Biography
Petersen's interests in mathematics were manifold (geometry, function theory, number theory, mathematical physics, mathematical economics, cryptography and graph theory). His famous paper Die Theorie der regulären graphs was a fundamental contribution to modern graph theory as we know it today. In 1898, he presented a counterexample to Tait's claimed theorem about 1-factorability of 3-regular graphs, which is nowadays known as the "Petersen Graph".
He published a systematic treatment of geometrical constructions (with straightedge and compass) in 1880. A French translation was reprinted in 1990.
A special issue of Discrete Mathematics has been dedicated to the 150th birthday of Petersen, in which a very precise biography may be found.
Read more about this topic: Julius Petersen
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