Most probable speed in the Maxwell distribution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The most probable speed is the mode, or density maximum, of the Maxwell speed distribution:
For small equal-width speed bins, the bin near contains the largest expected fraction of particles. This does not mean that any exact speed has positive probability, or that every particle has this speed. The three common summaries obey
so . The first describes a density peak, the second the mean speed, and the third the root mean square associated with kinetic energy. [ref]
For a concrete scale , these are approximately , , and . The most probable velocity vector and each most probable component remain zero in the gas rest frame. A zero vector labels one small region of velocity space, whereas a positive speed labels an entire spherical shell.
A short check uses the derivative of the logarithm of the Maxwell speed distribution for :
It is positive below and negative above it, locating the unique peak. The factor from the spherical shell supplies the term ; omitting it would incorrectly move the speed peak to zero.
For finite sets of positive real numbers with , , with natural or binary logarithm. Partition ray occupancies of into classes of multiplicative width , or width for the binary convention. Injectivity of sums on two distinct rays and disjoint open planar sectors bound each class's sum of squared occupancies by . A singleton class contributes at most . Combining this with the energy lower bound gives a sum-product inequality.
Mutual information Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For finite discrete random variables, mutual information is the reduction of information entropy provided by observing the other variable:
The last expression makes the symmetry visible. It is nonnegative and is zero exactly when and are independent random variables. One way to see both facts is
where is the Kullback-Leibler divergence with base-two logarithms. The Gibbs inequality gives nonnegativity; equality means that the joint probability distribution factors. The statement extends to more general distributions via relative entropy, but differences of infinite information entropies must not be used as if they were finite numbers.
A binary symmetric channel gives a useful example. Let be a fair bit, let be an independent Bernoulli random variable with error probability , and set , where is exclusive or. The output is also a fair bit, but knowing the input leaves just the error uncertainty:
Here is binary entropy. At , , so the output carries about bits of mutual information about the input per use. This is an average uncertainty reduction, not a claim that each observed symbol can be divided into fractional physical bits.
Figure 1.
Binary entropy and retained information distinguish noisy transmission from predictable bit inversion
. Details.
At , every output is equally likely for either input, so . At , the output is always the inverted input: knowing this rule lets the receiver recover the input exactly, so again. A high raw error rate need not mean low mutual information when the errors are predictable. For this particular channel the fair input is optimal, giving the binary symmetric channel capacity .
Mutual information detects dependence that ordinary correlation can miss. Let be uniform on and . Symmetry gives , hence zero covariance and zero correlation, while is completely determined by . Thus . This distinction is useful whenever a relationship is nonlinear: knowing one variable can reveal another without a linear trend.
Natural logarithm Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The natural logarithm is the logarithm with base Euler's number, and the inverse function of the real exponential function. A particularly geometric definition is
For , it is the area under the hyperbola from to . For , the reversed integration limits give a negative value. The fundamental theorem of calculus gives , so the natural logarithm is increasing, while gives concavity.
Figure 1.
Exponential function and natural logarithm graphs reflect across ; equal multiplicative intervals have equal logarithmic areas
. Details.
The change of variables shows for . Thus the intervals from to and from to each contribute area , explaining . Equal ratios give equal increments on a logarithmic scale, even though the ordinary differences grow. This makes the natural logarithm useful for comparing multiplicative changes and solving for time in exponential growth or exponential decay. The integral construction and inverse function properties are discussed in OpenStax, the natural logarithm as an integral.
Nested Monte Carlo 2026-10-06
Nested Monte Carlo approximates an outer expected value whose integrand contains another expected value. A nonlinear transformation, such as a logarithm, of an inner sample average usually introduces finite-sample bias. Increasing both sample sizes requires suitable integrability controls to establish consistency; an unbiased estimator of the inner quantity does not make its logarithm unbiased.
Optical fiber attenuation 2026-10-14
Optical fiber attenuation is the reduction of transmitted optical power along an optical fiber. Define a positive loss in decibels by comparing optical power already launched into the guide with surviving optical power :
The factor ten applies to a power ratio; the factor twenty applies to a wave amplitude ratio only when power is proportional to its square under the same conditions.[ref]
For a uniform illustrative model with constant loss coefficient in and distance in kilometres,
For over , the loss is and
Thus about of the launched optical power survives and is lost. This is an illustrative coefficient, not a property of all optical fibers, and is independent of the earlier illustrative refractive indices.
