Complex continued fractions: early work of the brothers Adolf and Julius Hurwitz

DOI10.1007/S00407-014-0135-7MaRDI QIDQ461375zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Jörn Steuding, Nicola Oswald

Publication date 10 October 2014

Published in Archive for History of Exact Sciences (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/s00407-014-0135-7

zbMATH Keywords

Adolf Hurwitzcontinued fractionsGaussian integersJulius Hurwitz

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 19th century (01A55) History of mathematics in the 20th century (01A60) Biographies, obituaries, personalia, bibliographies (01A70) History of number theory (11-03) Continued fractions (11A55) Algebraic numbers; rings of algebraic integers (11R04)

Review text

The first part of this article is dedicated to the lives of the brothers Adolf and Julius Hurwitz; the second part discusses their contributions to the theory of continued fractions over the ring of Gaussian integers and briefly presents the subsequent work on this topic until today. The fairly complete list of references may be supplemented by a few items. \textit{Hermann Scheffler}'s little-known book \glqq Die unbestimmte Analytik\grqq{} [Hannover: Helwing 682 p. (available via google books); reprint 2018, FB\&C Limited], which was published already in 1854, contains a theory of continued fractions in the ring of Gaussian integers. Scheffler applies the results to the Pell equation and to the reduction of binary quadratic forms with complex coefficients. \textit{R. B. Lakein}, in a series of articles [Zbl 0221.12009; Zbl 0278.10031; Zbl 0298.10020; Zbl 0307.10033; Zbl 0321.12010; Zbl 0328.10026] studied complex continued fractions and used them for computing units and the class numbers of certain complex quartic fields. The computation of units was also the motivation for the investigations of complex continued fractions by \textit{W. Trinks} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 299/300, 125--137 (1978; Zbl 0367.12001)] and \textit{B. Degel} [Arch. Math. 48, 232--240 (1987; Zbl 0631.12002)].

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Cites work

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Cited in

(15)

• The recognition and the constitution of the theorems of closure
• The unknown Hurwitz
• An unpublished paper `Über einige durch unendliche Reihen definierte Funktionen eines complexen Argumentes' by Adolf Hurwitz
• Hurwitz and the origins of random matrix theory in mathematics
• Continued fraction expansions for complex numbers–-a general approach
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1120163 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 6823525 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4121946 (Why is no real title available?)
• Calculations of the invariant measure for Hurwitz continued fractions
• Pell's equations in Gaussian integers
• Historical face of number theory(ists) at the turn of the 19th century
• Aspects of Zeta-Function Theory in the Mathematical Works of Adolf Hurwitz
• Simplifying a proof of transcendence for \(e\): a letter exchange between Adolf Hurwitz, David Hilbert and Paul Gordan
• A finiteness condition for complex continued fraction algorithms
• Adolf Hurwitz folds paper

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