皮埃爾·德利涅

皮埃爾·德利涅(法語:Pierre Deligne發音:[pjɛʁ dəliɲ];1944年10月3日),全稱德利涅子爵皮埃爾·勒內(法語:Pierre René, vicomte Deligne),比利時代數幾何學者,20世紀中後期最知名的數學家之一。他最重要的貢獻之一是20世紀70年代關於韋伊猜想英語Weil conjectures的工作。他是大數學家亞歷山大·格羅滕迪克的學生。

皮埃爾·德利涅
皮埃爾·德利涅,2005年
出生 (1944-10-03) 1944年10月3日80歲)
 比利時埃特貝克
母校法語布魯塞爾自由大學
知名於證明韋伊猜想英語Weil conjectures
反常層英語Perverse sheaf
以德利涅命名的概念英語Concepts named after Deligne
獎項阿貝爾獎 (2013年)
沃爾夫數學獎 (2008年)
巴爾贊獎 (2004年)
克拉福德獎 (1988年)
菲爾茲獎 (1978年)
科學生涯
研究領域數學家
機構普林斯頓高等研究院
法國高等科學研究所
博士導師亞歷山大·格羅滕迪克
博士生黎勇壯英語Lê Dũng Tráng
邁爾斯·里德英語Miles Reid
米夏埃爾·拉波波特英語Michael Rapoport

生平

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德利涅生於布魯塞爾,自幼數學天賦出眾,初中時就在老師建議下開始閱讀布爾巴基小組寫的專著《集合論》,高中時就已經獲得機會進入前沿數學家的討論班。他就讀於布魯塞爾自由大學,曾受知名數學家雅克·蒂茨栽培,後來又被帶到布爾巴基學派的討論班上和亞歷山大·格羅滕迪克等其他重要數學家見面。他回憶第一次見到格羅騰迪克時,覺得對方高個子、大光頭的形象有點怪異[1]。已是大數學家的格羅滕迪克對當時還是新人的德利涅所問的問題給與了耐心的解釋,這讓德利涅覺得格羅滕迪克非常有親和力[2]

1968年他在亞歷山大·格羅滕迪克指導下完成博士論文。1970年26歲的德利涅成為法國高等科學研究所教授。他在那裏完成了關於霍奇理論韋伊猜想英語Weil conjectures的工作。格羅滕迪克很有信心按照自己提供的一套思路框架來逐步解決韋伊猜想,並藉此證明其數學思想的威力,但是德利涅卻另闢蹊徑搞定了韋伊猜想。德利涅雖憑藉這一成績獲得了菲爾茲獎,但是他也承認老師格羅滕迪克對此事並不滿意[3]。格羅滕迪克的老搭檔讓-皮埃爾·塞爾則覺得韋伊猜想被解決是一件值得開心的事情[4]

1984年,德利涅移居美國,進入普林斯頓高等研究院。在普林斯頓的生活同樣充滿挑戰,這裏的討論會經常是數學家和物理學家共同參加的,他也在這裏遇見了愛德華·威滕這樣的提問既有意思、又能把自己難倒的頂尖物理學家[5]。普林斯頓開展的學科研究和會議也更為廣泛,他也會忙裏抽閒去聽中國古代歷史之類的人文及社會類學科的報告會[6]

2013年,德利涅在阿貝爾獎得獎採訪中表示自己覺得導師的動機理論英語Motive (algebraic geometry)在今後10年內看不到有明顯進展的跡象,但自己也做好了被打臉的準備[7]

數學觀

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德利涅認為研究數學應該更關注新工具的創造和對學科大圖景的理解。他的導師格羅滕迪克曾對他說過數學絕不是一種競賽式的活動。[8]

個人生活

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逸聞

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他笑稱物理學家經常喜歡套用一些原理說不清、道不明的數學技巧,但是不得不承認其做法確實很管用,得到的計算結果有不少還都是對的[9]。物理學家愛德華·威滕能看穿複雜數學公式和證明背後的直觀圖像的本領也令他不得不服[10]

榮譽

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德利涅1978年獲得菲爾茲獎,1988年獲得克拉福德獎,2008年獲得沃爾夫獎,2013年獲得阿貝爾獎

2006年比利時國王封德利涅為子爵[11]

參考來源

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  1. ^ Raussen 2013,第17-19頁,摘錄如下:「He was a little strange, with his shaved head, a very tall man.」
  2. ^ Raussen 2013,第17-19頁,摘錄如下:「I think that many other mathematicians would have thought that if you didn't know the answer, there wouldn’t be any point to speak to you. This was not his reaction at all. Very patiently he told me that... He was very open to people who were ignorant. I think that you should not ask him the same stupid question three times, but twice was all right.」
  3. ^ Raussen 2013,第17-19頁,摘錄如下:「I used a completely different idea. It is inspired by the work of Rankin and his work on automorphic forms. It still has a number of applications, but it did not realize the dream of Grothendieck. ... It would have been much nicer if his program had been realized. He did not think that there would be another way to do it. When he heard I had proved it, he felt I must have done this and that, which I hadn't. I think that’s the reason for the disappointment.」
  4. ^ Raussen 2013,第17-19頁。
  5. ^ Raussen 2013,第20-22頁,摘錄如下:「In both places there are physicists, but I think the contact with them was more fruitful for me in Princeton than it was in Bures. In Princeton, there have been common seminars. One year was very intense, with both mathematicians and physicists participating. This was due mainly to the presence of Edward Witten. He has received the Fields Medal even though he is a physicist. When Witten asks me questions, it's always very interesting to try to answer them, but it can be frustrating as well.」
  6. ^ Raussen 2013,第20-22頁,摘錄如下:「Princeton is also bigger in the sense that it has not only maths and physics, but also the School of Historical Studies and the School of Social Sciences. There is no real scientific interaction with these Schools but it is pleasant to be able to go and hear a lecture about, for instance, ancient China.」
  7. ^ Raussen 2013,第22頁,摘錄如下:「Whether or not it's within reach in ten years, I have absolutely no idea; as it should be… but I would very much like to see progress in our understanding of motives. Which path to take and what are the correct questions, is very much in the air. Grothendieck's program relied on proving the existence of algebraic cycles with some properties. To me this looks hopeless, but I may be wrong.」
  8. ^ Raussen 2013,第21頁,摘錄如下:「For Grothendieck it was very clear: he once told me that mathematics is not a competition sport. Mathematicians are different and some will want to be the first, especially if they are working on very specific and difficult questions. For me it's more important to create tools and to understand the general picture.」
  9. ^ Raussen 2013,第22頁,摘錄如下:「In yet another direction, physicists regularly come up with unexpected conjectures, most often using completely illegal tools. But so far, whenever they have made a prediction, for instance a numerical prediction on the number of curves with certain properties on some surface - and these are big numbers, in the millions perhaps - they were right! Sometimes previous computations by mathematicians were not in accordance with what the physicists were predicting, but the physicists were right.」
  10. ^ Raussen 2013,第22頁,摘錄如下:「They have put their fingers on something really interesting, but we are, so far, unable to capture their intuition. Sometimes they make a prediction and we work out a very clumsy proof without real understanding. That is not how it should be. In one of the seminar programs that we had with the physicists at IAS, my wish was not to have to rely on Ed Witten but instead to be able to make conjectures myself. I failed! I did not understand enough of their picture to be able to do that, so I still have to rely on Witten to tell me what should be interesting.」
  11. ^ Official announcement ennoblement [官方宣佈入選貴族]. Belgian Federal Public Service. 2006-07-18. (原始內容存檔於30 October 2007) (英語). 

補充來源

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外部連結

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