German mathematician
Heiko Harborth (born 11 February 1938, in Celle , Germany )[ 1] is Professor of Mathematics at Braunschweig University of Technology , 1975–present, and author of more than 188 mathematical publications.[ 2] His work is mostly in the areas of number theory , combinatorics and discrete geometry , including graph theory .
Career
Harborth has been an instructor or professor at Braunschweig University of Technology since studying there and receiving his PhD in 1965 under Hans-Joachim Kanold .[ 3] Harborth is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences , Braunschweigische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft , the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications , and many other mathematical societies. Harborth currently sits on the editorial boards of Fibonacci Quarterly , Geombinatorics , Integers: Electronic Journal of Combinatorial Number Theory . He served as an editor of Mathematische Semesterberichte from 1988 to 2001. Harborth was a joint recipient (with Stephen Milne ) of the 2007 Euler Medal .
Mathematical work
The Harborth Graph.
Harborth's research ranges across the subject areas of combinatorics , graph theory , discrete geometry , and number theory . In 1974, Harborth solved the unit coin graph problem,[ 4] determining the maximum number of edges possible in a unit coin graph on n vertices. In 1986, Harborth presented the graph that would bear his name, the Harborth graph . It is the smallest known example of a 4-regular matchstick graph . It has 104 edges and 52 vertices.[ 5]
In connection with the happy ending problem , Harborth showed that, for every finite set of ten or more points in general position in the plane, some five of them form a convex pentagon that does not contain any of the other points.[ 6]
Harborth's conjecture [ 7] posits that every planar graph admits a straight-line embedding in the plane where every edge has integer length. This open question (as of 2014[update] ) is a stronger version of Fáry's theorem . It is known to be true for cubic graphs .[ 8]
In number theory , the Stolarsky–Harborth constant [ 9] is named for Harborth, along with Kenneth Stolarsky .
Private life
Harborth married Karin Reisener in 1961, and they had two children. He was widowed in 1980. In 1985 he married Bärbel Peter and with her has three stepchildren.[ 1]
Notes
^ a b Harborth's web site http://www.mathematik.tu-bs.de/harborth/ Archived 5 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine . Accessed 14 May 2009.
^ AMS MathSciNet http://www.ams.org/mathscinet . Accessed 14 May 2009.
^ Heiko Harborth at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
^ Heiko Harborth, Lösung zu Problem 664A, Elem. Math. 29 (1974), 14–15.
^ Weisstein, Eric W. (2009), "Harborth Graph", From MathWorld—A Wolfram Web Resource : http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HarborthGraph.html
^ Harborth, Heiko (1978), "Konvexe Fünfecke in ebenen Punktmengen", Elem. Math. , 33 (5): 116–118
^ Harborth, H.; Kemnitz, A.; Moller, M.; Sussenbach, A. (1987), "Ganzzahlige planare Darstellungen der platonischen Korper", Elem. Math. , 42 : 118–122 ; Kemnitz, A.; Harborth, H. (2001), "Plane integral drawings of planar graphs", Discrete Mathematics , 236 (1–3): 191–195, doi :10.1016/S0012-365X(00)00442-8 ;
Mohar, Bojan ; Carsten, Thomassen (2001), Graphs on Surfaces , Johns Hopkins University Press, problem 2.8.15, ISBN 0-8018-6689-8 .
^ Geelen, Jim ; Guo, Anjie; McKinnon, David (2008), "Straight line embeddings of cubic planar graphs with integer edge lengths" (PDF) , Journal of Graph Theory , 58 (3): 270–274, doi :10.1002/jgt.20304 , S2CID 1856482 .
^ Weisstein, Eric W. "Stolarsky-Harborth Constant" . MathWorld .
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