Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, 1805–1859, was a German mathematician.
G. Dirichlet spent a part of his life in France and gave his name to several important theorems. His double name Lejeune Dirichlet is not the joint names of his two parents but has an other origin as explained in his biography.
One can also mistakenly think that the Lejeune Dirichlet theorems were first proved by Lejeune then generalized by Dirichlet. In fact it happens relatively frequently that a theorem bears the names of two or even three mathematicians who contributed to statement and proof. Here, the mistake may be caused by the fact that, often, in books, authors drop Lejeune and speak only of Dirichlet (as I do in the header of this page, with the first name Gustav which is sometimes his only first name in dictionaries).
A mathematical function is also given the name of Dirichlet; this function is very far from usual ones and is used only for theoretical purposes.
The above portrait is probably an early photograph.
P. M.
(alphacode : dirichlet ; numcode : 382)
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