematical life, occurring essentially between 1933 and 1937, took the form of a wave of dismissals of Jewish or politically suspect civil servants. It affected, overall, about 30 per cent of all mathematicians holding positions at German universities. These dismissals had nothing to do with a systematic policy for science, rather they proceeded according to various laws and decrees which concerned all civil servants alike. The effect on individual institutes depended crucially on local circumstances — see [6], section 3.1, for details.