Assume the continuously differentiable irrotational vector field is defined on all of , as in this vector calculus setting. A constructive vector-field potential with the requested negative-gradient convention is
Since zero curl means , differentiation under the integral gives
Thus . This is the Poincare lemma in its straight-line form, and works on any star-shaped set about the integration base point. Zero curl on a domain with holes would not by itself guarantee a global vector-field potential; the full-space hypothesis matters.
For the given field, the second component requires . Integration in gives . Its derivative is , and its derivative is . Comparison with the other two components forces . Hence
Its negative gradient is exactly the given field. Because this vector-field potential is smooth everywhere, commutation of mixed partial derivatives gives , verifying irrotationality. All such vector-field potentials differ by a constant on the connected domain.
Write , , , and . It is the quadratic cone invariant ring
where the involution negates both and . The invariant monomials have even total degree and are generated by ; reduction by proves the asserted presentation.
To verify the normal variety property, suppose is integral over . The same monic equation makes integral over . This polynomial ring is an integrally closed domain, so . Since belongs to the fraction field of , it is invariant under the involution, and hence belongs to . Thus is normal. The gradient of its equation is , so the Jacobian criterion shows that the origin is its only singular point of an algebraic variety. In particular is not smooth.
Take the prime Weil divisor and . We show that is not a Cartier divisor at . In the local ring
its prime ideal is . The quotient has dimension of a vector space over : generate it, and they are independent since while the relation has no linear term. By Nakayama lemma, cannot be generated by one element.
On a normal variety, the ideal of an effective prime Weil divisor is the divisorial ideal of functions with order at least one along that divisor and order at least zero along every other prime Weil divisor. If were a Cartier divisor at , a local defining rational function would identify this ideal with , because an integrally closed domain is the intersection of its height-one localizations at a prime ideal inside its fraction field. That would make principal, contradicting the calculation. Therefore has a nonzero class in the local divisor class group.
Now let be any linearly equivalent Weil divisor. If were outside its support of a Weil divisor, there would be an open subset containing on which is zero. On that neighbourhood would be a principal Weil divisor, hence a Cartier divisor, which is impossible. Therefore this point is unavoidable in every representative:
The argument does not assume that is effective. For comparison, because on the chart , ; the obstruction has order two, as in the Divisor class group of an A-type surface singularity.
For a single resource, assume unit-capacity calls arrive as a Poisson process of rate , holding times have independent exponential distributions with mean , and a call is rejected when all units are occupied. Let . Its occupancy is a birth-death process on , with birth rate below capacity and death rate in state . Detailed balance for a birth-death process gives
By Poisson arrivals see time averages, the Erlang loss formula is
This derivation assumes exponential holding times; the standard insensitivity result extends the same formula to independent holding times of the same mean, but is not needed here.
A loss network with fixed routing has finitely many resources , capacities , and call types with a fixed nonempty set of resources. Type has Poisson arrivals of rate , independent holding times of mean , and offered load . It is accepted only if every resource on its route has a free unit, and otherwise is lost. In the displayed equations use the unit-incidence matrix for and zero otherwise. The equations concern this unit-demand model, rather than arbitrary multi-unit requirements.
The Erlang fixed point approximation replaces the correlated resource availabilities by independent ones. A type- call survives blocking at resources other than with approximate probability . Treating this filtering as Poisson thinning gives the reduced offered load
Apply the single-resource formula to obtain . Independence and Poisson thinning here are approximations; no such approximation is claimed for the exact network's joint stationary distribution.
Assume first . The right side is a continuous map from into itself, so the Brouwer fixed-point theorem gives existence. To prove uniqueness, let be the carried load of an Erlang loss resource, also the mean of the truncated Poisson occupancy. Differentiation yields
Thus increases continuously from zero to one and increases from zero to .
Write , and define and , with . Each is continuous and strictly increasing. A fixed point satisfies
These are precisely the stationary equations for the convex potential for the Erlang fixed point
The first term is convex; the second is strictly convex because each strictly increases. Hence is strictly convex. Its gradient cannot vanish at two distinct points: the difference of gradients dotted with the difference of points is strictly positive, with a positive contribution from every changed coordinate in the integral term. This also covers boundary coordinates , using the right derivative there. Every fixed point has , since its offered load is finite, so the change of variables is valid. There is exactly one fixed point. If a capacity is zero, its blocking probability is one; delete it and all routes using it before applying the argument to the remaining positive capacities. Unused resources have blocking probability zero.