Yitang zhang, genannt tom zhang, chinesisch, pinyin zhang yitang. The oldest recorded birth by the social security administration for the name zhang is sunday, june 4th, 1911. Zhang, a popular math professor at the univer sity of new hampshire, stunned the world of pure mathematics when he announced. Geometry and analysis on manifolds, uc santa barbara, may 46, 2018. General divisor functions in arithmetic progressions to. Yitang zhang should at least provide a respective comment at his arxivarticle wherehow incomplete the paper is. Til that chinese mathematician yitang zhang could not get an academic job upon graduating, having to work as an accountant and a delivery worker for a new york city restaurant. Yitang zhangs pursuit of beauty in math the new yorker. Prime time a unh mathematicians discoveryand the dramatic story behind itcreates an overnight sensation. Why did seemingly nobody notice yitang zhang before the prime. General divisor functions in arithmetic progressions to large. Yitang zhang, denominado tom zhang, e um matematico chines.
The lead article in this weeks new yorker feb2, 2015 is on yitang zhang, the unh professor who appeared from obscurity last year to prove the first real result in the direction of the twinprimes conjecture specifically, a concrete repeating bounded gap between primes. May 14, 20 the new result, from yitang zhang of the university of new hampshire in durham, finds that there are infinitely many pairs of primes that are less than 70 million units apart without relying on. Yitang zhang was born in china in 1955 and studied mathematics at the university of beijing. The unassuming mathematician, who spends pretty much every free waking momentand many sleeping ones as wellpondering intractable math problems, became famous overnight. Yitang zhang is a mathematician who emerged from relative obscurity with a landmark achievement in analytic number theory. To some extent i feel an unwarranted amount of closeness to this story. The new result, from yitang zhang of the university of new hampshire in durham, finds that there are infinitely many pairs of primes that are less than 70 million units apart without relying on. Please join the simons foundation and our generous member organizations in supporting arxiv during our giving campaign september 2327. He was a math instructor, not a tenuretrack professor, at the university of new hampshire from 1999 to 20, teaching prealgebra and calculus yitang zhang on rat. Til that chinese mathematician yitang zhang could not get an. In may 20, the mathematician yitang zhang launched what has proven to be a banner year and a half for the study of prime numbers, those numbers that arent divisible by any smaller number except 1.
Yitang tom zhang, in his 50s, has written a paper that provides a major. The department of mathematics and statistics invites applications for two tenuretrack faculty positions in statistics data science, one at the assistant professor level, and one at open rank, starting in the fall semester of 2020. Yitang tom zhang born 1955 is a chineseborn american mathematician working in the. The new york times reported zhangs breakthrough a month after his submission, and filmmaker george csicsery made zhang the subject of 2015 documentary counting from infinity. As an adolescent during the cultural revolution in china, yitang zhang wasnt allowed to attend high school.
Hampshire named yitang zhang the paper claimed to have taken a huge step. For the undergraduate thesis i have about 250 hours. If you have additional information or corrections regarding this mathematician, please use the update form. It began in april 20 when yitang tom zhang, a virtually unknown mathematician working as an adjunct professor at the university of new hampshire. He later went on to solve a math problem that had been unsolved for 150 years and won a macarthur genius grant. A primenumber proof and a world of persistence an exciting breakthrough by an academic little known before last year is firing up mathematicians. A special seminar has been scheduled for tomorrow monday at 3pm at harvard, where yitang zhang will present new results on bounded. Celebrity mathematician joins ucsb faculty the daily nexus. He told the simons foundation writer erica klarreich that even as he. A year ago april, the editors of the annals of mathematics, a journal published by the institute and princeton university, received an email with a submission by an unknown mathematician. But zhang always believed he would solve a great math problem someday. His counterintuitive findings show that special pairs. He moved to the usa in 1985 and defended his doctoral thesis at purdue university in 1992.
Is the outline in the annals the preprint or the full accepted paper. Zhang in ink paperback paperback january 1, 1991 by zhang zhi zhong author see all formats and editions hide other formats and editions. Ten mathematical landmarks, 19672017 mddcva spring section meeting frostburg state university april 29, 2017 ten mathematical landmarks, 19672017. Why did seemingly nobody notice yitang zhang before the. Zhang, of the university of new hampshire, showed for the first time that even though primes get increasingly rare as you go further out along. Yitang zhangs spectacular mathematical journey institute. Unh math professor yitang tom zhang has been named a 2014 macarthur fellow, the macarthur foundation announced yesterday.
