Vito Volterra, hyperbolic equations and double refraction
In the author's own words: ``The aim of this article is to describe and analyze the hunt for a mathematical explanation of the propagation of light in doubly refracting crystals. It startet with Huygens's `Traité de la lumiere' from 1690 and ended with the work of Joseph Grünwald 1904, Nils Zeilon 1919-1921 and Gustav Herglotz 1926-1928, each independent of the others. The early part of the story is well known from Whittaker's `History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity' (1951), but, for completeness, I include a summary. The later part from Lamé's system of equations through the papers of Sonya Kovalevskaya and Vito Volterra to Grünwald, Zeilon and Herglotz does not seem to have been analyzed in any detail before\dots''.NEWLINENEWLINEFor the entire collection see [Zbl 0957.00059].
scientific article