Mathematician biography

The history of group theory, a mathematical domain studying groups in their various forms, has evolved in various parallel threads. There are three historical roots of group theory: the theory of algebraic equations, number theory and geometry.[1][2][3] Lagrange, Abel and Galois were early researchers in the field of group theory.

Early 19th century

The earliest study of groups as such probably goes back to the work of Lagrange in the late 18th century.

However, this work was somewhat isolated, and 1846 publications of Cauchy and Galois are more commonly referred to as the beginning of group theory. The theory did not develop in a vacuum, and so 3 important threads in its pre-history are developed here.

Development of permutation groups

One foundational root of group theory was the quest of solutions of polynomial equations of degree higher than 4.

An early source occurs in the problem of forming an equation of degree m having as its roots m of the roots of a given equa