Erich Hecke (20 September 1887 – 13 February 1947) was a German
mathematician known for his work in
number theory and the theory of
modular form
In mathematics, a modular form is a (complex) analytic function on the upper half-plane satisfying a certain kind of functional equation with respect to the Group action (mathematics), group action of the modular group, and also satisfying a grow ...
s.
Biography
Hecke was born in
Buk
Buk or BUK may refer to:
Places Czech Republic
* Buk (Prachatice District), a municipality and village in the South Bohemian Region
* Buk (Přerov District), a municipality and village in the Olomouc Region
*Buk, a village and part of Jindřichů ...
,
Province of Posen
The Province of Posen (german: Provinz Posen, pl, Prowincja Poznańska) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1848 to 1920. Posen was established in 1848 following the Greater Poland Uprising as a successor to the Grand Duchy of Posen, w ...
,
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
(now
Poznań,
Poland). He obtained his doctorate in
Göttingen under the supervision of
David Hilbert
David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many a ...
.
and
Heinrich Behnke
Heinrich Adolph Louis Behnke (Horn, 9 October 1898 – Münster, 10 October 1979) was a German mathematician and rector at the University of Münster.
Life and career
He was born into a Lutheran family in Horn, a suburb of Hamburg. He att ...
were among his students.
In 1933 Hecke signed the ''
Loyalty Oath of German Professors to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist State''.
Hecke died in
Copenhagen,
Denmark.
André Weil
André Weil (; ; 6 May 1906 – 6 August 1998) was a French mathematician, known for his foundational work in number theory and algebraic geometry. He was a founding member and the ''de facto'' early leader of the mathematical Bourbaki group. Th ...
, in the foreword to his text Basic Number Theory
says: "To improve upon Hecke, in a treatment along classical lines of the theory of algebraic numbers, would be a futile and impossible task", referring to Hecke's book "Lectures on the Theory of Algebraic Numbers."
Research
His early work included establishing the
functional equation for the
Dedekind zeta function, with a proof based on
theta functions. The method extended to the
L-functions associated to a class of characters now known as
Hecke characters or
idele class characters; such L-functions are now known as Hecke L-functions. He devoted most of his research to the theory of
modular form
In mathematics, a modular form is a (complex) analytic function on the upper half-plane satisfying a certain kind of functional equation with respect to the Group action (mathematics), group action of the modular group, and also satisfying a grow ...
s, creating the general theory of
cusp forms (
holomorphic, for GL(2)), as it is now understood in the classical setting.
Recognition
He was a Plenary Speaker of the
ICM in 1936 in Oslo.
See also
*
List of things named after Erich Hecke {{Short description, none
These are things named after Erich Hecke, a German mathematician.
* Hecke algebra
** Hecke algebra of a locally compact group
**Hecke algebra of a finite group
**Hecke algebra of a pair
** Hecke polynomial
**Iwahori–He ...
*
Hecke algebra (disambiguation) In mathematics, a Hecke algebra is classically the algebra of Hecke operators studied by Erich Hecke. It may also refer to one of several algebras (some of which are related to the classical Hecke algebra):
* Iwahori–Hecke algebra of a Coxeter gro ...
*
Tate's thesis
References
External links
*
*
1887 births
1947 deaths
People from Poznań County
People from the Province of Posen
20th-century German mathematicians
Number theorists
University of Hamburg faculty
University of Basel faculty
University of Göttingen faculty
University of Breslau alumni
University of Göttingen alumni
{{Germany-academic-bio-stub