Arthur Josef Alwin Wieferich (April 27, 1884 – September 15, 1954) was a German
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 ...
and teacher, remembered for his work on
number theory
Number theory (or arithmetic or higher arithmetic in older usage) is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic function, integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777â ...
, as exemplified by a type of
prime numbers
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...
named after him.
He was born in
Münster
Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...
, attended the
University of Münster
The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.
With more than 43,000 students and over ...
(1903–1909) and then worked as a school teacher and tutor until his retirement in 1949. He married in 1916 and had no children.
Wieferich abandoned his studies after his graduation and did not publish any paper after 1909. His mathematical reputation is founded on five papers he published while a student at Münster:
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The first three papers are related to
Waring's problem
In number theory, Waring's problem asks whether each natural number ''k'' has an associated positive integer ''s'' such that every natural number is the sum of at most ''s'' natural numbers raised to the power ''k''. For example, every natural numb ...
. His fourth paper led to the term ''
Wieferich prime
In number theory, a Wieferich prime is a prime number ''p'' such that ''p''2 divides , therefore connecting these primes with Fermat's little theorem, which states that every odd prime ''p'' divides . Wieferich primes were first described by Ar ...
'', which are p such that p^2 divides 2^(p-1) - 1.
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See also
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Wieferich pair
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Wieferich's theorem
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Wieferich prime
In number theory, a Wieferich prime is a prime number ''p'' such that ''p''2 divides , therefore connecting these primes with Fermat's little theorem, which states that every odd prime ''p'' divides . Wieferich primes were first described by Ar ...
External links
Arthur Josef Alwin Wieferich obituary at numbertheory.org
References
1884 births
1954 deaths
20th-century German mathematicians
Number theorists
People from Münster
{{Germany-mathematician-stub