scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1296908
The theory of several complex variables was not a result of the wish for generalization. Rather, the case of the abelian functions shows how and why the passage to several variables was a natural and inevitable outcome of problems in a single variable. The brief but clear paper outlines this evolution, beginning with elliptic integrals and Abel's Theorem, and its interpretation for the hyperelliptic case by Jacobi. Here \(2p\) periods appeared, and this made the passage to \(p\) variables unavoidable. Theta functions of \(p\) variables became a tool with Jacobi, Rosenhain, Gödel, Riemann, and Weierstrass, for the solution of the Jacobi inversion problem. One program of Weierstrass was to characterize meromorphic functions that could be written as quotients of two theta functions of \(p\) variables. This was resolved by Poincaré in 1898. -- Other relevant topics briefly mentioned are partial differential equations (Cauchy, Kovalevskaya) and algebraic surfaces. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0910.00042].
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