Cissoid of Diocles 2026-10-20
For , this algebraic curve can be constructed using a circle of radius centred at and its tangent line . On a ray from the origin, subtract the distance to its nonzero circle intersection from the distance to the line. The resulting radial distance is , for . Thus a parametric curve for it is
Eliminating gives the displayed cubic equation. It has a cusp at the origin, horizontal tangent direction there, and vertical asymptote . Its name honours Diocles.
Deflection angle 2026-10-24
For a trajectory with incoming and outgoing straight asymptotes, the deflection angle is the angle between its limiting incoming and outgoing velocity directions. For an attractive hyperbolic orbit of eccentricity and impact parameter , and , where is the incoming speed at infinity. The incoming velocity points opposite to the incoming radial direction; ignoring that reversal gives the wrong angle.
Folium of Descartes 2026-10-18
For nonzero real , the folium of Descartes is the algebraic curve , with rational parametrization of an algebraic curve
It is symmetric about and has a node at the origin, with the coordinate axes as tangents. For , traces a loop in the first quadrant, returning to the origin as . Its enclosed area, by Green's theorem, is
The other branches approach the asymptote as . Negative rotates the positive- picture through .
Hyperbola Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-18
A hyperbola is a conic section with two unbounded branches. In suitable coordinates its equation is with . The unit hyperbola is parametrized by , on its right branch, relating it to the hyperbolic functions.
For example, has foci of a conic at , because . Its focal-distance difference has absolute value , while its eccentricity of a conic is . At the point , the focal distances are and , verifying that difference. The asymptotes are ; a distant point approaches those directions while remaining on one of the two branches. The focal-distance difference, rather than a constant sum, distinguishes this hyperbola from an ellipse.
For two distinct intersecting straight lines through the origin, with independent real linear equations and , the nondegenerate centred hyperbolas having exactly those asymptotes are
Indeed, the homogeneous quadratic form of a centred hyperbola vanishes in its two asymptotic directions and hence is a nonzero scalar multiple of . Its equation has no linear terms because the origin is its centre, and its constant term is nonzero by nondegeneracy. Conversely, the invertible linear transformation takes the displayed curve to , a hyperbola, and its ends approach or . Distinct values of give disjoint level sets. In particular, the rectangular hyperbolas with asymptotes are , .
The function is an odd function, passes through , and has the horizontal asymptote at both infinities. Its derivative is
It decreases for and increases for , with its lowest value and highest value . These features determine the graph of a function shown below.
For , the equation is the quadratic equation . The quadratic formula gives exactly two real equation roots:
The binomial series gives , hence the two requested asymptotic expansions are
Their product is exactly one. Both are positive, with ; there are no negative equation roots because for . At the two real equation roots coincide at one, and for there are none. In the stated limit , these two branches are therefore exhaustive.
Figure 1.
Two positive intersections of the rational function with a small positive level
. Original sketch of with the two real equation roots marked for . The curve also shows its negative lowest point and positive highest point. Details.
The power-law ansatz gives
Since , the equation roots and are distinct. The Cauchy-Euler equation therefore has general solution
For , the first derivative and second derivative are
The strictly convex function diverges to as , passes through , and has a unique lowest point at
As , , so the line is an asymptote. When , the lowest point is to the right of one; at it is at one, and for it is to the left of one.
The ratio of the two terms is
Thus is larger for , the terms are equal at , and is larger for . In the stronger asymptotic sense as , dominates at each fixed , and dominates at each fixed . Their crossover has , equivalently , as described by the power-law crossover in a singular perturbation. In that region with bounded gives .
Substitute the proposed regular perturbation into the differential equation. The leading and subsequent equations are
Consequently , and in fact each successive coefficient has the form , because the preceding second derivative is zero. The leading approximation is therefore
It has only one adjustable constant and generally cannot impose two independent boundary conditions. Those assumed in the question require a nonzero coefficient, which a power series in cannot recover: at fixed it is exponentially small, and at fixed it grows without bound as . Thus the regular perturbation describes the specified solution only in the region to the right of the crossover, away from ; it is not a uniform approximation on .
Figure 1.
The exact solution and its two power-law contributions
. Original sketch for , showing the decreasing contribution, the increasing contribution, their sum, and its lowest point. The inset resolves the region where both terms contribute. Details.
