"Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae," which translates to "The Great Art of Light and Shadow," is a treatise written by the 17th-century German Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher. Published in 1671, it focuses on optical science and the principles of light, shadow, and perspective. The work combines elements of philosophy, theology, and science, reflecting Kircher's fascination with various fields of knowledge and his efforts to explain the natural world.
Arca Noë, also known as Noah's Ark, refers to a significant biblical story found in the Book of Genesis. In this narrative, God instructs Noah to build an ark to save himself, his family, and pairs of every animal species from a great flood that God would unleash to cleanse the earth of wickedness. The story symbolizes themes of salvation, divine judgment, and the covenant between God and humanity.
"A Man of Misconceptions" is a historical novel written by Jon Steele, published in 2013. The book tells the story of the life and adventures of the 17th-century Englishman, the astronomer, and mathematician Thomas Harriot, who was a contemporary of Galileo and Kepler. Harriot is portrayed as a man ahead of his time, grappling with the scientific and cultural limitations of his era.
Varadhan's lemma is a fundamental result in probability theory, particularly in the field of large deviations. It provides a way to evaluate the asymptotic behavior of certain probabilities as a parameter goes to infinity, often in the context of sequences of random variables or stochastic processes.
Transseries are a mathematical concept that generalizes the notion of series and can be used to analyze functions or solutions to equations that have a certain type of asymptotic behavior. They extend the traditional power series by allowing for non-integer powers and infinitely many terms, accommodating a broader range of asymptotic expansions. A transseries can be thought of as an expression made up of multiple components, combining both exponential-type and polynomial-type growths.
The Tilted Large Deviation Principle (TLDP) is a concept in probability theory, particularly in the area of large deviation theory. It extends the classical large deviation principles, which usually provide asymptotic estimates of probabilities of rare events in stochastic processes or sequences of random variables. In general, large deviation principles are concerned with understanding how the probabilities of certain rare events behave as an associated parameter (often the sample size) grows.
Stokes phenomenon is a concept in the field of asymptotic analysis, particularly in the study of differential equations and complex analysis. It describes a behavior that occurs in the context of asymptotic expansions of solutions to differential equations when crossing certain "Stokes lines" in the complex plane.
The Slowly Varying Envelope Approximation (SVEA) is a concept commonly used in the fields of optics, nonlinear physics, and signal processing. It simplifies the analysis of wave phenomena, especially when dealing with pulse propagation in optical fibers, laser pulses, and other systems where the envelope of a wave packet evolves slowly compared to its carrier frequency. ### Key Features of SVEA: 1. **Envelope vs.
Schilder's theorem is a fundamental result in probability theory, particularly in the area of large deviations. It provides an asymptotic estimate for the probabilities of large deviations for sequences of random variables. Specifically, it deals with the behavior of the empirical measures of random walks. More formally, Schilder's theorem states that for a sequence of independent and identically distributed random variables, the probability that the empirical measure deviates significantly from its expected value decays exponentially as the number of samples increases.
The term "Rate function" can refer to different concepts depending on the context in which it is used. Here are a few interpretations: 1. **In Probability and Statistics**: - A rate function can denote a function that describes the rate of occurrence of events in stochastic processes or point processes. For example, in the context of renewal theory, the rate function can be used to summarize the frequency of certain events occurring over time.
Quadratic growth refers to a type of growth characterized by a quadratic function, which is a polynomial function of degree two. A common form of a quadratic function is given by: \[ f(x) = ax^2 + bx + c \] where: - \(a\), \(b\), and \(c\) are constants, and \(a \neq 0\). - The variable \(x\) is the input.
The Method of Matched Asymptotic Expansions is a mathematical technique used to solve certain types of differential equations, particularly in the context of boundary value problems and singular perturbation problems. This method is useful when the solution behaves differently in different regions of the domain, especially when there are small parameters involved that can lead to layer effects or other complexities.
The Method of Dominant Balance is a technique used in asymptotic analysis to approximate the solutions of differential equations and other mathematical problems, especially in the context of singular perturbation problems. This method is particularly useful when dealing with problems where the behavior of the solution changes dramatically in certain regions or under specific conditions. The key steps of the Method of Dominant Balance typically include: 1. **Identifying Scales**: First, identify the different terms in the equation and their respective scales.
The Method of Chester–Friedman–Ursell (CFU) is a mathematical approach used in statistical mechanics and physical chemistry, primarily focused on the study of phase transitions and critical phenomena in systems of interacting particles. This method is a way to analyze the behavior of systems at critical points and is particularly useful in understanding the thermodynamics of fluids and other condensed matter systems.
Linear predictive analysis (LPA) is a statistical technique primarily used in time series forecasting and signal processing. It involves creating a linear model that predicts future values based on past values of a time series. Here are some key aspects of linear predictive analysis: ### 1. **Basic Concept** - The core idea is to model a current value of a time series as a linear combination of its previous values.
In mathematics, a limit is a fundamental concept that describes the value that a function approaches as the input approaches a certain point. Limits are essential in calculus and analysis, serving as the foundation for defining derivatives and integrals. ### Formal Definition The formal definition of a limit uses the idea of approaching a certain point.
The term "leading-order term" refers to the most significant term in an expansion of a mathematical expression, particularly in the context of perturbation theory, asymptotic expansions, or Taylor series. It is the term that dominates the behavior of the function as certain parameters approach specific limits, often when those parameters are small or large. 1. **In Perturbation Theory**: In physics and applied mathematics, the leading-order term represents the primary effect of a small perturbation on a system.
Large deviations theory is a branch of probability theory that deals with the study of rare events—specifically, events that deviate significantly from expected behavior. It provides a mathematical framework for quantifying the probabilities of these rare deviations from the average or typical outcome of a stochastic process. The fundamental ideas in large deviations theory include: 1. **Rate Functions**: These are functions that describe the exponential decay rate of the probabilities of rare events.
L-notation, or "Big L notation," is a method used in algorithm analysis to describe the limiting behavior of functions. It is particularly useful in the context of analyzing the time or space complexity of algorithms, similar to Big O notation, but it focuses on lower bounds instead of upper bounds.

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!
We have two killer features:
  1. topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculus
    Articles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
    • a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
    • a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
    This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
    Figure 1.
    Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page
    . View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivative
  2. local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:
    This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
    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.
  3. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook-media/master/feature/x/hilbert-space-arrow.png
  4. Infinitely deep tables of contents:
    Figure 6.
    Dynamic article tree with infinitely deep table of contents
    .
    Descendant pages can also show up as toplevel e.g.: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/chordate-subclade
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact