jordan-chevalley decomposition

Stream: maths

[Johan Commelin]

Afaik we don't have the Jordan-Chevalley decomposition of a linear operator. I think we have all the prerequisites. We should have this, so that we can say that "linear algebra" is done. See #4973.

[Patrick Massot]

I was a bit perplexed that I needed to go to wikipedia to know you need to "have linear algebra done". It turns out France uses a different name for this. @confused French people: Johan means Dunford decomposition.

[Kevin Buzzard]

It's rare to see the French calling something by a different name which isn't the name of a French person -- apparently Nelson Dunford was an American.

[Patrick Massot]

Yes, this is extremely confusing.

[Johan Commelin]

It seems like you missed a big chance there...

[Johan Commelin]

Cette décomposition a été démontrée une première fois en 1870 par Camille Jordan, puis dans les années 1950 par Claude Chevalley dans le contexte de la théorie des groupes algébriques. Dans le monde francophone, elle est parfois attribuée à tort à Nelson Dunford, dont les travaux sont postérieurs à ceux de Chevalley.

[Patrick Massot]

Too late.