Mathematician:Évariste Galois

Mathematician

French mathematician famous for dying at the age of 20 as the result of a duel.

Despite his total collected works amounting to a mere 60 pages or so, he had a significant influence in the development of the field of group theory. He was in fact the first person to use the word group in a technical sense.

His innovative approach to the problem of the insolubility of the quintic led to the field known now as Galois theory.

There has been a lot of old rubbish written about Galois, not least the overly-romanticised account of his life as given by Eric Temple Bell in his Men of Mathematics.

For a rather more balanced and sober account, see the Historical Introduction in Ian Stewart's Galois Theory, 3rd ed..

Nationality

French

History

• Born: 25 Oct 1811, Bourg La Reine (near Paris), France
• Died: 31 May 1832, Paris, France

Theorems and Definitions

• Galois Theory
• Fundamental Theorem of Galois Theory
• Galois Field
• Galois Group
• Galois Connection

Results named for Évariste Galois can be found here.

Definitions of concepts named for Évariste Galois can be found here.

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Évariste Galois": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1937: Eric Temple Bell: Men of Mathematics: Chapter $\text{XX}$
• 1971: Allan Clark: Elements of Abstract Algebra ... (previous) ... (next): Introduction
• 1989: Ephraim J. Borowski and Jonathan M. Borwein: Dictionary of Mathematics ... (previous) ... (next): Galois, Évariste (1811-32)
• 1996: John F. Humphreys: A Course in Group Theory ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $1$: Definitions and Examples: Summary
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Galois, Évariste (1811-32)
• 2008: David Joyner: Adventures in Group Theory (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Where to begin...
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Galois, Évariste (1811-32)
• 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Galois, Évariste (1811-32)