Questions tagged [cv.complex-variables]
Complex analysis, holomorphic functions, automorphic group actions and forms, pseudoconvexity, complex geometry, analytic spaces, analytic sheaves.
3,298 questions
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Why do roots of polynomials tend to have absolute value close to 1?
While playing around with Mathematica I noticed that most polynomials with real coefficients seem to have most complex zeroes very near the unit circle. For instance, if we plot all the roots of a ...
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Ways to prove the fundamental theorem of algebra
This seems to be a favorite question everywhere, including Princeton quals. How many ways are there?
Please give a new way in each answer, and if possible give reference. I start by giving two:
...
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2
answers
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What are the shapes of rational functions?
I would like to understand and compute the shapes of rational functions, that is, holomorphic maps of the Riemann sphere to itself, or equivalently, ratios of two polynomials, up to Moebius ...
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Why does the Riemann zeta function have non-trivial zeros?
This is a very basic question of course, and exposes my serious ignorance of analytic number theory, but what I am looking for is a good intuitive explanation rather than a formal proof (though a ...
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Demystifying complex numbers
At the end of this month I start teaching complex analysis to
2nd year undergraduates, mostly from engineering but some from
science and maths. The main applications for them in future
studies are ...
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3
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Does a power series converging everywhere on its circle of convergence define a continuous function?
Consider a complex power series $\sum a_n z^n \in \mathbb C[[z]]$ with radius of convergence $0\lt r\lt\infty$ and suppose that for every $w$ with $\mid w\mid =r$ the series $\sum a_n w^n $ converges ....
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Why does the Gamma-function complete the Riemann Zeta function?
Defining $$\xi(s) := \pi^{-s/2}\ \Gamma\left(\frac{s}{2}\right)\ \zeta(s)$$ yields $\xi(s) = \xi(1 - s)$ (where $\zeta$ is the Riemann Zeta function).
Is there any conceptual explanation - or ...
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$f(f(x))=\exp(x)-1$ and other functions "just in the middle" between linear and exponential
The question is about the function $f(x)$ so that $f(f(x))=\exp (x)-1$.
The question is open ended and it was discussed quite recently in the comment thread in Aaronson's blog here http://...
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Why do functions in complex analysis behave so well? (as opposed to functions in real analysis)
Complex analytic functions show rigid behavior while real-valued smooth functions are flexible. Why is this the case?
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Behaviour of power series on their circle of convergence
I asked myself the following question while preparing a course on power series for 2nd year students. Let $F$ be the set of power series with convergence radius equal to $1$. What subsets $S$ of the ...
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Is there a "classical" proof of this $j$-value congruence?
Let $j: \mathbf{C} - \mathbf{R} \rightarrow \mathbf{C}$ denote the classical $j$-function from the theory of elliptic functions. That is, $j(\tau)$ is the $j$-invariant of the elliptic curve $\mathbf{...
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Is the Riemann zeta function surjective?
Is the Riemann zeta function surjective or does it miss one value?
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The maximum of a polynomial on the unit circle
Encouraged by the progress made in a recently posted MO problem, here is a "conceptually related" problem originating from a 2003 joint paper of Sergei Konyagin and myself.
Suppose we are given $n$ ...
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Rearrangements of a power series at the boundary of convergence
Take some power series $f(z) = \sum a_n z^n$ with a finite non-zero radius of convergence. I can rearrange the terms of the series, say, to get a different infinite series
$$f_{\sigma}(z) = \sum_{n=0}^...
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If the Riemann Hypothesis fails, must it fail infinitely often?
That is must there either be no non-trivial zeros off the critical line or
infinitely many?
I'm sure that no one believes otherwise, but I've never seen a theorem in the
literature addressing this. ...
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3
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Absolute value inequality for complex numbers
I asked this question on stackexchange, but despite much effort on my part have been unsuccesful in finding a solution.
Does the inequality
$$2(|a|+|b|+|c|) \leq |a+b+c|+|a+b-c|+|a+c-b|+|b+c-a|$$
...
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Putnam 2020 inequality for complex numbers in the unit circle
The following simple-looking inequality for complex numbers in the unit disk generalizes Problem B5 on the Putnam contest 2020:
Theorem 1. Let $z_1, z_2, \ldots, z_n$ be $n$ complex numbers such that ...
