Person: Novikov, Petr Sergeevich
Petr Sergeevich Novikov is a Russian mathematician known for his work on combinatorial problems in group theory including the word problem for groups and the Burnside problem.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- However, even before Novikov entered university, the Russian nation had been plunged into civil war.
- In the spring of 1920, with the civil war still raging, Novikov joined the Red Army.
- Novikov graduated in 1929 and then taught at the Moscow Chemical Technology Institute until he joined the Department of Real Function Theory at the Steklov Institute in 1934.
- Novikov headed the Department of Analysis at Moscow State Teachers Training Institute from 1944.
- In 1957 Novikov set up a new department at the Steklov Institute, namely the Department of Mathematical Logic, and he was appointed as the first head of that department.
- Novikov showed, in 1952, that the word problem for groups is insoluble.
- The problem was first posed by Dehn in 1912 and Novikov was able to show that no such algorithm exists in general.
- Novikov was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1957 for this outstanding piece of work.
- Boone published another proof of this result in 1957, the same year that Novikov received his prize.
- The word problem was not the only problem of major importance in combinatorial group theory which Novikov solved.
- Although in 1959 Novikov announced that for every n>71n > 71n>71 there exists a finitely generated infinite group with every element of order dividing nnn, his proof was not quite correct.
- Novikov's argument of 1959 was correct in general terms but the details were not, and in putting the arguments right it was found that one required larger values of nnn.
- In 1968 Novikov and Adian jointly published a proof B(d,n)B(d, n)B(d,n) is infinite for every d>1d > 1d>1 and every n>4380n > 4380n>4380.
Born 15 August 1901, Moscow, Russia. Died 9 January 1975, Moscow, Russia.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Algebra, Group Theory, Origin Russia, Puzzles And Problems
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References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
