From Rainbows to Rings: A History of the Idea of the Spectrum

D. E. Taylor
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D. E. Taylor: University of Sydney, Department of Pure Mathematics

A chapter in Fourier Techniques and Applications, 1985, pp 221-224 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In twentieth century mathematics the word ’spectrum’ occurs in many places and is used to describe a wide variety of apparently unrelated ideas. The evolution of the meaning of this word begins with the rainbow of light created by a prism and passes by way of integral equations and quantum mechanics to the space of prime ideals of a ring. Along the way one glimpses much of modern harmonic analysis and operator theory.

Keywords: Quadratic Form; Prime Ideal; Maximal Ideal; Commutative Ring; Algebraic Variety (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1985
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-1-4613-2525-3_13

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4613-2525-3_13

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