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Atle Selberg (born June 17, 1917) is a Norwegian mathematician, one of the greatest analytic number theorists of all time.
Selberg was born in Langesund , Norway. While he was still at school he was influenced by the work of Srinivasa Aaiyangar Ramanujan. During the second world war he worked in isolation due to the occupation of Norway by the Nazis. After the war his accomplishments in the theory of the Riemann zeta function became known. The celebrated Riemann hypothesis states that all zeros of the complex Riemann zeta function (except the "trivial" zeros at the negative even integers) lie on the line 1/2 + it, t real. This has never been proved. However, G. H. Hardy proved that an infinite number of zeros do exist on this line. Selberg proved that a positive proportion lie on this line. This is a famous theoremA theorem is a statement which can be proven true within some logical framework. Proving theorems is a central activity of mathematics. Note that 'theorem' is distinct from theory'. A theorem generally has a set-up a number of conditions, which may be lis.
He established the importance of Viggo BrunViggo Brun ( October 13, 1882 August 15, 1978) was a Norwegian mathematician. He was born in Lier and died in Drobak. His best known contribution is that he showed that the sum of reciprocals of twin primes converges to a finite value, now called Brun's c's sieve methods in number theory, inventing a method that now bears his name, as well as working on the large sieve .
Selberg came to the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in and settled at the Institute for Advanced StudyThe Institute for Advanced Study is a private institution in Princeton Township, New Jersey, designed to foster pure cutting-edge research by scientists in a variety of fields without the complications of teaching or funding, or the agendas of sponsorship in the 1950sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Years: 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 Events and trends Technology United States tests the first fusion bomb. where he remains today. During the 1950s he developed the Selberg trace formulaIn mathematics, the Selberg trace formula is a central result, or area of research, in non-commutative harmonic analysis. It provides an expresson for the trace, in a sense suitably generalising that of the trace of a matrix, for suitable integral operato, his most famous accomplishment. It establishes a duality between the length spectrum of a Riemann surface and the eigenvalues of the Laplacian which is analogous to the duality between the prime numbers and the zeros of the zeta function.
Selberg and Erdös gave elementary proofs of the prime number theorem, although it was prior believed that such proofs with only real variables can't be found. Their investigations were not fully independent though they did not write a joint paper.
In 1950 Selberg also was awarded a Fields Medal.
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Selberg, Atle
