George David Birkhoff and John von Neumann: A question of priority and the ergodic theorems, 1931-1932
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: George David Birkhoff and John von Neumann: A question of priority and the ergodic theorems, 1931-1932
zbMATH Open document ID: 1003.01011
published in: Historia Mathematica
publication date: 2002-07-08T00:00:00Z
review text: The study under review approaches and solves one of the most disputed aspects in the history of mathematics, namely the scientific priority of either George David Birkhoff or John von Neumann as to the ergodic theorems. The problem was quite delicate, if considering the main ``actors'' involved in it: Birkhoff, who, at that time, was an undisputed and unanimously recognized leader of the American mathematical life, on one side, and the very young von Neumann, who was only in the beginning of his career as a reputed scientist in the same America. The main question is why the quasi-ergodic hypothesis -- more precisely, why Birkhoff's ergodic theorem -- was printed before von Neumann's mean ergodic one. Finally, the dispute was solved in a friendly manner, yet one should not leave aside completely the psychological implications of such a delicate problem. Special mention should be made here of the letter sent by von Neumann to Robertson in 1932. Actually, both Birkhoff and von Neumann are entitledly considered as creators of a new branch in mathematics!
reviewed by: Cristina Irimia
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A60
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A70
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 82-03
zbMATH DE Number: 1764729
zbMATH Keywords: quantum mechanics
zbMATH Keywords: Hilbert space
zbMATH Keywords: scientific priority
zbMATH Keywords: Birkhoff
zbMATH Keywords: von Neumann
zbMATH Keywords: ergodic theorems
zbMATH Keywords: Robertson
Wikidata QID: Q56020162
author: Joseph D. Zund
MaRDI profile type: Publication
full work available at URL: hmat.2001.2338
OpenAlex ID: W1993842694
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DOI: 10.1006/HMAT.2001.2338
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1764729