If Riemann integrable functions converge by uniform convergence to , then is Riemann integrable andThis concerns one fixed compact interval, with finite length.[ref]
Here is a proof outline that also establishes Riemann integrability of the uniform limit. Assume , and put and . One bounded and finite show that is a bounded function. For any partition of an interval , its upper Darboux sum and lower Darboux sum satisfyGiven , choose with , then a partition of an interval with . The displayed gap is below , proving Riemann integrability. Finally, and monotonicity of the Riemann integral give the stated error estimate. When , every integral is zero.
For the polynomial functions on , direct integration and the uniform bound giveAt , the exact integral is approximately , while the general error bound is approximately . The bound certifies the result without an exact antiderivative. On , these same integrals still tend to zero, although there is no uniform convergence: sufficient conditions need not be necessary. On an unbounded interval, even uniform convergence can fail to control total area, as uniformly vanishing functions can retain a nonzero integral shows.
Uniform convergence alone also fails to preserve derivatives: converges uniformly to zero on , while . The small amplitude does not control the slopes of the sine oscillations.
Uniform derivative convergence with an anchored value Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be continuously differentiable functions on an interval . If by uniform convergence on and at one fixed , then converge locally uniformly to a continuously differentiable function with . If is bounded, the convergence is uniform on all of .[ref]
6.2 Interchange of limits. Basic Analysis: Introduction to Real Analysis, Volume I by Jiří Lebl, §6.2.3, Theorem 6.2.10 and the unbounded-interval observation following its proof
The anchor fixes the additive constant that a derivative cannot see. By the fundamental theorem of calculus, defineThe uniform limit theorem makes a continuous function, so the fundamental theorem of calculus gives . The displayed estimate proves uniform convergence wherever has a common finite bound, and therefore proves locally uniform convergence on any interval.
For example, on take . Its derivative is , with supremum error from , and . The reconstructed uniform limit is ; the exact supremum error is , equal to the bound above. Without an anchor, the constant functions have zero derivatives but no finite pointwise limit. On the real line, has convergent anchored values and uniformly convergent derivatives, but its supremum error from zero is infinite. The bounded-distance condition has a real role.
Uniformization of a binary relation 2026-09-28
Uniform limit theorem Created 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-10-14
A uniform limit of continuous functions is a continuous function. No compactness assumption on the domain of a function is required.[ref]
For a proof, fix an input and tolerance . Uniform convergence supplies one with . Its continuity at supplies with for allowed inputs satisfying . The triangle inequality givesOne approximating function controls both endpoints of this estimate. Under pointwise convergence, selecting an index for supplies no common control at nearby . This explains why the polynomial functions can have a discontinuous pointwise limit on .
If a twice differentiable real function on satisfies for some fixed , then it has a unique global maximum. The mean value theorem shows that is strictly decreasing, and that is nonincreasing. Hence for and for . These inequalities force opposite derivative signs at the two ends. The intermediate value theorem supplies a unique zero of , at which changes from increasing to decreasing. Merely having does not guarantee existence: is increasing and approaches its unattained supremum zero.
A uniformly continuous real function on a closed bounded interval can be approximated uniformly by finite step functions. Given , choose a mesh smaller than the uniform-continuity distance and set the approximant equal to a sampled value on each interval. Then the supremum norm of the approximation error is at most . If the function has a Lipschitz bound , a mesh of maximum length gives the explicit error bound .
Universal property of Cartesian products Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
Given functions , there is a unique function whose coordinate projection maps are . It is the displayed pointwise pairing. Equality of ordered pairs is equality of both coordinates, which proves uniqueness and makes the Cartesian product a categorical product in the Category of sets.
Upper half-plane (complex analysis) Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The upper half-plane is the open setIt contains precisely the complex numbers with positive imaginary part: is inside, lies on its boundary, and belongs to the lower half-plane. In the complex plane its boundary is the real line; in the Riemann sphere the boundary also includes infinity. It is a convex set, hence a simply connected domain, and the Cayley transform between the half-plane and disk makes it biholomorphic to the unit disc.
