Thin disk Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
A thin disk has vertical semi-thickness much smaller than cylindrical radius . Vertical gravity is then approximately linear in height and orbital dynamics is nearly planar.
Black-hole seed Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
A black-hole seed is an early black hole from which a later massive black hole can grow by accretion and mergers.
Tidal disruption event Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
A tidal disruption event occurs when a star passes close enough to a black hole that differential gravity tears it apart outside the capture boundary, producing returning debris and often a luminous flare.
Supermassive black hole Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
A supermassive black hole has a mass of roughly or more and commonly occupies the nucleus of a massive galaxy.
Intermediate-mass black hole Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
An intermediate-mass black hole has a mass between stellar remnants and supermassive black holes, approximately --.
Black-hole accretion Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-28
Black-hole accretion converts gravitational binding energy of inflowing matter into heat, radiation, outflows, and growth of the black hole.
Common difference Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-18
The common difference of an arithmetic progression is the fixed difference between consecutive sequence terms. It gives a finite difference that is independent of position. Checking one adjacent pair finds its value only when the arithmetic progression property is already known; otherwise, other pairs can disagree. For example, the differences in are three and four, so the three entries do not form an arithmetic progression.
Möbius function Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-13
The Möbius function assigns a cancellation weight to each positive integer:
Thus a squarefree integer contributes a sign determined by its number of distinct prime factors; a repeated prime factor makes the weight zero. This packages the alternating signs of inclusion-exclusion into an arithmetic function. [ref]
For example, , , and , since . In contrast, : all three have the square of the prime number as a divisor. On prime powers, and for .
The Möbius function is a multiplicative function: for coprime integers, their prime factors are disjoint, so either a squared prime factor forces both sides of to vanish, or the counts of distinct prime factors add and their signs multiply. It is not a completely multiplicative function, since . Its Möbius divisor-sum identity makes it the inverse of the constant-one arithmetic function under Dirichlet convolution: , the Identity for Dirichlet convolution. This is why the small set of weights can undo an entire divisor sum.
Von Mangoldt function Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-13
The Von Mangoldt function assigns a natural logarithm weight to each positive power of a prime number. For a positive integer ,
Here and throughout the Chebyshev functions, means the natural logarithm. In particular, : the exponent must be positive, even though the convention in prime power allows exponent zero. The support of a function of therefore consists precisely of the prime powers greater than one. [ref]
For example, and , whereas . A composite number can have a nonzero weight: has just one distinct prime factor. But has two distinct prime factors, so its weight is zero. At the weight is , not . This choice lets successive powers record successive copies of the same prime factor in the Von Mangoldt divisor identity.
The Von Mangoldt function is useful because it connects two views of the prime numbers: the prime factorization of an individual integer, through a divisor sum, and the accumulated weights below a cutoff, through the Second Chebyshev function. The latter turns questions about the distribution of prime numbers into questions about a partial sum of an arithmetic function.
Divisor function Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-13
The divisor function counts the positive integer divisors of a positive integer . In particular , because has just one positive integer divisor. More generally the notation gives and the sum-of-divisors function . Thus the divisor function counts the positive integer divisors, while adds their sizes. [ref]
If the prime factorization is with distinct prime numbers and positive exponents , then
The short proof is a count: each positive integer divisor has a unique form , where . There are choices at each prime number, and choosing them gives every positive integer divisor exactly once. For there are no prime factors and the product is .
For , choose and to obtain . The six values are ; sorted, the positive integer divisors are . Therefore . The diagram makes the independent exponent choices visible.
Figure 1.
The prime factorization gives a three-by-two array of positive integer divisors , so the divisor function has
. Details.
This count is useful because a known prime factorization gives without testing every smaller positive integer for divisibility. It also proves the divisor function is a multiplicative function: coprime integers have disjoint prime factors, so their exponent choices combine. For example , but , so it is not a completely multiplicative function. Equivalently, under Dirichlet convolution, counting ordered pairs of positive integers whose product is .
Dirichlet convolution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-13
The Dirichlet convolution of arithmetic functions is the arithmetic function
In the first sum, runs over the positive integer divisors of ; the second uses ordered pairs of positive integers whose product is . Both sums are finite. Each pair contributes one weight from and one from , so Dirichlet convolution combines information attached to complementary factors. It turns a divisor sum into an operation on arithmetic functions. [ref]
For the six ordered pairs are . The constant-one arithmetic function gives one per pair, while the identity arithmetic function weights the first factor by its size:
Here is the divisor function and is the sum-of-divisors function. By comparison, the pointwise product of arithmetic functions gives and .
Figure 1.
Six ordered pairs of positive integers with product 12 contribute to Dirichlet convolution: one per pair for the divisor function, or the first factor for the sum-of-divisors function
. Details.
Commutativity follows by swapping the two entries of every ordered pair. Associativity follows by reindexing either grouping over the same ordered tuples of three positive integers:
For example, counts ordered tuples of three positive integers with product . Distribute the two occurrences of the prime factor among three entries in ways, and the one occurrence of the prime factor in ways. These binomial coefficients are the stars and bars counts of exponent choices in the nonnegative integers; prime factorization therefore gives such tuples. Directly, the same Dirichlet convolution is .
The Identity for Dirichlet convolution is , and the Möbius function reverses a divisor sum because . This makes Dirichlet convolution useful both for counting factorizations and for recovering an arithmetic function from its divisor sum.
Static coordinates on anti-de Sitter spacetime Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-13
In four dimensions, global static coordinates have
Addition of angular momentum Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
For two subsystems, the total operator is , and . The coupled basis diagonalizes and .
Riemann zeta function Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
for ; its Euler product is .
Dirichlet series Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
A Dirichlet series is a series of the form
Multiplication of absolutely convergent Dirichlet series corresponds to Dirichlet convolution of their coefficients.
Sieve theory Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-28
Sieve theory estimates the number of integers that avoid specified residue classes modulo primes.
Harmonic number Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-13
The th harmonic number is . Its asymptotic expansion begins
where is the Euler--Mascheroni constant.
Invariance principle for a low-degree multilinear polynomial Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-13
Let and be independent, centered, variance-one random variables with vanishing third moments and fourth moments at most . If is multilinear of degree at most and , then
Bonami lemma Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-13
The Bonami lemma states that a function of Fourier degree at most satisfies .
Boolean hypercube Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-13
The Boolean hypercube is the set , or equivalently . Its hypercube graph joins two vertices exactly when they differ in one coordinate.

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