For , the nonnegative amplitude is
Its first two derivatives are positive in this interval:
The graph is increasing and convex, starts with a horizontal tangent at the limiting value , and has a vertical asymptote at . Therefore the hydrostatic lower bound for a travelling-pressure response is
Because the paper assumes , this is an infimum, approached as , rather than an attained minimum. If the stationary limit is admitted, equality holds: the hydrostatic equilibrium condition is . Near resonance,
The divergence describes the linear model; sufficiently close to the small-disturbance assumptions fail. The lower bound and sketch refer to the travelling forced component, since adding free oscillations can change the instantaneous surface elevation.
Figure 1.
Subcritical travelling-wave amplitude rises from its hydrostatic lower bound and diverges at resonance
. Details.
The quadratic form has symmetric matrix
Normalized eigenvectors for and are and . They form the columns of the rotation matrix
Thus the new axis is rotated counterclockwise by , with
The opposite signs of the eigenvalues classify each positive level as a hyperbola. For the original level six its standard equation is ; for the final level one it is . The printed change of level therefore changes the scale, but not the principal axes or asymptotes.
Setting the homogeneous quadratic part to zero gives . In the original coordinates put in , obtaining
These are the slopes in the original axes; are the slopes in the rotated axes, so they must not be interchanged.
For a straight-line solution , substitution into the differential equation gives . Thus , and the two possible slopes are
These straight lines solve the differential equation on either side of the origin. At the origin itself the right-hand side is undefined.
An isocline of slope has equation . For it is the straight line ; for it is , excluding the origin. In particular, is the zero-slope isocline. The line is excluded from the domain of the differential equation; slopes tend to infinity on approaching it. Draw the flow vectors proportional to , with positive horizontal component. This specifies orientation by increasing , rather than by an auxiliary time variable.
To integrate, put where . Then
The left-hand integral is , so the nonconstant- solutions have the first integral
The constant- solutions omitted by separation are exactly the two straight lines already found, corresponding to . Alternatively, differentiating this first integral gives , which recovers the original differential equation wherever and also verifies continuation through when .
The first integral describes hyperbolas with the two straight-line solutions as asymptotes. For , the upper branch crosses the vertical axis at and exists for every real . For , each branch is confined to and reaches a vertical tangent on the excluded line ; the corresponding classical solution intervals exclude those endpoints. These give the two distinct types of curves requested in the sketch.
The initial condition selects and the upper branch, hence
Here , so this really is a global solution of the initial value problem, and agrees with the right-hand side.
Figure 1.
Isoclines, increasing-x flow vectors and the two types of solution hyperbolas
. Details.
Let . Conditioning on gives
Where the moment-generating function is finite around zero, differentiating the cumulant-generating function gives
In particular and . These compound Poisson cumulants use raw claim moments. The first two formulas also follow by conditioning: and , so
This is the law of total variance. They therefore remain valid with finite first two moments even when no positive exponential moment exists.
Under per-claim excess of loss reinsurance, put and let be the positive part of the excess. The insurer and reinsurer totals are sums of these payments over the same Poisson distribution count. Write . Using the tail integral formula for moments on the tail probabilities of and gives
For example, after , and shifting by gives the reinsurer formula. The moment formulas are finite whenever the corresponding claim moments are finite.
For the specified Pareto distribution, with shape three and minimum ,
If , every claim exceeds the reinsurance retention. Therefore
If , the tail integrals instead give
Consequently the requested sum of variances is
On the first branch, ; it decreases until and then increases. On the second branch . For the minimum is unique; if , all variances are zero and every reinsurance retention minimizes them. Thus
The curve starts at , reaches this minimum, passes through with matching slope on both branches, and then increases concavely toward the horizontal asymptote . The variance-minimizing retention for shape-three Pareto claims is shown below.
Figure 1.
Sum of insurer and reinsurer aggregate variances for shape-three Pareto claims, minimized at retention three quarters of the minimum claim size
. Details.
The two aggregate payouts are dependent. Conditioning on the common count gives covariance , so for every reinsurance retention, as required by . The covariance of two components of a compound Poisson sum accounts for this distinction between a sum of variances and the variance of a sum.
