Timeline for Etymology of 'spectrum' in algebraic geometry and algebraic topology
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 27, 2018 at 14:04 | comment | added | Dan Petersen | @Tim I'm imagining something very pedestrian like Lima looking up 'sequence' in a thesaurus, going from there to 'range', and from there to 'spectrum'. But yes, it could also be something more imaginative, like a decomposition of a stable homotopy type into different "wavelengths" $X_n$. | |
| Aug 27, 2018 at 13:03 | comment | added | Tim Campion | If it's really a mystery why Lima and Spanier chose the name "spectrum", then it seems unlikely to me that they didn't at least have the physics / functional analysis meaning of the word in mind when they chose it. I don't see how the second definition above is applicable at all. | |
| Aug 27, 2018 at 11:42 | comment | added | Jason Starr | Perhaps apropos: if you ever visit the American Institute of Mathematics, you can see Grothendieck's letter where he explains the etymology of "K-theory". Grothendieck says that he was trying to avoid any confusion with terminology from functional analysis, in which he worked before moving to algebraic geometry. | |
| Aug 27, 2018 at 11:20 | comment | added | მამუკა ჯიბლაძე | I wonder if things like Goodwillie calculus can actually bring together spectra of homotopy theory and spectra of operators | |
| Aug 27, 2018 at 9:29 | vote | accept | CommunityBot | ||
| Aug 27, 2018 at 9:26 | comment | added | Dan Petersen | @Rudi_Birnbaum It's puzzling how good the match is! The notion of eigenvalue spectrum and spectral decomposition of an operator predates quantum mechanics. | |
| Aug 27, 2018 at 9:21 | comment | added | Raphael J.F. Berger | Moreover its quite puzzling how bad the match between the physical "spectrum" of a system and the set of eigenvalues (of its energy operator) is. Namely the measurable spectrum is composed of differences in the eigenvalues, rather than the eigenvalues themselves! | |
| Aug 27, 2018 at 8:57 | history | edited | Dan Petersen | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 857 characters in body
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| Aug 27, 2018 at 8:48 | history | answered | Dan Petersen | CC BY-SA 4.0 |