Bourget's Hypothesis
Bessel himself originally proved that for non-negative integers n, the equation Jn(x) = 0 has an infinite number of solutions in x. When the functions Jn(x) are plotted on the same graph, though, none of the zeros seem to coincide for different values of n except for the zero at x = 0. This phenomenon is known as Bourget's hypothesis after the nineteenth century French mathematician who studied Bessel functions. Specifically it states that for any integers n ≥ 0 and m ≥ 1, the functions Jn(x) and Jn+m(x) have no common zeros other than the one at x = 0. The hypothesis was proved by Carl Ludwig Siegel in 1929.
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“On pragmatistic principles, if the hypothesis of God works satisfactorily in the widest sense of the word, it is true.”
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