The appropriate weighted inner product and Sturm-Liouville operator are
For two functions obeying the endpoint conditions, integration by parts gives the Lagrange identity for a Sturm-Liouville operator
At , both and vanish. At , the factor tends to zero while the functions and their first derivatives remain bounded. Thus the boundary form vanishes at both ends.
This gives the regular self-adjoint differential operator realization: its singular-end condition is , together with . The bounded classical eigenfunctions satisfy exactly this no-log choice. More precisely the operator domain is the maximal differential-operator domain in the weighted space with these separated endpoint conditions; the preceding calculation verifies its self-adjoint boundary form, rather than merely the differential expression's formal symmetry.
Multiplying by makes the first two terms a total derivative:
The resulting Sturm-Liouville form is
Equivalently, an integrating multiplier must satisfy , which reduces to and gives up to a constant. The coefficient is positive for and vanishes linearly at the left endpoint; the weight is positive throughout. The boundedness condition removes the logarithmic local branch, giving the no-log boundary condition at a linearly vanishing Sturm-Liouville endpoint.
Assume the image of the domain of lies in the domain where is holomorphic. The complex chain rule gives
so the composition is holomorphic, including at points where . Its real part is therefore a harmonic function.
A direct verification uses the composition of harmonic conjugate pairs. The multivariable chain rule gives
The Cauchy-Riemann equations imply ; parts (i) and (ii) remove the last three terms. Since is harmonic in its own variables,
For a harmonic function, put and . Since , its Hessian matrix is
A nonzero determinant is therefore negative, and the two real Hessian eigenvalues are . At a stationary point the quadratic term of the Taylor expansion has both signs. Consequently every such nondegenerate stationary point is a saddle point. This is the nondegenerate stationary points of a planar harmonic function criterion. The same argument applies to , whose stationary points coincide with those of . A zero Hessian determinant is outside this second-order classification.
The Cauchy-Riemann equations give . Therefore
The gradient is normal to a regular level set, so these curves intersect orthogonally wherever their gradients are nonzero. At a stationary point, where both gradients vanish, a regular curve tangent need not exist; the algebraic identity remains valid.
Differentiate the Cauchy-Riemann equations and use equality of mixed partial derivatives, which holds because holomorphic functions are smooth:
Thus both parts are harmonic functions.
Differentiate the eigenvalue equation along the assumed smooth normalized eigenbranch:
Since is real symmetric, . Multiplying the differentiated equation by and using cancels the terms containing :
Thus the finite-dimensional Hellmann–Feynman theorem gives
Equivalently, differentiating the normalization gives and eliminates those terms from the derivative of . The proof needs the smooth eigenbranch assumed in the question; the smallest eigenvalue need not be differentiable at an arbitrary crossing without that assumption.
The trace of a square matrix is . Expanding a product and interchanging its finite sums gives
Hence every commutator has trace zero. Taking the trace of gives . Over the complex numbers, with , this forces
For that value, choose , or any commuting pair. For every nonzero the trace contradiction proves nonexistence. The finite matrix size is essential to this trace argument.
Complete the square in the quadratic form:
The real invertible linear transformation
sets , , , giving . The same transformation gives
Its signature is . By Sylvester's law of inertia no real invertible change of variables can turn this second form into a sum of three positive squares.
Away from the axis, cylindrical coordinates put the field in the line vortex form
The only potentially nonzero component of its curl is
The other components vanish because there is no axial dependence and no radial or axial velocity. Thus the curl is zero for ; the field is singular on the axis, so a classical curl there is not defined.
For a spanning surface avoiding that axis, the smoothness hypotheses of Stokes theorem hold and give . If the enclosed planar region contains the axis, the singularity prevents applying that theorem directly. Excise a small disk about the origin. The resulting annulus has zero curl, so its outer circulation equals the counterclockwise circulation on the small circle:
This sign assumes positive, counterclockwise orientation. Clockwise orientation gives ; more generally the value is times the winding number about the origin. A curve through the origin is excluded because its integral is singular. In the distribution interpretation the missing vorticity is concentrated on the axis as , explaining the nonzero circulation despite zero classical curl away from it.
In Cartesian coordinates, use the Levi-Civita symbol and the Einstein summation convention to expand
The contraction of the two symbols uses the Kronecker delta, and the final step is the product rule. Thus the convective acceleration identity is
Put . The curl of a gradient vanishes, and the curl of a cross product identity gives
Since the divergence of a curl is zero, taking the curl of the first identity yields
Twice continuous differentiability suffices for the mixed-derivative identities used here.
Write the analytic solution as . The constant term in the differential equation gives , and matching the coefficient of gives
All odd coefficients therefore vanish; and . The first three nonzero terms are
In full, , so , a Bessel function of the first kind. The ratio test proves convergence for every complex . The other independent solution has a logarithmic singularity at zero and does not satisfy the analyticity requirement.
For a nonzero solution on a branch where the real power is differentiable, set . Multiplying the Bernoulli differential equation by gives the linear equation
It can be solved by an integrating factor. For the specified cubic equation take , , so satisfies . Its integrating factor is , giving and hence . Thus all nonzero real solutions are
on connected intervals where the denominator is positive, with a fixed sign on each interval. Also solves the original equation and must be restored because the substitution excluded it. The choices give the constant solutions . Smoothness of the original right-hand side gives uniqueness, so a nonzero solution cannot cross through the zero solution at a finite regular point.
Factor . The geometric series gives, for ,
Thus the first three nonzero terms are . If “first three terms” means the coefficients through degree two, that Taylor polynomial is . The distinction matters because the quadratic coefficient vanishes. The nearest singularities are the two nontrivial cube roots of unity, so the radius of convergence is exactly one.
Use to multiply the elementary complex exponentials:
Collecting real and imaginary parts gives
Write the speed as and take
The two Euler-Lagrange equations are
For example and , yielding the first equation. Integrating once gives constants with and . The case would force both velocities to vanish, contrary to a regular curve. Squaring and adding therefore gives
Thus every regular stationary curve is a circle, whose center is set by the integration constants. A simple closed traversal of length has radius and positive enclosed area . The planar isoperimetric inequality proves that this stationary candidate is the global maximum; the necessary variational equations alone would not prove that inequality. The stationary curves of the planar isoperimetric problem give this argument independently of the chosen parametrization.
At a regular constrained extremum, the method of Lagrange multipliers makes stationary for a constant . For an endpoint-vanishing variation , integration by parts gives
The fundamental lemma of the calculus of variations therefore yields
This Euler-Lagrange equation must be supplemented by the two endpoint conditions and the prescribed integral constraint, which determine the constants and multiplier. Existence of the normal multiplier assumes that the first variation of is not identically zero. If that regularity fails, the general multiplier equation uses , with ; one cannot automatically set .

Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project

Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
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    Figure 5. . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.
    Video 3.
    Edit locally and publish demo
    . Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.
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