Jacob Levitzki

Jacob Levitzki, also Jacob Levitzki, Yaakov Levitsky (Hebrew יעקב לויצקי; born August 17, 1904 in Kherson, Ukraine, † 1956 in Jerusalem) was an Israeli mathematician, who dealt with algebra.

The family moved in 1913 to Palestine, where Levitzki attended the Hebrew Gymnasium in Tel Aviv. From 1922, he studied mathematics at the University of Göttingen ( and a semester at the University of Cologne), where in 1929 with honors in Emmy Noether ( and Edmund Landau ) doctorate (over completely reducible rings and their subrings, news Göttingen Ges Wiss. , 1929, pp. 240, Mathematical journal Vol 33, 1931, p 663). 1928/29, he was an assistant at the University of Kiel and 1929/30, as a Sterling Fellow at Yale University. In 1931 he returned to Israel and became a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

In 1954 he was awarded the Israel Prize. Levitzki considered the founder of algebra research in Israel.

The Amitsur - Levitzki theorem states that the sum (over all permutations of 1, ..., 2k, with the signature sign of the permutation ) of the products of any 2k ( kxk ) matrices ( defined over a commutative ring )

In other words, for the ring of the (k × k) - matrices over a commutative ring the Standardpolynom filled with the degree 2k a Polynomidentität. The theorem also states that no polynomial of lower degree fulfills a Polynomidentität in these rings. The theorem is the starting point of the theory of rings with Polynomidentität.

Regardless of Charles Hopkins, he proved in 1939 a then surprising proposition that the descending chain condition for rings in many cases the ascending chain condition result, today cited as Hopkins - Levitzki set after he was formerly usually designated only by Hopkins as, in had published a leading U.S. magazine, Levitzki in the then little read in the United States Compositio Mathematica. The American mathematician Carl Faith said in his autobiographical - historical book on ring theory, that in order to make Levitzki satisfaction, so later certain rings named after him ..

His son, Alexander Levitzki is Professor of Biochemistry at the Hebrew University and also received the Israel Prize. He donated in memory of his parents, the Levitzki Prize for Algebra in Israel.

Among his students is one Shimshon Amitsur (1948 ).