Book description
Like a hunter who sees 'a bit of blood' on the trail, that's how
Princeton mathematician Peter Sarnak describes the feeling of chasing an
idea that seems to have a chance of success. If this is so, then the
jungle of abstractions that is mathematics is full of frenzied hunters
these days. They are out stalking big game: the resolution of 'The
Riemann Hypothesis', seems to be in their sights. The Riemann Hypothesis
is about the prime numbers, the fundamental numerical elements. Stated
in 1859 by Professor Bernhard Riemann, it proposes a simple law which
Riemann believed a 'very likely' explanation for the way in which the
primes are distributed among the whole numbers, indivisible stars
scattered without end throughout a boundless numerical universe. Just
eight years later, at the tender age of thirty-nine Riemann would be
dead from tuberculosis, cheated of the opportunity to settle his
conjecture. For over a century, the Riemann Hypothesis has stumped the
greatest of mathematical minds, but these days frustration has begun to
give way to excitement. This unassuming comment is revealing astounding
connections among nuclear physics, chaos and number theory, creating a
frenzy of intellectual excitement amplified by the recent promise of a
one million dollar bounty. The story of the quest to settle the Riemann
Hypothesis is one of scientific exploration. It is peopled with solitary
hermits and gregarious cheerleaders, cool calculators and wild-eyed
visionaries, Nobel Prize-winners and Fields Medalists. To delve into the
Riemann Hypothesis is to gain a window into the world of modern
mathematics and the nature of mathematics research. Stalking the Riemann
Hypothesis will open wide this window so that all may gaze through it in
amazement. Dan Rockmore is a Professor of Mathematics and Computer
Science atDartmouth College. He received his A. B. in Mathematics from
PrincetonUniversity in 1984 and his Ph. D. from Harvard University in
1989. He taught for two years at Columbia University as a Ritt
AssistantProfessor before coming to Dartmouth in 1991. In 1995 he was
one ofonly 15 scientists to receive a five year Presidential Faculty
Fellowshipfrom the White House for excellence in education and research.
He has held visiting positions at the National Center for Atmospheric
Research,the Santa Fe Institute and the Institute for Advanced Study in
Princeton. He has authored and co-authored numerous scientific articles
as well as two books, mainly around the subject of the design of
efficient algorithms for data analysis and data transmission.
