Fragments of a history of the concept of ideal. Poncelet's and Chasles's reflections on generality in geometry and their impact on Kummer's work with ideal divisors
It is well known that the term ``ideal in algebra originates from Kummer's ``ideal complex numbers, which he introduced when he studied the decomposition into factors of cyclotomic integers, to ensure uniqueness. The first goal of the author in the present paper is to argue in favor of the idea that Kummer's definition of ideal complex numbers was inspired by Poncelet's ``ideal chords in geometry. As the author points out, connections of ideal complex numbers to the classical decomposition of polynomials, or to the introduction of imaginary numbers by Gauss in the study of biquadratic residues, or even to the decomposition of a chemical substance into elements (see for instance [\textit{H. Hancock}, Am. Math. Monthly 35, 282--290 (1928; JFM 54.0189.01)]), are often mentioned in the history of mathematics. On the other hand, connections to geometry are overlooked. The author mentions, however, a passing remark in [\textit{J. Avigad}, in: The architecture of modern mathematics. Essays in history and philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 159--186 (2006; Zbl 1164.00001)]. The arguments of the author rely mainly on a deep analysis of the paper published by Kummer, in 1846, where he introduced ideal numbers and announced his results (without proofs), and some of his letters. The author explains how the concept of ideal chords in Poncelet's theory was developed, and how it was motivated by his research on generality and his principle of continuity. In addition, the author analyses carefully Chasles's rethinking of Poncelet's principle of continuity, which he explained in his overview of the development of methods in geometry, published in 1937, and argues that Kummer was influenced by Chasles's refinement of Poncelet's principle.
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