With metric signature $(+---)$, normalize a timelike Killing vector field by $U^a=K^a/N$, $N^2=K^a{K}_a$. The Killing equation gives $K^b{\nabla }_b{K}_a=-\frac{1}{2}{\nabla }_a{N}^2$, while $K^b{\nabla }_{b}N=0$. Thus the four-acceleration of its normalized flow is the displayed gradient. With metric signature $(-+++)$ the corresponding lower-index formula has the opposite sign.

On a connected Riemannian manifold, these data determine a Killing field uniquely, without a completeness assumption. The second covariant derivative of a Killing vector makes its restriction to every geodesic a Jacobi field. The difference of two fields with identical data has zero Jacobi initial values and vanishes in a convex normal neighborhood. The set on which both its value and covariant derivative vanish is closed by continuity and open by the same local argument, so connectedness makes it the whole manifold.

The Killing equation and the second covariant derivative of a Killing vector transport a Killing field and its antisymmetric derivative along any curve. Here $L_{ab}={\nabla }_b{\xi }_a$ and the curvature convention is the one in curvature-sign convention in Killing derivative identities. In a parallel frame the equations form a homogeneous linear system of ordinary differential equations. Initial value zero has unique zero continuation. Thus on a connected pseudo-Riemannian manifold, not just on a Riemannian manifold, the field is determined by its value and first derivative at one point.

On a geodesically complete Riemannian manifold, every Killing vector field is complete and integrates to a global one-parameter subgroup of its isometry group. On the incomplete interval $(0,1)$ with its Euclidean metric, ${\partial }_x$ satisfies the Killing equation, but translations leave the interval in finite time. The full isometry group is only the identity and reflection. Local solutions of the Killing equation therefore need not equal the Lie algebra of global isometries without completeness.

On a closed Riemannian manifold, a Killing vector field $X$ satisfies ${\nabla }^{\ast }\nabla X={\mathrm{Ric}}^{♯}X$ for the nonnegative rough Laplacian. This follows by differentiating ${\nabla }_i{X}_j+{\nabla }_j{X}_i=0$, contracting and commuting covariant derivatives; the contraction also gives $\mathrm{div}X=0$. Taking the inner product with $X$ and using integration by parts gives the displayed identity. If Ricci curvature is nonpositive, the nonnegative left side must vanish, so $X$ is a parallel vector field. In particular every Killing vector field on a closed flat Riemannian manifold is a parallel vector field.

Suppose the full Lie algebra of Killing fields has basis $T,\Phi$ and the flow of $\Phi$ has a nonzero period $P$. Write $[T,\Phi ]=aT+b\Phi$ with constant coefficients. The Adjoint representation of the periodic flow satisfies $e^{P\mathrm{ad}\Phi }=1$. Its real eigenvalues are $-a$ and zero, so $a=0$. The remaining adjoint operator is nilpotent and its exponential is $1+P\mathrm{ad}\Phi$, forcing $b=0$. This proves commutation from genuine periodic axial symmetry, without differentiating mere asymptotic component limits.

A gravitational magnetic monopole for a compact circle, whose fibre is nontrivially twisted over a surrounding two-sphere. With flat spectator directions its nonsingular local geometry is a Taub–NUT space. Reducing along the M-circle yields the D6-brane. The magnetic dual of the IIB circle vector is instead a five-brane in nine noncompact dimensions.

// Target: geometry-and-topology.bigb

A real five-dimensional Maxwell field on a circle of radius $r$ has a Fourier series with coefficients $A_M^{(n)}$, $A_M^{(-n)}=(A_M^{(n)}{)}^{\ast }$. Its mixed field-strength component is $F_{\mu 5}^{(n)}={\partial }_{\mu }{A}_5^{(n)}-in{A}_{\mu }^{(n)}/r$. The nonzero modes transform as $\delta A_{\mu }^{(n)}={\partial }_{\mu }{\Lambda }^{(n)}$, $\delta A_5^{(n)}=in{\Lambda }^{(n)}/r$. Thus $A_5^{(n)}$ is a Stueckelberg mechanism field and the gauge-invariant massive vector is $A_{\mu }^{(n)}-r{\partial }_{\mu }{A}_5^{(n)}/(in)$. Its mass is $|n|/r$ and it has three physical polarizations. The zero modes instead consist of a massless four-dimensional Maxwell field and a real massless scalar field; the latter cannot be removed by a periodic infinitesimal gauge transformation. A positive Fourier level and its negative level are conjugate, not independent real fields.

For a massless field on Minkowski space times a circle of circumference $R$, the compact delta distribution expands as $R^{-1}{\sum }_n{e}^{2\pi in\Delta w/R}$. The noncompact retarded Green function in each Fourier sector is that of a four-dimensional field with mass $m_n$. Equivalently, the time-frequency denominator is ${\mathbf{k}}^2+m_n^2-(\omega +i0{)}^2$, putting both poles below the real axis. At equal compact positions the sum has one zero mode and a doubly counted nonzero mass tower.

For the Poisson equation ${\nabla }_4^2\varphi =-4\pi Rq{\delta }^3(\mathbf{x}){\delta }_{2\pi R}(z)$ on ${\mathbb{R}}^3\times S^1$, expand the periodic delta as $(2\pi R{)}^{-1}{\sum }_n{e}^{inz/R}$. The $n$th Kaluza-Klein mode has radial potential $q{e}^{-|n|r/R}/(2\pi r)$, since $({\nabla }_3^2-m^2)e^{-mr}/r=-4\pi {\delta }^3(\mathbf{x})$. Summing the geometric series gives the displayed Green function. At equal compact coordinate it reduces to $q\coth (r/(2R))/(2\pi r)$. Thus the interaction energy changes from $q_1{q}_2/(2\pi r)$ at large separation to $q_1{q}_{2}R/(\pi r^2)$ at small separation, with normalization fixed by the stated Poisson equation.

