Mathematician:Felix Hausdorff

Mathematician

German mathematician fundamental in the development of modern topology.

Also active in set theory, measure theory and function theory.

The first to formulate what is now known as the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis.

Committed suicide in preference to being sent to an internment camp.

Nationality

German

History

• Born: 8 Nov 1868 in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland)
• Died: 26 Jan 1942 in Bonn, Germany

Theorems and Definitions

• Hausdorff's Maximal Principle, also known as Hausdorff Maximality Principle or Hausdorff Maximality Theorem
• Hausdorff Moment Problem
• Hausdorff Paradox
• Hausdorff Principles, also known as Maximal Principles or Kuratowski Principles (for Kazimierz Kuratowski)
• Hausdorff-Young Inequality (with William Henry Young)

• Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff Formula (with Henry Frederick Baker and John Edward Campbell)
• Gromov-Hausdorff Convergence (with Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov)

• Hausdorff Distance
• Hausdorff Measure
• Hausdorff Metric
• Hausdorff Space (also known as a $T_2$ Space)
• Minimal Hausdorff Topology

• Hausdorff-Besicovitch Dimension (also known as Hausdorff Dimension) (with Abram Samoilovitch Besicovitch)

Results named for Felix Hausdorff can be found here.

Definitions of concepts named for Felix Hausdorff can be found here.

Publications

• 1891: Zur Theorie der astronomischen Strahlenbrechung (doctoral thesis)
• 1908: Grundzüge einer Theorie der geordneten Mengen

• 1914: Grundzüge der Mengenlehre
  • 1937: Mengenlehre, 3rd ed. (third edition of Grundzüge der Mengenlehre)

• 1919: Dimension und äusseres Mass (in which Hausdorff-Besicovitch Dimension was introduced)
• 1921: Summationsmethoden und Momentfolgen

• 1923: Eine Ausdehnung des Parsevalschen Satzes über Fourierreihen (Mathematische Zeitschrift Vol. 16: pp. 163 – 169)

Also published works in the field of philosophy and literature under the pseudonym Paul Mongré:

• 1897: Sant' Ilario: Thoughts from Zarathustra's Country
• 1898: Das Chaos in kosmischer Auslese (a critique of metaphysics)
• 1900: Ekstases (a book of poetry)
• 1904: Der Arzt seiner Ehre

Later Translations

• 1957: Set Theory (translated by John R. Aumann from Mengenlehre, 3rd ed.)
  • 1962: Set Theory, 2nd ed.
  • 1978: Set Theory, 3rd ed.
  • 1991: Set Theory, 4th ed.

Sources

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

• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Hausdorff, Felix (1868-1942)
• 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Hausdorff, Felix (1868-1942)