# Hazel Perfect

Hazel Perfect (died 8 July 2015)[1] was a British mathematician specialising in combinatorics.

## Contributions

Perfect was known for inventing gammoids,[2][3][AMG] for her work with Leon Mirsky on doubly stochastic matrices,[4][SP2] for her three books Topics in Geometry,[5][TIG] Topics in Algebra,[6][TIA] and Independence Theory in Combinatorics,[7][ITC] and for her work as a translator (from an earlier German translation) of Pavel Alexandrov's book An Introduction to the Theory of Groups (Hafner, 1959).[8][ITG]

The Perfect–Mirsky conjecture, named after Perfect and Leon Mirsky, concerns the region of the complex plane formed by the eigenvalues of doubly stochastic matrices. Perfect and Mirsky conjectured that for ${\displaystyle n\times n}$ matrices this region is the union of regular polygons of up to ${\displaystyle n}$ sides, having the roots of unity of each degree up to ${\displaystyle n}$ as vertices. Perfect and Mirsky proved their conjecture for ${\displaystyle n\leq 3}$; it was subsequently shown to be true for ${\displaystyle n=4}$ and false for ${\displaystyle n=5}$, but remains open for larger values of ${\displaystyle n}$.[9][SP2]

## Education and career

Perfect earned a master's degree through Westfield College (a constituent college for women in the University of London) in 1949, with a thesis on The Reduction of Matrices to Canonical Form.[10] In the 1950s, Perfect was a lecturer at University College of Swansea; she collaborated with Gordon Petersen, a visitor to Swansea at that time, on their translation of Alexandrov's book.[11] She completed her Ph.D. at the University of London in 1969; her dissertation was Studies in Transversal Theory with Particular Reference to Independence Structures and Graphs.[12] She became a reader in mathematics at the University of Sheffield.[13]

## Selected publications

### Books

 TIG. Perfect, Hazel (1963), Topics in Geometry, Pergamon, MR 0155210.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}[5]
 TIA. Perfect, Hazel (1966), Topics in Algebra, Pergamon[6]
 ITC. Bryant, Victor; Perfect, Hazel (1980), Independence Theory in Combinatorics: An introductory account with applications to graphs and transversals, London and New York: Chapman & Hall, ISBN 0-412-16220-2, MR 0604173[7]

### Research papers

 SP2. Perfect, Hazel; Mirsky, L. (1965), "Spectral properties of doubly-stochastic matrices", Monatshefte für Mathematik, 69: 35–57, doi:10.1007/BF01313442, MR 0175917
 AMG. Perfect, Hazel (1968), "Applications of Menger's graph theorem", Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, 22: 96–111, doi:10.1016/0022-247X(68)90163-7, MR 0224494

### Translation

 ITG. Alexandroff, P. S. (1959), An Introduction to the Theory of Groups, translated by Perfect, Hazel; Petersen, G. M., New York: Hafner Publishing Co., MR 0099361[8]

## References

1. ^ "Hazel Perfect Obituary", The Star, 22 July 2015 – via Legacy.com
2. ^ Schrijver, Alexander (2003), Combinatorial optimization: Polyhedra and efficiency, Vol. B: Matroids, trees, stable sets, Algorithms and Combinatorics, 24, Berlin: Springer-Verlag, p. 659, ISBN 3-540-44389-4, MR 1956925
3. ^ Welsh, D. J. A. (1976), Matroid theory, London and New York: Academic Press, p. 219, ISBN 9780486474397, MR 0427112
4. ^
5. ^ a b Review of Topics in Geometry:
• Petersen, G. M., Mathematical Reviews, MR 0155210CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
• Primrose, E. J. F. (December 1964), The Mathematical Gazette, 48 (366): 459, doi:10.1017/s0025557200051627CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
• Garner, C. W. L. (February 1965), Canadian Mathematical Bulletin, 8 (1): 126–127, doi:10.1017/S0008439500024450 (inactive 2020-01-25)CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
6. ^ a b Reviews of Topics in Algebra:
• Drechsel, Robert R. (November 1968), The Mathematics Teacher, 61 (7): 725–726, JSTOR 27957974CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
• Matthews, Geoffrey (December 1969), The Mathematical Gazette, 53 (386): 431–432, doi:10.2307/3612506, JSTOR 3612506CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
7. ^ a b Reviews of Independence Theory in Combinatorics:
8. ^ a b Reviews of An Introduction to the Theory of Groups:
9. ^ Levick, Jeremy; Pereira, Rajesh; Kribs, David W. (2015), "The four-dimensional Perfect–Mirsky Conjecture", Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 143 (5): 1951–1956, doi:10.1090/S0002-9939-2014-12412-9, MR 3314105
10. ^ Subjects of Dissertations, Theses and Published Works Presented by Successful Candidates at Examinations for Higher Degrees, University of London, 1937, p. 22 – via Google Books
11. ^ Burkill, H. (January 1999), "Gordon Marshall Petersen", Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society, 31 (1): 97–107, doi:10.1112/s0024609398005177
12. ^ Theses and Dissertations Accepted for Higher Degrees, University of London, 1967, p. 42 – via Google Books
13. ^ Author biography from A Mathematical Spectrum Miscellany: selections from Mathematical Spectrum, 1967–1994, Applied Probability Trust, 2000, p. 3, ISBN 9780902016057