Ucsb new faculty division of mathematical life and physical sciences. Because zhang was a nobody at a relatively unknown researchwise us university. Frankly put, not being fully transparent about the state of this work and thus have other people spend their time on it not knowing where it is lacking is absolutely ridiculous. Geometry and analysis on manifolds, uc santa barbara, april 79, 2017. Esteemed professor teaches popular seminar the daily nexus. Pdf document information annals of mathematics fine hall washington road princeton university princeton, nj 08544, usa phone. They had not only been more careful in several difficult arguments in zhangs original paper, they had also developed zhangs techniques to be both more powerful and to allow a much simpler proof and forms the basis for the proof presented herein. Then he solved a hundredandfiftyyearold math problem. Stopple said zhangs next goal is to solve the landausiegel theorem, an important piece of a larger and more difficult problem called the riemann hypothesis, a 150 yearold mathematical conjecture with a one million dollar prize attached to it. Y itang tom zhang spent the seven years following the completion of his ph. And when news leaked out about yitang zhangs solution to an ageold problem, the reaction was swift. Are there any experts here who can explain the proof. Also see the lists of names of chinese, english, or thai origins.
When was the first name zhang first recorded in the united states. Number theory news not even wrong columbia mathematics. Oct 30, 2014 they had not only been more careful in several difficult arguments in zhang s original paper, they had also developed zhang s techniques to be both more powerful and to allow a much simpler proof and forms the basis for the proof presented herein. Students stopped zhang on the unh campus to ask for his autograph. After that, he held various casual jobs until 1999, when he joined the university of new hampshire, where he recently was appointed professor of mathemat ics. Jun 15, 2017 as an adolescent during the cultural revolution in china, yitang zhang wasnt allowed to attend high school. Later, in his 30s, he worked odd jobs in the united states and sometimes slept in his car.
Origin and meaning of zhang user submitted origins. Bounded gaps between primes by yitang zhang, an adjunct professor at the university of new hampshire, immediately caught the attention of the editors as well as professors in the school of mathematics. Now he is on a lecture tour that includes stops at harvard, columbia, caltech, and princeton, is fielding multiple professorship offers, and spends two hours a day dealing with the press. Ten mathematical landmarks, 1967 2017 maa sections. How yitang tom zhang proved a theorem that had stumped. Has anybody read yitang zhangs paper on prime gaps. Bounded gaps between primes yitang zhang it is proved that liminf n. Wenjun zhang department of chemical and biomolecular engineering, university of california berkeley verified email at berkeley.
Zhang yitang born 1955 is a chineseborn american mathematician working in the area of number theory. J du, z gu, m liang, y hu, w zhang, s priceman, l wu, zh zhou. Zhang is one of 21 exceptionally creative individuals with a track record of achievement and the potential for even more significant contributions in the future, according to the foundation. Our method is a refinement of the recent work of goldston. Yitang zhang proves landmark theorem in distribution of prime. First proof that infinitely many prime numbers come in.
While working for the university of new hampshire as a lecturer, zhang submitted an article to the annals of mathematics in 20 which established the first finite bound on the least gap between consecutive primes that is attained infinitely. A complete riemann zeta distribution and the riemann hypothesis nakamura, takashi, bernoulli, 2015. An unknown mathematician, yitang zhang, has revolutionized his field and helped move forward a 2,000yearold conjecture about prime numbers. A subway sandwich mathematician zhang yitang march 1, 2014 tomcircle chinese, modern math 1 comment zhang is the typical demonstration of pure perseverance of traditional chinese mathematicians. Math needed to understand yitang zhang proof i want to do my undergrad thesis about yitang zhang proof, how much math do i need to understand the proof i think it can be a good topic for my undergraduate thesis, that is, a brief history of the problem ending in the landmark paper of zhang. A primenumber proof and a world of persistence an exciting breakthrough by an academic little known before last year is firing up. First proof that infinitely many prime numbers come in pairs. Alec wilkinson, a staff writer, is the author of ten books, including the. Garo sarajian, a mathematics graduate student at ucsb, said he noticed that people outside of the math world were beginning to recognize zhangs name. The successful candidates will have an earned doctorate in statistics, or a discipline closely related to data. Til that chinese mathematician yitang zhang could not get. A much needed gap is finally found, notices ams, 2015, nr. Zeros of the derivatives of the riemann zetafunction ki, haseo and lee, yoonbok, functiones et approximatio commentarii mathematici, 2012.
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