Flat function 2026-10-06
A smooth function is flat at when every derivative, including order zero, vanishes at . The function off zero, extended by zero at zero, is flat there but not identically zero near zero. Thus its Taylor series does not determine it. A real analytic function that is flat at a point vanishes on a neighborhood of that point.
The Taylor series definition says that and, for every , there is such that
The equivalent factorial derivative criterion for real analyticity says that, for every , there are a neighborhood of and constants such that
The uniformity over matters: bounds only at do not exclude a flat function.
Assume the factorial derivative criterion for real analyticity. The Taylor theorem with Lagrange remainder gives
when the segment from to is contained in . For sufficiently small the Taylor remainder tends to zero, proving the Taylor series definition.
Conversely, write the convergent power series at as . Choose strictly inside its radius of convergence; then for some . Termwise differentiation on gives
Here the sum is , obtained by differentiating the geometric series. This is the required locally uniform bound. The two definitions of a real analytic function are equivalent.
The complex Liouville theorem states that a bounded entire function is constant. Indeed, if , the Cauchy estimate on any disc of radius centered at gives . Letting gives everywhere.
The analogous conclusion for bounded real analytic functions on is false. For example, is bounded, nonconstant, and real analytic on the whole real line. Boundedness only on that line does not bound its holomorphic extension on the complex plane.
Classification and characteristic exponents. For a normalized second-order linear differential equation, an ordinary point at zero means and are real analytic functions there. A regular singular point is a singular point where and nevertheless extend as real analytic functions to zero. Write and . The lowest-power coefficient in the Frobenius method gives the indicial equation
Its roots are the characteristic exponents at a regular singular point. If their difference is not an integer, there are two linearly independent solutions , with real analytic and . For distinct real roots with integer difference, a solution for the larger root exists, and a second has the form ; the logarithmic coefficient can vanish. For a repeated root, the second solution has the form after normalization. This is a Logarithmic Frobenius solution. Complex conjugate roots give real solutions whose leading behaviour is and , with analytic-series corrections. All these descriptions are on , or on a fixed complex branch.
For the present equation, division by gives and . Therefore and are real analytic. Zero is regular singular when ; when , it is ordinary after removing the common factor . In that exceptional case the normalized equation is .
For the Frobenius method substitution, the lowest coefficient and the general linear recurrence relation are
These equations come respectively from the coefficients of and . At , the same formal exponents describe the two possible leading powers at an ordinary point, rather than singular behaviour.
Non-characteristic. The first-order principal symbol is , which equals one on .
Set . The equation is equivalent to . Because is continuously differentiable, the Cauchy-Riemann equations imply that it is a holomorphic function of . Its convergent complex Taylor series restricts to a real power series along , so is a real analytic function.
For smooth-data instability of the Cauchy-Riemann Cauchy problem, choose
These are entire functions and satisfy the equation. Their initial derivatives obey , so every finite sum tends to zero. But
Thus analytic solutions can exist while continuous dependence on initial data fails for this smooth-data topology.
The Cauchy estimate follows directly from the differentiated Cauchy integral formula:
The circle has length , giving the bound for every integer .
Put and integrate on the straight segment . For fixed , a disc centred at with radius approaching stays inside . Applying the first-derivative Cauchy estimate there gives
Integrating its modulus and taking the supremum over is exactly the asserted integral estimate. The source cancels from .
To obtain a contraction mapping, use the weighted holomorphic norm on a shrinking time domain. Its finite-norm space consists of holomorphic functions on with zero initial value; the apparent quotient at is interpreted by a limit. Completeness follows because convergence in this norm implies locally uniform convergence of holomorphic functions, including near , and the limiting pointwise bounds give convergence in the norm.
Here is the explicit contraction estimate on a shrinking holomorphic domain. Write , , , and choose
Then and . The whole auxiliary polydisc lies inside , and its supremum of is at most . Consequently
Thus . Choose . The source is bounded on the closed polydisc, say by , and . Therefore maps the Banach space into itself and is a strict contraction mapping. The Banach fixed-point theorem gives a holomorphic fixed point with . Differentiating the integral identity yields , establishing this case of the Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem.
Finally, near each real initial point, a real analytic function has a holomorphic extension . Apply the same construction to with and source , restricting the discs if necessary. This gives a local real analytic function of with the prescribed initial value. Equivalently the solution is wherever the extension is defined.
The coordinate change has inverse , . Thus the coefficient function needed after changing variables is
The PDF's displayed formula has an undefined subscript and writes the forward change in the argument. It is not the coefficient pullback by the stated coordinates; the inverse expression above is the one used in transforming the equation. The forward polynomial composition, if intended instead, has the same type of uniform bounds, but is not that pullback.
