Classifier Created 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-10-14
A classifier is a function that assigns an input to one of a discrete set of labels. A binary classifier has two possible labels.
Closed ball 2026-10-06
In a metric space , the closed ball centred at of radius is . It is a closed set, since the distance to is a continuous function. Its boundary need not be the whole corresponding distance sphere in an arbitrary metric space.
If a forcing is -closed in the ground model, then it adds no functions from a ground ordinal into a ground set . Recursively decide each value inside the ground model and take common stronger bounds at limit stages and after the final step. Conditions deciding a whole ground function are dense below any condition asserting this type of function. The dense-below generic meeting lemma ensures the generic filter meets that dense subset of a forcing order. One arbitrary bound need not be in the filter in an ordered set.
Codomain Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-14
The codomain of a function is its specified target set. The image of a function is a subset of the codomain, and equals it precisely for a surjective function. Changing a codomain can change whether the same input-output rule is surjective, as the quadratic function examples under function show.
Coherent coinfinite injections into omega Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
There are injections for , each with coinfinite range, with equal to outside a finite set. At countable limits, extend partial functions along a cofinal sequence, repair finitely many collisions, and reserve a fresh omitted natural number at each step. The reserved sequence makes the union coinfinite and permits all later successor steps.
Given coherent coinfinite injections into omega, use all restrictions , where , ordered by proper extension. Every level is countable because its nodes differ finitely from a fixed function on a countable domain. An uncountable chain in a partial order would have unbounded domain heights, and its union would inject into , which is impossible.
Let a group action of on a set be given, and let a function attach a colour label to each point. The colour-preserving subgroup of is
It is a subgroup: the identity map preserves all labels, compositions of two preserving maps preserve them, and replacing by shows that inverse maps preserve them too. Extra object data restrict the allowable transformations; the labels are now part of the object rather than bookkeeping for a drawing.
For a geometric square, take , of group order eight. If all four vertices have the same colour, all eight maps remain. If two adjacent vertices are red and the others blue, only the identity and one reflection remain. Putting the two red vertices opposite one another instead leaves four maps: the identity, a half-turn rotation, and the two diagonal reflections. Giving all four vertices distinct colours leaves only the identity.
Figure 1.
Fixed vertex colours restrict the geometric symmetry group
. Original computed examples. Counts refer to Euclidean motions of the square that preserve each vertex colour. Two adjacent red vertices and two opposite red vertices have the same colour counts but different symmetry groups. Dashed lines show surviving reflection axes; the rotation labels count surviving rotations including the identity. Details.
The count alone does not specify the pattern. Both two-red examples have the same number of red and blue vertices, but their stabilizer subgroups differ. For a single red vertex, the orbit-stabilizer theorem gives a group orbit of size four and a stabilizer subgroup of group order two, agreeing with the existing group action illustration. Such counts identify equivalent placements without treating each placement as a new geometric case.
Compact metrizable convex set Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
Here the set is a nonempty compact metrizable convex subset of a Hausdorff locally convex space. The ambient space can be infinite-dimensional. Continuous affine functions separate its points, and weak-star compact dual balls with separable preduals provide examples. This general setting is needed for Choquet theorem.
Consider the program expression x*(2+3)-4 in a deliberately small programming language. Its only program identifier is x, supplied as an integer input. Its literal values are nonnegative decimal numerals, interpreted as integers. Whitespace is ignored between lexical tokens. Its context-free grammar is:
expression ::= term (("+" | "-") term)*
term       ::= factor ("*" factor)*
factor     ::= numeral | "x" | "(" expression ")"
numeral    ::= digit digit*
digit      ::= "0" | "1" | "2" | "3" | "4"
             | "5" | "6" | "7" | "8" | "9"
Here * outside quotation marks means zero or more repetitions. Repeated operators are grouped to the left, specifying operator associativity; term gives multiplication higher operator precedence than addition and subtraction. Parentheses override that grouping. There is no unary minus, variable assignment, function call, or side effect in this language. Evaluation obtains each left operand before its right operand and uses exact integer arithmetic, with no fixed-width overflow.
Lexical analysis recognizes x, *, (, 2, +, 3, ), -, 4. Parsing constructs the concrete abstract syntax tree Sub(Mul(Name(x), Add(Int(2), Int(3))), Int(4)). Parentheses have done their work by making Add a child of Mul; they need not survive as nodes. Constant folding changes this to Sub(Mul(Name(x), Int(5)), Int(4)). It cannot replace Name(x) by a literal value because the input is supplied at execution. The resulting function of the input is .
