Frank Quinn (mathematician)
Frank Stringfellow Quinn ( born June 3, 1946 in Havana ) is an American mathematician, with topology of four-dimensional manifolds deals and geometric topology.
Quinn was founded in 1970 at Princeton University with William Browder ( and Michel Kervaire ) PhD (A geometric formula tion of surgery ) From 1971, he taught at Princeton as an assistant professor, from 1973 at Yale University and in 1976 at Rutgers University. Since 1977 he is a professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute ( from 1985 as a Distinguished Professor ).
He made important contributions to surgery ( Surgery ) and the topology of four-dimensional manifolds. It also deals with algebraic topology and related problems of algebra. Other interests include mathematics education and history of mathematics.
He proved 1982 ( End of Maps, part 3) the Circle Ring Set for Dimension 4 The theorem states simplified in that the space between two spheres ( one of which is located inside the other ) is topologically a ring ( with additional assumptions on the topological conduct of spheres ). The theorem was proved for two dimensions of Tibor Rado in 1924, for three dimensions by Edwin Moise (1952) and in five or more dimensions of Robion Kirby ( 1969). So Quinn filled the last dimension gap in the proof of the theorem.
His essay by Arthur Jaffe Theoretical Mathematics from 1993 in the Bulletin of the AMS triggered at the time a controversy over the role of mathematical rigor in mathematical physics, especially string theory. But the essay also affected the role of mathematical rigor in pure mathematics.
He was editor of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. In 1986 he was invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Berkeley (Applications of topology with control). He is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society.
Writings
- Ends of maps, Part 1, Annals of Mathematics, Vol 110, 1979, pp. 275-331, part 2, Inventiones Mathematicae, Volume 68, 1982, pp. 353-424, Chapter 3, J. Differential Geometry, Volume 17, 1982, p 503-521
- Michael Freedman Topology of 4- Manifolds, Princeton University Press 1990
- With Vyacheslav S. Krushkal Subexponential groups in 4 -manifold topology, Geometric Topology, Volume 4, 2000, pp. 407-430.