Skew gradient

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In mathematics, a skew gradient of a harmonic function over a simply connected domain with two real dimensions is a vector field that is everywhere orthogonal to the gradient of the function and that has the same magnitude as the gradient.

Mathematics field of study

Mathematics includes the study of such topics as quantity, structure, space, and change.

Harmonic function function with vanishing Laplacian

In mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of stochastic processes, a harmonic function is a twice continuously differentiable function f : UR where U is an open subset of Rn that satisfies Laplace's equation, i.e.

Vector field assignment of a vector to each point in a subset of Euclidean space

In vector calculus and physics, a vector field is an assignment of a vector to each point in a subset of space. A vector field in the plane, can be visualised as: a collection of arrows with a given magnitude and direction, each attached to a point in the plane. Vector fields are often used to model, for example, the speed and direction of a moving fluid throughout space, or the strength and direction of some force, such as the magnetic or gravitational force, as it changes from one point to another point.

Contents

Definition

The skew gradient can be defined using complex analysis and the Cauchy–Riemann equations.

Cauchy–Riemann equations

In the field of complex analysis in mathematics, the Cauchy–Riemann equations, named after Augustin Cauchy and Bernhard Riemann, consist of a system of two partial differential equations which, together with certain continuity and differentiability criteria, form a necessary and sufficient condition for a complex function to be complex differentiable, that is, holomorphic. This system of equations first appeared in the work of Jean le Rond d'Alembert. Later, Leonhard Euler connected this system to the analytic functions. Cauchy (1814) then used these equations to construct his theory of functions. Riemann's dissertation on the theory of functions appeared in 1851.

Let be a complex-valued analytic function, where u,v are real-valued scalar functions of the real variables x, y.

A skew gradient is defined as:

and from the Cauchy–Riemann equations, it is derived that

Properties

The skew gradient has two interesting properties. It is everywhere orthogonal to the gradient of u, and of the same length:

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References

Peter John Olver is an American mathematician whose primary research interests involve the applications of symmetry and Lie groups to differential equations. He has been a full professor at the University of Minnesota since 1985 and is currently head of their mathematics department. In 2003, Olver was one of the top 234 most cited mathematicians in the world.