In Cartesian coordinates, use the Levi-Civita symbol and the Einstein summation convention to expandThe contraction of the two symbols uses the Kronecker delta, and the final step is the product rule. Thus the convective acceleration identity isPut . The curl of a gradient vanishes, and the curl of a cross product identity givesSince the divergence of a curl is zero, taking the curl of the first identity yieldsTwice continuous differentiability suffices for the mixed-derivative identities used here.
For a twice continuously differentiable vector field in Cartesian coordinates, the curl and divergence arePut . Using the Levi-Civita symbol, the Kronecker delta contraction and the product rule,The last term vanishes because the divergence of a curl is zero: the symmetric mixed derivatives contract against an antisymmetric symbol. Thus the curl of a cross product identity becomes
For orthogonal coordinates with position vector , the scale factors of orthogonal coordinates and local unit vectors areOrthogonality gives , and right-handedness fixes . In cylindrical coordinates, , soThe radial vector points away from the axis; the azimuthal vector is tangent in the direction of increasing ; is the Cartesian positive direction. The azimuthal basis is undefined on the coordinate axis itself.
Cylindrical unit vectors relative to Cartesian axes, viewed from positive z
. Details. For the axial velocity profile, the cylindrical coordinates formula givesThe associated cross product isThis field has only a radial component depending on , so its curl is zero. Also . The identity above therefore yieldsIn fact both directional derivatives vanish: the first differentiates only in the azimuthal direction, and the second differentiates only in the direction. All physical vector fields extend smoothly through , despite the coordinate-basis singularity.
Let be the orthogonal matrix taking old components to new ones, so . With repeated indices summed, the tensor component transformation law isAn isotropic tensor has the same components after every proper rotation. Since , the Kronecker delta is invariant. Applying this identity to each factor shows that and every linear combination are invariant as well.
To show that an isotropic second-rank tensor must be scalar, start with any matrix , without assuming symmetry. Invariance under quarter-turns about axes 1 and 2 implies invariance under their squares, the half-turnsThe first forces to vanish. The second also forces to vanish. The matrix is therefore diagonal. A quarter-turn about axis 1 interchanges its 22 and 33 entries; one about axis 2 interchanges its 11 and 33 entries. All three must agree, giving .
A rotation preserves the ball , and the volume element. Changing integration variables by that rotation shows that and are isotropic tensors. Write . Taking its tensor contraction givesso . Every permutation of the indices of leaves its integrand unchanged. Its complete symmetry therefore makes all three isotropic coefficients equal, say :Double contraction gives . Thus the isotropic fourth moment of a ball and its radial contraction are
Put , so that . Contract with the prescribed unit vector twice:This has the spectrum of a scalar matrix plus a rank-one projector. In the direction , the outer product acts as the identity; on the plane perpendicular to , it acts as zero. ThereforeAny nonzero multiple of is a parallel eigenvector, and any nonzero vector in the perpendicular plane is a transverse eigenvector. The transverse eigenvalue has multiplicity two; an orthonormal basis of that plane completes a set of principal axes.
Using Cartesian coordinates, the Levi-Civita symbol and the Einstein summation convention, the constant-vector assumption givesRecognizing the divergence and directional derivative provesHere the contractions use the Kronecker delta.
For an oriented piecewise smooth surface with boundary , Stokes theorem stateswhere the orientations obey the right-hand rule and is continuously differentiable near . Apply it to . The scalar triple product givesThe last integrand is , as the component formulashows. Since is arbitrary, the cross-product form of Stokes theorem follows:The derivatives in the surface expression act on , not on the surface element.
For the specified square, the path is clockwise when viewed from positive , so the compatible unit normal is . On the first and fourth edges, and are parallel, giving zero cross product. On the second edge, and runs from to , so contributes . On the third edge, and runs from to , so the contribution is . Thus the line integral is .
For an independent surface integral, and for the position vector field. Its integrand is therefore . The square has unit area and downward orientation, giving
For , Hermitian symmetry givesDistinct eigenvalues therefore imply for . Together with the unit normalizations,The mutually orthogonal nonzero vectors are linearly independent and span the -dimensional space, so they form an orthonormal basis. Here is the Kronecker delta.
