A sketch of Yutaka Taniyama

Yutaka Taniyama (Japanese: 谷山 豊 Taniyama Yutaka^[1]; November 12, 1927 – November 17, 1958) was a Japanese mathematician, best known for conjecturing, in modern language, automorphic properties of L-functions of elliptic curves over any number field. A partial and refined case of this conjecture for elliptic curves over rationals is called the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture or the Taniyama-Shimura theorem whose statement he subsequently refined in collaboration with Goro Shimura. The names Taniyama, Shimura and Weil have all been attached to this conjecture, but the idea is essentially due to Taniyama. In 1986 Ribet proved that if the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture held, then so would Fermat's last theorem, which inspired Andrew Wiles to work for a number of years in secrecy on it, and to prove enough of it to prove Fermat's Last Theorem. Due to the pioneering contribution of Wiles and the efforts of a number of mathematicians the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture was finally proven in 1999. The original Taniyama conjecture for elliptic curves over arbitrary number fields remains open, and the method of Wiles and others cannot be extended to provide its proof. Image File history File links Yutaka Taniyama, date unknown. ... Image File history File links Yutaka Taniyama, date unknown. ... November 12 is the 316th day of the year (317th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 49 days remaining. ... 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 17 November is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece, coinciding with the anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising. ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Taniyama-Shimura theorem establishes an important connection between elliptic curves, which are objects from algebraic geometry, and modular forms, which are certain periodic holomorphic functions investigated in number theory. ... Goro Shimura (志村 五郎, 1930 -) is a Japanese-American mathematician, and currently a professor of mathematics at Princeton University. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Kenneth Alan Ken Ribet is an American mathematician, currently a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. ... Pierre de Fermat Problem II.8 in the Arithmetica of Diophantus, annotated with Fermats comment which became Fermats Last Theorem (edition of 1670). ... Andrew Wiles should not be confused with André Weil, another famous mathematician who, like Wiles, did important work in the area of elliptic curves. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

For reasons he was unable to explain, even to himself, Taniyama committed suicide. He left a note explaining how far he had gotten with his teaching duties, and apologizing to his colleagues for the trouble he was causing them. His mystifying suicide note read: Until yesterday I had no definite intention of killing myself. But more than a few must have noticed that lately I have been tired both physically and mentally. As to the cause of my suicide, I don't quite understand it myself, but it is not the result of a particular incident, nor of a specific matter. Merely may I say, I am in the frame of mind that I lost confidence in my future. There may be someone to whom my suicide will be troubling or a blow to a certain degree. I sincerely hope that this incident will cast no dark shadow over the future of that person. At any rate, I cannot deny that this is a kind of betrayal, but please excuse it as my last act in my own way, as I have been doing my own way all my life. Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of willfully ending ones own life. ...

Although his note is mostly enigmatic it does mention tiredness and a loss of confidence in his future. Taniyama's ideas had been criticized as unsubstantiated and his behavior had occasionally been deemed peculiar. Goro Shimura mentioned that he suffered from depression. Taniyama also mentioned in the note his concern that some might be harmed by his suicide and his hope that the act would not cast "a dark shadow over that person."

About a month later, Misako Suzuki, the girl whom he was planning to marry, also committed suicide, leaving a note reading: We promised each other that no matter where we went, we would never be separated. Now that he is gone, I must go too in order to join him.

After Taniyama's death, Goro Shimura stated that: He was always kind to his colleagues, especially to his juniors, and he genuinely cared about their welfare. He was the moral support of many of those who came into mathematical contact with him, including of course myself. Probably he was never conscious of this role he was playing. But I feel his noble generosity in this respect even more strongly now than when he was alive. And yet nobody was able to give him any support when he desperately needed it. Reflecting on this, I am overwhelmed by the bitterest grief.

External links

• O'Connor, John J., and Edmund F. Robertson. "Yutaka Taniyama". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.

Notes

1. ^ Taniyama's given name 豊 was intended to be read as Toyo, but was frequently misread as the more common form Yutaka, which he eventually adopted as his own name.

References

• Singh, Simon (hardcover, 1998). Fermat's Enigma. Bantam Books. ISBN 0-8027-1331-9 (previously published under the title Fermat's Last Theorem).