Élie Cartan
| Élie Cartan | |
|---|---|
Professor Élie Joseph Cartan
|
|
| Born |
9 April 1869 Dolomieu, Isère, France |
| Died | 6 May 1951 (aged 82) Paris, France |
| Nationality | France |
| Fields | Mathematics and physics |
| Institutions |
University of Paris École Normale Supérieure |
| Alma mater | University of Paris |
| Thesis | Sur la structure des groupes de transformations finis et continus (1894) |
| Doctoral advisor |
Gaston Darboux Sophus Lie |
| Doctoral students |
Charles Ehresmann Mohsen Hashtroodi Radu Rosca Kentaro Yano |
| Known for |
Lie groups Differential geometry Special and general relativity Quantum mechanics : spinor, rotating vectors |
| Notable awards |
Leconte Prize (1930) Lobachevsky Prize (1937) Fellow of the Royal Society |
Élie Joseph Cartan (French: [kaʁtɑ̃]; 9 April 1869 – 6 May 1951) was an influential French mathematician who did fundamental work in the theory of Lie groups and their geometric applications. He also made significant contributions to mathematical physics, differential geometry, and group theory. He was the father of another influential mathematician, Henri Cartan, and the composer Jean Cartan.
Élie Cartan was born 9 April 1869 in the village of Dolomieu, Isère to Joseph Cartan (1837–1917) and Anne Cottaz (1841–1927). Joseph Cartan was the village blacksmith; Élie Cartan recalled that his childhood had passed under "blows of the anvil, which started every morning from dawn", and that "his mother, during those rare minutes when she was free from taking care of the children and the house, was working with a spinning-wheel". Élie had an elder sister Jeanne-Marie (1867–1931) who became a dressmaker; a younger brother Léon (1872–1956) who became a blacksmith working in his father's smithy; and a younger sister Anna (1878–1923), who, partly under Élie's influence, entered École Normale Supérieure (as Élie had before) and chose the career as a mathematics teacher at lycée (secondary school).
Élie Cartan entered an elementary school in Dolomieu and was the best student in the school. One of his teachers, M. Dupuis, recalled "Élie Cartan was a shy student, but an unusual light of great intellect was shining in his eyes, and this was combined with an excellent memory". Antonin Dubost, then the representative of Isère, visited the school and was impressed by Cartan's unusual abilities. He recommended Cartan to participate in a contest for a scholarship in a lycée. Cartan prepared for the contest under the supervision of M. Dupuis and passed at the age of ten years. He spent five years (1880–1885) at the College of Vienne and then two years (1885–1887) at the Lycée of Grenoble. In 1887 he moved to the Lycée Janson de Sailly in Paris to study sciences for two years; there he met and made friend of his classmate Jean-Baptiste Perrin (1870–1942) who later became a famous physicist in France.
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