Mock Theta Functions

[vrus]

There was an Indian mathematician who lived in the first 25 years of 1900 and a few years before that. His name was Srinivasa Ramanujan said to be the 'Man who knew infinity !'. He was a genius, and went to England to continue his work after being invited there by another good mathematician called Hardy. He did a lot of work but died early due to his religious practices that led to very little edible food. He bacame a fellow of the Royal Society ! But the last thing he gave to the world before passing away was something called 'Mock Theta Functions'. Any idea what that is ? Mathematicians today are still baffled by what he did. There is very little on him on the internet.

[Lyssia]

I don't know if you've already found it, but there's a MathWorld article on mock theta functions here. At the bottom there's also a fair-sized list of references if you want to learn some more. hth