Gelfond, Aleksandr Osipovich

Aleksandr Osipovich Gelfond, (born October 24, 1906, St. Petersburg, Russia—died November 7, 1968, Moscow), Russian mathematician who originated basic techniques in the study of transcendental numbers (numbers that cannot be expressed as the root or solution of an algebraic equation with rational coefficients). He profoundly advanced transcendental number theory and the theory of interpolation and approximation of complex variable functions.

Gelfond taught mathematics at the Moscow Technological College (1929–30) and, from 1931, at Moscow State University, at various times holding chairs of analysis, number theory, and history of mathematics.

In 1934 Gelfond proved that a^b is transcendental if a is an algebraic number not equal to 0 or 1 and if b is an irrational algebraic number. This statement, now known as Gelfond’s theorem, solved the seventh of 23 famous problems that had been posed by the German mathematician David Hilbert in 1900. Gelfond’s methods were readily accepted by other mathematicians, and important new concepts in transcendental number theory were rapidly developed. Much of his work, including the construction of new classes of transcendental numbers, is found in his Transtsendentnye i algebraicheskie chisla (1952; Transcendental and Algebraic Numbers). In Ischislenie konechnykh raznostey (1952; “Calculus of Finite Differences”), he summarized his approximation and interpolation studies.