Joseph LiouvilleDied 8 Sep 1882 at age 73 (born 24 Mar 1809).French mathematician who discovered transcendental numbers (those which are not the roots of algebraic equations having rational coefficients), and that there are infinitely many of them. He also did work in real and complex analysis, number theory, and differential geometry. His name is remembered in the Sturm-Liouville theory of differential equations that generalises Joseph Fourier's ideas, and are important in mathematical physics. He studied celestial mechanics. Liouville founded in 1836, and editted for nearly four decades, the Journal de Mathématique which remains a leading French mathematical publication. He editted and published (1843) the manuscripts left behind upon the untimely death of Evariste Galois 22 years earlier.« |