A Cartesian tensor of order is a multilinear geometric object whose components under an orthogonal change of axes obey the tensor component transformation law,An isotropic tensor has the same components under every proper rotation. For the Kronecker delta,Thus is isotropic, even under improper orthogonal transformations.
To prove multiplicativity of the determinant from the given formula, first consider . Exchanging any two of changes its sign, so it is proportional to the Levi-Civita symbol. Its component is the determinant, as follows by expanding the given double-epsilon expression. ThereforeSubstitute into that same determinant formula:HenceNo invertibility assumption was used, so this identity includes singular matrices.
Now differentiate the double-epsilon formula for a differentiable . Its three differentiated terms are equal after renaming the paired dummy indices: the simultaneous swaps in both epsilon symbols cancel their signs. Thuswhere is the cofactor of entry . For an invertible matrix, the adjugate matrix identity gives . Consequently the Jacobi determinant derivative formula isThe order of the factors inside the trace follows from the reversed cofactor indices; no commutativity of and is assumed. The cofactor version is also Jacobi's formula and remains valid when is singular, although the inverse version then cannot be used.
Start from the three-index transformation law and contract the first two Cartesian indices:Orthogonality supplies , where is the Kronecker delta. The remaining factor is exactly the vector transformation rule. Therefore is a vector.
This tensor contraction removes two indices by pairing them through the Euclidean metric. In general nonorthonormal coordinates, contraction must use the appropriate metric or pair a covariant and a contravariant index; the bare repeated-lower-index sum relies on Cartesian orthonormal coordinates.
Work in a Cartesian coordinate system, write , and use the Einstein summation convention. For a twice continuously differentiable vector field, the contraction of two Levi-Civita symbols givesHere the Kronecker deltas select components, and equality of mixed partial derivatives gives the curl of the curl identityFor the second identity, the same contraction followed by the product rule yieldsThus the curl of a cross product isThe directional derivatives in the last two terms act on the vector field immediately to their right.
Using the normalized eigenfunctions and the same change of variables, their weighted inner product isFor distinct positive integers , the product-to-sum identity givesbecause each integrated sine has integer-multiple-of- endpoints. For , the integral is one by the normalization already calculated. HenceThis verifies orthonormality explicitly, with the Kronecker delta.
The four displayed matrices fail closure: for example is not one of them. Thus they do not form a group by themselves.
Let and . The enlarged set is the single-qubit Pauli groupThere are 16 distinct matrices: are linearly independent, so two different ones cannot be scalar multiples, and the four phases are distinct for each nonzero matrix.
The Pauli matrices satisfyHere is the Kronecker delta and the Levi-Civita symbol. Thus any product of two Pauli matrices is another Pauli matrix or the identity times a phase in . Multiplying by the two original phases preserves membership in , proving closure of all 16 matrices.
Associativity is inherited from matrix multiplication, the identity is , andThis proves every group axiom. The resulting group is non-Abelian, since reversing changes its sign.
The relevant weighted inner product is . The normalized eigenfunctions of the Sturm-Liouville problem have the orthonormality propertyHere is the Kronecker delta: the integral is one for and zero otherwise. The weight is , rather than or the unweighted measure.
Take the centre of the ball as the origin. An orthogonal change of variables leaves both this domain and its volume measure invariant. Consequently its Cartesian moment integrals are isotropic tensors. Equivalently, inversion immediately makes every odd moment zero.
There is no nonzero invariant rank-one vector, soAn isotropic tensor of rank two is a scalar multiple of the Kronecker delta, giving . Contract the indices and use spherical coordinates:Thus the Cartesian moments of a three-dimensional ball giveFor the last identity, one may also use the general rotation-invariant rank-three tensor : the moment is fully symmetric in its indices, whereas the Levi-Civita symbol is antisymmetric, forcing .
An order- Cartesian tensor has components whose values in two orthonormal Cartesian frames satisfywith repeated indices summed as in Einstein notation. It is an isotropic tensor when its components are unchanged by every proper rotation, .
For rank two, a half-turn about any coordinate axis changes the sign of each component having exactly one index along that axis. Invariance therefore makes every off-diagonal component zero. Quarter-turns interchanging two coordinate axes then require . Thus, without assuming symmetry in advance,Conversely, the Kronecker delta is invariant because , so every tensor of this form is isotropic.
