Simon B. Kochen

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Simon Bernhard Kochen (/ˈkʃən/; born 14 August 1934, Antwerpen) is a Canadian mathematician, working in the fields of model theory, number theory and quantum mechanics.

Biography[edit]

Kochen received his Ph.D. (Ultrafiltered Products and Arithmetical Extensions) from Princeton University in 1958 under the direction of Alonzo Church. Since 1967 he has been a member of Princeton's Department of Mathematics. He chaired the department 1989-92 and became the Henry Burchard Fine Professor in mathematics in 1994.[1] During 1966-7 and 1978-9, Kochen was at the Institute for Advanced Study.

In 1967 he was awarded, together with James Ax, the seventh Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Number Theory for a series of three joint papers[2][3][4] on Diophantine problems from involving p-adic techniques.

In 1967 Kochen and Ernst Specker proved the Kochen–Specker theorem in quantum mechanics and quantum contextuality.[5] In 2004 Kochen and John Horton Conway proved the free will theorem. The theorem states that if we have a certain amount of free will, then, subject to certain assumptions, so must some elementary particles.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Princeton Philosophy Department bio
  2. ^ James B. Ax and Simon B. Kochen Diophantine problems over local fields. I American Journal of Mathematics 87 (1965), pp. 605–630
  3. ^ James B. Ax and Simon B. Kochen Diophantine problems over local fields. II American Journal of Mathematics 87 (1965), pp. 631–648
  4. ^ James B. Ax and Simon B. Kochen Diophantine problems over local fields. III Annals of Mathematics, Ser. 2 83 (1966), pp. 437–456
  5. ^ Kochen, Specker: The problem of hidden variables in quantum mechanics. Journal of Mathematics and Mechanics, volume 17, 1967, pages 59–88

External links[edit]