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Original Essays | April 29, 2013
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This title in other editionsStalking the Riemann Hypothesis: The Quest to Find the Hidden Law of Prime Numbersby Dan Rockmore
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:In 1859 a German professor named Bernhard Riemann postulated a law capable of describing with an amazing degree of accuracy the baffling occurrence of prime numbers; coming up with its proof has been the holy grail of mathematicians ever since. In Stalking the Riemann Hypothesis, Dan Rockmore, a prominent mathematician in his own right, takes us from Euclid’s pondering of the infinitude of the primes through modern efforts to prove the Riemann hypothesis–efforts that astonishingly connect the primes to the statistics of solitaire, chaos theory, and even the mysteries of quantum mechanics. Along the way, he introduces us to the many brilliant and fascinating thinkers who have contributed to this work, from the most famous mathematician of all time, Carl Friedrich Gauss (Riemann’s teacher), to the intellectual giants David Hilbert and Freeman Dyson.
A lively, comprehensive, and accessible examination of one of the most compelling unsolved problems in mathematics, Stalking the Riemann Hypothesis tells us the full story of the quest to find that elusive solution. From the Hardcover edition. Synopsis:A leading mathematician presents a lively and accessible study of one of the great unsolved mysteries of mathematics, the mid-nineteenth-century Riemann hypothesis, which describes the occurrence of prime numbers, and of the quest to prove or disprove the theory from the time of Euclid to the statistics of solitaire, chaos theory, and quantum mechanics. Reprint. 12,500 first printing.
Synopsis:Dan Rockmore is a professor of mathematics and computer science at Darmouth College. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife, son, and golden retriever.
Table of ContentsPrologue - it all begins with zero — The god-given natural numbers — The shape of the primes — Primal cartographers — Shoulders to stand upon — Riemann and his "very likely" hypothesis — A Dutch red herring — A prime number theorem, after all--and more — Good, but not good enough — First steps — A chance meeting of two minds — God created the natural numbers-- but, in a billiard hall? — Making order out of (quantum) chaos — God may not play dice, but what about cards? — The millennium meeting.
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