The Ramanujan tau function, studied by Ramanujan, is the function :\mathbb {N} \rightarrow \mathbb {Z} }
defined by the following identity:
Values of |τ(n)| for n < 16,000 with a logarithmic scale. The blue line picks only the values of n that are multiples of 121.
Srinivasa Ramanujan
(22 December 1887 – 26 April 1920) was an Indian mathematician. Though he had almost no formal training in pure mathematics, he made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions, including solutions to mathematical problems then considered unsolvable.
1913 passport photograph
Ramanujan's birthplace on 18 Alahiri Street, Erode, now in Tamil Nadu
Ramanujan's home on Sarangapani Sannidhi Street, Kumbakonam
K Ananda Rau seated with Ramanujan