Figure 1.
Equal distance increments add decibel loss and multiply surviving power
. Details.
The exponential decay follows from assuming each equal distance interval transmits the same fraction. For two such intervals, power ratios multiply; their logarithms add, so the losses in decibels add. Two sections each transmit ; together they transmit . The loss curve is straight in decibels and curved on a linear power scale.
Wave absorption and scattering of light can remove guided optical power even in a straight fibre, while bends can let it escape. Entrance losses, joints and connectors contribute additional losses; they belong separately from a uniform distance coefficient. This is why a measured end-to-end power ratio need not equal the straight-fibre model.[ref]
Let be independent fair bits and set , their exclusive or. The four possible triples are , each with probability . Every coordinate is fair, and every pair has all four outcomes with equal probability. Thus each pair's mutual information is zero, as in pairwise independence does not imply joint independence.
The full random vector has joint entropy bits, while the marginal information entropies sum to three bits. Consequently
The product of the marginals predicts probability for every triple, including the four impossible ones. On each possible triple, the ratio of true to product probability is ; averaging its base-two logarithm gives the same one bit of relative entropy.
The example gives a concrete use for joint information measures. A lossless source coding scheme that treats the three coordinates separately needs three bits here. If the decoder knows the integer parity rule, the encoder can send just and let the decoder reconstruct exactly. Pairwise independence does not reveal that saving. This is a stipulated source law and an explicit two-bit code, rather than a promise that arbitrary data can be shortened.
A qualification is necessary: an arbitrary symbolic Gibbs measure does not satisfy the claim. Consider the doubling map with its two binary branches and a Bernoulli symbolic Gibbs measure with probabilities and . This is the Gibbs law for a locally constant symbolic potential, while every level- interval has length . Along the nonboundary alternating itinerary, for even ,
No finite can approximate these with a decaying uniform error. This proves the reusable fact that an arbitrary Gibbs measure need not be absolutely continuous.
For the intended geometric version, take the Gibbs measure for the geometric potential of an expanding map , with the standard sufficiently smooth finite full-branch hypotheses. The allowed transfer-operator result supplies a strictly positive Lipschitz continuous invariant probability density function , normalized by , and its symbolic weights of cylinder sets are . State the needed regularity explicitly: and . Expansion gives .
Let denote the point coded by the infinite sequence, and define . The expression defining is the logarithm of the average of over the cylinder. For ,
Since the logarithm is Lipschitz continuous with constant on this positive range, the cylinder averages of an invariant density give
This proves the intended estimate. Expansion alone and an unspecified Gibbs symbolic potential are insufficient; the geometric choice and the regularity producing a positive Lipschitz continuous probability density function are substantive hypotheses.
Use the Nevanlinna proximity function and the Nevanlinna integrated counting function for poles, counting multiplicity. If the pole order at zero is , then
Boundedness of the Nevanlinna characteristic refers to , equivalently to a uniform bound on for any fixed . This avoids the harmless origin normalization when .
The Nevanlinna first main theorem states, for every fixed finite value and every nonconstant meromorphic function on the disk,
For , this is the definition of . The error is bounded independently of . Translation changes by , while Jensen's formula gives when near zero; these observations explain the first theorem.
The Nevanlinna second main theorem in the unit disc states that for distinct values on the Riemann sphere,
as outside an exceptional set satisfying . The truncated Nevanlinna counting function counts each distinct preimage once. The boundary-distance error cannot simply be suppressed: on the disk it need not be . The disk error and exceptional-set estimates follow from the logarithmic-derivative estimates in mathweb.tifr.res.in/Documents/Publications/Lectures/tifr17.pdf .
Suppose first that is bounded. Since , its poles satisfy the Blaschke condition, counting their orders: let in their integrated count and use . Let be their Blaschke product, including the origin factor if necessary. Then extends to a holomorphic function on the whole disk, and gives
Here the last bound follows from bounded and the uniform lower bound on .
The nonnegative subharmonic function has a finite harmonic majorant. Indeed its Poisson integrals on expanding disks dominate it by the maximum principle for subharmonic functions, increase with , and have . The Harnack inequality for harmonic functions bounds them on every compact subdisk, so their increasing limit is a finite harmonic function . Since the disk is simply connected, has a harmonic conjugate, giving a holomorphic function with . Consequently
This proves the constructive half of the quotient characterization of bounded characteristic.
