Biography:Beniamino Segre
Beniamino Segre | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 16 February 1903 Turin, Italy |
| Died | 2 October 1977 (aged 74) Frascati, Italy |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Known for | Segre's theorem Segre class Segre surface |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Thesis | Genera della curva doppia per la varieta di S_4 che annulla un determinante simmetrico (1923) |
| Doctoral advisor | Corrado Segre |
| Other academic advisors | Francesco Severi |
Beniamino Segre (16 February 1903 – 2 October 1977) was an Italian mathematician who is remembered today as a major contributor to algebraic geometry and one of the founders of finite geometry.
Life and career
He was born and studied in Turin. Corrado Segre, his uncle, also served as his doctoral advisor.
Among his main contributions to algebraic geometry are studies of birational invariants of algebraic varieties, singularities and algebraic surfaces. His work was in the style of the old Italian School, although he also appreciated the greater rigour of modern algebraic geometry.
Segre was a pioneer in finite geometry, in particular projective geometry based on vector spaces over a finite field. In a well-known paper (Segre 1955) he proved the following theorem: In a Desarguesian plane of odd order, the ovals are exactly the irreducible conics. In 1959 he authored a survey "Le geometrie di Galois" on Galois geometry.[1] According to J. W. P. Hirschfeld, it "gave a comprehensive list of results and methods, and is to my mind the seminal paper in the subject."[2]
Some critics felt that his work was no longer geometry, but today it is recognized as a separate sub-discipline: finite geometry or combinatorial geometry. According to Hirschfeld, "He published the most as well as the deepest papers in the subject. His enormous knowledge of classical algebraic geometry enabled him to identify those results which could be applied to finite spaces. His theorem on the characterization of conics (Segre's theorem) not only stimulated a great deal of research but also made many mathematicians realize that finite spaces were worth studying."[2]
In 1938 he lost his professorship at the University of Bologna, as a result of the anti-Jewish laws enacted under Benito Mussolini's government. He spent the next 8 years in Great Britain (mostly at the University of Manchester),[3] then returned to Italy to resume his academic career.[4]
Selected publications
- Segre, Beniamino (1942), The non-singular cubic surfaces, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. XI+180.[5]
- Segre, Beniamino (1945), "Arithmetic upon an algebraic surface", Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 51 (2): 152–161, doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1945-08300-1
- Segre, Beniamino (1948) (in it), Lezioni di geometria moderna. Vol. 1. Fondamenti di geometria sopra un corpo qualsiasi, Bologna: Zanichelli, pp. IV+195, http://www.catalogo.zanichelli.it/Pages/Opera?siteLang=IT&id_opera=0000000010184.[6] The second volume was never published: however an updated and largely expanded English edition was published as: Segre, Beniamino (1961), Lectures on modern geometry, Monografie Matematiche del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 7, With an appendix by Lucio Lombardo–Radice (2nd ed.), Roma: Edizioni Cremonese, pp. XV+479.[7]
- Segre, Beniamino (1951) (in it), Forme differenziali e loro integrali. Volume primo. Calcolo algebrico esterno e proprietà differenziali locali, Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica, Roma: Docet edizioni universitarie, pp. 520, https://books.google.com/books?id=wzHOAAAAMAAJ.[8]
- Segre, Beniamino (1951b), Arithmetical Questions on Algebraic Varieties, London: The Athlone Press, pp. V+55.[9]
- Segre, Beniamino (1955), "Ovals in a finite projective plane", Canadian Journal of Mathematics 7: 414–416, doi:10.4153/CJM-1955-045-x, ISSN 0008-414X
- Segre, Beniamino (1956) (in it), Forme differenziali e loro integrali. Volume secondo. Omologia, coomologia, corrispondenze ed integrali sulle varietà, Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica, Roma: Docet edizioni universitarie, pp. 422, https://books.google.com/books?id=NzLOAAAAMAAJ.[10][11]
- Segre, Beniamino (1957), Some Properties of Differentiable Varieties and Transformations: With Special Reference to the Analytic and Algebraic Cases, Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete. Neue Folge, Heft 13, Berlin–Heidelberg–New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. VIII+183, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-52764-7, ISBN 978-3-642-52766-1 (also available with ISBN:978-3-642-52764-7 (ebook)).[12]
- Segre, Beniamino (1971), Some Properties of Differentiable Varieties and Transformations: With Special Reference to the Analytic and Algebraic Cases, Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete. Neue Folge, Heft 13, With an additional part written in collaboration with J. W. P. Hirschfeld (2nd ed.), Berlin–Heidelberg–New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. IX+195, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-65006-2, ISBN 3-540-05085-X (also available with ISBN:0-387-05085-X, ISBN:978-3-642-65008-6 (softcover reprint) and ISBN:978-3-642-65006-2 (ebook)).