A compiler for our stack machine emits LOAD x; PUSH 5; MUL; PUSH 4; SUB. LOAD x pushes the current input; PUSH n pushes the integer literal value n. Each binary instruction removes the top item as its right operand, then the next item as its left operand, and pushes the result. The instruction sequence is an intermediate representation that an interpreter can execute; no machine code has been emitted. A compact binary encoding could make it bytecode, but these printed instruction names are only a readable notation.
Why does this compilation preserve the result? A structural induction supplies a short proof outline. Translating a literal value or x appends its value to any initial stack. For a binary abstract syntax tree node, first translating the left child and then the right child appends the two operand values; the matching instruction replaces them by exactly the original operation's result. Previously present stack items remain intact. Constant folding also preserves the result because in the specified integer arithmetic. Together these facts explain agreement for every integer input, rather than merely agreement for one trial.
Complex analysis Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Complex analysis studies functions of a complex number, especially holomorphic functions. Its distinctive feature is that a single complex derivative controls variation in every direction of the complex plane. The map gives a first picture: straight coordinate lines become curved, yet small perpendicular arrows remain perpendicular wherever .
Figure 1.
The complex square bends a grid globally and acts near 1 + i as a rotation through 45 degrees and a scaling by twice the square root of two
. Details.
The bottom panels show displacements rather than absolute positions. Multiplication by predicts the image of each small arrow; the exact image differs by . The origin is exceptional because . This distinction between local conformal maps and a critical point is central: complex differentiability imposes strong geometric structure, without making every holomorphic function globally one-to-one.
The remarkable next step is that holomorphic functions are determined inside a circle by their values on its boundary. Precisely, let , let , and suppose is a holomorphic function on an open set containing the closed disc . Orient its boundary counterclockwise. The Cauchy integral formula states that, for every ,
The contour integral combines boundary values with a kernel depending on the requested interior point. It is a reconstruction formula, not merely a trick for evaluating an integral. The hypothesis about the closed disc ensures that all boundary values and the contour integral are well defined. [ref]
At the centre, substituting cancels the denominator against :
Thus the centre value is the angular average of the boundary values. For the polynomial , and , expand the boundary data as
Both oscillating terms have zero average, leaving . Away from the centre the weights change: on the unit circle,
With and , expanding the denominator as a geometric series leaves only its second-power term after integration, giving . This also explains how the Cauchy integral formula recovers an entire Taylor series from boundary data.
When a holomorphic function has isolated singularities, a different boundary calculation detects their residues. Suppose is a counterclockwise simple closed contour and is holomorphic on a neighbourhood of it and its interior except at finitely many interior isolated singularities . The residue theorem gives
A residue is the coefficient of in the Laurent series. A short proof idea is to deform the contour to small circles around the isolated singularities using the Cauchy integral theorem. Integrating the Laurent series on each circle kills every power except . [ref]
Here is how a complex pole determines a real improper integral. Set and use the contour consisting of the segment from to , followed by the upper semicircle , with . Only the simple pole lies inside, and
The arc must actually disappear. On , the reverse triangle inequality gives , and its length is , so
The real integrand is bounded by for , so both tails converge separately. Taking the limit therefore proves the ordinary improper integral
For example, at the real segment contributes , and the arc contributes , below the bound . The usefulness of the residue theorem is that the same strategy works for many rational functions whose real antiderivatives are cumbersome: find the enclosed poles, compute their residues, and control the connecting arc. [ref]
Historically, Cauchy's 1825 memoir on integrals with imaginary limits develops complex contour integration and its use in transforming and evaluating definite integrals. The opening sections define complex path integrals, discuss changing the path, and examine what happens near singular points. These are recognizable ancestors of the modern link between holomorphic functions, contours and residues. [ref]
Complex differentiability 2026-10-14
A complex-valued function is complex differentiable at if
exists. The same limit must hold for every approach, including curved paths. Equivalently,
The error divided by tends to zero. Thus the derivative is a single complex multiplier, not an arbitrary real linear map of the plane. If the real coordinate map is differentiable, complex differentiability is equivalent to its satisfying the Cauchy-Riemann equations at that point.
The simplest failure is complex conjugation, . At every its increment quotient is . For real it is , while for it is . More generally, gives . Although complex conjugation is a smooth real reflection and has every real directional derivative, these incompatible quotients rule out a complex derivative everywhere.
Agreement on two axes is necessary, but does not by itself establish a limit over the whole complex plane. The Cauchy-Riemann equations need the real differentiability condition above, or a sufficient regularity condition such as continuous partial derivatives near the point. There is a second distinction: has complex derivative zero at zero because its quotient there is , but its Cauchy-Riemann equations fail at every nonzero point. It is complex differentiable at zero without being a holomorphic function on any neighbourhood of zero.
