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Ernst Paul Specker (11 February 1920, Zurich – 10 December 2011, Zurich) was a Swiss
Biography
at the
Ernst Specker (1920-2011)
Martin Fürer, January 25, 2012. * Ernst Specke
Selecta
Birkhauser, 1990. 1920 births 2011 deaths ETH Zurich alumni ETH Zurich faculty Scientists from Zürich Set theorists Swiss mathematicians 20th-century Swiss mathematicians {{Europe-mathematician-stub
Ernst Paul Specker (11 February 1920, Zurich – 10 December 2011, Zurich) was a Swiss 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 ...
. Much of his most influential work was on Quine's New Foundations, a set theory
Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory, as a branch of mathematics, is mostly conce ...
with a universal set
In set theory, a universal set is a set which contains all objects, including itself. In set theory as usually formulated, it can be proven in multiple ways that a universal set does not exist. However, some non-standard variants of set theory inc ...
, but he is most famous for the Kochen–Specker theorem in quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistr ...
, showing that certain types of hidden variable theories
In physics, hidden-variable theories are proposals to provide explanations of quantum mechanical phenomena through the introduction of (possibly unobservable) hypothetical entities. The existence of fundamental indeterminacy for some measurem ...
are impossible. He also proved the ordinal partition relation ω2 → (ω2,3)2, thereby solving a problem of Erdős.
Specker received his Ph.D. in 1949 from ETH Zurich, where he remained throughout his professional career.
See also
*Specker sequence
In computability theory, a Specker sequence is a computable, monotonically increasing, bounded sequence of rational numbers whose supremum is not a computable real number. The first example of such a sequence was constructed by Ernst Specker (194 ...
* Baer-Specker group
References
External links
Biography
at the
University of St. Andrews
(Aien aristeuein)
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Ancient university
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Ernst Specker (1920-2011)
Martin Fürer, January 25, 2012. * Ernst Specke
Selecta
Birkhauser, 1990. 1920 births 2011 deaths ETH Zurich alumni ETH Zurich faculty Scientists from Zürich Set theorists Swiss mathematicians 20th-century Swiss mathematicians {{Europe-mathematician-stub