Indeterminacy locus Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The indeterminacy locus is the set where a rational map has no regular local representative.
Independent random variables Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Random variables are independent when, for every choice of Borel sets ,
The requirement covers all these events, not only one selected combination of values. Equivalently, the generated sigma-algebras are independent sigma-algebras, or the joint probability distribution is the product measure of the marginal distributions. For an infinite family, the same condition must hold for every finite subfamily. For random elements, replace Borel sets by measurable sets in their specified target spaces.
For discrete random variables, checking every entry of the joint probability mass function is enough:
Summing this identity over the desired sets proves the event formulation. For general real-valued random variables, checking point probabilities alone can say nothing: a pair with no point masses has even when . The all-set definition avoids that trap. See Gautam Iyer, Conditional Probability and Independence, definitions 12, 16 and 18 and proposition 19, with the continuous case treated in his [ref].
For a concrete comparison, let be independent fair bits: each has a Bernoulli distribution with parameter . Their joint probability mass function, with rows and columns , is
All four entries equal the product of the corresponding row and column totals, . For example, : learning one bit leaves the other one's probability distribution unchanged.
Now keep a fair but set . The same marginal distributions give the same product table, yet the actual joint probability mass function is
Here differs from , and . Thus matching marginal distributions does not establish independence. Grinstead and Snell formulate the discrete product criterion in Introduction to Probability, section 4.1, definition 4.4, printed page 143.
Figure 1.
Independence compares every joint probability with the product of the marginals
. Each row compares an actual joint probability mass function with its product of marginal distributions. Marginal totals are shown at the right and bottom of every table; each whole table sums to one. The last example has zero covariance but a visibly different joint table. Details.
Independence is stronger than zero covariance. For square-integrable independent random variables, , so they are uncorrelated random variables. The converse fails: take with a discrete uniform distribution on and . Direct calculation gives
Nevertheless, is a nonconstant function determined by . The event is exactly the event , so , whereas . The positive and negative contributions to the covariance cancel without erasing the statistical dependence.
The usefulness of independence is that a large joint probability distribution can be assembled from small pieces. For fair independent bits, each of the patterns has probability . Products also simplify expected values, and vanishing cross covariances simplify the variance of a sum. Separate measurable functions of independent random variables remain independent: each output event is already an input event, so the defining product rule still applies. These are consequences of a model's independence assumption; whether the assumption describes actual observations is a question for statistical inference.
Random vector Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
A random vector is a random variable whose values are vectors or, equivalently, an ordered tuple of scalar random variables on one probability space.
Exchangeable random partition Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
An exchangeable random partition has a law invariant under finite permutations of the underlying labels.
Singleton block Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
A singleton block is a block containing exactly one element.
Restricted-growth string Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A restricted-growth string encodes a set partition by numbering blocks in order of first appearance.
Erdős-Rényi model Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
In the model, each of the possible edges is included independently with probability .
Isolated vertex Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
An isolated vertex has degree zero.
Partition regular equation Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A homogeneous linear equation is partition regular when every finite colouring of the positive integers admits a solution whose coordinates all have one colour.
The equation has partition regularity when every finite colouring admits such a monochromatic solution.
Canonical Ramsey theorem Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
For every colouring of the -element subsets of an infinite set, there is an infinite increasing sequence and a coordinate set such that two increasing -tuples from have the same colour exactly when they agree in every coordinate indexed by .
Graph Ramsey number Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
For a finite graph , its two-colour Ramsey number is the least such that every red-blue colouring of contains a monochromatic copy of . It exists because a monochromatic clique on vertices contains a copy of .
Diagonal Ramsey number Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
The diagonal Ramsey number is the least such that every red-blue edge-colouring of contains a monochromatic .
Finite Ramsey theorem Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Fix positive integers with . There is an integer , depending only on , such that every finite coloring
has a subset of size for which the restriction of a function to is a constant function. Here , and denotes the collection of all -element subsets of , rather than its binomial coefficient cardinality. The notation abbreviates this property. Thus is a homogeneous set for a colouring; when , the monochromatic set consists of its -element subsets, not its individual elements. This is the finite assertion in Ramsey's original Theorem B, p. 267.
For , this is the pigeonhole principle, with sharp threshold . For instance, every red-blue coloring of five objects has three of one color; four objects can split two and two. For , and , the sharp threshold is six, as shown by the Ramsey number for triangles. Coloring pairs makes this a problem about edges of a complete graph. For larger , the analogous viewpoint uses a hypergraph.
The finite Ramsey theorem lets an existence argument discard most of a large finite set while retaining a prescribed amount of uniform structure. Its threshold applies to every coloring; one does not need an assumption that colors were assigned randomly. A diagonal compactness argument deduces finite existence from Ramsey's theorem, but does not by itself identify the smallest threshold. For pairs, a Ramsey number makes that optimization explicit.
Formal solution of the radiative transfer equation Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
For an outward ray through a nonscattering atmosphere,
Local thermodynamic equilibrium Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
In local thermodynamic equilibrium, matter populations are thermal at the local temperature and the source function is the Planck function, .
Magnetic dipole radiation Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Electromagnetic duality replaces the electric dipole by for a magnetic dipole moment . Therefore
This is the magnetic-dipole term of the multipole radiation expansion.
Electric dipole radiation Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For a localized source whose size is small compared with its radiation wavelength, the radiation fields of its electric dipole moment are
Their total instantaneous power is
Intensity of an isotropic radiator Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
An isotropic source of average power has intensity
at distance . For monochromatic vacuum radiation, its electric-field amplitude is .
Pressure in radially symmetric annular potential flow Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
If the pressure at is , the Unsteady Bernoulli equation gives
Tidal gravity and the equivalence principle Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Weyl curvature produces relative acceleration between neighbouring freely falling trajectories and therefore tidal deformation. A freely falling frame removes gravity at one event, as required by the equivalence principle, but cannot remove curvature over an extended region.

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