Yuri Linnik


Yuri Vladimirovich Linnik was a Soviet mathematician active in number theory, probability theory and mathematical statistics.
Linnik was born in Bila Tserkva, in present-day Ukraine. He went to St Petersburg University where his supervisor was Vladimir Tartakovski, and later worked at that university and the Steklov Institute. He was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as was his father, Vladimir Pavlovich Linnik. He was awarded both State and Lenin Prizes. He died in Leningrad.

Work in number theory

Infinitely divisible distributions

Linnik obtained numerous results concerning infinitely divisible distributions. In particular, he proved the following generalisation of Cramér's theorem: any divisor of a convolution of Gaussian and Poisson random variables is also a convolution of Gaussian and Poisson.
He has also coauthored the book on the arithmetics of infinitely divisible distributions.

Central limit theorem

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