Karl Emanuel Robert Fricke (24 September 1861 – 18 July 1930) was a German
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
O ...
, known for his work in
complex analysis, especially on
elliptic
In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. It generalizes a circle, which is the special type of ellipse in ...
,
modular
Broadly speaking, modularity is the degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use. The concept of modularity is used primarily to reduce complexity by breaking a sy ...
and
automorphic functions. He was one of the main collaborators of
Felix Klein
Christian Felix Klein (; 25 April 1849 – 22 June 1925) was a German mathematician and mathematics educator, known for his work with group theory, complex analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, and on the associations between geometry and group ...
, with whom he produced two classic, two-volume monographs on elliptic modular functions and automorphic functions.
In 1893 in Chicago, his paper ''Die Theorie der automorphen Functionen und die Arithmetik'' was read (but not by Fricke) at the International Mathematical Congress held in connection with the
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
. From 1894 to 1930 Fricke was professor of Higher Mathematics at the
Technische Hochschule Carolo-Wilhelmina in
Braunschweig
Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...
.
See also
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Fricke involution In mathematics, a Fricke involution is the involution of the modular curve ''X''0(''N'') given by τ → –1/''N''τ. It is named after Robert Fricke. The Fricke involution also acts on other objects associated with the modular curve, s ...
Bibliography
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References
External links
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1861 births
1930 deaths
People from Helmstedt
19th-century German mathematicians
20th-century German mathematicians
Mathematical analysts
Group theorists
People from the Duchy of Brunswick
Academic staff of the Technical University of Braunschweig
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