Conversely, if with bounded holomorphic functions and , each pole of is a zero of of at least the same order. The elementary inequality and the Nevanlinna first main theorem give
Any cancellation at an origin zero contributes only a bounded multiple of on , which is included in this . The zero function is immediate; constant nonzero is handled directly. Thus bounded characteristic is exactly a quotient of two bounded analytic functions.
An unbounded example with bounded characteristic is
It is a ratio of the bounded holomorphic functions and . More explicitly, Jensen's formula gives the mean of as zero, so , although .
Finally, set . Pointwise . Jensen's inequality for the concave logarithm gives
There is no pole term because is holomorphic. Hence the stated integral bound implies bounded characteristic. This argument in fact works for every .
First alternative. The Euler product of the Riemann zeta function is absolutely convergent for . Its logarithm and the nonnegative trigonometric polynomial
give
Consequently . Suppose and the Riemann zeta function had a zero of order at . As , its simple pole at one gives , the alleged zero gives , and remains bounded. The product would be , contradicting its lower bound. Thus there are no zeta zeros on ; the point itself is a pole, not a zero.
For the first integral of the Chebyshev function, define
The logarithmic derivative identity , valid for , leads to
To verify the kernel rather than assume an inversion formula, integrate on the vertical line . Closing to the left when gives the residues at zero and minus one, namely ; closing to the right when gives zero. At the integral is zero as well. The horizontal integrals tend to zero because of the quadratic denominator, and the distant vertical integrals vanish in the indicated direction. Multiplying this kernel by with gives . The absolute convergence of the Dirichlet series on , together with the integrable denominator, permits interchange with the integral and proves the formula.
Here is a quantitative contour route from this relation to the Prime number theorem. Question 3 establishes a zero-free region of the Riemann zeta function and the accompanying bounds for its logarithmic derivative, independently of the Prime number theorem. In a sufficiently narrow half-width region they imply
on the left and horizontal sides of the rectangle with heights and left edge , after making small enough also for bounded heights. The explanation of this bound is included at the end of Question 3. Take and . On the original line, the omitted tails are
since the Euler product bounds by . Shift the truncated integral to the left edge. The only enclosed pole is at , with residue ; the kernel poles at zero and minus one lie outside the rectangle. The left edge contributes , since there. The two horizontal edges contribute . In particular, for some ,
It remains to remove the smoothing; differentiating an asymptotic formula would not justify this step. The monotonicity of the Second Chebyshev function gives, for with ,
First let with fixed. After division by , the lower and upper bounds tend to and . Let to obtain . Higher prime powers contribute by the Chebyshev estimate, so . Finally partial summation gives
The integral is , by splitting at and using . This proves the Prime number theorem with .
Second alternative. We prove the functional equation of the Riemann zeta function from a theta function. Set for . With Fourier transform convention , the Gaussian function has
Indeed, differentiation under the integral and integration by parts give , while the Gaussian integral gives . Periodize : the smooth period-one function has Fourier coefficients , by integrating on and interchanging its absolutely convergent sum with the integral. Its absolutely convergent Fourier series, evaluated at zero, proves the Poisson summation formula in this case. Hence
For , termwise integration and the defining integral of the Gamma function give the Mellin representation of the completed Riemann zeta function:
Split at one and substitute in the lower integral. The elementary part is
and the remaining part becomes an integral over . Thus
The integral is an entire function of , because decays exponentially and uniform convergence holds on every compact subset of the complex plane. This proves meromorphic continuation of the completed Riemann zeta function, with only the displayed simple poles, and the right side is invariant under . Therefore
The Gamma reflection formula and Gamma duplication formula give the equivalent form , understood by meromorphic continuation. Multiplication by gives the entire Riemann xi function .
Let count positive ordinates of Nontrivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function up to height , including multiplicity. The Riemann–von Mangoldt formula is
More precisely, away from ordinates of zeros, the constant term is , the additional term is , and the remaining error is . Here the argument is continued along , and . The coarse formula displayed above holds at all large heights with the usual right-continuous counting convention. Subtract it at and : the main term changes by and each error is . Hence
For infinitely many reciprocal-logarithmic gaps between zeta zeros, fix any , for example . Suppose all sufficiently late gaps satisfied . Summing and using
gives . The last elementary estimate follows by integral comparison with and one integration by parts. The Riemann–von Mangoldt formula would imply
a contradiction. This reasoning is valid whether repeated ordinates are listed according to multiplicity or only distinct ordinates are listed, since in either case . Consequently infinitely often, for any fixed .
