Let be a bounded linear operator on a complex Banach space with , and . Its image of a linear map and kernel contain nonzero vectors, giving eigenvalues one and zero. For ,
Direct multiplication proves the formula, so the spectrum is exactly and its spectral radius is one. Since and , the spectral radius formula is explicit: .
Spectrum of a scalar matrix plus a rank-one projector Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Let be a real unit vector in -dimensional Euclidean space. Then is a rank-one orthogonal projection: , while for orthogonal to . Consequently the symmetric matrix has eigenvalue on the line spanned by and eigenvalue on its orthogonal complement. Any orthonormal basis of that complement completes to an orthonormal eigenbasis. Thus
The trace and determinant formulas remain valid when one of these eigenvalues is zero. When , all nonzero vectors have the same eigenvalue, and the chosen splitting is optional.
Speed Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Speed is the nonnegative magnitude of velocity, a scalar rather than a vector. In orthonormal Cartesian coordinates,
Its SI unit is . In the reversal example under velocity, the endpoint velocities and both have speed , but the speed falls to zero between them. A speed reading alone therefore cannot tell which way the body is moving.
For a smooth path, the total distance traveled is its arc length, . Unlike the integral of a signed velocity component, this integral cannot cancel outward and return motion. The reversal example travels in , giving an average speed of , while its average velocity is zero. This makes speed useful for estimating travel duration or fuel use, while velocity also tracks progress toward a destination. [ref]
Spherical law of cosines 2026-10-14
For a nondegenerate convex minor spherical triangle, the spherical law of cosines relates two angular sides , their included interior angle , and the opposite angular side :
Relabelling the vertices gives the corresponding formulas for and . As with the spherical law of sines, physical side lengths must first be divided by the sphere's radius. The spherical law of cosines determines uniquely from when the data describe such a spherical triangle. It also recovers each interior angle from three sides, for example
Using the cosine and the range selects a unique angle, avoiding the supplementary-angle ambiguity of an inverse sine calculation.
To derive the spherical law of cosines, let be the vertex unit vectors at , so , and . The outgoing unit tangent vectors at are and . Their dot product is both and , proving the identity. This gives a geometric explanation: spherical trigonometry compares angles in the tangent plane using vectors in the surrounding Euclidean space.
For a worked example on the unit sphere, take the vertices
At , the outgoing unit tangent vectors are and , so the interior angle is a right angle. The vertex dot products give . The spherical law of cosines then reduces to the right-angle identity , giving
To find , use the relabelled spherical law of cosines:
The physical side lengths on a sphere of radius are and . For example, on a toy sphere with metres they are approximately , and metres; the interior angles stay the same. Applying the planar Pythagorean theorem directly to the angular sides would instead give . That flat right triangle calculation does not give the great-circle distance between and .
Figure 1.
A non-octant spherical triangle with a right angle at , angular sides and , and interior angles
. Details.
The familiar law of cosines reappears as a local approximation. With all small in radians, substitute the small-angle approximations and into the spherical law of cosines and keep terms through second order:
Multiplication by gives the planar law of cosines for the physical side lengths. For a fixed small surface triangle on a progressively larger sphere, the angular sides shrink and this approximation improves. Thus the curved and flat formulas fit together: the Pythagorean theorem is recovered locally when is a right angle.
Spinor sign under a full spatial rotation Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
For a Dirac spinor a spatial rotation acts in each chiral block by a matrix exponential , depending on angle orientation. Since for a unit axis, the Pauli matrix multiplication law gives this exponential as . At it is , and at it is . A vector returns already at . This describes the lift of the rotation loop to the Spin group, rather than a single-valued representation of the ordinary rotation group on spinors.
Let be the interpolating cardinal basis and set . Linearity gives , and this Gram matrix is a positive semidefinite matrix. Its null space consists precisely of vectors , by the null-space statement for the second derivative roughness penalty. Thus its rank is , including the zero matrix when .
Square of a number 2026-10-14
The square of a number is the product . For a real number, it is nonnegative. The sum of squares of real coordinates is the squared Euclidean norm of the corresponding vector.
Standard basis Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
The standard basis of the vector space consists of the vectors whose th coordinate is one and whose other coordinates are zero. Every vector has the unique expression in this basis.
Standard Young tableau Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-14
Figure 1.
All five standard Young tableaux of shape in the English convention
. Details.
A standard Young tableau of shape is a Young tableau that uses exactly once and strictly increases left to right along every row and top to bottom down every column. Formally, a bijection is standard when
whenever the indicated cells belong to the Young diagram. We write for the set of such fillings and for its cardinality.
For , the five standard Young tableaux are listed below, with each pair giving the top row followed by the bottom row:
There are no others: the upper-left entry must be , and choosing the two bottom-row entries fixes both increasing row orders. Of the six choices of two entries from , only bottom row fails, because its would lie below . Hence by direct enumeration, independently of the hook-length formula.
