A Brief History of Quaternions and of the Theory of Holomorphic Functions of Quaternionic Variables

2011/11/25 by Buchmann, Amy
#FOS: Mathematics #History and Overview (math.HO)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1111.6088

Abstract

In this paper I will give a brief history of the discovery (Hamilton, 1843) of quaternions. I will address the issue of why a theory of triplets (the original goal of Hamilton) could not be developed. Finally, I will discuss briefly the history of various attempts to define holomorphic functions on quaternionic variables.

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