Primary and Secondary Source

Secondary Source

12/11/08

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ChernClass.html

This is a secondary source, which give me the definition of what Chern Class is.

A gadget defined for complex vector bundles.The Chern classes of a complex manifold are the Chern classes of its tangent bundle. The th Chern class is an obstruction to the existence of everywhere complex linearly independent vector fields on that vector bundle.The th Chern class is in the th cohomology group of the base space.

12/11/08

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chern-Simons_form

This secondary source give me an idea of what Chern Simons Theory is, ,which are certain secondary characteristic classes. And is found to be of interest in gauge theory, and they (especially the 3-form) define the action of Chern-Simons theory.The theory is named for Shiing-Shen Chern and James Harris Simons, co-authors of a 1974 paper entitled "Characteristic Forms and Geometric Invariants," from which the theory arose.


12/11/08

http://math.berkeley.edu/index.php?module=announce&ANN_user_op=view&ANN_id=31

This is a secondary source, on this website people appraise Chern about how his contribution to the mathematical field.


"He's a towering figure in 20th-century mathematics," said Dr. Calvin C. Moore, a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley.

"He is somebody that had a broad outlook toward people," said Hartshorne. "It's not a warm department, and he was a warm person."


12/11/08

http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Chern.html

This is a secondary source, I found a list of awards that had been given to Chern during his lifetime.

Honours awarded to S S Chern

Speaker at Intenational Congress 1950
AMS Colloquium Lecturer 1960
Sperker at Intenational Congress 1970
MAA Chauvenet Prize winner 1970
AMS Steele Prize 1983
Fellow of the Royal Society 1985
LMS Honorary Menber 1986
Shaw Prize 2004
Wolf Prize 1983/4

12/11/08

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/109409/Shiing-shen-Chern


born October 26, 1911, Jiaxing, China

died December 3, 2004, Tianjin

Chinese American mathematician and educator whose researches in differential geometry developed ideas that now play a major role in mathematics and in mathematical physics.

This is a secondary source, this website informed me what Chern had successed for in his whole life, a biography of him.

11/18/08

Third In ternational Congress of Chinese Mathematicians


A Chinese Essay in Tribute to Professor Shiing-Shen Chern, found this page in a book called Third In ternational Congress of Chinese Mathematicians. This essay expressed how sad people were for the death of our one of the greatest person.

This is a seondary source, and this book help me to understand more mathematician in the past decade, who had contribute their whole life in the mathematical.

10/24/08

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=869ADDF818FB552D066D1FF56B0E39B7.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=441323

This website informed me that Shiing Shen Chern was born on October 26th, 1911 in JiaXin, in china, and died in 2004. His father works for government. He first shows his mathematical ability by doing all the exercises in classical English textbooks on algebra and trigonometry when he was in his middle school, and he later became really interesting in the Sun's subject, projective differential geometry, he works hard. At Tsinghua, he met his wife Shih-Ning, the daughter of a professor.

This website help me to recongnized a brief summarize of Chern's life.


This is a secondary source, because this website was not created by Shiing Shen Chern's lifetime.

10/24/08

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_quantum_mechanics

This website introduced the basic definition of Quantum Mechanics, it helps me to understanding the meaning of it, which is a physical science dealing with the behavior of matter and energy on the scale of atoms and subatomic particles or waves. And it spends a century of experimentation and applied science, to made quantum mechanical theory been proven to be very successful and practical.

This website is a secondary source, because it was created after Chern was died.





Primary Source

12/11/08

http://www.shawprize.org/en/laureates/2004/mathematical/Chern/essay.html


This is a primary source, which is a essay on Shing-Shen Chern, the first Shaw Prize is awarded to Professor Chern in recognition of his singular contributions to, and influence on, the mathematical life of our time.

11/25/08

http://www.nim.nankai.edu.cn/sschern/jiangxiang.htm

This is a primary source, this website had list many Chern's scholarship for those who were very good at math, and he had subscribed a part of his money to some school. In 2004, he gain $1000 thousand for his efforts on math, and contributed these money to some college which he had been work and study before.

11/25/08

http://www.nim.nankai.edu.cn

This is a primary source, this article give me an idea of how the role of Chern Siomos theory in solving the fractional quantum Hall effect mystery. The Chern -Siomos theroy unifies the fractional quantum Hall with the well understood integral quantum Hall effect, in the process leading to the prediction and the subsequent discovery of a new class of topological fermions in nature.


11/21/08

Chern-Simons Theory, Matrix Models, and Topological Strings


This is a primary source, this is a book about the above things in math, which detail the fomular for how to solve the Chern-Simons Theory, also other two theory, and how they work in math, but the formular is really hard for me to read, ,and understand what they were wrote about.


11/06/08

http://www.ams.org/notices/199807/chern.pdf


This website gives me an interviews with Shing Shen Chern when he was still alive, and there was a poem written by Chern. This interview told a completed and detailed story of Chern's life.

Following is the poem written by Chern:


Physics and geometry are one family.

Together and holding hands they roam to the limits of outer space.

Black hole and monopole exhaust the secret of myths;

Fiber and connections weave to interlace the roseate clouds.

Evolution equations describe solitons;

Dual curvatures defines instantons.

Surprisingly, Math, has earned its rightful place for man and in sky;

Fondling flowers with a smile -- just wish nothing is said.



This is a primary source, because it had inclued some pictures which was taken by him, and this is a interview.


10/28/08

http://www.nucleares.unam.mx/~alberto/physics/string.html

This article gives me an idea of what is String Theory. First what is the world made of, ordinary matter is made of atoms, and atom is made of three part, proton, neutron, and with the electron arranged around them. But neutrons and protons are made of even smaller particles, known as quarks. There are four fundamental forces in this universe: gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces. Each of these is produced by fundamental particles that act as carriers of the force. The essential idea behind string theory is this: all of the different 'fundamental ' particles of the Standard Model are really just different manifestations of one basic object: a string.


This is a primary source, it provided me some important information of the my project, and this article let me easier understand the basic meaning of String Theory.

10/25/08

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/inmemoriam/shiingshenchern.htm


This article gives a main detailed biography of Chern's life, he only had one day of elementary education, and four years at middle high school, at aged 15, he skippe two greades to enter the Nankai University, and how he opened his eyes to the grand vistas in geometry. And three major decisions in the period 1934 to 1943 that shaped the rest of his life.

This article references primary and secondary source, including the picture of Chern's and this article was created after Chern was passed away.