Felix Klein, Sophus Lie, contact transformations, and connexes

DOI10.1007/S00407-023-00305-1MaRDI QIDQ6100769zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Leslie Kay

Publication date 22 June 2023

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

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/s00407-023-00305-1

zbMATH Keywords

connexescontact transformationsLie groups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 19th century (01A55)

Review text

In their early works, Felix Klein and Sophus Lie lay the foundations of much of their later works. In Klein's case, it is the consideration of geometric objects while Lie worked on properties preserved by systems of transformations. Lie later called some of this transformations \textit{contact transformations} which became the core of his theory of transformation groups applied to differential equations. The present paper follows Klein's attempts in the 1870s to interprete contact transformations in terms of what he called \textit{connexions}, a notion introduced by Clebsch. Over the following decades Klein traces this interpretation under a false assumption. The paper follows the events in great detail and gives important insights.

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Cites work

• Einige Anmerkungen zu Sophus Lies Krankheit. (Some remarks concerning Sophus Lie's disease)
• Emergence of the theory of Lie groups. An essay in the history of mathematics 1869--1926
• Felix Klein. Visions for mathematics, applications and teaching
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1683523 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5320663 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4077160 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 44811 (Why is no real title available?)
• Jacobi and the birth of Lie's theory of groups

Cited in

(3)

• On Felix Klein's early geometrical works, 1869--1872
• Felix Klein and Sophus Lie on quartic surfaces in line geometry
• Felix Klein's vision: a school for mathematical productivity regardless of nationality, gender, and area of research

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