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votes
5
answers
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Liouville's theorem with your bare hands
Liouville's theorem from complex analysis states that a holomorphic function $f(z)$ on the plane that is bounded in magnitude is constant. The usual proof uses the Cauchy integral formula. But this ...
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4
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Did Gaston Julia ever get to see a computer-generated image of his eponymous set?
I learned from Wikipedia that Gaston Julia died in 1978. Is it known if he ever got to see a computer-generated image of the set named after him?
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What is the Krull dimension of the ring of holomorphic functions on a complex manifold?
Consider a connected holomorphic manifold $X$ and its ring of holomorphic functions $\mathcal O(X).$
My general question is simply: in which cases is the Krull dimension $\dim \mathcal O(X)$ known?
...
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7
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Is there an integration free proof (or heuristic) that once differentiable implies twice differentiable for complex functions?
The title pretty much says it all. I am revisiting complex analysis for the first time since I "learned" some as an undergraduate. I am trying to wrap my head around why it should be the case that a ...
42
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2
answers
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Abel and Galois (and Arnold)
Question Is there a connection between Abel and Galois theories of polynomial equations?
Recall that for every polynomial $p(x)\in \mathbb{Q}[x]$ (say, without the free coefficient), Abel considered ...
user6976
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2
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Must the set of lines through the origin on which a nonconstant entire function is bounded be finite?
If an entire function is bounded for all $z \in \mathbb{C}$, than it's a constant by Liouville's theorem. Of course an entire function can be bounded on lines through the origin $z=r \exp(i \phi), \...
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Polynomials on the Unit Circle
I asked this question in math.stackexchange but I didn't have much luck. It might be more appropiate for this forum. Let $z_1,z_2,…,z_n$ be i.i.d random points on the unit circle ($|z_i|=1$) with ...
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3
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On linear independence of exponentials
Problem.
Let $\{\lambda_n\}_{n\in\mathbb N}$ be a sequence of complex numbers . Let's call a family of exponential functions $\{\exp (\lambda_n s)\}_{n\in\mathbb N}$ $F$-independent (where $F$ is ...
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Why does so much recent work involve K3 surfaces?
I've been noticing that a whole lot of papers published to the Arxiv recently involve K3 surfaces. Can anyone give me (someone who, at this point, knows little more about K3 surfaces than their ...
38
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2
answers
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What, exactly, has Louis de Branges proved about the Riemann Hypothesis?
I know this is a dangerous topic which could attract many cranks and nutters, but:
According to Wikipedia [and probably his own website, but I have a hard time seeing exactly what he's claiming] Louis ...
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2
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Residues in several complex variables
I am trying to educate myself about the basics of the theory of residues in several complex variables. As is usually written in the introduction in the textbooks on the topic, the situation is much ...
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2
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$\zeta(0)$ and the cotangent function
In preparing some practice problems for my complex analysis students, I stumbled across the following. It is not hard to show, using Liouville's theorem, that
$$\pi\cot(\pi z)=\frac{1}{z}+\sum_{n=1}^\...
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Circles and rational functions
Suppose that $\gamma$ is a Jordan analytic curve on the Riemann sphere,
and there exist two rational functions $f$ and $g$ such that
$f$ maps $\gamma$ into a circle, and $g$ maps a circle into $\gamma$...
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Is S^2 x S^4 a complex manifold?
As observed by Calabi a long time ago, the manifold $S^2\times S^4$ admits an almost-complex structure (obtained by embedding it in $\mathbb{R}^7$ and using the octonionic product), which however is ...
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7
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Pathology in Complex Analysis
Complex analysis is the good twin and real analysis the evil one:
beautiful formulas and elegant theorems seem to blossom spontaneously
in the complex domain, while toil and pathology rule the ...
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6
answers
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When are some products of gamma functions algebraic numbers?
I want to know when certain expressions of the form
$ {\Gamma(r_1/m) \Gamma(r_2/m) \ldots \Gamma(r_j/m) \over \Gamma(s_1/m) \Gamma(s_2/m) \ldots \Gamma(s_j/m)} $
are algebraic numbers. These ...
