This book contains a series of research papers on subjects related to the work of Niels Henrik Abel, written by some of the foremost specialists in their fields.
Some of the authors have been specifically invited to present papers, discussing the influence of Abel in a mathematical-historical context. Others have submitted papers presented at the Abel Bicentennial Conference, Oslo June 3-8, 2002. The idea behind the book has been to produce a text covering a substantial part of the legacy of Abel, as perceived at the beginning of the 21st century.
It is accompanied by a CD-ROM with a large amount of information related to Niels Henrik Abel, such as on the Abel Centennial in 1902 and the Abel Bicentennial Conference in 2002, the launching of the Abel Prize, Abel monuments, and stamps, banknotes, coins etc. issued in honour of Niels Henrik Abel.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
From the reviews:
" [. ] The result is a massive book with a lot of interesting material in it. About half of this material should be accessible to a wide audience; the other half will be of interest mostly to specialists.
With the book comes a CD-ROM containing still more material related to Abel and to the conference. [.]
It's a delightful package, particularly for those of us who are interested in the history of mathematics and/or in number theory, algebraic geometry, and complex function theory. Just the images on the CD would make me want to have a copy. Given the size of this book and the extras on the CD, this isn't even very expensive; no library should be without a copy."
Fernando Q. Gouvêa, MAA Online (for complete review see "Briefly noted" at
http://www.maa.org/reviews
)
"The core of the book consists of contributions presented at the Abel bicentennial conference held at the University of Oslo . . The book contains a huge amount of information of historical and mathematical nature. It can be recommended not only to those working in fields having roots in one of Abel's versatile contributions to mathematics but also to anybody who likes to read how ideas can influence the future development." (EMS Newsletter, June, 2005)