For and , the inverse image lies in the fixed compact subset specified by , , whose Euclidean radius is less than one. A real analytic function extends holomorphically to a complex neighborhood of this compact set: local extensions agree on overlaps by uniqueness, and a finite covering gives a common smaller neighborhood. The polynomial inverse maps a fixed small complex neighborhood of the closed half-ball into that neighborhood, uniformly in . The extensions are bounded there by a common constant . Applying the multivariable Cauchy estimate on equal-radius polydiscs gives
This is uniform analyticity under polynomial coordinate changes. The argument gives a compact margin and a common complex radius, not merely separate analyticity for each parameter.
These are mean-field critical exponents at a tricritical point. Hold the other control at its tricritical value and take the coefficients to be real analytic functions of temperature along a thermal approach with , , , and or . At fixed tricritical , a generic real analytic temperature path with nonzero thermal slope has and meets the last condition. Paths tangent to a scaling direction can have different apparent temperature powers.
At zero field on the ordered side with , stationarity gives ; under the more general approach , this relation holds to leading order. Thus the order-parameter critical exponent is
For the zero-quartic representative, putting this minimum into the Landau free energy gives the singular order-parameter contribution (and the leading asymptotic contribution under the stated negligible-quartic approach)
Using at fixed other control yields , specifically to leading order. Hence
This heat-capacity critical exponent refers to the nonzero ordered-side singular amplitude; in this mean-field approximation to Landau theory, the disordered global minimum contributes zero singular free energy, while any regular background remains. Fluctuation corrections lie outside the present approximation.
In the disordered phase, differentiating the equation of state at gives the magnetic susceptibility . On the ordered branch its curvature is , so . Both give the magnetic-susceptibility critical exponent
At the tricritical temperature with both lower coefficients zero, , so and the critical-isotherm exponent is
The Widom scaling relation and Rushbrooke scaling relation both check these powers. Their validity here is a mean-field conclusion, not a claim that fluctuations in every spatial dimension preserve them.
Termwise differentiation of a Fourier series multiplies a mode by its wavenumber, so
The convolution theorem turns pointwise multiplication into discrete convolution:
so
The assumed real analyticity justifies these termwise operations through rapid decay of the Fourier coefficients.
The initial line has conormal , and the principal symbol on this conormal is . It is therefore a non-characteristic hypersurface at every . The equation's coefficients and the prescribed Cauchy data and are real analytic functions. The Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem consequently gives a unique analytic solution in a neighbourhood of for every
For and rational , every admits with
Consequently
By the Cauchy-Hadamard theorem, the Taylor series of at has radius of convergence zero.
Suppose some Taylor series represented throughout a neighborhood of a point . That neighborhood contains a rational . A function represented locally by a convergent power series is a real analytic function, and re-expanding that series about gives the Taylor series of at a positive radius of convergence. This contradicts the preceding conclusion. Thus agrees with no Taylor series on a neighborhood of any point; it is a nowhere-analytic generic smooth function.
The initial line is , whose conormal is . Evaluating the principal symbol on it gives
It is therefore a non-characteristic hypersurface at exactly when . At such a point the equation can be written
whose right-hand side is real analytic locally, and the prescribed Cauchy data are also real analytic. The Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem consequently gives a unique local analytic solution exactly at the points
The scalar Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem says that a partial differential equation solved for its highest derivative normal to a real-analytic non-characteristic hypersurface, with real-analytic coefficients and Cauchy data, has a unique local real-analytic solution. In coordinates, an equation
has such a solution near the origin when and the prescribed values of for are real analytic.
Choose a real-analytic primitive of near zero and apply the theorem to the scalar Laplace equation
The line is non-characteristic because the coefficient of is one. Define
Then and , while equality of mixed derivatives and the Laplace equation give
Thus is the required local real-analytic solution.
Suppose a classical solution existed and set . The system is precisely
which are the Cauchy-Riemann equations for as a function of the complex number . Hence is holomorphic near . Every holomorphic function is real analytic, so its restriction
to the real axis is real analytic near zero. Its real part and imaginary part show that both and must be real analytic, contradicting the hypothesis. Therefore no such solution exists.
The Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem says that an order- scalar quasilinear partial differential equation with real-analytic coefficients has a unique local real-analytic solution near each point of a real-analytic non-characteristic hypersurface, provided the prescribed Cauchy data
are real analytic there. The uniqueness is among local real-analytic solutions agreeing with all of those data.
For ,
The prescribed function is , so part c gives . Hence the non-characteristic condition reduces to
The Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem therefore guarantees a unique local real-analytic solution at exactly those points
for which
Uniform analyticity under polynomial coordinate changes Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
Suppose a family of polynomial coordinate maps has a fixed bound on its degrees and coefficients depending continuously on a compact parameter set, and sends a fixed real compact set into a compact subset of the domain of a real analytic function. A common complex neighborhood can then be chosen so the compositions are holomorphic and uniformly bounded there. The multivariable Cauchy estimate gives uniform factorial derivative bounds. For the change , the coefficient pullback uses its inverse: .