Étienne Halphen

Étienne Halphen (27 May 1911, in Bordeaux – 11 August 1954, in Neuilly-sur-Marne)[1][2] was a French mathematician. He was known for his work in geometry, on probability distributions and information theory.

Étienne Halphen
Born(1911-05-27)27 May 1911
Bordeaux, France
Died11 August 1954(1954-08-11) (aged 43)
Neuilly-sur-Marne, France
NationalityFrench
CitizenshipFrench
Alma materÉcole Normale Supérieure
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsSociete hydro-technique de France; Électricité de France

Biography

He was born as son of Germaine (née Weill) and Louis Halphen, a professor of history at Sorbonne, and grandson of Georges Henri Halphen and Mathieu Weill, both renowned mathematicians. He did his studies at École Normale Supérieure, where he received his agrégation in 1933.[2][3] He worked as a teacher at Lycée de Sens (Yonne), where he was granted an indefinite leave of absence after a year due to health issues. From 1936 to 1940 he was member of the Research Group on Calculus of Probabilities and Mathematical Statistics. During the German occupation of France, he was banned from public service, but reinstated in 1945. During that period he was invited by Pierre Massé to join a statistics research group on hydrology at Societe hydro-technique de France (SHF).[3][4] With the creation of Électricité de France in 1946, Étienne Halphen and his group including Lucien Le Cam and Georges Morlat were attached to the Service des Études et Recherches Hydrauliques. [Service for studies and research in hydraulics]. He work there until 1951, when his health problems required hospitalisation.[3] Suffering from periods of depression, he took his life in August 1954.[1]

Works
  • 1929 Theorem on quadrics[5]
  • 1938 Most independent random variable[6]
  • 1939a Convergence of estimates[7]
  • 1939b On covariation[8]
  • 1941a Harmonic distribution and Type A law[9]
  • 1941b Statistical analysis of water flow of the Rhine[10]
  • 1945 Planning of electric energy production[11]
  • 1946a Planning of electric energy production[12]
  • 1946b On the industrial value of a waterfall[13]
  • 1949 Estimation in probability and its application[14]
  • 1952 Class of hypergeometric functions[15]
  • 1953a Planning of electric energy production[16]
  • 1953b Statistical analysis of the association of eye color with personality development[17]

Posthumously:

  • 1954 Characteristic intrinsic function,[18] covering results obtained in 1938 and 1939[18][2]
  • 1955a Functions related to parabolic cylinder functions[19]
  • 1955b Subjective probability[20]
  • 1957 Properties of a discrete probability space invariant under permutation of its points[21]

An overview of Halphen's work on probability distributions is given by Georges Morlat.[22]

Awards

Étienne Halphen received the Prix Montyon de Statistique of the Académie des sciences posthumuosly in November 1954 for his work on statistical hydrology.[23]

