Generator of a multiplication semigroup 2026-10-06
The infinitesimal generator of a semigroup for is multiplication by on its maximal domain. The bound proves the norm derivative when is integrable; in use a compact-small-tail argument on . Conversely norm convergence identifies the pointwise derivative as . Limits of graph pairs satisfy the same multiplication identity, proving it is a closed operator.
Gliding-hump continuity principle 2026-10-14
Let be linear between Banach spaces, let be bounded, and let be bounded. If is continuous whenever , then is continuous for all sufficiently large . After rescaling the bounded operators, assume their norms are at most one. If the conclusion failed, discontinuity would allow successively tiny vectors whose diagonal images dominate all previous contributions. Choose their norms also to control the continuous maps on subsequent tails. The convergent sum would then satisfy despite , a contradiction. The tail is factored through before applying , so no continuity of is assumed.
Global discrete gradient-norm denoising 2026-10-06
For a discrete image signal operator , minimize with one Euclidean norm on the full gradient array. This differs from discrete isotropic total variation, which sums pixelwise Euclidean lengths. The global norm's dual ball is a single ball; its convex projection normalizes the whole vector array.
Gram-Schmidt process Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The Gram-Schmidt process turns a finite ordered family of linearly independent vectors in an inner product space over the real numbers into an orthonormal basis of their linear span. It keeps every successive linear span, so the first new vectors describe exactly the same directions as the first inputs. Its idea is geometric: remove the orthogonal projection onto directions already found, then divide the remaining vector by its norm. This makes a complicated basis easier to use without changing the vector subspace it describes.[ref]
Start with and . At step , use the previously obtained orthonormal set to defineThe sum is the orthogonal projection onto a finite-dimensional subspace , and is the orthogonal projection residual. Linear independence ensures : otherwise would already be a linear combination of earlier inputs. If the input family is linearly dependent, use only the retained orthonormal vectors in the sum and omit an input whenever its remainder is the zero vector; do not divide by zero. The retained outputs still form an orthonormal basis of the original linear span, but their number can be smaller than .
For a short verification, orthonormality makes every earlier inner product vanish:Also is minus a linear combination of earlier vectors, while is plus that same linear combination. These two inclusions, followed by division by a nonzero norm, giveThe argument also works in an inner product space over the complex numbers with the existing inner product convention, linear in the first argument: the coefficients remain . With the convention linear in the second argument, write instead.
For a first picture, take and in with the ordinary dot product. ThenSubtracting the diagonal component leaves an orthogonal direction; dividing by its norm makes its length one. If the second input were instead, its orthogonal projection would be the entire input and , revealing linear dependence.
Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization in : input vectors, subtraction of an orthogonal projection, and an orthonormal basis
. Details. For a full three-dimensional calculation, use the ordinary dot product and the input vectorsThe first two steps giveAt the third step, the inner products are and . ConsequentlyThe three numerator vectors have pairwise dot products and squared Euclidean norms . Thus the displayed outputs are indeed an orthonormal basis, and the three nonzero remainders also confirm linear independence of the inputs. Keeping the removed coefficients produces the QR decomposition below.
An immediate reward is a reusable orthogonal projection: once an orthonormal basis of a vector subspace is known, any vector hasFor the linear span of just the first two inputs in the three-dimensional example, gives . Its orthogonal projection residual is , visibly in the missing orthogonal direction. This is the geometry behind the linear least-squares problem.
The formulas above describe exact arithmetic. With floating-point arithmetic, subtracting an orthogonal projection nearly equal to the input can leave a small remainder; dividing by its small norm can magnify existing roundoff error. The Classical Gram-Schmidt and Modified Gram-Schmidt arrangements agree in exact arithmetic but can give different rounded results. Exact linear dependence and a small computed remainder therefore require different judgments in a numerical implementation.[ref]
https://nhigham.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/high95m.pdf. Higham, The Test Matrix Toolbox for Matlab, §8, p. 22
Hadamard matrix 2026-10-14
A Hadamard matrix is a real square matrix with entries and whose rows are pairwise orthogonal. Each row has squared norm , so and is an orthogonal matrix. In particular is invertible, with . The four-by-four exampleis symmetric and satisfies . It supplies an exact intertwiner in four-tile mixed-boundary transplantation between a disk and a nonorientable surface.
Half-density 2026-10-14
A half-density transforms by the square root of the absolute Jacobian under a coordinate change. The product of a half-density with its complex conjugate is an integrable density, so its norm is coordinate-independent without choosing a separate volume form. Half-densities provide an intrinsic configuration-space Hilbert space for a real cotangent polarization.
Harmonic Hardy space of the upper half-space 2026-10-14
For the upper half-space , this is the space of harmonic functions with finite norm . It differs from an analytic Hardy space: no holomorphic function condition is imposed, and its boundary object can be a singular finite Borel measure.
Heine-Borel theorem Created 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-10-14
For every finite , a subset of Euclidean space is compact if and only if it is a closed set and a bounded set. Here closed means closed in the ambient Euclidean space, not merely in itself, and the bounded set condition uses the Euclidean norm. The empty set is included: it is a closed set, a bounded set, and compact. [ref]
This makes an apparently infinite test practical. To verify compactness of a closed interval with finite endpoints, we need not examine every open cover: it is closed in the real line and a bounded set. By contrast, the open interval is a bounded set but is not closed in the real line, as the missing-endpoint figure in compact space illustrates. The whole real line is closed but is not a bounded set, so it too fails compactness. These examples show why both hypotheses are needed.
The same criterion holds in any real or complex finite-dimensional vector space equipped with a norm: all norms there are equivalent norms, so they give the same open sets, closed sets, and bounded sets. Since compactness depends only on the topology, choosing a different norm does not change the conclusion. Without an appropriate topology, a bare vector space alone has no notion of compactness.
