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__NOTOC__ Cornelius (Cornel) Lanczos ( hu, Lánczos Kornél, ; born as Kornél Lőwy, until 1906: ''Löwy (Lőwy) Kornél''; February 2, 1893 – June 25, 1974) was a
Hungarian-American Hungarian Americans ( Hungarian: ''amerikai magyarok'') are Americans of Hungarian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau has estimated that there are approximately 1.396 million Americans of Hungarian descent as of 2018. The total number of people wit ...
and later Hungarian-Irish mathematician and
physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
. According to György Marx he was one of The Martians.


Biography

He was born in Fehérvár (Alba Regia),
Fejér County Fejér ( hu, Fejér megye, ) is an administrative county (comitatus or megye) in Central Hungary. It lies on the west bank of the river Danube and nearly touches the eastern shore of Lake Balaton. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties V ...
, Kingdom of Hungary to Károly Lőwy and Adél Hahn. Lanczos'
Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
thesis (1921) was on relativity theory. He sent his thesis copy to
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
, and Einstein wrote back, saying: "I studied your paper as far as my present overload allowed. I believe I may say this much: this does involve competent and original brainwork, on the basis of which a doctorate should be obtainable ... I gladly accept the honorable dedication."Barbara Gellai (2010) ''The Intrinsic Nature of Things: the life and science of Cornelius Lanczos'',
American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...
In 1924 he discovered an exact solution of the Einstein field equation representing a cylindrically symmetric rigidly rotating configuration of dust particles. This was later rediscovered by
Willem Jacob van Stockum Willem Jacob van Stockum (20 November 1910 – 10 June 1944) was a Dutch mathematician who made an important contribution to the early development of general relativity. Biography Van Stockum was born in Hattem in the Netherlands. His father wa ...
and is known today as the van Stockum dust. It is one of the simplest known exact solutions in general relativity and is regarded as an important example, in part because it exhibits closed timelike curves. Lanczos served as assistant to
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
during the period of 1928–29. In 1927 Lanczos married Maria Rupp. He was offered a one-year visiting professorship from
Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mon ...
. For a dozen years (1927–39) Lanczos split his life between two continents. His wife Maria Rupp stayed with Lanczos' parents in Székesfehérvár year-around while Lanczos went to Purdue for half the year, teaching graduate students matrix mechanics and tensor analysis. In 1933 his son Elmar was born; Elmar came to Lafayette, Indiana with his father in August 1939, just before WW II broke out. Maria was too ill to travel and died several weeks later from tuberculosis. When the Nazis purged Hungary of Jews in 1944, of Lanczos' family, only his sister and a nephew survived. Elmar married, moved to Seattle and raised two sons. When Elmar looked at his own firstborn son, he said: "For me, it proves that Hitler did not win." During the McCarthy era, Lanczos came under suspicion for possible communist links. In 1952, he left the U.S. and moved to the School of Theoretical Physics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in Ireland, where he succeeded Erwin Schrödinger and stayed until his death in 1974. In 1956 Lanczos published ''Applied Analysis''. The topics covered include "algebraic equations, matrices and eigenvalue problems, large scale linear systems, harmonic analysis, data analysis, quadrature and power expansions...illustrated by numerical examples worked out in detail." The contents of the book are stylized "parexic analysis lies between
classical analysis Analysis is the branch of mathematics dealing with continuous functions, limits, and related theories, such as differentiation, integration, measure, infinite sequences, series, and analytic functions. These theories are usually studied i ...
and
numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of numerical methods t ...
: it is roughly the theory of approximation by finite (or truncated infinite)
algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...
s."