The cells occupied by form a Young diagram: every cell above or to the left of an occupied cell has a smaller label. Consequently a standard Young tableau is equivalently a path from the empty shape to in the Young branching graph, adjoining one addable node of a Young diagram at each step. For , the successive shapes are
Conversely, number the cell added at step by to recover the standard Young tableau. This path interpretation also makes a standard Young tableau a linear extension of a partially ordered set defined by the row and column requirements; see Stanley's Algebraic Combinatorics, Chapter 8, on tableaux and paths in Young's lattice.
The usefulness goes beyond counting: the standard polytabloid basis of a Specht module over the complex numbers is indexed by , so . Each of the five pictured standard Young tableaux therefore labels one basis element of the irreducible representation of the symmetric group , whose dimension over the complex numbers is five. The filled diagrams index the basis; the actual vectors are polytabloids. The hook-length formula computes this dimension without listing all the standard Young tableaux.
An inclined plane tilted slowly from horizontal turns a coefficient of static friction into a critical angle. Assume a nonrotating block on a stationary, rigid, dry surface, with gravitational weight and the contact forces as its only forces. Take to be the angle between the uphill surface direction and horizontal. Let be a unit vector pointing uphill and a perpendicular unit vector pointing outward from the surface. Resolving the gravitational weight gives
The angle between the downward vertical and the inward normal is also . Thus the inward component uses cosine and the downhill component uses sine. These are components of one force, not two additional forces.
Figure 1.
Inclined plane force balance and the geometry of impending downhill contact slip
. Original diagram at the stipulated critical angle . Left: the three actual forces on a resting block. Right: a separate decomposition of gravitational weight into downhill and inward-normal components; the dashed diagonal represents their sum. The two panels must not be combined into a diagram with five applied forces. Details.
Before downhill contact slip, zero acceleration and Newton's second law require
The required static friction points uphill. Substituting into the bound and dividing by the positive gives
The tangent function increases on this range of angles, so the last admissible resting angle is
The inverse tangent takes a dimensionless quantity to an angle. At equality the ideal model still permits a limiting resting state; increasing further excludes it. At a smaller angle, is the demand ratio, not the coefficient of static friction.[ref]
For the stipulated , and , the critical angle is approximately . At , and , comfortably below the bound . At , maintaining rest would require , but the bound is only : rest is impossible. At , and . Notice that the limiting tangential force here is smaller than the horizontal limit because tilting reduces the normal force.
Cancellation of mass makes this relation useful: the ideal critical angle tests a contact coefficient without needing a calibrated force gauge. Doubling the block's mass doubles both demanded static friction and its bound, leaving unchanged if is unchanged. This is a testable model prediction. It need not survive a change in surface condition, a direction-dependent coefficient, appreciable deformation, or vibration.
The derivation also assumes continued contact and that sliding occurs before tipping or rolling without slipping. The resultant contact force must act within the supporting footprint so that the block can satisfy torque balance; a tall block may tip first. No extra tension, imposed tangential pull, or lift is included. In a slowly raised apparatus, quasistatic process means that motion of the board contributes negligible inertial forces while locating the threshold. Once downhill contact slip begins, a constant-velocity sliding angle would concern kinetic friction, not the onset of static friction.
Use the rotating frame and positive gyromagnetic ratio convention of free induction decay. Let be each component's fixed detuning, and normalize its magnetization by the equilibrium value. An instantaneous resonant pulse along rotates through about , preparing . A second pulse along rotates through about . These ideal pulses require a drive much stronger than the relevant detunings and negligible relaxation during either pulse. The corresponding rotation matrices, acting on column vectors, are
Here is free Larmor precession in the rotating frame, before including transverse relaxation. Define a calibrated complex signal so the prepared component has . The pulse sends to its negative complex conjugate, hence sends to . Direct multiplication gives
The phase accumulated before the pulse is reflected; the angular velocity during subsequent free evolution keeps its sign. At every fixed detuning has zero residual phase. Equivalently, , so . This is not the identity on arbitrary three-dimensional magnetization: it returns the prepared component because . The two transverse pulse axes specified here also fix the receiver sign of the echo.
Figure 1.
How a 180° pulse refocuses a static spread of Larmor precession frequencies
. Original Bloch vector projections and accumulated phases for five illustrative detunings, with no relaxation. A rotation about prepares ; a rotation about reflects transverse phases at . Colors identify the same components throughout. Their subsequent free angular velocities are unchanged. Details.