For rank three the general proper-rotation invariant form iswhere is the Levi-Civita symbol. The convention matters: the isotropic rank-three tensor and reflections distinction says that invariance of a polar tensor under all would force . A nonzero is invariant under proper rotations, and is a pseudotensor under the full orthogonal group. The shell integrals below are invariant under reflections as well, so their odd moments vanish.
Let . It is an isotropic tensor and is invariant under every permutation of its four indices. Thus the three coefficients in the general rank-four isotropic form must coincide:A double tensor contraction givesHere the three contracted Kronecker delta products contribute , and . Contracting instead with the four unit vectors yieldsThis agrees with subtracting two instances of the isotropic fourth moment of a ball.
In Cartesian coordinates, write and use the Levi-Civita symbol. The contraction of two Levi-Civita symbols givesHere the Kronecker delta selects the indicated indices, and continuous second partial derivatives allow their order to be interchanged. Identifying the gradient, divergence and componentwise Laplacian proves the curl of the curl identity:
Use Einstein summation convention and write . Since , where is the Kronecker delta, the product rule givesThis proves . Now take . Integrating this identity and applying the divergence theorem to the first term givesPart (b) changes the last volume integral of the gradient into a surface integral, yieldingHere ; the Laplacian is .
Choose an orthonormal basis with . A half-turn about kills all mixed axial-transverse components. Commutation with a quarter-turn makes the transverse block a scalar identity matrix plus an antisymmetric matrix. The resulting oriented-axis invariant Cartesian tensor, in coordinate-free form, iswith real constants . The Kronecker delta, the outer product , and the displayed Levi-Civita symbol contraction are invariant under every proper rotation about , so this form is also sufficient. In the chosen basis,The antisymmetric part must be retained unless further symmetry is imposed.
Decompose the electric field as , where . The electric current density isFor a nonzero real electric field, the alignment of current and field in an axisymmetric conductor gives the complete classification of collinearity:
- If , then , with no additional symmetry required.
- If , then . Within this family is exactly the condition that the conductivity tensor is symmetric; then . An additional half-turn symmetry about a transverse axis is one way to force .
- If both components are nonzero, then . These conditions give the isotropic second-rank tensor , and then for every direction.
For completeness, if and , taking the dot product with forces . The transverse equation then gives , while a nonzero axial component gives . This proves there are no missing directions. Zero current is included as the zero scalar multiple; if “parallel” requires a direction for , exclude cases where that scalar is zero. For a strictly anisotropic crystal the last possibility is absent.
Take the trace first: the antisymmetric tensor has zero diagonal and is traceless, so . Taking symmetric and antisymmetric parts then gives the scalar, symmetric-traceless and axial tensor decomposition:The Kronecker delta satisfies , which verifies . Substitution verifies the original decomposition and also proves its uniqueness.
Point-mass tidal stretching and squeezing Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-18
For a source point mass at the origin, let , where is an outward unit vector, and let be the source's standard gravitational parameter. Differentiating gives the tidal tensorwhere is the Kronecker delta and is the identity matrix. In an orthonormal basis with first axis radial, the tidal tensor isThe radial eigenvalue separates nearby freely falling test particles; the two transverse eigenvalues bring them together. The farther radial test particle falls inward less rapidly, so its acceleration relative to the nearer one points outward. Transverse gravitational accelerations converge toward the source. Thus an initially resting small cloud stretches radially and squeezes in both transverse directions. These are instantaneous relative accelerations; the subsequent shape also depends on initial velocities and the changing tidal tensor along the cloud's free fall.
Outside the source, the matrix trace is . This matches in a region with zero mass density, by the Poisson equation for Newtonian gravity. Zero matrix trace means no leading change of a small initially resting cloud's volume at order , not that each separation stays fixed. Inside matter, the same sign convention gives instead.
Radial tensor moments in three dimensions 2026-10-18
For a radial weight with the required absolutely integrable moments, rotational symmetry makes the second and fourth moments isotropic tensors. The second moment is ; its trace gives . Complete symmetry of the fourth moment forces equal coefficients of the three Kronecker delta pairings. Its double tensor contraction gives , proving the displayed expression. Odd moments vanish under . Choosing to be the indicator function of a spherical shell gives all the corresponding shell moments without separate angular integrations.