See also

References
  1. Brasseur, Roland (2012), "Étienne Halphen" (PDF), Les mathématiciens inhumés au cimetière du Montparnasse [Mathematicians buried at the Cemetery Montparnasse] (in French), retrieved 15 August 2019
  2. Brasseur, Roland (2011), "Étienne Halphen" (PDF), L'Archicube (in French), 9 bis: 106–108
  3. Seshadri, Vanamamalai (1997), "Halphen's law", in Kotz, Samuel; Johnson, Norman L. (eds.), Encyclopedia of statistical sciences, Update Vol. 1, New York, NY, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, pp. 302–306, ISBN 0-471-11836-2
  4. Beltran, Alaine; Bungener, Martine (1987), "Itinéraire d'un ingénieur: Pierre Massé avant le Plan" [The Route of an Engineer: Pierre Massé before the 'Plan'], Vingtième Siècle. Revue d'histoire (in French), 15 (15): 59–68, doi:10.2307/3769628, JSTOR 3769628
  5. Halphen, Étienne (1929), "Un théorème sur les quadriques analogue à celui de Chasles sur les coniques" [A quadric theorem analogous to that of Chasles on conics], Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences (in French), 188: 844–846
  6. Halphen, Étienne (1938), "Recherche des variables aléatoires les plus indépendantes" [Search for the most independent random variables], Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences (in French), 206: 804–806
  7. Halphen, Étienne (1939), "Sur la convergence des estimations" [On the convergence of estimates], Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences (in French), 208 (N10): 708–709
  8. Halphen, Étienne (1939), "Sur la covariation" [On covariation], Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences (in French), 208 (N11): 780–781
  9. Dugué, Daniel (1941), "Sur un nouveau type de courbe de fréquence" [On a new type of frequency curve], Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences (in French), 213: 634-635 (The paper was published under the name of Dugué due to war time constraints)
  10. Halphen, Étienne (1941), "Étude statistique des débit du Rhin à Bâle" [Statistical Study of Rhine Flow in Basel] (PDF), Annuaire Hydrologique de la France (in French), 3: 5–23
  11. Halphen, Étienne (1945), "Un exemple d'application des méthodes statistiques : le Problème du plan de développement de la production d'énergie électrique" [An example of application of statistical methods: the problem of the development plan for the production of electrical energy] (PDF), Annuaire Hydrologique de la France (in French), 7: 5–28
  12. Halphen, Étienne (1946), Un exemple d'application des méthodes statistiques : le Problème du plan de développement de la production d'énergie électrique [An example of application of statistical methods: the problem of the development plan for the production of electrical energy] (in French), Paris, France: Société hydrotechnique de France
  13. Halphen, Étienne; Morlat, Georges; Le Cam, Lucien (1946), "Sur la valeur industrielle d'une chute d'eau" [On the industrial value of a waterfall] (PDF), Annuaire Hydrologique de la France (in French), 8: 5–33 (with a preface by Pierre Massé)
  14. Halphen, Étienne (1949), "Quelques remarques sur le problème de l'estimation en calcul des probabilités et ses applications" [Some remarks on the problem of estimation in calcation of probabilities and its applications], Le Calcul des Probabilités et ses Application, Colloques Internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (in French), 13, Lyon, June 28th - July 3rd, 1948: Au service des publications du C.N.R.S, pp. 87–91CS1 maint: location (link)
  15. Halphen, Étienne (1952), "Sur une famille de fonctions" [On a family of functions], Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences (in French), 235: 684–686
  16. Halphen, Étienne (1953), "Un exemple d'application des méthodes statistiques : le Problème du plan de développement de la production d'énergie électrique" [An example of application of statistical methods: the problem of the development plan for the production of electrical energy] (PDF), Revue de Statistique Appliquée (in French), 1 (1): 39–46
  17. Halphen, Étienne; de Verbizier, J. (1953), "Étude statistique d'une question de psychologie caractérielle" [Statistical study of a question of character psychology] (PDF), Revue de Statistique Appliquée (in French), 1 (3–4): 147–148
  18. Halphen, Étienne (1954), "Sur l'analyse intrinsèque d'une distribution" [On the intrinsic analysis of a distribution], Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences (in French), 239: 1265–1266
  19. Halphen, Étienne (1955), "Les fonctions factorielles" [Factor functions], Publications de l'Institut de Statistique de l'Université de Paris (in French), IV (Fas. 1): 21–39 (with a preface from Georges Morlat)
  20. Halphen, Étienne (1955), "La notion de vraisemblance" [The notion of likelihood], Publications de l'Institut de Statistique de l'Université de Paris (in French), IV (Fas. 1): 41–92
  21. Halphen, Étienne (1957), "L'analyse intrinsèque des distributions de probabilité" [The intrinsic analysis of probability distributions], Publications de l'Institut de Statistique de l'Université de Paris (in French), VI (Fas. 2): 79–159
  22. Morlat, Georges (1956), "Les lois de probabilites de Halphen" [The Probability Laws of Halphen] (PDF), Revue de Statistique Appliquée (in French), 4 (3): 21–46
  23. Borel, Émile (1954), "Prix Montyon de Statistique", Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences (in French), 239: 1736


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