Shear thinning by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Shear thinning is the decrease of effective viscosity with increasing shear rate.
Irrelevant coupling by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
An irrelevant coupling has negative mass dimension and is suppressed toward long distances.
Relevant coupling by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
A relevant coupling has positive mass dimension and grows under scaling toward long distances.
Marginal coupling by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A marginal coupling is dimensionless under classical power counting.
The marginal interaction coefficient is distinct from the operator it multiplies.
Superficial degree of divergence by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
The superficial degree of divergence is the ultraviolet power predicted by rescaling all independent loop momenta together. For a scalar graph with loops and propagators behaving as in dimensions, before cancellations and subdivergences are considered.
Causal effect by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
A causal effect compares potential outcomes under different interventions.
Escape velocity by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The escape velocity is the least initial speed that permits a freely coasting body to move arbitrarily far from an isolated attracting body. Despite its conventional name, it is a speed, not a unique velocity vector. For a fixed point mass , or outside a body with spherical symmetry, set Newtonian gravitational potential energy zero at infinity. An exterior test particle of constant mass then has
Here is the standard gravitational parameter, and is distance from the centre, not height above the surface. Set for surface escape velocity. Evaluate velocity in the body's rest inertial frame. Neglect drag, later rocket thrust, other bodies' gravity, and relativistic effects.[ref]
Conservation of energy gives the threshold by requiring : at infinity the potential energy tends to zero and the kinetic energy cannot be negative. If , the outward motion loses speed continuously toward zero. If , the asymptotic speed is . If , infinity is inaccessible. For a radial outward launch, its outer turning point is . For nonradial motion use angular momentum and the escape energy threshold to distinguish zero radial velocity from zero total speed.
Direction still determines the orbit and whether the body hits an obstacle. An initially inward velocity can cause collision even when . For an isolated spherical body, an exterior outward launch, or a tangential launch at or above escape velocity, has an outward escape branch without intersecting the body. A parabolic trajectory is the nonradial threshold path; a hyperbolic Kepler orbit has positive energy. The formula specifies their required local speed, not their orientation.[ref]
Exponential cusp potential by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
The even potential
has a cusp at the origin and approaches the finite value . Motions below that value oscillate between symmetric turning points; motions above it escape.
Inverse-square potential by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Here inverse-square potential means the potential energy associated with an attractive inverse-square law for a central force: the potential energy itself varies as inverse distance. For and position with ,
The gradient makes the distinction explicit: doubling halves the magnitude of potential energy but quarters the magnitude of force. The neighboring repulsive inverse-square potential instead has potential energy proportional to and an inverse-cube force; the two naming conventions must be distinguished.
For Newton's law of universal gravitation, , where is the gravitational constant. Treat the attracting mass as an isolated fixed point mass, or as a body with spherical symmetry and exterior test particle of constant mass . The spherical shell theorem gives the same exterior Newtonian gravitational potential energy without requiring uniform mass density. Here is measured from the centre, and the formula applies outside the body; it does not describe its interior. The Newtonian gravitational potential per unit mass is .[ref]
The negative sign records binding relative to infinite separation, rather than a negative kinetic energy. Moving from to increases potential energy by
Because the force is a conservative force, this work depends on the endpoints, including for a curved path. Integrating with zero at infinity gives ; adding a constant leaves the force unchanged but shifts the numerical escape energy threshold by that same constant. This is why the reference at infinity must accompany an escape velocity calculation.
For an exact synthetic comparison, stipulate the standard gravitational parameter and a test particle. At , and the inward force has magnitude ; at , and the inward force has magnitude . The increase is of potential energy. These stipulated parameters are an arithmetic example, not observations of a particular body. The escape-energy balance diagram uses the same parameters.
Conservative force by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
A force is conservative when its work depends only on the endpoints. On a simply connected domain this is equivalent to for a potential energy .
Trace constraint by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For a positive semidefinite matrix, a trace bound is a bound on the sum of its nonnegative eigenvalues.
Vacuum state in a stationary spacetime by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
In a strictly stationary spacetime, the timelike Killing flow gives a preferred positive-frequency splitting. The corresponding vacuum is annihilated by every annihilation operator associated with a positive-frequency mode.
Supersymmetric factorization of the one-soliton potential by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Let
Then
Thus the one-soliton Schrodinger operator is paired with the free Schrodinger operator. Its normalizable state annihilated by is proportional to .
Polytropic acoustic mode by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
In a neutrally stratified polytropic atmosphere, vertically trapped polynomial solutions of degree describe acoustic pressure modes. The degree-zero member is the surface-gravity mode.
Surface gravito-inertial wave by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
A surface gravito-inertial wave combines free-surface gravity restoration with Coriolis restoration. In a uniformly rotating deep atmosphere its incompressible dispersion relation can be written
Neutrally stratified polytropic atmosphere by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A polytropic atmosphere is neutrally stratified when , so its equilibrium pressure-density relation matches the adiabatic relation and its buoyancy frequency vanishes.
McCoy theorem by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A polynomial is a zero divisor exactly when some nonzero scalar annihilates it. One proof chooses a nonzero polynomial of minimal degree with and successively kills its leading coefficient.
Divided difference by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For distinct interpolation nodes, the divided difference is the coefficient of in the interpolation polynomial of polynomial degree at most through those interpolation nodes. It is the leading coefficient when that polynomial degree is exactly , and zero when it is smaller. Explicitly,
starting with . The divided differences obey the recurrence
For data , , , the first divided differences are and . The second divided difference is , the leading coefficient of . The first divided difference is the slope of a secant line; higher divided differences supply successive coefficients for the Newton polynomial.
Discriminant criterion for an alternating Galois group by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
For a monic separable polynomial over a field of characteristic other than two, its Galois group is contained in the alternating group exactly when its discriminant is a square in the base field. The Galois action multiplies the Vandermonde product by the sign of the induced root permutation.
Discriminant of a depressed cubic by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
The depressed cubic has discriminant .

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