Harald Bohr forelæsning ved Peter Sarnak

Her er Sarnaks præsentation af forelæsningen:

"The problem of devising optimally efficient universal gates for quantum computing is one of finding the best generators for rotation groups. We will discuss recent developments concerning ‘Golden Gates,’ which are number theoretic generators of U(2). The tools range from groups associated with the platonic solids to modern diophantine problems of sums of squares."

Peter Sarnak er Eugene Higgins professor i Mathematics ved Princeton University og professor ved the Institute for Advanced Study. Han er en verdenskendt matematiker, hvis arbejde har haft enorm indflydelse på udviklingen af adskillige områder af matematikken, herunder analyse, talteori, geometri, kombinatorik og matematisk fysik.

Peter Sarnak blev født i Johannesburg, Sydafrika. Efter opnåelse af bachelorgraden ved University of Witwatersrand i 1975 flyttede han til Californien for at studere ved Stanford under vejledning af Paul Cohen. Han opnåede ph.d.-graden fra Stanford i 1980. Han flyttede derefter til Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences i New York, hvor han allerede i 1983 blev forfremmet til Associate Professor. Han vendte tilbage til Stanford i 1987 som professor i matematik. Siden 1991 har han været professor ved Princeton University, og blev Eugene Higgins Professor i Mathematics i 2002, og siden 2007 også professor ved Institute for Advanced Study.

Sarnak er medlem af National Academy of Sciences (USA), og indvalgt fellow ved Royal Society (UK) og ved American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Han har æresgrader fra University of St. Andrews, University of Chicago, Shandong University og Hebrew University i Jerusalem. Han holdt plenarforedrag ved ICM i Berlin i 1998. Han er redaktør for bl.a. Annals of Mathematics.

Hans æresbevisninger inkluderer Wolf prisen i matematik i 2014, Lester Ford Prize of the Mathematical Association of America i 2012, Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Number Theory 2005, Levi L. Conant Prize of the American Mathematical Society i 2003, Ostrowski Prize i 2001, og George Polya Prize of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics i 1998.

"His work has distinctly shaped analytic number theory by introducing new and powerful spectral-theoretic techniques to the study of many deep and longstanding problems. One of Sarnak's most outstanding contributions to number theory is his study of zeros of the zeta- and related L-functions. His work (with A. Lubotzky and R. Philips) on Ramanujan graphs has demonstrated a profound connection between theoretical computer science and deep results in number theory."
(Fra the University of Chicago News i anledning af tildelingen af æresdoktorgraden i matematik ved University of Chicago, juni 2015, til Peter Sarnak.)

Her er nogle af Peter Sarnaks egne ord fra et nyligt interview (december, 2016) ved CIRM (Centre International de Rencontres Mathematiques):

"My main interest is the theory of whole numbers. But in order to study equations in whole numbers (so-called diophantine equations), and prime numbers, in particular, the tools that are used are from all over mathematics, from algebra to analysis, to geometry, to dynamics. So, I am willing to use anything to solve the problem that I am interested in. In fact, some of the most interesting things that I have been lucky enough to achieve do involve relating unexpected fields. One of the beauty of mathematics lies in its unity."

"I enjoy teaching, and I very much enjoy having graduate students. I've had very many graduate students, and often I learnt from them maybe more than they learnt from me”.

Sarnaks indsigt og iver for at dele ideer har været en stor inspiration for hans studerende og kolleger i mange områder af matematikken. Peter Sarnak har vejledt et bemærkelsesværdigt stort antal ph.d. -studerende (næsten 50), og mange af dem er blevet prominente og veletablerede matematikere på topuniversiteter over hele verden.

Magdalena Musat

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Mere om Peter Sarnak:

• Hans personlige hjemmeside
• Youtube video: Interview med Peter Sarnak ved CIRM (December, 2016) 
• An interview with Peter Sarnak on Asia Pacific Mathematics Newsletter (July, 2012) 
• The Mathematics Genealogy Project (Peter Sarnak's PhD students)