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Computing self-intersections with complex analysis
It is possible to find the winding number of a path $C \subset \mathbb{C}$ using complex analysis:
$$n = \oint_C\frac{dz}{z}.$$
You can also count the number of roots of $f(z) = 0$ inside a close ...
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7
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Heuristic argument for the Riemann Hypothesis
Is there a heuristic argument that supports the validity of the Riemann hypothesis or are we just relying on numerical evidence? Moreover, what is the strongest theorem that supports the validity of ...
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Looking for some interesting complex integration contours
I am currently working on some tools to make contour integration in a proof assistant less painful and I'm looking for interesting examples of contours in the complex plane used in the literature. I ...
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answers
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Which almost complex manifolds admit a complex structure?
I was reading Yau's list of problems in geometry, and one of them is to prove that any almost complex manifold of complex dimension $n \geq 3$ admits a complex structure. It's been some time since Yau'...
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Topology on the set of analytic functions
Let $H(D)$ be the set of all analytic functions in a region $D$ in $C$ or in $C^n$.
Everyone who worked with this set knows that there is only one reasonable topology
on it: the uniform convergence on ...
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Stone-Weierstrass theorem for holomorphic functions?
The Stone-Weierstrass theorem has an analog for the algebras of smooth functions, called
Naсhbin's theorem: An involutive subalgebra $A$ in the algebra ${\mathcal C}^\infty(M)$ of smooth ...
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Interpreting the Famous Five equation [closed]
$$e^{\pi i} + 1 = 0$$
I have been searching for a convincing interpretation of this. I understand how it comes about but what is it that it is telling us?
Best that I can figure out is that it just ...
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How is the Julia set of $fg$ related to the Julia set of $gf$?
Let $f$ and $g$ be complex rational functions (of degree $\geq 2$ if that helps). What can be said about the relationship between $J(fg)$ and $J(gf)$, the Julia sets of the composite functions $f \...
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Example of a compact Kähler manifold with non-finitely generated canonical ring?
A celebrated recent theorem of Birkar-Cascini-Hacon-McKernan and Siu says that the canonical ring $R(X)=\oplus_{m\geq 0}H^0(X,mK_X)$ of any smooth algebraic variety $X$ over $\mathbb{C}$ is a finitely ...
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About a claim by Gromov on proper holomorphic maps
At p. 223 of his paper [G03], Mikhail Gromov makes the following claim:
Let $X$, $Y$ be two complex manifolds (not necessarily compact or Kähler) of the same dimension and having the same even Betti ...
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A paper to the question, if the six dimensional sphere is a complex manifold [duplicate]
for a few days a paper was published on arxiv.org with the title "The six dimensional sphere is a complex manifold": http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/math/pdf/0505/0505634v3.pdf
Because I am not able to ...
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Uniformization theorem for Riemann surfaces
How does one prove that every simply connected Riemann surface is conformally equivalent to the open unit disk, the complex plane, or the Riemann sphere, and these are not conformally equivalent to ...
31
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3
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Complex analytic vs algebraic geometry
This is more of a philosophical or historical question, and I can be totally wrong in what I am about to write next.
It looks to me, that complex-analytic geometry has lost its relative positions ...
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3
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Polynomials with the same values set on the unit circle
Assume that $P(z)$, $Q(z)$ are complex polynomials such that $P(S)=Q(S)$, where $S=\{z\colon |z|=1\}$ (equality is understood in the sense of sets, but I do not know the answer even for multisets). ...
- 109k
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"Three great cocycles" in Complex Analysis as cohomology generators
In his lecture notes, C. McMullen discusses "the three great cocycles" in Complex Analysis: the derivative $$f\mapsto\log f',$$ the non-linearity $$f\mapsto (\log f')'dz$$
and the Schwarzian ...
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3
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What is special about polylogarithms that leads to so many interesting identities and applications?
I have heard that Polylogarithms are very interesting things. The wikipedia page shows a lot of interesting identities. These functions are indeed supposed to have caught the attention of Ramanujan. ...
- 3,699
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2
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Why is there no connection between fast-growing functions and complex analysis
I found myself wondering the other day whether the fast-growing functions from natural to naturals that are studied by people like proof theorists are the restriction to the naturals of analytic ...
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