Apply the midpoint quadrature rule on each of equal panels of a partition of an interval, with :
Each quadrature node is a panel midpoint and each quadrature weight is . For , put . Summing the panel quadrature errors gives
for some . Each panel contributes at most ; there are panels, explaining the composite midpoint rule error of order in big O notation. On a nonuniform partition of an interval with panel widths and largest width , the corresponding bound is .
For on , summing the sampled polynomial exactly yields
Doubling divides the absolute error by exactly four. For a general function, halving divides the displayed error bound by four, but the actual absolute error need not follow that ratio: cancellation can make it smaller or zero. Continuous functions still give convergence as the largest panel width tends to zero, by uniform continuity; without the bounded second derivative, the second-order rate is not guaranteed. Noise sensitivity of a quadrature rule explains a separate limitation when samples are inexact.
Conditional entropy Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For finite discrete random variables, conditional entropy is the average remaining information entropy of after the value of is known:
Each observation changes the probability distribution used to describe ; the average weights that uncertainty by how often the observation occurs. An observation can increase uncertainty for one particular outcome, even though conditioning reduces entropy on average for finite variables.
For example, let choose with probabilities , and let report whether . If it reports yes, there is no remaining uncertainty. Otherwise the conditional probabilities are , whose information entropy is bits. The two reports each occur with probability , so of a bit. The original uncertainty was bits: this observation removes exactly one bit on average.
If is a function of , then : the observation determines the answer. If and are independent random variables, then : the observation gives no improvement. These endpoints make conditional entropy useful for separating relevant observations from irrelevant ones. They also lead to the chain rule for information entropy, , which counts the first uncertainty and the remaining uncertainty without double counting.
Conformal automorphism of the upper half-plane Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
Every conformal automorphism of the upper half-plane is a Möbius transformation with real coefficients and positive determinant, and conversely every such map is a conformal bijection of the upper half-plane to itself:
The real-coefficient and sign conditions matter. The complex Möbius transformation sends to on the boundary, while the real Möbius transformation has negative determinant and sends to in the lower half-plane. [ref]
For two concrete upper half-plane automorphisms, take
Both matrices have determinant one. Here , , and . On the extended real line, fixes infinity and exchanges zero and infinity. On the unit disc, the same maps become and ; the second is simply .
Multiplying all four coefficients by a nonzero real scalar leaves unchanged. Dividing them by normalizes the determinant to one; the two remaining representatives and give the same map. Thus the group under function composition is the projective special linear group
where is the real special linear group of degree two. Composition of the Möbius transformations corresponds to multiplication of their matrices. [ref]
On the boundary,
So preserves the cyclic boundary orientation of the extended real line; when , its pole at prevents treating it as a single increasing function across that point on the ordinary real line. Three distinct boundary images determine a Möbius transformation uniquely, but an upper half-plane automorphism can realize only triples with matching cyclic boundary orientation.
A brief proof outline starts with the identities
They show that and its inverse function preserve the upper half-plane. For completeness of the classification, conjugate an arbitrary conformal bijection by the Cayley transform. Normalize its image of zero with an automorphism of the unit disk, then apply the Schwarz lemma to the resulting map and its inverse function; both inequalities force a rotation. Conjugating back gives the real Möbius transformation above.
Finally, and the displayed imaginary part identity show that . Every upper half-plane automorphism is therefore also an isometry of the Poincaré half-plane model. The same formulas describe both holomorphic coordinate symmetries and motions of the hyperbolic plane.
Constant function Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
On a nonempty domain of a function , a constant function has one fixed value in its codomain:
For example, on the real line is a horizontal graph. Its image of a function is the singleton even though its domain of a function has infinitely many inputs. A constant function from the real line to the real numbers has derivative zero and every nonzero real period of a function; there is no smallest positive period. It supplies a reference level from which variation can be measured.
A constant map between vector spaces is a linear map only when its value is the zero vector, since a linear map must preserve zero. A nonzero constant map is still an affine map. In a Fourier series, the constant term records the period average, while the other terms describe oscillation around that level.
For a topological space and topological spaces , a function is continuous into the product topology exactly when every coordinate function is continuous.[ref]
Proof outline: one direction uses function composition with the continuous projection maps. For the other, the preimage of a basic cylinder set is
a finite set intersection of open sets in . This gives continuity on every basic test. It explains, for example, why from the real line to is continuous in the product topology: each coordinate is a polynomial function. The general coordinate criterion fails for the box topology, where infinitely many preimages can be required at once. For example, has continuous coordinate functions, but the preimage of the box is , which is not an open set in the real line.