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Sir Edmund Whittaker's Work on Automorphic Functions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

R. A. Rankin
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, The University Glasgow
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Although only three of Whittaker's papers (12, 13, 14) are on the theory of automorphic functions, he retained his interest in it throughout his life. His son, Dr J. M. Whittaker, informs me that his last mathematical conversation with his father was on this subject. The standard English work on automorphic functions by L. R. Ford (4), and its precursor in the Edinburgh Mathematical Tracts series, owe much to Whittaker, and it was he who suggested the term “isometric circle” of which Ford makes such elegant use in his development of the theory. Professor G. N. Watson informs me that Whittaker had expressed his willingness to contributea a chapter on automorphic functions to the revised and expanded edition of Modern Analysis which is in preparation.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Edinburgh Mathematical Society 1958

References

REFERENCES

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