Paul Painlevé and his contribution to science (Q890384)

The paper mainly describes mathematical achievements of the great French mathematician and politician Paul Painlevé. After some brief biographical remarks in Chapter 1, the following chapters are outlined: 2. The Painlevé equations. 3. The Painlevé property, branching of solutions and nonexistence of first integrals. 4. Algebraic nonintegrability of the \(N\)-body problem. 5. Some remarkable observations in mechanics. 6. Dynamics of systems with friction and paradoxes. 7. The axioms of mechanics. 8. Painlevé's hypothesis and collisionless singularities. 9. Transformation of dynamical equations and geodesic equivalent metrics. 10. Painlevé and gravitation. These chapters show Painlevé as an outstanding mathematician, who made also important contributions to physical topics like mechanics and general relativity. Finally, in Chapter 11, the authors give a short report on Painlevé's political activities between 1915 and 1933, as minister of different departments in different governments, several times as prime minister (in this position he played a leading role in the Rapallo conference convened by the Entente Powers in 1917) and as President of the Chamber of Deputies. The paper concludes with a list of scientific works by Paul Painlevé in a chronological order.