Paul Cohen

Paul Joseph Cohen (April 2, 1934 – March 23,

2007)[1] was an American mathematician. He is best Paul J. Cohen
known for his proofs that the continuum hypothesis Born April 2, 1934
and the axiom of choice are independent from Long Branch, New Jersey, U.S.
Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, for which he was Died March 23, 2007 (aged 72)
awarded a Fields Medal.[2] Stanford, California, U.S.
Alma mater University of Chicago (MS, PhD)
Known for Cohen forcing
Early life and education Continuum hypothesis

Cohen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey in 1934, Awards Bôcher Prize (1964)
into a Jewish family that had immigrated to the United Fields Medal (1966)
States from what is now Poland; he grew up in National Medal of Science
Brooklyn.[3][4] He graduated in 1950, at age 16, from (1967)
Stuyvesant High School in New York City.[1][4] Scientific career
Fields Mathematics
Cohen next studied at the Brooklyn College from 1950
to 1953, but he left without earning his bachelor's Institutions Stanford University

degree when he learned that he could start his graduate Thesis Topics in the Theory of
studies at the University of Chicago with just two years Uniqueness of Trigonometrical
of college. At Chicago, Cohen completed his master's Series (http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/
degree in mathematics in 1954 and his Doctor of 1001/cat/bib/4173372) (1958)
Philosophy degree in 1958, under supervision of Doctoral Antoni Zygmund
Antoni Zygmund. The title of his doctoral thesis was advisor
Topics in the Theory of Uniqueness of Trigonometrical Doctoral Peter Sarnak
Series.[5][6] students

In 1957, before the award of his doctorate, Cohen was

appointed as an Instructor in Mathematics at the University of Rochester for a year. He then spent the
academic year 1958–59 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before spending 1959–61 as a
fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. These were years in which Cohen made a number
of significant mathematical breakthroughs. In Factorization in group algebras (1959) he showed that any
integrable function on a locally compact group is the convolution of two such functions, solving a
problem posed by Walter Rudin. In Cohen (1960) he made a significant breakthrough in solving the
Littlewood conjecture.[7]
Cohen was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,[8] the United States National
Academy of Sciences,[9] and the American Philosophical Society.[10] On June 2, 1995, Cohen received an
honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Science and Technology at Uppsala University, Sweden.[11]

Career
Cohen is noted for developing a mathematical technique called forcing, which he used to prove that
neither the continuum hypothesis (CH) nor the axiom of choice can be proved from the standard
Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms (ZF) of set theory. In conjunction with the earlier work of Gödel, this showed
that both of these statements are logically independent of the ZF axioms: these statements can be neither
proved nor disproved from these axioms. In this sense, the continuum hypothesis is undecidable, and it is
the most widely known example of a natural statement that is independent from the standard ZF axioms
of set theory.

For his result on the continuum hypothesis, Cohen won the Fields Medal in mathematics in 1966, and
also the National Medal of Science in 1967.[12] The Fields Medal that Cohen won continues to be the
only Fields Medal to be awarded for a work in mathematical logic, as of 2022.

Apart from his work in set theory, Cohen also made many valuable contributions to analysis. He was
awarded the Bôcher Memorial Prize in mathematical analysis in 1964 for his paper "On a conjecture by
Littlewood and idempotent measures",[13] and lends his name to the Cohen–Hewitt factorization theorem.

Cohen was a full professor of mathematics at Stanford University. He was an Invited Speaker at the ICM
in 1962 in Stockholm and in 1966 in Moscow.