There is a moment domain qualification for this heavy-tailed example. For every , , and moments of order also diverge. Thus its positive moment-generating function is not finite and higher finite cumulants cannot be obtained by differentiating around zero. Its mean and variance calculations above are valid by conditioning or by the first two right derivatives at zero of the Laplace transform of a nonnegative random variable.
Far from the planet, the magnitude of angular momentum per unit mass is the magnitude of the cross product of position vector and velocity. The perpendicular distance from the incoming asymptote is the impact parameter , so
Choose at closest approach. The general solution of the differential equation in a, with , is
The specific orbital energy is
At infinity , giving . Thus the hyperbolic orbit has
A different zero of polar angle simply replaces by .
The incoming and outgoing asymptotes have radial directions and , where and . The incoming velocity points opposite its radial direction, so the deflection angle between incoming and outgoing velocities is . Hence
Putting gives
A hyperbola with focus of a conic , directrix of a conic not containing , and eccentricity is the locus
Put and . For and , the defining equality becomes
Both sides are nonnegative, so squaring is reversible. Expanding and cancelling the linear terms gives
Thus the two matched focus of a conic and directrix of a conic choices, related by reflection, are
The signs in each pair must agree.
On the hyperbola, . As ,
Hence the perpendicular distance to one of the two straight lines tends to zero on each end of a branch. The asymptotes are therefore
A nondegenerate hyperbola centred at the origin has a quadratic equation
There are no linear terms because the origin is its centre. Its asymptotes are the zero set of the homogeneous quadratic form . Requiring the directions and gives , hence and . Since the conic section is nondegenerate, and are nonzero. Thus all such hyperbolas with prescribed asymptotes are exactly
For these rectangular hyperbolas open along the -axis, and for along the -axis. Conversely, each displayed hyperbola has the required centre and asymptotes. Two distinct members have different values of , so they cannot intersect.
For the second pair of asymptotes, the same argument gives , . The intersections of concentric hyperbolas therefore satisfy
If both right sides are positive, there are four independent sign choices. If precisely one is zero and the other is positive, there are two points. If either is negative there are none; both cannot vanish because . Each possibility occurs: take for four, for two, and for none. Hence
The function is nonnegative and satisfies . Its derivative is , so it decreases from to its minimum and then increases to . These three points all have horizontal tangent lines.
Figure 1.
The cosine-squared curve and the two branches of the exponential quotient
. The left panel shows the symmetric minimum of . The right panel marks the vertical and horizontal asymptotes of . Details.
The denominator vanishes only at , giving a vertical asymptote. Since , the function tends to from the left and from the right. Its derivative is
so each branch is increasing. The horizontal asymptotes are as and as . The left branch lies above ; the right branch lies below , as in the preceding figure.
Substituting , into the circle equation gives . Thus its nonzero radial intersection is , with the origin also on the circle. The tangent to a circle at the rightmost point is , or .
Take rays with . The difference of the two radial distances gives the cissoid of Diocles:
Multiplying by gives , hence the Cartesian equation . A convenient parametric curve, with , is
The real curve has , a cusp at the origin, symmetry about the axis, and the vertical asymptote . Near the origin, and , so its cusp has horizontal tangent direction. As , while . The circle and curve meet away from the origin at .
Figure 1.
The cissoid has a cusp at the origin and approaches the tangent line
. An original plot of the derived parametric formula, with the unit circle centred at and its tangent line . Details.
The domain is , and from below as . Its derivative is , so it decreases up to and then increases, with its unique global minimum at . It crosses the horizontal axis at and tends to as . Its second derivative is , so it is strictly convex. The right panel of the preceding figure shows these features; zero is an excluded endpoint with a finite limiting value, rather than a vertical asymptote.
Write . The graph is a translated hyperbola, with vertical asymptote and horizontal asymptote . It passes through , lies below for and above it for , and has derivative on each component of its domain. The left panel below shows both branches.
Figure 1.
The rational hyperbola and the convex graph of the logarithmic product
. Details.
The domain of a function excludes . Both branches are positive, with a vertical asymptote at approached from both sides with value , and horizontal asymptote at either infinity. The graph is symmetric about because it depends only on .
For , the formula is and the derivative is positive; for , it is and the derivative is negative. It passes through and has no zeros.
Figure 1.
The two positive reciprocal-distance branches and their vertical and horizontal asymptotes
. Details.