On the Origins of Riemann’s Hypothesis - David E Rowe

Much has been written about the Riemann hypothesis, which many consider to be the most important unsolved problem in mathematics today. It concerns the zeros of the Riemann zeta function, which Riemann introduced in his famous 8-page paper from 1859. This talk aims to explain the motivation behind his paper, which only incidentally mentioned the Riemann hypothesis. This story has many sequels. 

David E. Rowe is Professor Emeritus for History of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz.