LICHTENSTEIN

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

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16.5.1878 Warsaw/PL - 21.8.1933 Zakopane/PL

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Leon Lichtenstein graduated in 1907 from Berlin Technical University and there became Lecturer in 1910. He was appointed professor of mathematics at Münster University in 1920 and two years later in Leipzig. Lichtenstein edited the Mathematische Zeitschrift from 1918 to 1928 and the Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik from 1919 to 1927.

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Lichtenstein is known for works in potential flow theory, in conformal transformations, in the theory of integral equations and in hydrodynamics. In the latter topic he presented the 1929 book which is a theoretical description of standard hydrodynamics. This classical text had even a reprint in 1968 and is actually still available. The 1926 work is a series of four publications, namely Existence problems in hydrodynamics, Non-homogeneous incompressible frictionless fluids, Permanent movements of a homogeneous incompressible viscous fluid, and Continuity theorems and verification of the Helmholtz-Kirchhoff theory of straight vortex filaments. Lichtenstein was also interested in equilibrium figures of rotating fluids, a topic previously considered by Henri Poincaré (1854-1912) and Aleksandr Mikhailovich Liapunov (1857-1918). Lichtenstein mentioned in particular the possibility of pear-shaped equilibrium figures, yet Liapunov demonstrated that these are always unstable. Shortly before passing away, Lichtenstein considered a generalized approach to the Poincaré problem. He thus was able to verify that an annular equilibrium body does not necessarily need a central body.

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_{Anonymous (1978). Lichtenstein Festkolloquium. Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Karl-Marx-Universität, Leipzig 29(1): 1-79.}

_{Hölder, O. (1934). Leon Lichtenstein. Berichte Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematische und Physikalische Klasse 86: 307-314.}

_{Lichtenstein, L. (1920). Untersuchungen über die Gleichgewichtsfiguren rotierender Flüssigkeiten, deren Teilchen einander anziehen. Mathematische Zeitschrift 7: 127-231. Lichtenstein, L. (1926). Über einige Hilfssätze der Potentialtheorie. Berichte Sächsische}

_{Akademie der Wissenschaften, Math.-Phys. Klasse Leipzig 78: 147-212; 78: 213-239. Lichtenstein, L. (1929). Grundlagen der Hydromechanik. Springer: Berlin.}

_{Lichtenstein, L. (1933). Gleichgewichtsfiguren rotierender Flüssigkeiten. Springer: Berlin. Poggendorff, J.C. (1925). Lichtenstein, Leon. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch 5: 741-742; 6: 1523-1524; 7a: 91. Verlag Chemie: Berlin, with bibliography.}

_{Wiemers, G., Fischer, E. (1996). Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig Die Mitglieder von 1846 bis 1996. Akademie-Verlag: Leipzig. P}