HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Arthur Erdélyi FRS, FRSE (2 October 1908 – 12 December 1977) was a Hungarian-born
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...
. Erdélyi was a leading expert on
special functions Special functions are particular mathematical functions that have more or less established names and notations due to their importance in mathematical analysis, functional analysis, geometry, physics, or other applications. The term is defined b ...
, particularly
orthogonal polynomials In mathematics, an orthogonal polynomial sequence is a family of polynomials such that any two different polynomials in the sequence are orthogonal to each other under some inner product. The most widely used orthogonal polynomials are the class ...
and hypergeometric functions.


Biography

He was born Arthur Diamant in
Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
,
Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
to Ignác Josef Armin Diamant and Frederike Roth. His name was changed to Erdélyi when his mother remarried to Paul Erdélyi. He attended the primary and secondary schools there from 1914 to 1926. His interest in mathematics dates back to this time. Erdélyi was a
Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
, and so it was difficult for him to receive a university education in his native Hungary. He travelled to Brno,
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
, to obtain a degree in electrical engineering. However, after his flair for mathematics was discovered (he won several prizes in a competition in his first year), he was persuaded to study the subject. He soon after began to conduct theoretical research into mathematics, and his first paper was published in 1930. At the end of 1936, he had already published 18 papers, and 11 more appeared in 1937. However, due to the German occupation of Czechoslovakia and neighbouring countries, Erdélyi was forced to flee the country. Erdélyi contacted
Edmund Whittaker Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker (24 October 1873 – 24 March 1956) was a British mathematician, physicist, and historian of science. Whittaker was a leading mathematical scholar of the early 20th-century who contributed widely to applied mathema ...
, a fellow expert in hypergeometric functions, asking for his assistance and soon after, Erdélyi travelled to
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
, after receiving £400 for a visa from Whittaker. He joined the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
, and after 2 years there, became a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics (after gaining a DSc in 1940 based on his already extensive published work). In 1946, after
Harry Bateman Harry Bateman FRS (29 May 1882 – 21 January 1946) was an English mathematician with a specialty in differential equations of mathematical physics. With Ebenezer Cunningham, he expanded the views of spacetime symmetry of Lorentz and Poincare ...
died, Whittaker was asked to recommend a mathematician who could start the task of publishing Bateman's manuscripts: the Bateman Manuscript Project. Erdélyi was chosen, and in 1947, after becoming a naturalised British citizen, travelled to
Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
,
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
as a Visiting Professor. He returned to Edinburgh in 1948, only to resign in 1949 to assume the position of Professor of Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology. This was a post he was to hold for the next 15 years, and he retained his citizenship of Britain while in the United States. In 1964, he returned to Edinburgh as a Professor of Mathematics, a position he held until his death in 1977. He died in Edinburgh.


Family

He married Eva Neuburg in 1942. They did not have children.


Research

Erdélyi was primarily an expert in special functions, in particular,
Lamé function In mathematics, a Lamé function, or ellipsoidal harmonic function, is a solution of Lamé's equation, a second-order ordinary differential equation. It was introduced in the paper . Lamé's equation appears in the method of separation of variable ...
s, hypergeometric functions and orthogonal polynomials. He also contributed to the field of asymptotic analysis,
fractional integration In fractional calculus, an area of mathematical analysis, the differintegral (sometime also called the derivigral) is a combined differentiation/ integration operator. Applied to a function ƒ, the ''q''-differintegral of ''f'', here denoted ...
and
partial differential equations In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be solved for, similarly to ...
. He introduced the Erdélyi–Kober operators for
fractional integration In fractional calculus, an area of mathematical analysis, the differintegral (sometime also called the derivigral) is a combined differentiation/ integration operator. Applied to a function ƒ, the ''q''-differintegral of ''f'', here denoted ...
. He wrote two books of high standing - ''Asymptotic Expansions (1955)'' (reprinted by Dover) and ''Operational Calculus and Generalised Functions (1962)''


Works

*

https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20140123-104529738] (xxvi+4 errata pages+302 pages) (NB. With a preface by
Mina Rees Mina Spiegel Rees (August 2, 1902 – October 25, 1997) was an American mathematician. She was the first female President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1971) and head of the mathematics department of the Office of N ...
and a foreword by Earnest C. Watson. Copyright was renewed by
California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
in 1981.); Reprint: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Co., Inc., Melbourne, Florida, USA. 1981. ; Planned Dover reprint . *

https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20140123-104529738] (xvii+1 errata page+396 pages) (NB. Copyright was renewed by
California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
in 1981.); Reprint: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Co., Inc., Melbourne, Florida, USA. 1981. ; Planned Dover reprint: . *

https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20140123-104529738] (xvii+292+2 pages) (NB. Copyright was renewed by
California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
in 1983.); Reprint: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Co., Inc., Melbourne, Florida, USA. 1981. ; Planned Dover reprint . *

(xx+391 pages including 1 errata page, red cloth hardcover) *

(xvi+451 pages, red cloth hardcover) * (vi+108 pages) * (iii+137 pages) * (viii+103 pages)


Awards

Erdélyi received several honours, including being elected to the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
as a Fellow in 1975. He also became a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1945, and was also elected a member of the Academy of Sciences of Turin.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erdelyi, Arthur 1908 births 1977 deaths Mathematicians from Budapest Hungarian Jews Jews who immigrated to the United Kingdom to escape Nazism Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh California Institute of Technology faculty Academics of the University of Edinburgh 20th-century British mathematicians Hungarian refugees Hungarian expatriates in Czechoslovakia Hungarian emigrants to the United Kingdom