Born in Leipzig in 1906, Hermann Boerner contributed to the mathematical landscape of Germany throughout the mid-twentieth century. His professional life focused on complex analysis, variation calculus, and the representation theory of groups. By the time of his death in Göttingen in 1982, he had established a body of work centered on fundamental mathematical structures.
Academic Foundation
Boerner completed his education at Leipzig University. His career coincided with a period in mathematics where the field's underlying foundations were subject to significant discussion. During the early twentieth century, questions surrounding set theory and logic moved to the forefront of the discipline, influencing the scope of his academic interests.
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Boerner produced several significant texts on the calculus of variations. His 1936 paper, Über die Extremalen und geodätischen Felder in der Variationsrechnung der mehrfachen Integrale, appeared in Mathematische Annalen, volume 112. In 1940, he published two additional works in Mathematische Zeitschrift: Variationsrechnung aus dem Stokesschen Satz and Über die Legendreschen Bedingungen und die Feldtheorie in der Variationsrechnung der mehrfachen Integrale. He later reviewed the entrance of Carathéodory into the variation calculus in a 1953 article for the Jahresbericht DMV.
Representation Theory
The focus of his research shifted toward the representation theory of groups, an area with applications in modern physics. In 1967, he published Darstellungstheorie der endlichen Gruppen through Teubner. An expanded exploration of this topic, Representations of groups, with special consideration for the needs of modern physics, was published by North-Holland Publishing in 1970, featuring a translation by P. G. Murphy.
Fast facts
- Born: 1906, Leipzig
- Died: 1982, Göttingen
- Nationality: Germany
- Education: Leipzig University
- Primary Fields: Variation calculus, group representation theory, complex analysis
Questions readers ask
What were Boerner's primary areas of research?
He focused on variation calculus, complex analysis, and the representation theory of finite groups.
Where did Boerner study?
He was educated at Leipzig University.