With the hyperbolic metric , the same domain becomes the Poincaré half-plane model. Its hyperbolic geodesics are vertical lines and upper semicircles whose centres lie on the real line. Under the Cayley transform, these become arcs of circles orthogonal to the unit circle, with diameters as the straight-line cases. [ref]
Boundary points and hyperbolic geodesics correspond under the Cayley transform from the upper half-plane to the unit disc
. Details. Matching colours identify each hyperbolic geodesic and its image. The vertical line through zero maps to a diameter; the vertical line through one maps to an arc ending at and . A semicircle from to also maps to a diameter, whereas the semicircle from to maps to a curved arc. Their endpoints lie on the boundary, outside the domains: the endpoints are infinitely far from interior points in hyperbolic distance.
The upper half-plane is useful because its straight boundary and explicit upper half-plane automorphisms make conformal maps and hyperbolic geometry calculable. The picture explains why shortest hyperbolic geodesic routes can look curved in Euclidean coordinates; their lengths are measured with the position-dependent hyperbolic metric.
For historical context, in his letter to Klein of 22 September 1882, Poincaré constructs a quadrilateral bounded by four circles orthogonal to a fundamental circle, and studies transformations generating repeated copies. In modern language, the sides inside that circle are hyperbolic geodesics in a disk model. The letter directly exhibits the connection between transformation groups, geometry and complex functions. [ref]
https://henripoincarepapers.univ-nantes.fr/chp/text/klein-en-1882-09-22.html. Poincaré to Klein, 22 September 1882, English translation, opening construction
Upper semicontinuity Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
A real or extended-real function is upper semicontinuous when every strict sublevel set is open. Equivalently its negative is lower semicontinuous. An arbitrary infimum of continuous functions is upper semicontinuous, even when the infimum is over an uncountable family; its strict sublevel sets are unions of the corresponding open sublevel sets.
Vanishing moment Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-14
A vanishing moment is a cancellation condition: positive and negative parts of an analyzing function balance when weighted by a monomial. Having vanishing moments means that the first such balances hold, starting with the unweighted integral:Consequently a wavelet ignores local polynomial trends of degree of a polynomial less than . A smooth feature is close to its Taylor polynomial, so only the small Taylor remainder contributes to its detail coefficient. A jump discontinuity cannot be approximated this way across its edge; its jump response of a localized analyzing function can remain large relative to details from a smooth region.[ref]
Wavelet Bases. Wavelet Bases, §7.2.1, printed p. 206, equation (7.69) and the paragraph explaining cancellation of Taylor polynomials
These are ordinary absolutely convergent integrals, not a prescription for assigning values to divergent expressions. A sufficient assumption isIt makes and all for integrable functions. Being square-integrable alone does not ensure these weighted integrals exist. For a square-integrable function with compact support, the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality guarantees every such weighted integral is finite. Saying exactly vanishing moments additionally requires an existing, nonzero next integral ; the usual phrase “has ” allows more cancellation.
Vector Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A vector is an element of a vector space. Its defining operations are vector addition and scalar multiplication. An arrow in a Euclidean space is one example; a polynomial or a function can also be a vector when the chosen vector space uses the corresponding addition and scalar multiplication.
For instance, the polynomials and belong to the real vector space of polynomials of degree at most two. Their vector addition gives , and scalar multiplication gives . In the monomial basis these are the coordinate vectors , , and respectively. The vectors are the polynomials; these tuples are their representations in a chosen basis.
A general vector space does not itself prescribe lengths or angles. A norm supplies a size, while an inner product also supplies angle information and orthogonality. The familiar arrow geometry below belongs to Euclidean vectors, where this extra structure is available.
Vector space Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A vector space over a field is a set equipped with vector addition and scalar multiplication satisfying the vector space axioms. Its vectors can represent directed displacements, lists of measurements, polynomials, or entire functions. The common structure is that adding two elements and multiplying an element by a scalar remain meaningful operations inside the same space.
For example, uses coordinatewise addition and scaling. Withwe have . Moving twice along and once along reaches the same vector as five horizontal and four vertical steps. The two descriptions refer to different bases of the same space. A basis makes such descriptions unique; a spanning set makes them possible.
