Foto:Facebook Maryna Vyazovska
Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Vyazovska became the second woman in history and the second Ukrainian to receive the highest mathematical award. The International Mathematical Union awarded her the Fields Medal for solving the problem of packing spheres in eight-dimensional space.
Maryna Vyazovska studied at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of KNU named after Taras Shevchenko in Kyiv. She currently works at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne in Switzerland. Her award recognizes the solution of the ball-packing problem and contribution to the development of mathematics.
Vyazovska proved that the E₈ lattice is the densest way of packing identical spheres in eight dimensions. She also contributed to related and interpolation problems in Fourier analysis. This is reported by nauka.ua with a link to the YouTube channel of the Ministry of Education and Culture.
The award was presented at the International Mathematical Congress in Helsinki. The broadcast of the ceremony is available on the YouTube channel of the International Mathematical Union.
The problem of packing identical balls in a given space is an ancient mathematical problem. Until 2016, the solution was known only for two- and three-dimensional spaces. Maryna Vyazovska managed to prove that in eight dimensions the E₈ lattice is the densest packing. Later, together with Danylo Radchenko and other mathematicians, she found a solution for 24-dimensional space, where the best packing turned out to be the Lynch lattice.
Marina Vyazovska explained the essence of the problem as a simple geometric question that arose a long time ago and is very natural. “If you have a large box and an unlimited supply of identical balls, how many can you put in this box? It is important how tightly these balls can be packed per unit volume,” she said.
Before Maryna Vyazovska from Ukraine, the laureate of the Fields Medal was Volodymyr Drinfeld, and Maryam Mirzakhani became the first woman to receive this award.
For Maryna Vyazovska, this is already the ninth prestigious award. The Fields Medal is awarded every four years to young mathematicians under the age of 40 for outstanding achievements in science. The award is presented at the opening of the International Mathematical Congress, and the laureates are chosen by a committee from the International Mathematical Union. The award is worth 15,000 Canadian dollars and is considered the most prestigious honor in mathematics.
