Zentralblatt MATH
Publications of (and about) Paul Erdös
Zbl.No: 872.01021
Autor: Bondy, J.-A.
Title: Paul Erdös et la combinatoire. (Paul Erdös and combinatorics.) (In French)
Source: Gaz. Math., Soc. Math. Fr. 71, 25-30 (1997).
Review: The study opens with a warm presentation of the charming personality of professor Paul Erdös, appearing as a permanent presence whose passing away can be neither understood nor accepted. There follows a presentation of the main domains of interest and most dear concerns of the reputed mathematician: Ramsey theory, extremal combinatorics, the combinatory theory of assemblies, combinatoric geometry and the combinatoric theory of numbers. Also, mention is being made of the extremal theory of graphs, drawn by Erdös from an idea of his friend, the mathematician Paul Turán -- according to whom the number of possible arrivals a graph may have, without containing a complete subgraph, may be derived. The theorem of Erdös-Simonovits, the theorem of Erdös-Stone are briefly presented, followed by a discussion of the ``regularity lemma'' of Endre Szemeredi.
At the end, the author of the obituary tries again to bring us the man Erdös, good-humoured, sensible and all-understanding, but, above all -- a free mind.
Reviewer: C.Irimia (Iasi)
Classif.: * 01A70 Biographies, obituaries, personalia, bibliographies
05-03 Historical (combinatorics)
01A60 Mathematics in the 20th century
Keywords: combinatorics; probabilistic method; average; chromatic number; Ramsey theory; Turán
Biogr.Ref.: Erdös, P.
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