Arthur Cayley | |
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Born | |
Died | 26 January 1895 Cambridge, England | (aged 73)
Education | King's College School |
Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge (BA, 1842) |
Known for | |
Awards |
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Scientific career | |
Fields | Mathematics |
Institutions | Trinity College, Cambridge |
Academic advisors | |
Notable students |
Arthur Cayley FRS (/ˈkeɪli/; 16 August 1821 – 26 January 1895) was a British mathematician who worked mostly on algebra. He helped found the modern British school of pure mathematics, and was a professor at Trinity College, Cambridge for 35 years.
He postulated what is now known as the Cayley–Hamilton theorem—that every square matrix is a root of its own characteristic polynomial, and verified it for matrices of order 2 and 3.[1] He was the first to define the concept of an abstract group, a set with a binary operation satisfying certain laws,[2] as opposed to Évariste Galois' concept of permutation groups. In group theory, Cayley tables, Cayley graphs, and Cayley's theorem are named in his honour, as well as Cayley's formula in combinatorics.