For an original ensemble example, let the static detunings have a Gaussian distribution with mean zero and standard deviation , independent of a common homogeneous . Averaging uses the characteristic function of that Gaussian distribution:
Choose , and . Immediately before the refocusing pulse the normalized signal is only , yet . A one-pulse free induction decay at 80 ms would instead be about . These chosen numbers describe a calculation, not a measured trace. Increasing narrows the echo without changing in this ideal model. Because this Gaussian distribution produces a Gaussian factor rather than an exponential decay, its inhomogeneous decay is not characterized by a unique exponential .
Figure 2.
Synthetic Gaussian distribution ensemble: a vanished free induction decay and a recovered spin echo
. Left: the stated instantaneous and sequence, ensemble magnitude, one-pulse comparison and homogeneous envelope. Direct sums over weighted detunings agree with the analytic curve. Right: samples at exact refocusing times for a series of separate sequences, with and without the diffusion model below. No panel reproduces an experimental trace. Details.
The exact phase-refocusing time is . A slowly falling transverse relaxation envelope moves the maximum of this particular echo shape slightly earlier: differentiating after the pulse gives , or here. Measuring consistently at avoids confusing this small envelope effect with a failure of refocusing. A series of such measurements gives only when the assumed homogeneous exponential decay, pulse quality and negligible additional attenuation are appropriate.
For a real symmetric matrix and nonzero real vector , the quotient rule and the quadratic form gradient give the displayed gradient. It vanishes exactly when , so the stationary points are eigenvectors. Equivalently, the Lagrange multiplier condition for optimizing on the unit sphere is . The smallest and largest eigenvalues give the global extrema; other eigenvectors can be stationary without being extrema, as a direction mixing larger and smaller eigenvalues changes the quotient in opposite ways.
Stochastic matrix 2026-10-14
A row-stochastic matrix has nonnegative entries and each row sums to one. For a time-homogeneous Discrete-time Markov chain, its transition matrix has entries
If a state has zero probability at time , this row is specified by the model's Markov kernel, rather than recovered by conditioning on that zero-probability event. Rows index departure states and columns arrival states. Writing the current probability distribution as a row vector gives
The row-sum condition ensures that matrix multiplication preserves total probability. Under a column convention the evolution uses the transpose; the convention must accompany the formula.
For the sunny/rainy transition matrix, direct matrix multiplication gives
In particular, . The two terms sum the disjoint paths and . Requiring both subsequent days to be sunny has probability ; requiring only the second day to be sunny permits the extra path through rain.
Generally is the -step transition probability. The identity is the discrete-time Chapman-Kolmogorov equation: sum over the intermediate state. This makes matrix powers useful for forecasting many steps without enumerating every path individually.
Every strongly continuous unitary group has a unique possibly unbounded self-adjoint operator as its generator. Its domain consists of the vectors for which the norm limit of exists as . Conversely, the Borel functional calculus for a normal operator constructs a strongly continuous unitary group from every self-adjoint . Smooth averaging supplies a dense generator domain; Laplace integrals of and prove that are surjective, which establishes self-adjointness.
Straight line Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-14
A straight line in Euclidean space is the set , for a fixed point and nonzero direction vector . Two distinct points determine one such line.
For a real vector with support of a vector , this certificate is a vector whose measurements under the adjoint operator match the active sign function values and lie strictly between minus one and one on the inactive coordinates. If is injective, such a certificate proves that is the unique basis pursuit minimizer. For a nonzero , injectivity ensures , and implies the fixed-sign null space condition. The strict inequality is interpreted coordinatewise if is empty. The condition with the sign function written here is for real variables; complex basis pursuit uses the unit phases of active coordinates instead.
A real symmetric matrix whose quadratic form is positive at every nonzero vector in the nonnegative orthant. By compactness of the nonnegative unit sphere, this is equivalent to a positive uniform lower bound on that orthant. It need not be a positive-definite matrix.
Strong ellipticity 2026-10-20
The elastic stiffness satisfies for every nonzero polarization and propagation vector . It makes the elastic acoustic tensor positive definite, ensuring positive squared wave speeds. Positive strain energy is a sufficient stronger condition in ordinary linear elasticity.
Sum of reproducing-kernel Hilbert spaces Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-18
For positive-semidefinite kernels with Reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces , the Reproducing kernel Hilbert space of consists of sums , with
The minimum is attained uniquely. Indeed, in the Hilbert space direct sum , the tuples summing to zero form a closed subspace : they are the intersection, over inputs , of the kernels of the continuous maps . Every affine fibre has a unique representative in by orthogonal decomposition by a closed subspace. The vector lies in and represents evaluation in the quotient; its evaluation at is , identifying the positive-semidefinite kernel with .
Sum of squares 2026-10-13
A sum of squares adds the squares of numbers for specified real numbers . It is nonnegative and vanishes exactly when every term is zero. For the coordinates of a vector, it is the squared Euclidean norm; for regression residuals, it gives the residual sum of squares minimized by ordinary least squares.