Angus MacIntyre of the Queen Mary University of London stated about Cohen: "He was dauntingly
clever, and one would have had to be naive or exceptionally altruistic to put one's 'hardest problem' to the
Paul I knew in the '60s." He went on to compare Cohen to Kurt Gödel, saying: "Nothing more dramatic
than their work has happened in the history of the subject."[14] Gödel himself wrote a letter to Cohen in
1963, a draft of which stated, "Let me repeat that it is really a delight to read your proof of the
ind[ependence] of the cont[inuum] hyp[othesis]. I think that in all essential respects you have given the
best possible proof & this does not happen frequently. Reading your proof had a similarly pleasant effect
on me as seeing a really good play."[15]

Continuum hypothesis
While studying the continuum hypothesis, Cohen is quoted as saying in 1985 that he had "had the feeling
that people thought the problem was hopeless, since there was no new way of constructing models of set
theory. Indeed, they thought you had to be slightly crazy even to think about the problem."[16]

A point of view which the author [Cohen] feels may eventually come to be accepted is that CH
is obviously false. The main reason one accepts the axiom of infinity is probably that we feel it
absurd to think that the process of adding only one set at a time can exhaust the entire universe.
Similarly with the higher axioms of infinity. Now is the cardinality of the set of countable
ordinals, and this is merely a special and the simplest way of generating a higher cardinal. The
set [the continuum] is, in contrast, generated by a totally new and more powerful principle,
 namely the power set axiom. It is unreasonable to expect that any description of a larger
cardinal which attempts to build up that cardinal from ideas deriving from the replacement
axiom can ever reach .

Thus is greater than , where , etc. This point of view regards as an

incredibly rich set given to us by one bold new axiom, which can never be approached by any
piecemeal process of construction. Perhaps later generations will see the problem more clearly
and express themselves more eloquently.

— Cohen (2008)

An "enduring and powerful product" of Cohen's work on the continuum hypothesis, and one that has been
used by "countless mathematicians"[16] is known as "forcing", and it is used to construct mathematical
models to test a given hypothesis for truth or falsehood.

Shortly before his death, Cohen gave a lecture describing his solution to the problem of the continuum
hypothesis at the 2006 Gödel centennial conference in Vienna.[17]

Death
Cohen and his wife, Christina (née Karls), had three sons. Cohen died on March 23, 2007, in Stanford,
California, after suffering from lung disease.[18]

Selected publications
Cohen, Paul Joseph (1958). "Topics in the theory of uniqueness of trigonometrical series" (h
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110725165254/http://www.chronomaitre.org/cohen.pdf) (PDF).
Archived from the original (http://www.chronomaitre.org/cohen.pdf) (PDF) on 2011-07-25.
Retrieved 2010-02-19.
Cohen, Paul Joseph (1960). "On a conjecture of Littlewood and idempotent measures".
Amer. J. Math. 82 (2): 191–212. doi:10.2307/2372731 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F237273
1). JSTOR 2372731 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2372731). MR 0133397 (https://mathscine
t.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0133397).
Cohen, Paul Joseph (December 1963). "The independence of the continuum hypothesis" (ht
tps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC221287). Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences of the United States of America. 50 (6): 1143–1148.
Bibcode:1963PNAS...50.1143C (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1963PNAS...50.1143C).
doi:10.1073/pnas.50.6.1143 (https://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.50.6.1143). PMC 221287 (htt
ps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC221287). PMID 16578557 (https://pubmed.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/16578557).
Cohen, Paul Joseph (January 1964). "The independence of the continuum hypothesis, II" (h
ttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC300611). Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 51 (1): 105–110.
Bibcode:1964PNAS...51..105C (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1964PNAS...51..105C).
doi:10.1073/pnas.51.1.105 (https://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.51.1.105). PMC 300611 (http
s://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC300611). PMID 16591132 (https://pubmed.ncbi.n
lm.nih.gov/16591132).
 Cohen, Paul Joseph (2008) [1966]. Set theory and the continuum hypothesis. Mineola, New
York City: Dover Publications. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-486-46921-8.

