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Svetlana Zhitomirskaya, the mathematician behind the quantum physics solution to the “Martini 10 problem”

  • Margarita Rodriguez
  • From BBC News World

credit, CUCI/Physical Sciences Disclosure

Illustrative image,

Ukrainian Svetlana Zhitomirskaya is one of the most important mathematicians of our time

A species of butterfly has captured the attention of math teacher Svetlana Zhitomirskaya for years. This admiration was one of the factors that prompted her to delve deeper into a mathematical problem presented in 1981.

“The Hofstadter butterfly is a very interesting thing to observe,” she says.

It is a graphic representation of a fractal group, which was created in the 1970s by the American scientist Douglas Hofstadter, who played an important role in quantum mechanics.

But there was a specific point I made to this issue: the “meaningful ideas” I developed in this area. She also highlights that Guess “has a very catchy name.”