Fix a positive integer and an integer coprime to . We use Dirichlet characters modulo , extended by zero on integers not coprime to , and write for the principal Dirichlet character. For a nonprincipal Dirichlet character, the sum over one complete period is zero. Its partial sums are therefore . Partial summation gives
The integral converges locally uniformly there, so these Dirichlet L-functions are holomorphic at one. On the other hand,
has a simple pole at one, with residue .
The assumed nonvanishing of a nonprincipal Dirichlet L-function at one for real Dirichlet characters also excludes vanishing for nonreal ones. To prove this, form the product over all Dirichlet characters
Use the logarithm supplied by the absolutely convergent Euler product. The Orthogonality of Dirichlet characters yields
Thus . If a nonreal Dirichlet character had , its distinct conjugate would also have a zero there, since . These two zeros would outweigh the single pole of the principal factor; all other factors are bounded near one. It would follow that as , contradicting the lower bound. Together with the assumption for real Dirichlet characters, this proves for every nonprincipal Dirichlet character.
The first-degree part of the Euler product logarithm gives
The omitted terms are bounded uniformly, since . For each nonprincipal factor, its logarithm remains bounded: choose a holomorphic logarithm near the now established nonzero value ; the Euler-product branch differs from it by a fixed integral multiple of on a sufficiently small real interval. For the principal factor,
Applying Orthogonality of Dirichlet characters again gives
The right side diverges as , so the arithmetic progression contains infinitely many primes. This proves Dirichlet's theorem on arithmetic progressions: every reduced residue class modulo contains infinitely many primes. The argument also covers and , when there need not be a nonreal character.
For the sharper statement about reciprocal primes in a fixed arithmetic progression, use the given prime-counting function asymptotic with fixed:
The second equivalence follows by integration by parts in the logarithmic integral function. Partial summation yields
For any , choose a fixed so large that the relative error in is at most for . The initial integral is a constant, while the remaining integral lies between
The boundary term is . Divide by , let , and then let . We obtain
Only a relative asymptotic is deduced from the given information; an additive error, or uniformity for a growing modulus , would require additional estimates.
For , is an Exponential martingale for Brownian motion, as follows directly from independent Gaussian increments. Stop it at , where is the first time reaches . On ,
The stopped expectation is one and the other contribution is nonnegative, so
For , minimize the exponent at . Apply the same argument to and use the union bound to obtain
At the probability is zero; the right side can be interpreted by its limit. This proves the Gaussian maximal bound for Brownian motion without losing an extra factor from a two-sided reflection argument.
Let be a global Lipschitz constant of . Realize the diffusion with the stated generator by , where is a standard -dimensional Brownian motion. Global Lipschitz continuity gives existence and uniqueness; its generator is exactly the printed operator. Couple it with the ordinary differential equation having the same initial value . Subtraction gives, with ,
The Gronwall inequality implies . If a Euclidean norm exceeds , some coordinate has absolute value exceeding . The scalar bound and a union over the coordinates therefore give
Taking the logarithm and multiplying by yields the explicit answer
For the probability is zero and the limit is , with . This is exponential small-noise concentration for a Lipschitz diffusion.
Matching the deterministic initial value is necessary. The printed last line specifies the differential equation but does not separately write this initial condition. Without it, take and a deterministic solution displaced from by in one fixed direction. The deviation event already holds at time zero, giving logarithmic rate zero instead of a strictly negative rate.
Write for the Chebyshev theta function and for the Second Chebyshev function. Throughout, denotes a prime and all logarithms are natural. Each prime divides the central binomial coefficient, so
Apply this at and telescope: . Bounding a general by the next power of two proves . Splitting the prime-counting function at now gives
This is the required Chebyshev estimate from central binomial coefficients, with no use of a prime asymptotic.