See also

Biographies portal

Mathematics portal

Cohen algebra

References
1. Levy, Dawn (2007-03-28). "Paul Cohen, winner of world's top mathematics prize, dies at 72"
(http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/april4/cohen-040407.html). Stanford Report.
Retrieved 2007-10-31.
2. Pearce, Jeremy (2 April 2007). "Paul J. Cohen, Mathematics Trailblazer, Dies at 72" (https://
www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/us/02cohen.html?_r=0). NY Times.
3. Macintyre, A.J. "Paul Joseph Cohen" (http://old.lms.ac.uk/newsletter/360/360_09.html)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20101225053150/http://old.lms.ac.uk/newsletter/360/
360_09.html) 2010-12-25 at the Wayback Machine, London Mathematical Society.
Accessed March 3, 2011. "Cohen's origins were humble. He was born in Long Branch, New
Jersey on 2 April 1934, into a Polish immigrant family."
4. Albers, Donald J.; Alexanderson, Gerald L.; Reid, Constance, eds. (1990), "Paul Cohen",
More Mathematical People, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, pp. 42–58.
5. Cohen 1958.
6. "Topics in the Theory of Uniqueness of Trigonometrical Series" (https://www.proquest.com/o
penview/710f92e193e41d7b2bc082f6df8f09a8/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y).
ProQuest. Retrieved 2024-11-02.
7. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Paul Joseph Cohen" (https://mathshistory.st-and
rews.ac.uk/Biographies/Cohen.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University
of St Andrews
8. "Paul Joseph Cohen" (https://www.amacad.org/person/paul-joseph-cohen). American
Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2022-08-22.
9. "Paul J. Cohen" (http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/56837.htm
l). www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2022-08-22.
10. "APS Member History" (https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Paul+Cohen
&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advance
d). search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2022-08-22.
11. "Honorary doctorates - Uppsala University, Sweden" (http://www.uu.se/en/about-uu/tradition
s/prizes/honorary-doctorates/). www.uu.se. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
12. "The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details - NSF - National Science
Foundation" (https://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.cfm?recip_id=80). www.nsf.gov.
Retrieved 21 March 2018.
13. Cohen 1960.
14. Davidson, Keay (2007-03-30). "Paul Cohen -- Stanford professor, acclaimed mathematician"
(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/30/BAG8DOUKEG1.DTL). San
Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
15. Solomon Feferman, The Gödel Editorial Project: A synopsis [1] (http://math.stanford.edu/~fef
erman/papers/Goedel-Project-Synopsis.pdf) p. 11.
16. Pearce, Jeremy (2007-04-02). "Paul J. Cohen, Mathematics Trailblazer, Dies at 72" (https://
www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/us/02cohen.html?_r=1&oref=slogin). The New York Times.
Retrieved 2007-10-31.
17. Paul Cohen lecture video, six parts, Gödel Centennial, Vienna 2006 (https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=VBFLWk7k1Zo) on YouTube
18. Pearce, Jeremy (2007-04-02). "Paul J. Cohen, Mathematics Trailblazer, Dies at 72" (https://
www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/us/02cohen.html). The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 (htt
ps://search.worldcat.org/issn/0362-4331). Retrieved 2020-06-13.

Further reading
Akihiro Kanamori, "Cohen and Set Theory (http://math.bu.edu/people/aki/14.pdf)", The
Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, Volume 14, Number 3, Sept. 2008.
Sarnak, Peter (December 2007). "Remembering Paul Cohen" (https://web.math.princeton.e
du/sarnak/RememberingPaulCohen.pdf) (PDF). MAA Focus. 27 (9). Washington, DC:
Mathematical Association of America: 21–22. ISSN 0731-2040 (https://search.worldcat.org/i
ssn/0731-2040). Retrieved 2009-05-31.

External links
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Paul Joseph Cohen" (https://mathshistory.st-and
rews.ac.uk/Biographies/Cohen.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University
of St Andrews
Paul Joseph Cohen (https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=6479) at the Mathematics
Genealogy Project
paulcohen.org (https://web.archive.org/web/20070613110312/http://paulcohen.org/) - a
commemorative website celebrating the life of Paul Cohen
Stanford obituary (http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/april4/cohen-040407.html)

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