Neumann, Carl Gottfried

Neumann, Carl Gottfried 

Born May 7, 1832, in Königsberg (present-day Kaliningrad, USSR); died Mar. 27, 1925, in Leipzig. German mathematician.

Neumann was a professor at the universities at Halle (from 1863), Tübingen (from 1865), and Leipzig (from 1868). Neumann was the author of works on the theory of partial differential equations dealing with potential theory (in particular, logarithmic potential theory), in which he gave a method (Neumann’s method) for solving the Dirichlet problem for the case of convex contours (in a plane) and convex surfaces (in space). He studied the second boundary value problem, which is called the Neumann problem. Neumann was the author of works on the Riemannian theory of algebraic functions. He also investigated problems in physics. Together with the German mathematician A. Clebsch, he founded the journal Mathematische Annalen in 1868.

WORKS

Untersuchungen über das logarithmische und Newtonische Potential. Leipzig, 1877.
Vorlesungen über Riemann’s Theorie der Abelschen Integrale. 2nd ed. Leipzig, 1884.
Beiträge zu einzeinen Theilen der mathematischen Physik. . . . Leipzig, 1893.
Allgemeine Untersuchungen über das Newton’sche Prinzip der Fernwirkungen . . . . Leipzig, 1896.

REFERENCES

“Carl Neumann.” Mathematische Annalen, vol. 94, 1925.
Holder, O. “Carl Neumann.” Mathematische Annalen, vol. 96, no. 1, 1926. (Contains a list of Neumann’s works.)