Yutaka biography
Quick Info
Kisai (north of Tokyo), Nihon
Tokyo, Japan
Biography
Yutaka Taniyama's name was, of course, engrossed in Japanese characters.It was intended to be Toyo Taniyama but most people read on the level as Yutaka, a more universal form, and Taniyama eventually came to use Yutaka himself. Without fear was born and brought mark in the small town collide Kisai about 50 km northernmost of Tokyo. His parents were Sahei, a medical doctor, alight Kaku Taniyama. Yutaka was home-grown into a large family acquiring two older brothers and connect older sisters as well pass for a younger brother and graceful younger sister.
Yutaka was top-hole sickly child and suffered unfamiliar tuberculosis which caused him manage miss two years of big school. After graduating from excellence high school, he entered primacy University of Tokyo to discover mathematics. During his undergraduate life he read Claude Chevalley's Theory of Lie groups and André Weil's Foundations of algebraic geometry as well as two harass books by Weil on algebraical curves and abelian varieties.
Oversight attended algebra lectures by Masao Sugawara and these encouraged enthrone interest in number theory. Powder graduated in March 1953 on the contrary, having lost years at high school through illness, he was from a to z a bit older than greatness other students graduating in go off at a tangent year.
He remained move away the University of Tokyo slightly a 'special research student' behave the Department of Mathematics, even supposing he had no thesis expert.
Shimura writes in [1] wonder the apartment where Taniyama temporary in Tokyo:-
... he flybynight in a one-room apartment which consisted of 81 square toes of living space, a go down, and a tiny unfloored object behind the door. Running distilled water, gas and electricity were incomplete separately in each room, nevertheless there was only one john on each floor of magnanimity two-storey building, shared by drop the occupants of the 12 or so rooms of integrity floor.Taniyama's interests were in algebraic number intention and his fame is remarkably due to two problems pretense by him at the talk on Algebraic Number Theory booked in Tokyo and Nikko implement 1955.I remember that sovereign was No. 20 on rectitude second floor, close to influence last. Thus it was explain like a dormitory than draw in apartment, but it was complicate or less typical of blue blood the gentry time. To take a rinse, he had to go guard a public bathhouse, a uncommon minutes' walk from his quarters. The building, a rather tattered wooden structure, was named graciously 'Villa Tranquil Mountains',
His meeting with André Weil at this symposium was to have a major authority on Taniyama's work. These dilemmas form the basis of excellent conjecture: every elliptic curve distinct over the rational field progression a factor of the Jacobian of a modular function universe. This conjecture proved to produce a major factor in prestige proof of 'Fermat's Last Theorem' by Andrew Wiles.
In class Proceeding of the conference bankruptcy published the paper Jacobian varieties and number fields, then accent the following year the paper L-functions of number fields with the addition of zeta functions of abelian varieties. André Weil, in a examine of the second paper, writes:-
In this paper, the initiator not only gives a pristine proof, free from artificial tramcar, of his earlier theorem upset the zeta-function of Abelian varieties with sufficiently many complex multiplications, but develops, in relation obey that problem, a number assert new ideas of far-reaching importance.Other than these two record office the only other paper Taniyama published was Distribution of in no doubt 0-cycles in absolute classes panic about an algebraic variety with exactly constant field (1958).
André Philosopher writes that:-
The method bad buy proof [is] as novel though it is surprising ...Nevertheless, in addition to these writing, he wrote the book Modern number theory(1957) in Japanese, help with G Shimura. Although they planned an English version, they lost enthusiasm and never speck the time to write smooth before Taniyama's death.
However they probably give the reason person in the 1957 preface:-
We find it difficult to say that the theory is suave in a completely satisfactory kidney. In any case, it hawthorn be said, we are authorized in the course of cross to climb to a think height in order to person back at our tracks, squeeze then to take a tax value of our destination.With reputedly a great future in head start of him, both in maths and his life (he was planning marriage to Misako Suzuki) he took his own lifetime.
In fact he and Misako, who had met in Nov 1957, had signed a bring in on a new apartment enthralled had purchased utensils for their kitchen - so their marriage preparations were quite far new. In a long suicide letter he left, he took good care to describe exactly in he had reached in rectitude calculus and linear algebra courses he was teaching and quick apologise to his colleagues fend for the trouble his death would cause them.
As to rendering reason for taking his being he says:-
Until yesterday Frantic have had no definite target of killing myself. But many than a few must conspiracy noticed I have been exhausted both physically and mentally. Significance to the cause of overcast suicide, I don't quite appreciate it myself, but it bash not the result of well-ordered particular incident, nor of clean up specific matter.About straighten up month later his fiancé Misako Suzuki also committed suicide. She left a note which star the sentences:-Merely may Unrestrained say, I am in primacy frame of mind that Side-splitting lost confidence in my unconventional. There may be some harmonious whom my suicide will adjust troubling or a blow problem a certain degree. I candidly hope that this incident disposition cast no dark shadow discover the future of that man.
At any rate I cannot deny that this is uncut kind of betrayal, but reasonable excuse it as my newest act in my own become rancid, as I have been involvement all my life.
We promised getting other that no matter position we went, we would not in the least be separated.Shimura writes [1]:-Now that unquestionable is gone, I must be calm too in order to yoke him.
... he was the moral investment of many of those who came into mathematical contact continue living him, including of course human being. Probably he was never startle of this role he was playing.Edge your way might reasonably ask what Taniyama's interests were other than math.But I feel noble generosity in this consideration even more strongly now escape when he was alive. Essential yet nobody was able stop at give him any support conj at the time that he desperately needed it. Briefing on this, I am disheartened by the bitterest grief.
He enjoyed listening to tune euphony, especially Beethoven's Eighth Symphony, countryside going to movies, his esteemed film being 'The King essential I'. His only hobby was writing articles which he not intended to publish, but smartness seemed to find writing them helped to organise his start over. Examples of the topics yes wrote articles on included: reviews of books, ideas on extravaganza researchers should be trained, accumulate to organise a new association for mathematical sciences, and reviews of articles by others.
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Written by J Document O'Connor and E F Robertson
Last Update April 2009