29/08/2018

Nicolas Bourbaki, the mathematician who never existed.

In 1934, the young French mathematicians André Weil and Henri Cartan were professors of calculus at the University of Strasbourg. Dissatisfied with the textbook, they decided to write a Treatise on Analysis themselves.

A group was formed and it was decided that the work would be collective, without mentioning the individual authors: to sign the work, a pseudonym was invented, Nicolas Bourbaki, a humorous homage to a little-known general.

The initial group included Claude Chevalley, Jean Delsarte and Jean Dieudonné, as well as Cartan and Weil. Over time, others joined, such as Jean-Pierre Serre, Laurent Schwartz, Alexander Grothendieck, Alain Connes and Jean-Christophe Yoccoz, all winners of the Fields Medal.

The composition of the Bourbaki group was secret, but the identity became known when each member retired from the group, which was supposed to happen by the age of 50. Prominent members had connections with Brazil: Weil, Dieudonné, and Grothendieck visited USP (University of São Paulo) for extended periods, and the latter collaborated with Leopoldo Nachbin, one of the founders of IMPA (Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics).

Bourbaki's goal was to rigorously deduce mathematics from fundamental ideas, the axioms. This became an immense task, never fully completed, despite numerous books. In the process, the group became very influential, for better or for worse.

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