The derivative of a function of a real variable measures the sensitivity to change of the function value with respect to a change in its argument. Derivatives are a fundamental tool of calculus. For example, the derivative of the position of a moving object with respect to time is the object's velocity: this measures how quickly the position of the object changes when time advances.
In vector calculus, the gradient is a multi-variable generalization of the derivative. While a derivative can be defined on functions of a single variable, for functions of several variables, the gradient takes its place. The gradient is a vector-valued function, as opposed to a derivative, which is a scalar-valued function.
In mathematics, the Weil conjectures were some highly influential proposals by André Weil (1949), which led to a successful multi-decade program to prove them, in which many leading researchers developed the framework of modern algebraic geometry and number theory.
Pierre René, Viscount Deligne is a Belgian mathematician. He is known for work on the Weil conjectures, leading to a complete proof in 1973. He is the winner of the 2013 Abel Prize, 2008 Wolf Prize, 1988 Crafoord Prize, and 1978 Fields Medal.
In mathematics, the étale cohomology groups of an algebraic variety or scheme are algebraic analogues of the usual cohomology groups with finite coefficients of a topological space, introduced by Grothendieck in order to prove the Weil conjectures. Étale cohomology theory can be used to construct ℓ-adic cohomology, which is an example of a Weil cohomology theory in algebraic geometry. This has many applications, such as the proof of the Weil conjectures and the construction of representations of finite groups of Lie type.
In mathematics, the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture describes the set of rational solutions to equations defining an elliptic curve. It is an open problem in the field of number theory and is widely recognized as one of the most challenging mathematical problems. The conjecture was chosen as one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems listed by the Clay Mathematics Institute, which has offered a $1,000,000 prize for the first correct proof. It is named after mathematicians Bryan Birch and Peter Swinnerton-Dyer who developed the conjecture during the first half of the 1960s with the help of machine computation. As of 2018, only special cases of the conjecture have been proved.
In mathematics, a Kakeya set, or Besicovitch set, is a set of points in Euclidean space which contains a unit line segment in every direction. For instance, a disk of radius 1/2 in the Euclidean plane, or a ball of radius 1/2 in three-dimensional space, forms a Kakeya set. Much of the research in this area has studied the problem of how small such sets can be. Besicovitch showed that there are Besicovitch sets of measure zero.
In mathematics, the Thom space,Thom complex, or Pontryagin–Thom construction of algebraic topology and differential topology is a topological space associated to a vector bundle, over any paracompact space.
In mathematics, the multiplicative ergodic theorem, or Oseledets theorem provides the theoretical background for computation of Lyapunov exponents of a nonlinear dynamical system. It was proved by Valery Oseledets in 1965 and reported at the International Mathematical Congress in Moscow in 1966. A conceptually different proof of the multiplicative ergodic theorem was found by M. S. Raghunathan. The theorem has been extended to semisimple Lie groups by V. A. Kaimanovich and further generalized in the works of David Ruelle, Grigory Margulis, Anders Karlsson, and François Ledrappier.
In mathematics, specifically in the field of differential topology, Morse homology is a homology theory defined for any smooth manifold. It is constructed using the smooth structure and an auxiliary metric on the manifold, but turns out to be topologically invariant, and is in fact isomorphic to singular homology. Morse homology also serves as a model for the various infinite-dimensional generalizations known as Floer homology theories.
The gradient theorem, also known as the fundamental theorem of calculus for line integrals, says that a line integral through a gradient field can be evaluated by evaluating the original scalar field at the endpoints of the curve.
Dennis Parnell Sullivan is an American mathematician. He is known for work in topology, both algebraic and geometric, and on dynamical systems. He holds the Albert Einstein Chair at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and is a professor at Stony Brook University.
In differential topology, a branch of mathematics, the Whitney conditions are conditions on a pair of submanifolds of a manifold introduced by Hassler Whitney in 1965.
In mathematics, at the junction of singularity theory and differential topology, Cerf theory is the study of families of smooth real-valued functions
In mathematics — specifically, in stochastic analysis — the infinitesimal generator of a stochastic process is a partial differential operator that encodes a great deal of information about the process. The generator is used in evolution equations such as the Kolmogorov backward equation ; its L2 Hermitian adjoint is used in evolution equations such as the Fokker–Planck equation.
In mathematics, Sullivan conjecture or Sullivan's conjecture on maps from classifying spaces can refer to any of several results and conjectures prompted by homotopy theory work of Dennis Sullivan. A basic theme and motivation concerns the fixed point set in group actions of a finite group . The most elementary formulation, however, is in terms of the classifying space of such a group. Roughly speaking, it is difficult to map such a space continuously into a finite CW complex in a non-trivial manner. Such a version of the Sullivan conjecture was first proved by Haynes Miller. Specifically, in 1984, Miller proved that the function space, carrying the compact-open topology, of base point-preserving mappings from to is weakly contractible.
In mathematics, the Malgrange preparation theorem is an analogue of the Weierstrass preparation theorem for smooth functions. It was conjectured by René Thom and proved by B. Malgrange.
In mathematics, especially in singularity theory the splitting lemma is a useful result due to René Thom which provides a way of simplifying the local expression of a function usually applied in a neighbourhood of a degenerate critical point.
In mathematics, the norm residue isomorphism theorem is a long-sought result relating Milnor K-theory and Galois cohomology. The result has a relatively elementary formulation and at the same time represents the key juncture in the proofs of many seemingly unrelated theorems from abstract algebra, theory of quadratic forms, algebraic K-theory and the theory of motives. The theorem asserts that a certain statement holds true for any prime and any natural number . John Milnor speculated that this theorem might be true for and all , and this question became known as Milnor's conjecture. The general case was conjectured by Spencer Bloch and Kazuya Kato and became known as the Bloch–Kato conjecture or the motivic Bloch–Kato conjecture to distinguish it from the Bloch–Kato conjecture on values of L-functions. The norm residue isomorphism theorem was proved by Vladimir Voevodsky using a number of highly innovative results of Markus Rost.
