Augustin Louis Cauchy
| Augustin-Louis Cauchy | |
|---|---|
Cauchy around 1840. Lithography by Zéphirin Belliard after a painting by Jean Roller.
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| Born |
21 August 1789 Paris, France |
| Died | 23 May 1857 (aged 67) Sceaux, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions |
École Centrale du Panthéon École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées École polytechnique |
| Alma mater | École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées |
| Doctoral students |
Francesco Faà di Bruno Viktor Bunyakovsky |
| Known for | See list |
Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy FRS FRSE (French: [oɡystɛ̃ lwi koʃi]; 21 August 1789 – 23 May 1857) was a French mathematician who made pioneering contributions to analysis. He was one of the first to state and prove theorems of calculus rigorously, rejecting the heuristic principle of the generality of algebra of earlier authors. He almost singlehandedly founded complex analysis and the study of permutation groups in abstract algebra. A profound mathematician, Cauchy had a great influence over his contemporaries and successors. His writings range widely in mathematics and mathematical physics.
"More concepts and theorems have been named for Cauchy than for any other mathematician (in elasticity alone there are sixteen concepts and theorems named for Cauchy)." Cauchy was a prolific writer; he wrote approximately eight hundred research articles and five complete textbooks.
Cauchy was the son of Louis François Cauchy (1760–1848) and Marie-Madeleine Desestre. Cauchy had two brothers, Alexandre Laurent Cauchy (1792–1857), who became a president of a division of the court of appeal in 1847, and a judge of the court of cassation in 1849; and Eugene François Cauchy (1802–1877), a publicist who also wrote several mathematical works.
Cauchy married Aloise de Bure in 1818. She was a close relative of the publisher who published most of Cauchy's works. By her he had two daughters, Marie Françoise Alicia (1819) and Marie Mathilde (1823).
Cauchy's father (Louis François Cauchy) was a high official in the Parisian Police of the New Régime. He lost his position because of the French Revolution (July 14, 1789) that broke out one month before Augustin-Louis was born. The Cauchy family survived the revolution and the following Reign of Terror (1794) by escaping to Arcueil, where Cauchy received his first education, from his father. After the execution of Robespierre (1794), it was safe for the family to return to Paris. There Louis-François Cauchy found himself a new bureaucratic job, and quickly moved up the ranks. When Napoleon Bonaparte came to power (1799), Louis-François Cauchy was further promoted, and became Secretary-General of the Senate, working directly under Laplace (who is now better known for his work on mathematical physics). The famous mathematician Lagrange was also a friend of the Cauchy family.
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