Alfred Young
Encyclopedia
Alfred Young, FRS was a British
mathematician
.
He was born in Widnes, Lancashire, England
and educated at Monkton Combe School
in Somerset and Clare College, Cambridge
, graduating BA as 10th Wrangler in 1895. He is known for his work in the area of group theory
. Both Young diagrams and Young tableau
x (which he introduced in 1900) are named after him.
Young was appointed to the position of lecturer in Selwyn College, Cambridge
, in 1901, transferring to Clare College in 1905. In 1902 he collaborated with John Hilton Grace
on their book Algebra of Invariants.
In 1907 he married Edith Clara. He became an ordained clergyman in 1908, and became parish priest at Birdbrook
in Essex
in 1910, 25 miles east of Cambridge
. He lived there the rest of his life, but in 1926 began lecturing again at Cambridge.
Most of his long series of papers on invariant theory
and the symmetric group
were written while he was a clergyman.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
.
He was born in Widnes, Lancashire, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and educated at Monkton Combe School
Monkton Combe School
Monkton Combe School is an independent boarding and day school of the British public school tradition, near Bath, England. The Senior School is located in the village of Monkton Combe, while the Prep School, Pre-Prep and Nursery are in Combe Down on the southern outskirts of Bath...
in Somerset and Clare College, Cambridge
Clare College, Cambridge
Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1326, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. Clare is famous for its chapel choir and for its gardens on "the Backs"...
, graduating BA as 10th Wrangler in 1895. He is known for his work in the area of group theory
Group theory
In mathematics and abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as groups.The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as rings, fields, and vector spaces can all be seen as groups endowed with additional operations and...
. Both Young diagrams and Young tableau
Young tableau
In mathematics, a Young tableau is a combinatorial object useful in representation theory. It provides a convenient way to describe the group representations of the symmetric and general linear groups and to study their properties. Young tableaux were introduced by Alfred Young, a mathematician at...
x (which he introduced in 1900) are named after him.
Young was appointed to the position of lecturer in Selwyn College, Cambridge
Selwyn College, Cambridge
Selwyn College is a constituent college in the University of Cambridge in England, United Kingdom.The college was founded by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of the Rt Reverend George Selwyn , who rowed on the Cambridge crew in the first Varsity Boat Race in 1829, and went on to become the...
, in 1901, transferring to Clare College in 1905. In 1902 he collaborated with John Hilton Grace
John Hilton Grace
John Hilton Grace was a British mathematician.-Early life:He was born in Halewood, near Liverpool, the eldest of the six children of a farmer. He was educated at the village school and the Liverpool Institute...
on their book Algebra of Invariants.
In 1907 he married Edith Clara. He became an ordained clergyman in 1908, and became parish priest at Birdbrook
Birdbrook
Birdbrook is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is located approximately southeast of Haverhill, Suffolk and is 34km north from the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the district of Braintree and in the parliamentary constituency of Saffron Walden. The parish is part...
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
in 1910, 25 miles east of Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
. He lived there the rest of his life, but in 1926 began lecturing again at Cambridge.
Most of his long series of papers on invariant theory
Invariant theory
Invariant theory is a branch of abstract algebra dealing with actions of groups on algebraic varieties from the point of view of their effect on functions...
and the symmetric group
Symmetric group
In mathematics, the symmetric group Sn on a finite set of n symbols is the group whose elements are all the permutations of the n symbols, and whose group operation is the composition of such permutations, which are treated as bijective functions from the set of symbols to itself...
were written while he was a clergyman.
See also
- Young's latticeYoung's latticeIn mathematics, Young's lattice is a partially ordered set and a lattice that is formed by all integer partitions. It is named after Alfred Young, who in a series of papers On quantitative substitutional analysis developed representation theory of the symmetric group...
- Young–Fibonacci latticeYoung–Fibonacci latticeIn mathematics, the Young–Fibonacci graph and Young–Fibonacci lattice, named after Alfred Young and Leonardo Fibonacci, are two closely related structures involving sequences of the digits 1 and 2...
- Young symmetrizerYoung symmetrizerIn mathematics, a Young symmetrizer is an element of the group algebra of the symmetric group, constructed in such a way that the image of the element corresponds to an irreducible representation of the symmetric group over the complex numbers. A similar construction works over any field, and the...
- Representation theory of the symmetric groupRepresentation theory of the symmetric groupIn mathematics, the representation theory of the symmetric group is a particular case of the representation theory of finite groups, for which a concrete and detailed theory can be obtained. This has a large area of potential applications, from symmetric function theory to problems of quantum...