Andrew Booker (mathematician)

British mathematician

Andrew Booker

Born| 1976
Nationality| British
Alma mater|

* University of Virginia
* Princeton University

Scientific career
Fields| Mathematics
Institutions| University of Bristol
Thesis| Numerical Tests of Modularity (2003)
Doctoral advisor| Peter Sarnak

Andrew Richard Booker (born 1976)[1] is a British mathematician who is currently Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of Bristol.[2] He is an analytic number theorist known for his work on L-functions of automorphic forms[3] and his contributions to the sums of three cubes problem.[4][5]

## Education[edit]

Booker graduated from the University of Virginia in 1998, earning the E.J. McShane Prize as the top undergraduate in mathematics.[6] He completed his doctoral degree at Princeton University in 2003, under the supervision of Peter Sarnak.[7]

## Contributions[edit]

In the spring of 2019 Booker gained international attention by showing that 33 can be expressed as the sum of three cubes.[4][8][9][10] At that time 33 and 42 were the only numbers less than 100 for which this problem was open. Later that year, in joint work with Andrew Sutherland of MIT, he settled the case of 42,[11][12] as well as answering a 65-year-old question of Mordell by finding a third representation for 3 as the sum of three cubes.[13] Popular Mechanics cited the result for 42 as one of the top two mathematical breakthroughs of 2019.[5][14]

## Video appearances[edit]

Numberphile has produced three YouTube videos related to sums of three cubes in which Andrew Booker is the featured guest:

* 42 is the new 33
* The Mystery of 42 is Solved
* 3 as a sum of 3 cubes

As of January 2023 these videos had accumulated a total of almost two million views.[15]

## Selected publications[edit]

* Booker, Andrew R. (2003). "Poles of Artin L-functions and the strong Artin conjecture". Annals of Mathematics. 158 (3): 1089–1098. doi:10.4007/annals.2003.158.1089. MR 2031863. Zbl 1081.11038.
* Booker, Andrew R.; Strömbergsson, Andreas; Venkatesh, Akshay (2006). "Effective computation of Maass cusp forms". International Mathematics Research Notices (71281): 34. doi:10.1155/IMRN/2006/71281. MR 2249995. Zbl 1154.11018.
* Booker, Andrew R. (2019). "Cracking the problem with 33". Research in Number Theory. 5 (3): 26. arXiv:1903.04284. doi:10.1007/s40993-019-0162-1. ISSN 2522-0160.

## References[edit]

1. ^ "Booker, Andrew R., 1976-". viaf.org. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
2. ^ Professor Andrew Booker, University of Bristol, retrieved 12 February 2020
3. ^ Glimpses of a new (mathematical) world, American Institute of Mathematics, 2008
4. ^ a b Georgiou, Aristos (3 April 2019), "The uncracked problem with 33: Mathematician solves 64-year-old 'Diophantine puzzle'", Newsweek
5. ^ a b Popular Mechanics honors Ken Ono and Andrew Booker for the top two math breakthroughs in 2019, University of Virginia, 7 January 2020, retrieved 12 February 2020
6. ^ Undergraduate Awards, University of Virginia, retrieved 12 February 2020
7. ^ Andrew R.Booker, Mathematics Genealogy Project, retrieved 12 February 2020
8. ^ Booker, Andrew R. (2019), "Cracking the problem with 33", Research in Number Theory, 5 (26), arXiv:1903.04284, doi:10.1007/s40993-019-0162-1, MR 3983550
9. ^ Pavlus, John (10 March 2019), "Sum-of-Three-Cubes Problem Solved for 'Stubborn' Number 33", Quanta Magazine
10. ^ Lu, Donna (14 March 2019), "Mathematician cracks centuries-old problem about the number 33", New Scientist
11. ^ Sum of three cubes for 42 finally solved – using real life planetary computer, University of Bristol, 6 September 2019
12. ^ Miller, Sandi (10 September 2019), "The answer to life, the universe, and everything: Mathematics researcher Drew Sutherland helps solve decades-old sum-of-three-cubes puzzle, with help from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."", MIT News, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
13. ^ Lu, Donna (18 September 2019), "Mathematicians find a completely new way to write the number 3", New Scientist
14. ^ Linkletter, Dave (27 December 2019), "The 10 Biggest Math Breakthroughs of 2019", Popular Mechanics
15. ^ Numberphile channel, YouTube, retrieved 14 February 2020

## External links[edit]

* Andrew Booker's profile at the University of Bristol
* Andrew Booker's profile on MathSciNet
* Andrew Booker's profile on zbMath
* Andrew Booker's profile on Google Scholar
* Andrew Booker's preprints posted to arXiv

Authority control

General|

* ISNI
* ORCID
* VIAF
* WorldCat

National libraries|

* United States

Scientific databases|

* Google Scholar
* MathSciNet
* Mathematics Genealogy Project
* zbMATH