Gustav Herglotz

Gustav Herglotz
Born	(1881-02-02)2 February 1881 Wallern, Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire
Died	22 March 1953(1953-03-22) (aged 72) Göttingen, Lower Saxony
Nationality	German
Alma mater	University of Göttingen LMU Munich
Known for	Works in seismology
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	University of Leipzig
Doctoral advisor	Hugo von Seeliger Ludwig Boltzmann
Doctoral students	Emil Artin Felix Burkhardt Peter Scherk

Gustav Herglotz (2 February 1881, Wallern – 22 March 1953, Göttingen) was a German Bohemian mathematician. He is best known for his works on the theory of relativity and seismology.

Herglotz studied Mathematics and Astronomy at the University of Vienna in 1899, and attended lectures by Ludwig Boltzmann. In this time of study, he had a friendship with his colleagues Paul Ehrenfest, Hans Hahn and Heinrich Tietze. In 1900 he went to the LMU Munich and achieved his Doctorate in 1902 under Hugo von Seeliger. Afterwards, he went to the University of Göttingen, where he habilitated under Felix Klein. In 1904 he became Privatdozent for Astronomy and Mathematics there, and in 1907 Professor extraordinarius. Here, be became interested in the theory of earthquakes, and together with Emil Wiechert, he developed the Wiechert–Herglotz method for the determination of the velocity distribution of Earth's interior from the known prorogation times of seismic waves (an inverse problem). There, Herglotz solved a special integral equation of Abelian type. In 1908 he became Professor extraordinarius in Vienna, and in 1909 at the University of Leipzig. From 1925 (until becoming Emeritus in 1947) he again was in Göttingen as the successor of Carl Runge on the chair of applied mathematics. One of his students was Emil Artin.

Herglotz made contribution in many fields of applied and pure mathematics. The Theorem of Herglotz is known in differential geometry, and he also contributed to number theory. He worked in the fields of celestial mechanics, theory of electrons, special relativity (where he developed a theory of elasticity), general relativity, hydrodynamics, refraction theory.

Selected works

• Gesammelte Schriften / Gustav Herglotz, edited for d. Akad. d. Wiss. in Göttingen by Hans Schwerdtfeger. XL, 652 p., Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1979, ISBN 3-525-40720-3.
• Vorlesungen über die Mechanik der Kontinua / G. Herglotz, prepared by R. B. Guenther and H. Schwerdtfeger, Teubner-Archiv zur Mathematik; vol. 3, 251 p.: 1 Ill., graph. Darst.; 22 cm, Teubner, Leipzig 1985.
• Über die analytische Fortsetzung des Potentials ins Innere der anziehenden Massen, Preisschriften der Fürstlichen Jablonowskischen Gesellschaft zu Leipzig, VII, 52 pages, with 18 Fig.; Teubner, Leipzig (1914).
• Zur Einsteinschen Gravitationstheorie, Ber. über d. Verh. d. königl. sächs. Gesellsch. d. Wissensch. zu Leipzig, pp. 199–203 (1916).
• Über das quadratische Reziprozitätsgesetz in imaginären quadratischen Zahlkörpern, Ber. über d. Verh. d. königl. sächs. Gesellsch. d. Wissensch. zu Leipzig, pp. 303–310 (1921).

See also

• Herglotz representation theorem
• Herglotz–Zagier function
• Herglotz-Noether theorem

External links

Media related to Gustav Herglotz at Wikimedia Commons Works by or about Gustav Herglotz at Wikisource

• Gustav Herglotz at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Gustav Herglotz", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
• Herglotz, Gustav (1881–1953) at the MathWorld
• Gustav Herglotz by Joachim Ritter and Sebastian Rost