''László Pyber'' (born 8 May 1960 in
Budapest
Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
) is a
Hungarian 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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
. He is a researcher at the
Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics
The Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics () is the research institute in mathematics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It was created in 1950 by Alfréd Rényi, who directed it until his death. Since its creation, the institute has been th ...
, Budapest. He works in
combinatorics
Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many ...
and
group theory
In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups.
The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ( ...
.
Biography
Pyber received his Ph.D. from the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( , MTA) is Hungary’s foremost and most prestigious learned society. Its headquarters are located along the banks of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. The Academy's primar ...
in 1989 under the direction of
László Lovász
László Lovász (; born March 9, 1948) is a Hungarian mathematician and professor emeritus at Eötvös Loránd University, best known for his work in combinatorics, for which he was awarded the 2021 Abel Prize jointly with Avi Wigderson. He ...
and
Gyula O.H. Katona with the thesis ''Extremal Structures and Covering Problems.''
In 2007, he was awarded the Academics Prize by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
In 2017, he was the recipient of an
ERC Advanced Grant.
Mathematical contributions
Pyber has solved a number of
conjecture
In mathematics, a conjecture is a conclusion or a proposition that is proffered on a tentative basis without proof. Some conjectures, such as the Riemann hypothesis or Fermat's conjecture (now a theorem, proven in 1995 by Andrew Wiles), ha ...
s in
graph theory
In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of ''graph (discrete mathematics), graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of ''Vertex (graph ...
. In 1985, he proved the conjecture of
Paul Erdős
Paul Erdős ( ; 26March 191320September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician. He was one of the most prolific mathematicians and producers of mathematical conjectures of the 20th century. pursued and proposed problems in discrete mathematics, g ...
and
Tibor Gallai
Tibor Gallai (born Tibor Grünwald, 15 July 1912 – 2 January 1992) was a Hungarian mathematician. He worked in combinatorics, especially in graph theory, and was a lifelong friend and collaborator of Paul Erdős. He was a student of Dénes K� ...
that edges of a
simple graph
In discrete mathematics, particularly in graph theory, a graph is a structure consisting of a Set (mathematics), set of objects where some pairs of the objects are in some sense "related". The objects are represented by abstractions called ''Ver ...
with ''n'' vertices can be covered with at most ''n''−1 circuits and edges. In 1986, he proved the conjecture of
Paul Erdős
Paul Erdős ( ; 26March 191320September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician. He was one of the most prolific mathematicians and producers of mathematical conjectures of the 20th century. pursued and proposed problems in discrete mathematics, g ...
that a graph with ''n'' vertices and its complement can be covered with ''n''
2/4 + 2
clique
A clique (AusE, CanE, or ; ), in the social sciences, is a small group of individuals who interact with one another and share similar interests rather than include others. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardles ...
s.
He has also contributed to the study of
permutation group
In mathematics, a permutation group is a group ''G'' whose elements are permutations of a given set ''M'' and whose group operation is the composition of permutations in ''G'' (which are thought of as bijective functions from the set ''M'' to ...
s. In 1993, he provided an upper bound for the
order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
...
of a 2-transitive group of degree ''n'' not containing ''
An'' avoiding the use of the
classification of finite simple groups
In mathematics, the classification of finite simple groups (popularly called the enormous theorem) is a result of group theory stating that every List of finite simple groups, finite simple group is either cyclic group, cyclic, or alternating gro ...
. Together with
Tomasz Łuczak, Pyber proved the conjecture of
McKay
McKay, MacKay or Mackay is a Scottish and Irish surname. The last phoneme in the name is traditionally pronounced to rhyme with 'eye', but in some parts of the world this has come to rhyme with 'hey'. In Scotland, it corresponds to Clan Mackay. ...
that for every ''ε''>0, there is a constant ''C'' such that ''C'' randomly chosen elements invariably generate the
symmetric group
In abstract algebra, the symmetric group defined over any set is the group whose elements are all the bijections from the set to itself, and whose group operation is the composition of functions. In particular, the finite symmetric grou ...
''S''
''n'' with probability greater than 1−''ε''.
Pyber has made fundamental contributions in enumerating
finite group
In abstract algebra, a finite group is a group whose underlying set is finite. Finite groups often arise when considering symmetry of mathematical or physical objects, when those objects admit just a finite number of structure-preserving tra ...
s of a given order ''n''. In 1993, he proved that if the
prime decomposition
In mathematics, integer factorization is the decomposition of a positive integer into a product of integers. Every positive integer greater than 1 is either the product of two or more integer factors greater than 1, in which case it is a compo ...
of ''n'' is ''n''=''p''
1''g''1 ⋯ ''p''
''k''''g''''k'' and ''μ=''max(''g''
1,...,''g''
k), then the number of groups of order ''n'' is at mostIn 2004, Pyber settled several questions in
subgroup growth by completing the investigation of the spectrum of possible subgroup growth types.
In 2011, Pyber and Andrei Jaikin-Zapirain obtained a surprisingly explicit formula for the number of random elements needed to generate a finite ''d''-generator group with high probability. They also explored related questions for
profinite group
In mathematics, a profinite group is a topological group that is in a certain sense assembled from a system of finite groups.
The idea of using a profinite group is to provide a "uniform", or "synoptic", view of an entire system of finite groups. ...
s and settled several
open problem
In science and mathematics, an open problem or an open question is a known problem which can be accurately stated, and which is assumed to have an objective and verifiable solution, but which has not yet been solved (i.e., no solution for it is kno ...
s.
In 2016, Pyber and Endre Szabó proved that in a
finite simple group
In mathematics, the classification of finite simple groups states that every finite simple group is cyclic, or alternating, or in one of 16 families of groups of Lie type, or one of 26 sporadic groups.
The list below gives all finite simple g ...
''L'' of Lie type, a generating set ''A'' of ''L'' either grows, i.e., , ''A''
3, ≥ , ''A'',
1+''ε'' for some ''ε'' depending only on the Lie rank of ''L'', or ''A''
3=''L''.
This implies that diameters of
Cayley graph
In mathematics, a Cayley graph, also known as a Cayley color graph, Cayley diagram, group diagram, or color group, is a Graph (discrete mathematics), graph that encodes the abstract structure of a group (mathematics), group. Its definition is sug ...
s of finite simple groups of bounded rank are polylogarithmic in the size of the group, partially resolving a well-known conjecture of
László Babai
László "Laci" Babai (born July 20, 1950, in Budapest) a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and won the Knuth Prize.
Babai was an invited speaker at the International Congresses of Mathematicians in Kyoto (1990), Zürich (199 ...
.
References
External links
*Pyber'
home page
*Pyber'
nominationfor
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( , MTA) is Hungary’s foremost and most prestigious learned society. Its headquarters are located along the banks of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. The Academy's primar ...
membership
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pyber, Laszlo
Combinatorialists
Group theorists
20th-century Hungarian mathematicians
21st-century Hungarian mathematicians
Living people
1960 births