Background
Evariste Galois was born on October 25, 1811 in Bourg-la-Reine, French Empire to Nicolas-Gabriel Galois and Adélaïde-Marie.
Evariste Galois was born on October 25, 1811 in Bourg-la-Reine, French Empire to Nicolas-Gabriel Galois and Adélaïde-Marie.
In October 1823 Evariste entered to the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and despite some turmoil in the school at the beginning of the term (when about a hundred students were expelled), Galois managed to perform well for the first two years, obtaining the first prize in Latin. He soon became bored with his studies and, at the age of 14, he began to take a serious interest in mathematics.
In 1829, Galois published his first paper on ‘Continued Fractions. ’ It was around the same that that he was researching on the ‘Theory of Polynomial Equations. ’ He submitted two papers on the latter, one on 25May and the other on the 1June to ‘Académie des Sciences’.
A renowned mathematician of Académie des Sciences, Augustin Louis Cauchy reviewed his paper but refused to publish it for unknown reasons that many believe was a result of his jealousy.
However, contrary to most beliefs, Cauchy simply suggested that Galois combine both papers to make it a more comprehensive theory, so that it could be entered into the competition for the ‘Academy's Grand Prize in Mathematics’.
In 1831, he presented his memoir on the theory of equations for the third time to the Academy. This time it was returned but with a negative report. The judges, who included Siméon-Denis Poisson, did not understand what Galois had written and believed that it contained a significant error.
Several of his papers were rejected on the basis of obscurity. Realising that he wouldn’t be able to publish a paper if he did not take it upon himself, he requested his friend Auguste Chevalier to help him and thus he published three papers with his assistance.
The night before the fatal duel, he put his collective pieces together and developed evidences for a few more theories. He filled up the blank spaces in the papers that were rejected and provided concrete evidences to solutions that lay incomplete for years.
He wrote a letter to Auguste Chevalier, leaving his work for him to publish. In the 60 odd pages of Galois' collected works are many important ideas that relate to nearly all branches of mathematics.