Cayley transform between the half-plane and disk Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The Cayley transform gives a conformal bijection between an unbounded half-plane and the unit disc. Two conventions are useful. For the right half-plane, useFor the upper half-plane, useRotating the upper half-plane onto the right half-plane by explains the relationship . The factors of distinguish which half-plane is mapped onto the unit disc. [ref]
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/18-04-complex-variables-with-applications-spring-2018/ef46ddd9941227b8700c945bb7475ae9_MIT18_04S18_topic10.pdf. Orloff, MIT Topic 10, Example 10.14 and section 10.11
The upper half-plane Cayley transform bends a rectangular grid into the unit disc while preserving angles at intersections
. Details. In particular, , and . The whole positive imaginary axis becomes the real diameter: for . Horizontal grid lines become circles tangent to the unit circle at when completed by their endpoint at infinity; they are not hyperbolic geodesics.
On the Riemann sphere, maps the extended real line onto the unit circle:Every finite real has ; the remaining point corresponds to infinity. The pole is outside the upper half-plane, and the pole of at is on the boundary of the unit disc. Neither pole obstructs the interior conformal bijection.
For a short verification, subtract the squared moduli:These identities put each interior image in the required domain; solving gives the stated inverse function. Both maps are holomorphic, with , so the conformal bijection preserves Euclidean angles between tangent directions.
Euclidean distance is not preserved: and are one unit apart, whereas and are only one third of a unit apart. The striking feature is that does preserve length for the hyperbolic metrics of the Poincaré half-plane model and Poincaré disk model:Consequently it is an isometry for these hyperbolic metrics, including their induced hyperbolic distances. For the same example, the corresponding hyperbolic geodesic segments have equal length:Thus the Cayley transform lets us choose the most convenient picture: a straight boundary for calculations, or a bounded unit disc for visualization. It also transports automorphisms of the unit disk into upper half-plane automorphisms by function composition .
Gershgorin bounds for symmetric matrices 2026-10-14
For a real symmetric matrix, or more generally a Hermitian matrix, the finite-dimensional spectral theorem makes all eigenvalues real. Intersecting its Gershgorin discs with the real axis givesThe union preserves gaps that the single outer interval loses. If every , all eigenvalues are positive, so the matrix is a positive-definite matrix. This is the positive-diagonal strictly diagonally dominant matrix criterion. For the three-by-three example, gives a positive-definite matrix certificate and bounds its spectral condition number of a positive-definite matrix by ; the computed value is about .
Strictness matters. The symmetric matrix has positive diagonal and is a diagonally dominant matrix, but its eigenvalues are and : it is singular. For a general complex matrix, the condition only puts the eigenvalues in the open right half-plane. The Hermitian matrix assumption is what converts that statement into positive definiteness.
Right half-plane 2026-10-14
The right half-plane consists of complex numbers with positive real part. Its boundary is the imaginary axis. For example, is inside, is on the boundary, and is outside. Rotation takes the right half-plane onto the upper half-plane; the Cayley transform between the half-plane and disk uses for this convention.
