Klaus Wilhelm Roggenkamp (24 December 1940 – 23 July 2021) was a German mathematician, specializing in algebra.
Education and career
As an undergraduate, Roggenkamp studied mathematics from 1960 to 1964 at the
University of Giessen
University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von ...
.
There in 1967 he received his PhD. His thesis ''Darstellungen endlicher Gruppen in Polynombereichen'' (Representations of finite groups in polynomial
integral domain
In mathematics, specifically abstract algebra, an integral domain is a nonzero commutative ring in which the product of any two nonzero elements is nonzero. Integral domains are generalizations of the ring of integers and provide a natural set ...
s) was written under the supervision of
Hermann Boerner. As a postdoc Roggenkamp was at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
, where he studied under
Irving Reiner, and at the
University of Montreal
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
. After four years as a professor at
Bielefeld University
Bielefeld University (german: Universität Bielefeld) is a university in Bielefeld, Germany. Founded in 1969, it is one of the country's newer universities, and considers itself a "reform" university, following a different style of organization ...
, he was appointed to the chair of algebra at the
University of Stuttgart
The University of Stuttgart (german: Universität Stuttgart) is a leading research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany wit ...
.
[
Roggenkamp and Leonard Lewy Scott collaborated on a long series of papers on the groups of units of integral group rings, dealing with problems connected with the "integral isomorphism problem", which was proposed by ]Graham Higman
Graham Higman FRS (19 January 1917 – 8 April 2008) was a prominent English mathematician known for his contributions to group theory.
Biography
Higman was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, and attended Sutton High School, Plymouth, winning a ...
in his 1940 doctoral dissertation at the University of Oxford. In 1986 Roggenkamp and Scott proved their most famous theorem (published in 1987 in the ''Annals of Mathematics
The ''Annals of Mathematics'' is a mathematical journal published every two months by Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study.
History
The journal was established as ''The Analyst'' in 1874 and with Joel E. Hendricks as the ...
''). Their theorem states that given two finite groups and , if is isomorphic to then is isomorphic to , in the case where and are finite ''p''-groups over the ''p''-adic integers, and also in the case where and are finite nilpotent group
In mathematics, specifically group theory, a nilpotent group ''G'' is a group that has an upper central series that terminates with ''G''. Equivalently, its central series is of finite length or its lower central series terminates with .
Intui ...
s. Their 1987 paper also established a very strong form of a conjecture made by Hans Zassenhaus. The papers of Roggenkamp and Scott were the basis for most developments which followed in the study of finite groups of units of integral group rings.[
In 1988 Roggenkamp and Scott found a counterexample to another conjecture by Hans Zassenhaus — the conjecture was a somewhat strengthened form of the conjecture that the "integral isomorphism problem" always has an affirmative solution. Martin Hertweck, partly building on the techniques introduced by Roggenkamp and Scott for their counterexample, published a counterexample to the conjecture that the "integral isomorphism problem" can always be solved affirmatively.][Martin Hertweck: ''A counterexample to the isomorphism problem for integral group rings.'' In: ''Annals of Mathematics.'' Series 2, Volume 154, No. 1, 2001, pp. 115-138, .]
Roggenkamp was elected a member of the ''Akademie gemeinnütziger Wissenschaften zu Erfurt'' (Erfurt Academy of Useful Sciences) and was made an honorary member of Ovidius University of Constanța in Romania.
Selected publications
Articles
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Books
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* (reprint of 1979 original )
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* (reprint of 1992 original )
as editor
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book table of contents at Springer website
* (reprint of 1985 1st edition)
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roggenkamp, Klaus Wilhelm
1940 births
2021 deaths
Group theorists
20th-century German mathematicians
21st-century German mathematicians
University of Giessen alumni
Academic staff of Bielefeld University
Academic staff of the University of Stuttgart
People from Hanover