The restriction to a finite-dimensional vector space is essential. In the l2 sequence space, an infinite-dimensional vector space that is also a Hilbert space, let be the vectors of its standard orthonormal basis. All lie in the closed unit ball , which is a closed set and a bounded set in the norm topology. For distinct indices, their inner product is zero, givingThus distinct terms remain distance apart. No subsequence is a Cauchy sequence, hence none is a convergent sequence. The equivalence of compactness and sequential compactness in a metric space proves that this closed unit ball is not compact. The conclusion concerns the norm topology.
A short proof outline in Euclidean space explains the role of a finite-dimensional vector space. For a sequence in a bounded set, apply the Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem to each of the Cartesian coordinates in turn, retaining a subsequence at each of the finitely many steps. The final subsequence is a convergent sequence in all Cartesian coordinates, and a closed set contains its limit of a sequence. This yields sequential compactness, hence compactness. Conversely, a compact subset of a metric space is a closed set and a bounded set. [ref]
Hermitian Banach algebra 2026-10-14
A Hermitian Banach algebra is a Banach algebra with an algebra involution for which every Hermitian element of a star algebra has real spectrum of an element. A closed unital star-subalgebra has spectral permanence for Hermitian Banach algebras. The assumption is weaker than being a C-star algebra and does not require the C-star norm identity.
Hermitian form Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A Hermitian form is a sesquilinear form on a complex vector space satisfying conjugate symmetry,Hence is a real number for every vector. In a basis, the matrix of a Hermitian form has and obeys , equivalently : it is a Hermitian matrix. The coordinate rule remains . Conjugate symmetry does not imply positivity.[ref]
https://sites.math.washington.edu/~burke/crs/554/lectures/b-lecture4.pdf. Burke, Linear Analysis, Lecture 4, Hermitian symmetry
The diagonal contains more information than might be expected. For any complex sesquilinear form , put . Expanding four expressions gives the complex polarization identity in the linear-first convention:This is an algebraic identity, with no positivity assumption. If every is real, interchanging preserves the first difference and negates the second: use for . The identity then gives . Thus a complex sesquilinear form is a Hermitian form if and only if all its diagonal values are real. Testing only the basis vectors is insufficient: the off-diagonal example in sesquilinear form has zero diagonal entries in its matrix but a nonreal value at .
Consider the indefinite Hermitian formIts values at are . Moreover and are nonzero isotropic vectors: , yet . These vectors do not belong to the radical of a Hermitian form, and the usual Cauchy-Schwarz inequality would incorrectly require . An indefinite Hermitian form records signed geometry rather than defining a norm by .
There is a separate boundary case: is a positive semidefinite Hermitian form, since , but . Its radical of a Hermitian form is the entire second coordinate line. Positive definiteness is exactly the additional condition in a Hermitian inner product. The three examples below show why these distinctions matter: on the real slice , has an ellipse as its unit level, has hyperbolas, and has two parallel lines. These are slices of the complex examples, not drawings of their full four-dimensional domains.
Analytical illustration: real slices of positive definite, indefinite, and positive semidefinite Hermitian forms
. Details. Hermitian inner product 2026-10-14
A Hermitian inner product is a Hermitian form on a complex vector space which has positive definiteness: for every nonzero vector . It is precisely a complex inner product. Only with this definiteness condition doesdefine a norm rather than a seminorm or an expression that may not be real. The standard Hermitian inner product on is ; positive weights give , with squared norm .[ref]
https://linear.axler.net/InnerProduct.pdf. Sheldon Axler, Linear Algebra Done Right, third edition, §6.A, definitions 6.3 and 6.9 and examples 6.4
A Hermitian inner product need not have a real matrix. For instance, with the linear-first coordinate convention,The last expression proves positive definiteness without a lengthy calculation of eigenvalues. For it gives , while for it gives . These unequal values expose why a silent switch to would change this particular Hermitian inner product: with these same entries it gives at . All entries must keep their roles from the matrix of a Hermitian form.
The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for a Hermitian inner product statesEquality holds exactly when are linearly dependent, including when either is zero. For a nonzero , outline the proof by setting and . Then , and the Pythagorean theorem givesNonnegativity proves the inequality, while positive definiteness makes equality equivalent to . The scalar has no extra conjugate because the first argument is linear.[ref]
https://linear.axler.net/InnerProduct.pdf. Axler, Linear Algebra Done Right, third edition, orthogonal decomposition 6.14 and Cauchy-Schwarz inequality 6.15
The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality also holds for a positive semidefinite Hermitian form, but equality need not imply linear dependence: for , the independent vectors and give . Equality then describes dependence after passing to the quotient vector space by the radical of a Hermitian form. The indefinite Hermitian form in Hermitian form shows that conjugate symmetry alone does not even guarantee the inequality.
For a worked orthogonal projection, take , and . Then , and , with and for the squared norms. The residual is perpendicular in this Hermitian inner product even though its ordinary real dot product with is . For complex , the same orthogonal projection uses ; rotating multiplies by , while rotating multiplies by . This combines geometric decomposition with sensitivity to the relative complex arguments of the multipliers.
Analytical illustration: weighted orthogonal projection on a real slice and opposite changes of complex argument of its projection coefficient
. Details. A Hermitian inner product therefore supplies more than a positive diagonal: orthogonality, orthogonal projection onto a span, and the triangle inequality for its norm make approximation and distance meaningful. For the function space of complex continuous functions on , has positive definiteness, because a nonzero continuous function has positive modulus on a small interval. The same construction turns overlap under integration into lengths and best approximation in finite-dimensional vector subspaces.


