George Boole and the origins of invariant theory (Q2474817)

Historians of mathematics often claim that invariant theory was born in two papers by George Boole in 1841 and 1842. This article aims to give a more complete picture of the origins of this branch of mathematics in which Arthur Cayley plays a central role as the founder of a `new school of invariant theory' (p. 44). Boole's 1841 and 1842 papers on invariant theory were chiefly concerned with determining when two pairs of forms are equivalent and if, what substitutions take the first pair to the second. Inspired by this work of Boole's, Cayley discovered new invariants, which he communicated to Boole. In this way Cayley initiated a revised research programme of studying the invariants themselves. Although Boole made some contributions to this new research programme, the article argues that he never abandoned his earlier concerns.