The higher prime powers also satisfy
For an integer , the prime factorization of a factorial gives
The Stirling formula, or integral comparison for , says . After division by we obtain . Moreover
Subtract this bounded contribution and replace by . The factorial proof of Mertens first theorem therefore yields
For fixed , apply partial summation to and :
The main contribution is
The bounded error in contributes at the endpoint and in the integral, since . Thus the positive logarithmic moments of reciprocal primes satisfy
Fix a modulus and a residue class with . The Dirichlet characters modulo are the one-dimensional characters of a representation of , extended by zero on nonunits. Let be the principal Dirichlet character.
For every nonprincipal Dirichlet character the partial sums are bounded: the sum over a full period is zero, and a remaining incomplete period has bounded length. Partial summation therefore continues its Dirichlet L-function holomorphically to by
This shows in particular that it has no pole at one. By contrast
has a simple pole there. We use the stipulated nonvanishing for every real nonprincipal Dirichlet character, and establish the remaining nonvanishing as follows.
For real , take the product over all Dirichlet characters. The Euler product logarithms and Orthogonality of Dirichlet characters give
Thus this product is real and at least one. If a nonreal Dirichlet character had , complex conjugation would also give . These are distinct factors. Two zeros and only one possible simple pole force the whole product to tend to zero as , contradicting the lower bound. Hence all nonprincipal Dirichlet characters have , under the given real-character assumption.
For , absolute convergence of each Euler product gives
with bounded remainder as : the terms of prime-power exponent at least two have total modulus at most . Since a nonprincipal defines a holomorphic function that is nonzero near one, its Euler-product logarithm differs from a local holomorphic logarithm by a fixed integer multiple of on a short real interval. It is therefore bounded there. For the principal Dirichlet character the pole instead gives
Apply the Dirichlet character orthogonality relation at each prime. The prime-character sum near one yields
This tends to infinity. A finite set of primes would have a bounded sum as , so every coprime residue class contains infinitely many primes. This proves the Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions from the specified assumption. In fact it proves divergence of the corresponding reciprocal-prime series and gives Dirichlet density .
Finally, for real each prime satisfies
The integrands are nonnegative, so Tonelli theorem permits summation inside the integral. At a fixed , exactly primes from the residue class have entered. Therefore
Both sides are finite, since they are bounded respectively by and . The values of a counting function at its isolated jump endpoints do not change this integral.
For a classical error-correcting code of length , alphabet size , minimum Hamming distance and codewords, the Singleton bound is
For a linear code this is . Deleting any coordinates is injective on the codewords, since two words agreeing on the remaining coordinates would differ in fewer than positions; this also explains the classical bound.
For an n-qubit quantum code carrying logical qubits and having quantum code distance , the quantum Singleton bound is
More generally replace by for code dimension . The proof applies to degenerate codes too.
Let . Purify the maximally mixed encoded input by a reference of dimension :
Distance makes erasure of any subset of at most qubits correctable. The allowed quantum erasure correction condition says that a correctable erased set is decoupled from :
This is the matrix-element correction condition in another form: all operators on have constant diagonal matrix elements and zero off-diagonal matrix elements in the logical basis, so tracing the other physical qubits in yields the displayed product.
First justify the sizes needed for the partition. If , partition all physical qubits into , both of size at most . Both sets are correctable. Purity of and the Schmidt decomposition give
Adding forces , a contradiction. Thus , without assuming the bound we aim to prove.
Choose disjoint sets of size , and let contain the remaining qubits. The joint state is pure, so decoupling and Subadditivity of Von Neumann entropy give
Adding and cancelling gives . The Von Neumann entropy of -dimensional states is at most : for positive eigenvalues , concavity of the logarithm gives . Here , so , proving the quantum bound. The code is assumed to encode information (); a one-dimensional code requires a separate distance convention, since simply re-preparing a known state makes its erasure-correction condition vacuous.
The channel capacity is the supremum of reliable communication rates: a rate bits per use is achievable if block encoders and decoders using channel uses can transmit messages with error probability tending to zero and .
A discrete memoryless channel has fixed transition probabilities on finite input and output alphabets, and
Its single-letter capacity formula is
with logarithms to base two. The Shannon second coding theorem identifies this maximum with the operational reliable rate.
For the binary erasure channel, use output symbols , where is a recognizable erasure flag. Given input , the output is with probability and with probability . If , the output probabilities are . Thus, writing for binary entropy,
and . Its maximum is attained by the uniform input , giving
In particular the noiseless and complete-erasure endpoints have capacities one and zero. The erasure flag reveals which positions were lost; it does not reveal the erased input values.