The space of real polynomials of degree at most two has basis : the polynomial is the linear combination with coordinates . The zero vector here is the zero polynomial, and addition combines coefficients. A derivative is a linear map on this space; its matrix records how it acts on the three basis vectors. The same coordinate machinery therefore handles both geometric motion and operations on functions.
The choice of field matters. The complex numbers form a one-dimensional vector space over with basis , but a two-dimensional vector space over with basis . The question "how many independent directions?" has an answer only after the allowed scalars are specified. Likewise, polynomials of degree exactly two do not form a vector space: subtraction can remove the leading term, and the zero polynomial is absent.
The usefulness of the abstraction is that a linear map is determined by its values on a basis. Once those images are known, linear combinations give its action on every vector. The rank-nullity theorem relates the number of attainable outputs to the number of invisible input directions, while change of basis lets us choose coordinates suited to the problem. Eigenvectors, for example, choose directions on which repeated application of a linear operator becomes scalar multiplication.
A historical source is Hermann Grassmann's Die lineale Ausdehnungslehre (1844). Its full title advertises applications to other branches of mathematics, statics, mechanics, magnetism and crystallography; the original edition is digitized by ETH-Bibliothek. This gives an early setting for treating geometric quantities algebraically across different applications, rather than attributing the modern axiom list to that title alone.[ref]
https://www.e-rara.ch/zut/content/titleinfo/1169335. Grassmann, Die lineale Ausdehnungslehre, Leipzig, 1844; ETH-Bibliothek Rar 5128
Vector-valued function Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
A vector-valued function is a function with values in a vector space. For finite-dimensional real or complex target spaces, choosing a basis represents it by scalar coordinate functions; continuity and differentiability can then be checked coordinatewise.
Wavelet Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A wavelet is a localized analyzing function whose shifted and scaled copies examine a signal at different positions and resolutions. Its usefulness is to separate where a change occurs from how large a region that change spans. A brief feature can contribute to a few nearby wavelet coefficients instead of being described entirely through global oscillations.
The Haar wavelet is the simplest example: compare the first half of an interval with the second. A constant value contributes nothing to this contrast, while a difference between the halves survives. Moving the function changes which part of the signal is examined; shrinking it compares smaller neighbouring regions. In an orthonormal wavelet construction, these comparisons fit together without duplicating squared-norm contributions.
A scaling function retains the coarse information that such contrasts omit. The discrete wavelet transform computes both coarse values and details, and the wavelet series recombines them. This gives signal processing a representation that can expose local structure and support image compression. The transform itself is reversible in the complete orthonormal representation; discarding coefficients introduces approximation error. [ref]
https://arxiv.org/pdf/math/9304214. Gilbert Strang, Wavelet Transforms versus Fourier Transforms (1993): localized bases and reconstruction
Wavelet polynomial annihilation 2026-10-14
For and , define the shifted, scaled analyzing function and its coefficient byAssume the product is integrable; for example this holds for a locally integrable function and a bounded analyzing function with compact support. The bar is complex conjugation. This normalization preserves the L2 norm of the analyzing function. If is a polynomial of degree of a polynomial less than , then is a sum of monomials with . Linearity of integration and the vanishing moments give at every position and scale. Nonzero polynomials on the whole real line are not square-integrable, so this cancellation is an integral pairing; it is not a claim that these polynomials are vectors of .
Here is a quantitative reason that smooth regions yield small details. Let have compact support and vanishing moments, and suppose is times continuously differentiable on an interval containing and . Subtract its degree- Taylor polynomial at . If on that interval, the Taylor remainder bound givesThe factor comes from the Taylor remainder; comes from the coefficient normalization. Thus the analyzing function measures the departure from the local polynomial trend, rather than the height of itself. The wavelet coefficient decay for Hölder functions uses the same argument with a Hölder-Taylor remainder bound. These estimates concern regularity of on the analyzing function's entire support of a function; extra vanishing moments alone do not make smooth or establish an orthonormal wavelet construction.[ref]

