Currently there may be errors shown on top of a page, because of a missing Wiki update (PHP version and extension DPL3).
Navigation
Topics Help • Register • News • History • How to • Sequences statistics • Template prototypes

Difference between revisions of "Raphael M. Robinson"

From Prime-Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
(restored)
 
m (Karbon moved page Raphael Robinson to Raphael M. Robinson without leaving a redirect)
 
(4 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
'''Raphael Mitchel Robinson''' (1911-11-02 - 1995-01-27) was an American [[mathematician]].
+
{{Infobox Person
 +
|Name=Raphael Mitchel Robinson
 +
|Born=1911-11-02
 +
|Died=1995-01-27
 +
|Nationality=American
 +
}}
 +
 
 +
'''Raphael Mitchel Robinson''' was an American mathematician.
 
<div style="float:right;clear:both;">
 
<div style="float:right;clear:both;">
 
{|
 
{|
Line 7: Line 14:
 
|}
 
|}
 
</div>
 
</div>
Born in National City, California, Robinson was the youngest of four children of a lawyer and a teacher. He was awarded the BA (1932), MA (1933), and Ph.D. (1935), all in [[mathematics]], and all from the [[UC Berkeley|University of California, Berkeley]]. His Ph.D. thesis, on [[complex analysis]], was titled ''"Some results in the theory of Schlicht functions"''.
+
Born in National City, California, Robinson was the youngest of four children of a lawyer and a teacher. He was awarded the BA (1932), MA (1933), and Ph.D. (1935), all in [[mathematics]], and all from the [[University of California, Berkeley]]. His Ph.D. thesis, on [[complex analysis]], was titled ''"Some results in the theory of Schlicht functions"''.
  
 
In 1941, Robinson married his former student Julia Bowman. She became his Berkeley colleague and the first woman president of the American Mathematical Society.
 
In 1941, Robinson married his former student Julia Bowman. She became his Berkeley colleague and the first woman president of the American Mathematical Society.
Line 13: Line 20:
 
Robinson worked on mathematical logic, [[set theory]], [[geometry]], [[number theory]], and combinatorics. Robinson (1937) set out a simpler and more conventional version of John Von Neumann's 1923 axiomatic set theory. Soon after Alfred Tarski joined Berkeley's mathematics department in 1942, Robinson began to do major work on the foundations of mathematics, building on Tarski's concept of "essential undecidability," by proving a number of mathematical theories undecidable. Robinson (1950) proved that an essentially undecidable theory need not have an infinite number of axioms by coming up with a counterexample: Robinson arithmetic ''Q''. ''Q'' is finitely axiomatizable because it lacks Peano arithmetic's axiom schema of induction; nevertheless ''Q'', like Peano arithmetic, is incomplete and undecidable in the sense of Gödel. Robinson's work on undecidability culminated in his coauthoring Tarski et al. (1953), which established, among other things, the undecidability of [[group theory]], lattice theory, abstract projective geometry, and closure algebras.
 
Robinson worked on mathematical logic, [[set theory]], [[geometry]], [[number theory]], and combinatorics. Robinson (1937) set out a simpler and more conventional version of John Von Neumann's 1923 axiomatic set theory. Soon after Alfred Tarski joined Berkeley's mathematics department in 1942, Robinson began to do major work on the foundations of mathematics, building on Tarski's concept of "essential undecidability," by proving a number of mathematical theories undecidable. Robinson (1950) proved that an essentially undecidable theory need not have an infinite number of axioms by coming up with a counterexample: Robinson arithmetic ''Q''. ''Q'' is finitely axiomatizable because it lacks Peano arithmetic's axiom schema of induction; nevertheless ''Q'', like Peano arithmetic, is incomplete and undecidable in the sense of Gödel. Robinson's work on undecidability culminated in his coauthoring Tarski et al. (1953), which established, among other things, the undecidability of [[group theory]], lattice theory, abstract projective geometry, and closure algebras.
  
Robinson worked in number theory, even employing very early [[computer]]s to obtain results. For example, he coded the [[Lucas-Lehmer test|Lucas-Lehmer]] [[primality test]] to determine whether 2<sup>''n''</sup>-1 was prime for all prime ''n'' < 2304 on a [[SWAC (computer)|SWAC]] at [[UCLA]]. In 1952, he showed that these [[Mersenne number]]s were all composite except for 17 values of ''n'' =  2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 31, 61, 89, 107, [[M12|127]], [[M13|521]], [[M14|607]], [[M15|1279]], [[M16|2203]], [[M17|2281]]. He discovered the last 5 of these [[Mersenne prime]]s, the largest ones known at the time.
+
Robinson worked in number theory, even employing very early [[computer]]s to obtain results. For example, he coded the [[Lucas-Lehmer test|Lucas-Lehmer]] [[primality test]] to determine whether 2<sup>''n''</sup>-1 was prime for all prime ''n'' < 2304 on a [[SWAC (computer)|SWAC]] at [[University of California, Los Angeles]]. In 1952, he showed that these [[Mersenne number]]s were all composite except for 17 values of ''n'' =  2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 31, 61, 89, 107, [[M12|127]], [[M13|521]], [[M14|607]], [[M15|1279]], [[M16|2203]], [[M17|2281]]. He discovered the last 5 of these [[Mersenne prime]]s, the largest ones known at the time.
  