- Segre, Beniamino (1972) (in it), Prodromi di geometria algebrica, con un'appendice di U. Bartocci e M. Lorenzani, Roma: Edizioni Cremonese, pp. VI+412, ISBN 88-7083-426-3, https://books.google.com/books?id=CkPvAAAAMAAJ
- Segre, Beniamino (1987) (in it, en, fr, de), Opere scelte. Volume I, Opere dei Grandi Matematici Italiani, Roma: Edizioni Cremonese, pp. LI+420.
- Segre, Beniamino (1999) (in it, en, fr, de), Opere scelte. Volume II, Opere dei Grandi Matematici Italiani, Roma: Edizioni Cremonese, pp. XXII+460
- Segre, Beniamino (2000) (in it, en, fr, de), Opere scelte. Volume III, Opere dei Grandi Matematici Italiani, Roma: Edizioni Cremonese, pp. VIII+456.
Notes
- ↑ B. Segre (1959) "Le geometrie di Galois", Annali di Matematica Pura ed Applicata 48: 1–97.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 J. W. P. Hirschfeld (1979) Preface to Projective Geometries over Finite Fields, page vii, Clarendon Press ISBN:0-19-853526-0
- ↑ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Beniamino Segre", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Segre_Beniamino.html.
- ↑ According to (Vesentini 2005).
- ↑ Snyder, Virgil (1943). "Review: The non-singular cubic surfaces, by B. Segre". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 45 (5): 350–352. doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1943-07900-1. https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1943-49-05/S0002-9904-1943-07900-1/..
- ↑ Blumenthal, Leonard M. (1948). "Review: Lezioni de geometria moderna. Vol. 1. Fondamenti di geometria sopra un corpo qualsiasi, by B. Segre". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 57 (3): 192–194. doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1951-09488-4. https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1951-57-03/S0002-9904-1951-09488-4/.
- ↑ Freudenthal, Hans (1961). "Review: Lectures on modern geometry, by B. Segre". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 67 (5): 442–443. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1961-10620-4. https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1961-67-05/S0002-9904-1961-10620-4.
- ↑ Martinelli, Enzo (1952), "B. Segre, Forme differenziali e loro integrali, vol I, Calcolo Algebrico esterno e proprietà differenziali locali, Edizioni Universitarie Docet, Roma, 1951" (in it), Bollettino dell'Unione Matematica Italiana, Serie III 7 (2): 190–194, http://www.bdim.eu/item?id=BUMI_1952_3_7_2_188_0
- ↑ Du Val, Patrick (1952). "Review: Arithmetical questions on algebraic varieties, by B. Segre". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 58 (5): 575–576. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1952-09625-7. https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1952-58-05/S0002-9904-1952-09625-7/..
- ↑ Martinelli, Enzo (1957), "B. Segre, Forme differenziali e loro integrali, vol II, Omologia, coomologia, corrispondenze ed integrali sulle varietà, Edizioni Universitarie Docet, Roma, 1956" (in it), Bollettino dell'Unione Matematica Italiana, Serie III 12 (3): 461–462, http://www.bdim.eu/item?id=BUMI_1957_3_12_3_461_0
- ↑ Roth, Leonard (1959), "B. Segre, Forme differenziali e loro integrali, Docet, Roma, 1956, p.422" (in it), Bollettino dell'Unione Matematica Italiana, Serie III 14 (1): 122–124, http://www.bdim.eu/item?id=BUMI_1959_3_14_1_119_0.
- ↑ Atiyah, M. F. (October 1959), "Reviewed: Some Properties of Differentiable Varieties and Transformations by B. Segre", The Mathematical Gazette 43 (345): 234, doi:10.2307/3611008.
References
- Tallini, Giuseppe (1985), "Beniamino Segre", Acta Arithmetica XLV (1): 1–3, doi:10.4064/aa-45-1-1-3, http://matwbn.icm.edu.pl/ksiazki/aa/aa45/aa4511.pdf.
- The Editorial Board (1985–1986), "Publications of Beniamino Segre", Acta Arithmetica XLV (1): 5–18, http://matwbn.icm.edu.pl/ksiazki/aa/aa45/aa4512.pdf.
- Vesentini, Edoardo (2005), "Beniamino Segre and Italian Geometry", Rendiconti di Matematica e delle sue Applicazioni, Serie VII 25 (2): 185–193, http://www1.mat.uniroma1.it/ricerca/rendiconti/ARCHIVIO/2005(2)/185-193.pdf.
- O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Beniamino Segre", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Segre_Beniamino.html.
- Sernesi, Edoardo: "Beniamino Segre (Torino 1903-Frascati 1977)" (incl. extensive bibliography)
External links
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