Atle Selberg (born June 17, 1917) is a Norwegian mathematician known for his work in analytic number theory, and in the theory of automorphic forms, in particular bringing them into relation with spectral theory. June 17 is the 168th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (169th in leap years), with 197 days remaining. ... 1917 was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... A mathematician is a person whose area of study and research is mathematics. ... Analytic number theory is the branch of number theory that uses methods from mathematical analysis. ... In mathematics, the general notion of automorphic form is the extension to analytic functions, perhaps of several complex variables, of the theory of modular forms. ... In mathematics, spectral theory is an inclusive term for theories extending the eigenvector and eigenvalue theory of a single square matrix. ...

Selberg was born in Langesund, Norway. While he was still at school he was influenced by the work of Srinivasa Aaiyangar Ramanujan. He studied at the University of Oslo and completed his dr. philos. (Ph.D.) grade in 1943. Langesund is the administrative centre of the municipality of Bamble, Norway. ... Ramanujan Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan (Tamil: ஸ்ரீனிவாஸ ஐயங்கார் ராமானுஜன்) (December 22, 1887 – April 26, 1920) was a groundbreaking Indian mathematician. ... The University of Oslo (Universitetet i Oslo, in Latin Universitas Osloensis) was founded in 1811 as Universitas Regia Fredericiana (the Royal Frederick University, norwegian ), modelled after the recently established University of Berlin. ... Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ...

During the second world war he worked in isolation due to the German military occupation of Norway. After the war his accomplishments became known, including a proof that positive proportion of the zeros of the Riemann zeta function lie on the line 1/2. After the war he turned to sieve theory, a previously neglected topic which Selberg's work brought into prominence. In a 1947 paper he introduced the Selberg sieve, a method which led to Chen's theorem among other important results. Then in 1948 Selberg, working with Paul Erdős, gave an elementary proof of the prime number theorem (although there was a dispute between them about to whom this result should primarily be attributed). For all these accomplishments Selberg received the 1950 Fields Medal. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... In mathematics, the Riemann zeta function, named after Bernhard Riemann, is a function of paramount importance in number theory, because of its relation to the distribution of prime numbers. ... Sieve theory is a set of general techniques in number theory, designed to count, or more realistically to estimate the size of, sifted sets of integers. ... 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Chens theorem was first stated by Chinese mathematician Chen Jingrun in 1966, with further details of the proof in 1973. ... 1948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Paul ErdÅ‘s Paul ErdÅ‘s (also Pál ErdÅ‘s, March 26, 1913 – September 20, 1996) was an immensely prolific and famously eccentric Hungarian mathematician who, with hundreds of collaborators, worked on problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory and probability theory. ... In mathematics, a proof is a demonstration that, given certain axioms, some statement of interest is necessarily true. ... In number theory, the prime number theorem (PNT) describes the approximate, asymptotic distribution of the prime numbers. ... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to up to four mathematicians (not over forty years of age) at each International Congress of International Mathematical Union, since 1936 and regularly since 1948 at the initiative of the Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields. ...

Selberg moved to the United States and settled at the Institute for Advanced Study in the 1950s where he remains today. During the 1950s he worked on introducing spectral theory into number theory, culmulating into his development of the Selberg trace formula, his most famous result. This establishes a duality between the length spectrum of a Riemann surface and the eigenvalues of the Laplacian which is analogous to the duality between the prime numbers and the zeros of the zeta function. He was awarded the 1986 Wolf Prize in Mathematics. Fuld Hall The Institute for Advanced Study is a private institution in Princeton Township, New Jersey, designed to foster pure cutting-edge research by scientists in a variety of fields without the complications of teaching or funding, or the agendas of sponsorship. ... // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the height of the baby-boom from returning... In mathematics, spectral theory is an inclusive term for theories extending the eigenvector and eigenvalue theory of a single square matrix. ... Traditionally, number theory is that branch of pure mathematics concerned with the properties of integers. ... In mathematics, the Selberg trace formula is a central result, or area of research, in non-commutative harmonic analysis. ... In mathematics, particularly in complex analysis, a Riemann surface is a one-dimensional complex manifold. ... In mathematics, a number is called an eigenvalue of a matrix if there exists a nonzero vector such that the matrix times the vector is equal to the same vector multiplied by the eigenvalue. ... In vector calculus, the Laplace operator or Laplacian is a differential operator equal to the sum of all the unmixed second partial derivatives of a dependent variable. ... In mathematics, a prime number (or prime) is a natural number greater than one whose only positive divisors are one and itself. ... 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Past winners of the Wolf Prize in Mathematics: 1978 Israel M. Gelfand, Carl L. Siegel 1979 Jean Leray, André Weil 1980 Henri Cartan, Andrei Kolmogorov 1981 Lars Ahlfors, Oscar Zariski 1982 Hassler Whitney, Mark Grigoryevich Krein 1983/4 Shiing S. Chern, Paul Erdős 1984/5 Kunihiko Kodaira, Hans...

See also

• Critical line theorem
• Chowla-Selberg formula

In mathematics, the critical line theorem tells us that at least a fixed percentage of the nontrivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function, values where and , lie on the critical line where . ... In mathematics, the Chowla-Selberg formula is the evaluation of a certain product of values of the Gamma function at rational values. ...

External links

• MacTutor biography