Research

Lanczos did pioneering work along with G. C. Danielson on what is now called the fast Fourier transform (FFT, 1940), but the significance of his discovery was not appreciated at the time, and today the FFT is credited to Cooley and Tukey (1965). (As a matter of fact, similar claims can be made for several other mathematicians, including
Carl Friedrich Gauss Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (; german: Gauß ; la, Carolus Fridericus Gauss; 30 April 177723 February 1855) was a German mathematician and physicist who made significant contributions to many fields in mathematics and science. Sometimes refer ...
.). Lanczos was the one who introduced
Chebyshev polynomials The Chebyshev polynomials are two sequences of polynomials related to the cosine and sine functions, notated as T_n(x) and U_n(x). They can be defined in several equivalent ways, one of which starts with trigonometric functions: The Chebyshe ...
to numerical computing. He discovered the diagonalizable matrix. Working in Washington DC at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards after 1949, Lanczos developed a number of techniques for mathematical calculations using digital computers, including: * the Lanczos algorithm for finding eigenvalues of large symmetric matrices, * the Lanczos approximation for the gamma function, * the
conjugate gradient method In mathematics, the conjugate gradient method is an algorithm for the numerical solution of particular systems of linear equations, namely those whose matrix is positive-definite. The conjugate gradient method is often implemented as an iterativ ...
for solving
systems of linear equations In mathematics, a system of linear equations (or linear system) is a collection of one or more linear equations involving the same variables. For example, :\begin 3x+2y-z=1\\ 2x-2y+4z=-2\\ -x+\fracy-z=0 \end is a system of three equations in t ...
. In 1962, Lanczos showed that the Weyl tensor, which plays a fundamental role in general relativity, can be obtained from a tensor potential that is now called the Lanczos potential. Lanczos resampling is based on a windowed sinc function as a practical upsampling filter approximating the ideal sinc function. Lanczos resampling is widely used in video up-sampling for digital zoom applications and image scaling. Books such as ''The Variational Principles of Mechanics'' (1949) is a classic graduate text on mechanics. He shows his explanatory ability and enthusiasm as a physics teacher: in the preface of the first edition he says it is taught for a two-semester graduate course of three hours weekly.


Publications


Books

* 1949: The Variational Principles of Mechanics (dedicated to
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
),
University of Toronto Press The University of Toronto Press is a Canadian university press founded in 1901. Although it was founded in 1901, the press did not actually publish any books until 1911. The press originally printed only examination books and the university cale ...
, followed by 1962, 1966, 1970 editions. * 1956: ''Applied Analysis'',
Prentice Hall Prentice Hall was an American major educational publisher owned by Savvas Learning Company. Prentice Hall publishes print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market, and distributes its technical titles through the Safari B ...
* 1961: ''Linear Differential Operators'', Van Nostrand Company, * (1962: ''The Variational Principles of Mechanics'', 2nd ed.) * (1966: ''The Variational Principles of Mechanics'', 3rd ed.) * 1966: ''Albert Einstein and the cosmic world order: six lectures delivered at the University of Michigan in the Spring of 1962'', Interscience Publishers * 1966: ''Discourse on Fourier Series'',
Oliver & Boyd Oliver and Boyd was a British publishing and printing firm that traded from 1807 or 1808 until 1990.
* 1968: ''Numbers without End'', Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd * (1970: ''The Variational Principles of Mechanics'', 4th ed.) * 1970: ''Judaism and Science'',
Leeds University Press , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , t ...
(22 pages, S. Brodetsky Memorial Lecture) * 1970: ''Space through the Ages'' (the Evolution of the geometric Ideas from Pythagoras to Hilbert and Einstein),
Academic Press Academic Press (AP) is an academic book publisher founded in 1941. It was acquired by Harcourt, Brace & World in 1969. Reed Elsevier bought Harcourt in 2000, and Academic Press is now an imprint of Elsevier. Academic Press publishes referen ...

Review
by
Max Jammer Max Jammer (מקס ימר; born Moshe Jammer, ; April 13, 1915 – December 18, 2010), was an Israeli physicist and philosopher of physics. He was born in Berlin, Germany. He was Rector and Acting President at Bar-Ilan University from 1967 to ...
on Science Magazine, December 11, 1970. * 1974: ''The Einstein Decade (1905 — 1915)'', Granada Publishing *1998: (William R. Davis, editor) ''Cornelius Lanczos: Collected Published Papers with Commentaries'', North Carolina State University


Articles

* * 1949
"An iteration method for the solution of the eigenvalue problem of linear differential and integral operators" Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards
Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards The ''Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology'' is the flagship peer-reviewed scientific journal of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It has been published since 1904. Its former name was ''Journ ...
, Research Paper 2133. Vol. 45, No. 4, October 1950. Los Angeles, September, 1949. *


See also

* The Martians (scientists)


References

*


External links

* *
Cornelius Lanczos, Collected published papers with commentaries
published by North Carolina State University

by Nicholas Higham
Series of historic video tapes
produced in 1972, digitalized on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of Cornelius Lanczos's birth {{DEFAULTSORT:Lanczos, Cornelius 1893 births 1974 deaths People from Székesfehérvár Hungarian Jews Hungarian emigrants to the United States 20th-century Hungarian mathematicians American expatriates in the Republic of Ireland 20th-century Hungarian physicists Irish mathematicians Numerical analysts Relativity theorists Jewish physicists Austro-Hungarian mathematicians Academics of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies Fellows of the American Physical Society