View source for Gilbert Hunt

{{short description|American tennis player and mathematician}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox tennis biography
|name                              = Gilbert Hunt
|image                             = 
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|fullname                          = Gilbert A. Hunt, Jr.
|country                           = {{USA}}
|birth_date                        = March 4, 1916
|birth_place                       = [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref name="Bio">{{MacTutor Biography|id=Hunt|title=Gilbert Hunt}}</ref>
|death_date                        = {{death date and age|2008|5|30|1916|3|4}}
|death_place                       = [[Princeton, New Jersey]]<ref name="WPObituary">[[Joe Holley]], [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/10/AR2008061003143.html Obituary: ''Gilbert Hunt Jr., 92; Math and Tennis Ace''], ''[[The Washington Post]]'', 11 June 2008.</ref>
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|plays                             = Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
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|singlesrecord                     = 89-52
|singlestitles                     = 6
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|USOpenresult                      = QF ([[1938 U.S. National Championships – Men's singles|1938]], [[1939 U.S. National Championships – Men's singles|1939]])
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}}

'''Gilbert Agnew Hunt, Jr.''' (March 4, 1916 – May 30, 2008)<ref name="Bio"/> was an American mathematician and amateur [[tennis]] player active in the 1930s and 1940s.

==Early life and education==
Hunt was born in Washington, D.C. and attended [[Eastern High School (Washington, D.C.)|Eastern High School]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Holley |first=Joe |date=2008-06-11 |title=Gilbert Hunt Jr., 92; Math and Tennis Ace |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |language=en-US |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/10/AR2008061003143.html |access-date=2022-05-08 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

==Tennis career==
Hunt reached the quarterfinals of the [[US Open (tennis)|U.S. National Championships]] in [[1938 U.S. National Championships – Men's singles|1938]] and [[1939 U.S. National Championships – Men's singles|1939]].

== Scientific career ==
Hunt received his bachelor's degree from [[George Washington University]] in 1938 and his Ph.D. from [[Princeton University]] in 1948 under [[Salomon Bochner]]. Hunt became a mathematics professor at Princeton University specializing in [[probability theory]],<ref name="WPObituary"/> [[Markov process]]es, and [[potential theory]].<ref name="Bio"/>

The [[Hunt process]] is named after him. He was an Invited Speaker at the [[International Congress of Mathematicians|ICM]] in 1962 in Stockholm. His doctoral students include [[Robert McCallum Blumenthal]] and [[Richard M. Dudley]].

===Hunt's theorem===
{{blockquote|Hunt's theorem states that for a large class of positive [[Markov kernel|kernel]]s <math>V</math> satisfying "the complete maximum principle" of [[potential theory]], there corresponds a [[Contraction (operator theory)|contraction]] [[Resolvent set|resolvent]] and associated sub-Markovian [[semigroup]] <math>P_t</math> with
: <math>V f= \int_0^\infty P_t f dt~.</math> (<math>V</math> is called the "potential kernel" of the semigroup.)<ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''Probabilités et potentiel'' by Claude Dellacherie and Paul-André Meyer, 1987|author=Mitro, Joanna|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.)|volume=24|year=1991|pages=471–477|doi=10.1090/S0273-0979-1991-16069-6|doi-access=free}} (See p. 475.)</ref>}}

==Selected publications==
*{{cite journal|title=Random Fourier transforms|journal=Trans. Amer. Math. Soc.|volume=71|year=1951|pages=38–69|doi=10.1090/S0002-9947-1951-0051340-3|doi-access=free|last1=Hunt|first1=G. A.}}
*with [[Paul Erdős]]: {{cite journal|url=https://projecteuclid.org/download/pdf_1/euclid.pjm/1103051250|title=Changes of sign of sums of random variables|journal=Pacific Journal of Mathematics|volume=3|issue=4|year=1953|pages=673–687|doi=10.2140/pjm.1953.3.673|doi-access=free|last1=Erdős|first1=Paul|last2=Hunt|first2=Gilbert}}
*{{cite journal|title=On positive Green's functions|journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.|year=1954|volume=40|issue=9|pages=816–818|pmid=16589567|doi=10.1073/pnas.40.9.816|pmc=534174|last1=Hunt|first1=G. A.|bibcode=1954PNAS...40..816H |doi-access=free}}
*{{cite journal|title=An inequality in probability theory|journal=Proc. Amer. Math. Soc.|volume=6|year=1955|pages=506–510|doi=10.1090/S0002-9939-1955-0075470-4|doi-access=free|last1=Hunt|first1=G. A.|issue=3}}
*{{cite journal|title=Markoff processes and potentials|journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.|year=1956|volume=42|issue=7|pages=414–418|pmid=16589879|doi=10.1073/pnas.42.7.414|pmc=534239|last1=Hunt|first1=G. A.|bibcode=1956PNAS...42..414H |doi-access=free}}
*{{cite journal|title=Semi-groups of measures on Lie groups|journal=Trans. Amer. Math. Soc.|volume=81|year=1956|pages=264–293|doi=10.1090/S0002-9947-1956-0079232-9|doi-access=free|last1=Hunt|first1=G. A.|issue=2}}
*{{cite journal|title=Some theorems concerning Brownian motion|journal=Trans. Amer. Math. Soc.|volume=81|year=1956|pages=294–319|doi=10.1090/S0002-9947-1956-0079377-3|doi-access=free|last1=Hunt|first1=G. A.|issue=2}}
*{{cite journal|title=A theorem of Elie Cartan|journal=Proc. Amer. Math. Soc.|volume=7|year=1956|pages=307–308|doi=10.1090/S0002-9939-1956-0077075-9|doi-access=free|last1=Hunt|first1=G. A.|issue=2}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{ATP}}
* Kitta MacPherson, [http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/08/0616/hunt/ ''Gilbert Hunt, probability expert, dies at 92''], «Princeton Weekly Bulletin» June 16, 2008, Vol. 97, No. 29.
* {{MacTutor Biography|id=Hunt|title=Gilbert Agnew Hunt}}
* {{MathGenealogy|id=8107}}
* [http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg.php?variable=e_math_01145 Gilbert Agnew Hunt, Jr. - Dolph Briscoe Center for American History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920213417/https://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg.php?variable=e_math_01145 |date=2020-09-20 }}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Gilbert}}
[[Category:1916 births]]
[[Category:2008 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Washington, D.C.]]
[[Category:American male tennis players]]
[[Category:George Washington University alumni]]
[[Category:Princeton University alumni]]
[[Category:American probability theorists]]
[[Category:Cornell University faculty]]
[[Category:Princeton University faculty]]
[[Category:Eastern High School (Washington, D.C.) alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American sportsmen]]


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