# nLab Michael Atiyah

Sir Michael Atiyah was a British-Lebanese mathematician, a Fields’ medalist, and Abel prize winner (with Isadore Singer). He was professor of mathematics at Edinburgh University.

## Selected writings

Introducing topological K-theory:

Introducing cobordism cohomology theory MSO:

Introducing the Atiyah-Bott-Shapiro orientation MSpin$\to$KO and MSpinc$\to$KU:

On the KO-theory of complex projective 3-space:

• Michael Atiyah, E. Rees, Vector bundles on projective 3-space Invent. Math.35, 131–153 (1976) (pdf)
• Michael Atiyah, Characters and cohomology of finite groups, Publications Mathématiques de l’IHÉS, Volume 9 (1961) , p. 23-64 (numdam)
• Michael Atiyah, Graeme Segal, Equivariant $K$-theory and completion, J. Differential Geom. Volume 3, Number 1-2 (1969), 1-18. (Euclid)
• Michael Atiyah, Nigel Hitchin, J. T. Stuart and M. Tabor, Low-Energy Scattering of Non-Abelian Magnetic Monopoles, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences Vol. 315, No. 1533, New Developments in the Theory and Application of Solitons (Aug. 13, 1985), pp. 459-469 (jstor:37546)

and in a variant on hyperbolic space:

Introducing the Atiyah-Sutcliffe conjecture:

On the AKM-theorem and its further generalization to the 13-sphere being an Sp(1)-quotient of the octonionic projective plane:

On patterns in the characteristic classes (Chern classes) of complex surfaces, together with some speculations about an anlogy with atomic number of atomic nuclei (inspired by hadron Kaluza-Klein theory):

On twistors:

## Selected quotes

The aim of theory really is, to a great extent, that of systematically organizing past experience in such a way that the next generation, our students and their students and so on, will be able to absorb the essential aspects in as painless a way as possible, and this is the only way in which you can go on cumulatively building up any kind of scientific activity without eventually coming to a dead end.

(M.F. Atiyah, “How research is carried out”, Bull. IMA., 10:232–234, 1974)

category: people

Last revised on August 16, 2021 at 15:14:42. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.