 
Robinson wrote several papers on tilings of the plane, in particular a clear and remarkable 1971 paper "Undecidability and nonperiodicity for tilings of the plane" simplifying what had been a tangled theory.
 
Robinson wrote several papers on tilings of the plane, in particular a clear and remarkable 1971 paper "Undecidability and nonperiodicity for tilings of the plane" simplifying what had been a tangled theory.
Line 26: Line 33:
 
==References==
 
==References==
 
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Tarski Alfred Tarski], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Mostowski A. Mostowski], and R. M. Robinson, 1953. ''Undecidable theories''. North Holland.
 
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Tarski Alfred Tarski], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Mostowski A. Mostowski], and R. M. Robinson, 1953. ''Undecidable theories''. North Holland.
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Henkin Leon Henkin], 1995, "[http://www.math.ucla.edu/~asl/bsl/0103-toc.htm In memoriam : Raphael Mitchell Robinson,]" ''Bull. Symbolic Logic'' '''1''': 340-43.
+
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Henkin Leon Henkin], 1995, "[http://www.math.ucla.edu/~asl/bsl/0103-toc.htm In memoriam : Raphael Mitchel Robinson,]" ''Bull. Symbolic Logic'' '''1''': 340-43.
*"In memoriam : Raphael Mitchell Robinson (1911-1995)," ''Modern Logic'' '''5''': 329.
+
*"In memoriam : Raphael Mitchel Robinson (1911-1995)," ''Modern Logic'' '''5''': 329.
 
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_M._Robinson Wikipedia]
 
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_M._Robinson Wikipedia]
[[Category:Persons|Robinson, Raphael]]
+
[[Category:Person|Robinson, Raphael]]

Latest revision as of 14:51, 19 September 2021

Raphael Mitchel Robinson
Personal data :
Real name : Raphael Mitchel Robinson
Date of birth : 1911-11-02
Date of death : 1995-01-27
Nationality : American

Raphael Mitchel Robinson was an American mathematician.

ROBINS~3.jpg
Photo from here

Born in National City, California, Robinson was the youngest of four children of a lawyer and a teacher. He was awarded the BA (1932), MA (1933), and Ph.D. (1935), all in mathematics, and all from the University of California, Berkeley. His Ph.D. thesis, on complex analysis, was titled "Some results in the theory of Schlicht functions".

In 1941, Robinson married his former student Julia Bowman. She became his Berkeley colleague and the first woman president of the American Mathematical Society.

Robinson worked on mathematical logic, set theory, geometry, number theory, and combinatorics. Robinson (1937) set out a simpler and more conventional version of John Von Neumann's 1923 axiomatic set theory. Soon after Alfred Tarski joined Berkeley's mathematics department in 1942, Robinson began to do major work on the foundations of mathematics, building on Tarski's concept of "essential undecidability," by proving a number of mathematical theories undecidable. Robinson (1950) proved that an essentially undecidable theory need not have an infinite number of axioms by coming up with a counterexample: Robinson arithmetic Q. Q is finitely axiomatizable because it lacks Peano arithmetic's axiom schema of induction; nevertheless Q, like Peano arithmetic, is incomplete and undecidable in the sense of Gödel. Robinson's work on undecidability culminated in his coauthoring Tarski et al. (1953), which established, among other things, the undecidability of group theory, lattice theory, abstract projective geometry, and closure algebras.

Robinson worked in number theory, even employing very early computers to obtain results. For example, he coded the Lucas-Lehmer primality test to determine whether 2n-1 was prime for all prime n < 2304 on a SWAC at University of California, Los Angeles. In 1952, he showed that these Mersenne numbers were all composite except for 17 values of n = 2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 31, 61, 89, 107, 127, 521, 607, 1279, 2203, 2281. He discovered the last 5 of these Mersenne primes, the largest ones known at the time.

Robinson wrote several papers on tilings of the plane, in particular a clear and remarkable 1971 paper "Undecidability and nonperiodicity for tilings of the plane" simplifying what had been a tangled theory.

Robinson became a full professor at Berkeley in 1949 and retired in 1973. He remained intellectually active until the very end of his long life. He published at age:

  • 80 "Minsky's small universal Turing machine," describing a universal Turing machine with 4 symbols and 7 states;
  • 83 "Two figures in the hyperbolic plane."

See also

References