Cornelius Lanczos (Lánczos Kornél), born Kornél Löwy (February 2, 1893–June 25, 1974), was a Hungarian mathematician and physicist. The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... February 2 is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1893 (MDCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... June 25 is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 189 days remaining. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Leonhard Euler is considered by many to be one of the greatest mathematicians of all time A mathematician is the person whose primary area of study and research is the field of mathematics. ... Articles with similar titles include physician, a person who practices medicine. ...

Lanczos' PhD thesis (1921) was on relativity theory. In 1924 he discovered an exact solution of the Einstein field equation which represents a cylindrically symmetric rigidly rotating configuration of dust particles. This was later rediscovered by Willem Jacob van Stockum and is known today as the van Stockum dust. It is one of the simplest known exact solutions in general relativity and regarded as an important example, in part because it exhibits closed timelike curves. Lanczos served as assistant to Albert Einstein during the period 1928–29. // In general relativity, an exact solution is a Lorentzian manifold equipped with certain tensor fields which are taken to model states of ordinary matter, such as a fluid, or classical nongravitational fields such as the electromagnetic field. ... For other topics related to Einstein see Einstein (disambig) In physics, the Einstein field equation or the Einstein equation is a tensor equation in the theory of gravitation. ... In general relativity, a fluid solution is an exact solution of the Einstein field equation in which the gravitational field is produced entirely by the mass, momentum, and stress density of a fluid. ... Willem Jacob van Stockum (November 20, 1910-June 10, 1944) was a physicist who made an important contribution to the early development of general relativity. ... In general relativity, the van Stockum dust is an exact solution of the Einstein field equation in which the gravitational field is generated by dust particles which are rotating about an axis of cylindrical symmetry. ... In a Lorentzian manifold, a closed timelike curve (CTC) is a worldline of a material particle in spacetime that is closed. ... Albert Einstein ( ) (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass-energy equivalence, . He was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the...

He did pioneering work on what is now called the Fast Fourier transform (1940), but the significance of his discovery was not appreciated at the time and today the FFT is credited to Cooley and Tukey (1965). (As a matter of fact, similar claims can be made for several other mathematicians; some even name Carl Friedrich Gauss as a progenitor of the FFT.) The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is an efficient algorithm to compute the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and its inverse. ... The Cooley-Tukey algorithm, named after J.W. Cooley and John Tukey, is the most common fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm. ... Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss or Gauß ( ; Latin: ) (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician and scientist of profound genius who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy, and optics. ...

Working in Los Angeles at the US National Bureau of Standards after 1949 Lanczos developed a number of techniques for mathematical calculations using digital computers, including: NIST logo The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, formerly known as The National Bureau of Standards) is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce’s Technology Administration. ...

• the Lanczos algorithm for finding eigenvalues of large symmetric matrices.
• the Lanczos approximation for the gamma function.

In 1962, Lanczos showed that the Weyl tensor, which plays a fundamental role in general relativity, can be obtained from a tensor potential which is now called the Lanczos potential. The Lanczos algorithm is a popular method to find a zero vector in the process of the quadratic sieve. ... In this transformation of the Mona Lisa, the blue vector has been rotated, but the red one has not. ... In mathematics, the Lanczos approximation is an approximation of the Gamma function published in 1964 by Cornelius Lanczos. ... In differential geometry, the Weyl curvature tensor, named after Hermann Weyl, is the traceless component of the Riemann curvature tensor. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Lanczos was an outstanding physics teacher. Books such as The Variational Principles of Mechanics (1949) show his explanatory ability and enthusiasm for the subject.

During the McCarthy era Lanczos came under suspicion for possible Communist links. In 1952 he chose to leave the USA and move to the School of Theoretical Physics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in Ireland where he succeeded Schrödinger. When at D.I.A.S. he wrote the classic book, "Applied Analysis" (1956). A 1947 comic book published by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society warning of the dangers of a Communist takeover. ... The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) (Institiúid Ard-Léinn Bhaile Átha Cliath in Irish) Dublin, Ireland was established in 1940 by the Taoiseach of the time, Eamon de Valera under the Institute For Advanced Studies Act, 1940. ... Erwin Schrödinger, as depicted on the former Austrian 1000 Schilling bank note. ...

References

• Lanczos, Cornelius; and William R. Davis (ed.) (1998). Collected published papers with commentaries. Raleigh, N.C.: North Carolina State University. ISBN 0-929493-01-X. 
• Lanczos, Cornelius (1970). The Variational Principles of Mechanics. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-1743-6. 
• Lanczos, Cornelius (1962). "The splitting of the Riemann tensor". Rev. Modern Phys. 34: 379. 
• Lanczos, Cornelius (1924). "Über eine stationäre kosmologie im sinne der Einsteinischen Gravitationstheories". Zeitschr. f. Phys. 21: 73. 

External links

• O'Connor, John J.; Edmund F. Robertson "Cornelius Lanczos". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.  
• Cornelius Lanczos, Collected published papers with commentaries, published by North Carolina State University