For a periodic scalar on a circle of circumference $2\pi R$, its Fourier series has modes ${\psi }_n(x)e^{inz/R}$. In the fixed-radius metric $d{s}_5^2={\gamma }_{ij}d{x}^{i}d{x}^j+(dz+A_{i}d{x}^i{)}^2$, the five-dimensional Klein-Gordon equation becomes $(D_i{D}^i-M^2-n^2/R^2){\psi }_n=0$ with $D_i={\nabla }_i-in{A}_i/R$. Thus the geometric gauge charge is quantized in units $1/R$ in units $\hslash =1$, or the conserved compact momentum in units $\hslash /R$. A rescaling to a canonically normalized electromagnetic potential changes the corresponding numerical unit of physical electric charge.

For a field periodic on a circle of radius $R$, a Fourier series gives modes with quantized internal momentum $n/R$. Each mode is a lower-dimensional field with the displayed squared mass. The entire sequence is the tower; retaining only modes below a chosen energy gives an effective field theory. The tower is distinct from any individual Kaluza-Klein mode.

Let $J$ be the largest number of chromosome copies that can be paired across the two full siblings as identical by descent, counting repeated copies when a child is autozygous. For offspring of otherwise outbred first cousins, with probability $3/4$ the parental copies have no common ancestral origin, giving ordinary sibling sharing $(1/4,1/2,1/4)$. With probability $1/4$, write the parental copies as $(A,B)$ and $(A,C)$ with three distinct origins. Each child independently has one of $AA,AB,AC,BC$, equally likely. Among sixteen ordered child pairs, two share no copy, ten share one, and four share two. The mixture gives the displayed probabilities. These three numbers do not determine all Jacquard identity coefficients; the formula $\varphi =\mathbb{E}[J]/4$ is restricted to noninbred individuals and fails here.

For coprime positive odd integers $a,b$, the Jacobi symbol satisfies $(a/b)(b/a)=(-1{)}^{(a-1)(b-1)/4}$. It follows by factoring $a$ and $b$ into primes and multiplying the quadratic reciprocity for each prime pair; the parity of the sums of prime half-differences agrees with $(a-1)/2$ and $(b-1)/2$. A Jacobi symbol equal to one does not imply that its numerator is a quadratic residue for a composite denominator.

An isotopic abundance is an atom fraction within a specified population of one chemical element.^[ref] If $n_i$ counts its chemical atoms of isotope $i$, useThe denominator includes every isotope of that chemical element included in the stated population, not every chemical atom of every chemical element in the sample. Thus an oxygen atom fraction among all chemical elements is a different quantity.

For an illustrative neutral neon population, take the displayed central isotopic abundances $f_{20}=0.9048$, $f_{21}=0.0027$, and $f_{22}=0.0925$ from the reference table, so $0.9048+0.0027+0.0925=1$. Its mean atomic mass is the weighted arithmetic meanThese are rounded reference inputs with uncertainties, not exact universal isotopic abundances; the long decimal shows their arithmetic result, not measurement precision.^[ref]

The population convention matters. If instead $w_i$ is the fraction of total neutral-atom mass supplied by isotope $i$, then $w_i=f_i{m}_i/\bar{m}$ andThis is a weighted harmonic mean in the mass fractions. Using ${\sum }_i{w}_i{m}_i$ with those mass fractions would answer a different question. The conversion follows directly by counting chemical atoms and adding their masses.

The rest mass of a chemical atom in its ground state, a physical quantity expressed in SI mass units or the unified atomic mass unit. Here $m_i$ means the atomic mass of a neutral chemical atom of isotope $i$, not the mass of its bare atomic nucleus and not a population average.^[ref]

Atomic mass includes electrons and depends on nuclear binding energy; it is not just mass number times a universal nucleon mass. The atomic mass of neutral carbon-12 in its ground state is exactly $12\mathrm{u}$ by definition of the unified atomic mass unit. That exactness establishes the reference scale, rather than making the atomic masses of all isotopes exact integers in the same unit.

The mass number $A$ is the total number of nucleons, namely protons plus neutrons, in an atomic nucleus:It is an exact positive integer with no units, rather than a measured mass. Carbon-12 has $A=12$ because its atomic nucleus contains six protons and six neutrons. No improvement in a mass measurement can turn that count into $11.999$ or $12.001$.^[ref]

The left superscript in ${}_{10}^{22}\mathrm{Ne}$ denotes mass number $22$, not an atomic mass of exactly $22\mathrm{u}$. For neon-22, the displayed reference atomic mass is about $21.991385114\mathrm{u}$. Even a weighted mean of mass numbers, such as $20.1877$ for the illustrative neon population below, is a population average, not the mass number of an individual atomic nucleus.^[ref]

A cesium chloride density gradient forms when the salt $\mathrm{CsCl}$ redistributes in a rotating chemical solution. It can supply matching-density positions for DNA during isopycnic centrifugation.^[ref]

Buoyant density is the surrounding liquid density at which a species has no net centrifugal drift under the stated conditions. It depends on interactions with the medium, including associated solvent, rather than necessarily equaling the dry substance's density. Equal buoyant densities can give overlapping bands even for differently sized proteins or DNA fragments.^[ref]

Every nonempty open real interval contains an irrational number. Choose a rational number $q$ strictly inside the interval using density of the rational numbers; then $q+\sqrt{2}/N$ remains inside for sufficiently large positive integers $N$ and is irrational. Thus the irrational numbers form a dense subset of the real line. Together with rational density, this gives approaching sequences of both types at every real point, useful for testing continuity of functions defined differently on the two sets.