Questions tagged [examples]
For questions requesting examples of a certain structure or phenomenon
554 questions
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How irregular can the set of points of non-differentiability for an L1 function's primitive F get, before the FTC fails?
A Fundamental Theorem of Calculus for Lebesgue Integration, J. J. Koliha begins with the passage
Lebesgue proved a number of remarkable results on the relation between integration and differentiation....
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What is the smallest and "best" 27 lines configuration? And what is its symmetry group?
I was this past year working with a bright high-schooler on algebraic geometry following Reid's book Undergraduate Algebraic Geometry, and we got all the way to proving that there is at least one line ...
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Proofs without words
Can you give examples of proofs without words? In particular, can you give examples of proofs without words for non-trivial results?
(One could ask if this is of interest to mathematicians, and I ...
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Awfully sophisticated proof for simple facts
It is sometimes the case that one can produce proofs of simple facts that are of disproportionate sophistication which, however, do not involve any circularity. For example, (I think) I gave an ...
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What are your favorite instructional counterexamples?
Related: question #879, Most interesting mathematics mistake. But the intent of this question is more pedagogical.
In many branches of mathematics, it seems to me that a good counterexample can be ...
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What are some reasonable-sounding statements that are independent of ZFC?
Every now and then, somebody will tell me about a question. When I start thinking about it, they say, "actually, it's undecidable in ZFC."
For example, suppose $A$ is an abelian group such ...
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Proving that there are no solutions other than a few known ones
My question is mostly out of curiosity, with probably no other use, but here it is. I will need to provide a bit of background.
I heard from someone who works with elliptic curves that often proving ...
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Co-locating slowly increasing smooth functions in two different ways
This question is subsequent from my previous one.
I will write everything in detail for the sake of completeness.
Let $g_1$ and $g_2$ be smooth functions on $\mathbb{R}$, whose derivatives of all ...
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Subtlety of identifying $W^{k,p}\bigl([0,1] \bigr)$ and $W^{k,p}(S^1)$ - from ME
I apologize for repeating the same question from ME, but it seems more subtle than I expected.
Let me fix the notations here first:
\begin{equation}
C^\infty_c(0,1):= \{ f : (0,1) \to \mathbb{C} \mid ...
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Novel examples, proofs or results in mathematics from arithmetic billiards
The goal of the post is get a repository of mathematical results, proofs or examples by users of the site, arising from arithmetic billiards in number theory, analysis, geometry,….
Wikipedia has an ...
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Existence of antiderivative w.r.t. any given multi-index for tempered distributions
I originally posted this question on ME, but I find it a lot more nontrivial than expected. So, I post it here.
Let $T$ be a tempered distribution on $\mathbb{R}^n$. Then, it is a well-known ...
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A "concrete" example of a one-sided Hopf algebra
I came to know from the paper Left Hopf Algebras by Green, Nichols and Taft that one may consider a Hopf algebra whose antipode satisfies only the left (resp. right) antipode condition.
To be more ...
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A simplicial complex which is not collapsible, but whose barycentric subdivision is
Does anyone know of a simplicial complex which is not collapsible but whose barycentric subdivision is?
Every collapsible complex is necessarily contractible, and subdivision preserves the ...
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Elementary functions such that $\sum_{n=2}^{\infty} f(n) \left( \zeta(n)-1 \right)$ can be evaluated, but $\sum_{n=2}^{\infty} f(n)$ can't
Background
The general context for this question is the topic of rational zeta series. What I've found so far, is that it usually the case that sums of the form $$\zeta_{f} := \sum_{n=2}^{\infty} f(n) ...
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Twisting cochain intuition
I'm currently reading through Ed Brown's paper "Twisted tensor products, I", (MR105687, Zbl 0199.58201) and I couldn't find any simple examples of twisting cochains. I understand all ...
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Big list of comonads
The concept of a monad is very well established, and there are very many examples of monads pertaining almost all areas of mathematics.
The dual concept, a comonad, is less popular.
What are examples ...
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Teaching suggestions for Kleene fixed point theorem
I will take over two lectures from a colleague in which we discuss fixed point theory in the context of complete partial orders, and culminates in showing the Kleene fixed point theorem (see f.e. ...
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What is the most general notion of exactness for functors between triangulated categories?
For triangulated categories $T,T'$ I would like to define "weakly exact" functors as those that respect cones, that is, $F(Cone f)\cong Cone(F(f))$ for any $T$-morphism $f$, and I do not ...
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Applications of the Chinese remainder theorem
As the title suggests I am interested in CRT applications. Wikipedia article on CRT lists some of the well known applications (e.g. used in the RSA algorithm, used to construct an elegant Gödel ...
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How to prove that $f(x) := |x|^{\frac{\lambda - n}{p}}(1 - \psi(x))$ satisfies a specific property related to its limit at the origin
Disclaimer. I have asked this question a month ago on MSE (click here to access the original post) and even bountied it. I got an answer on MSE, but unfortunately I don't feel like it has enough ...
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Does any method of summing divergent series work on the harmonic series?
It's sort of folklore (as exemplified by this old post at The Everything Seminar) that none of the common techniques for summing divergent series work to give a meaningful value to the harmonic series,...
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Closed 4-manifolds with uncountably many differentiable structures
I know that $\mathbb{R}^4$ admits uncountably many differentiable structures. So, I wonder what happens if we consider closed 4-manifolds. Are there any closed 4-manifolds with uncountably many ...
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For any $p, q \in [1,\infty]$ and $s \in (0,\infty)$, can we find some $f \in L^q - W^{s,p}$?
Sobolev inequalities show us when we can embed a Sobolev space into another.
However, I wonder if these inclusions are always proper.
More specifically, let $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^n$ be a bounded ...
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Simple bijection between reals and sets of natural numbers
Using the Cantor–Bernstein–Schröder theorem, it is easy to prove that there exists a bijection between the set of reals and the power set of the natural numbers. However, it turns out to be difficult ...
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Does anyone use non-sober topological spaces?
Recall that a sober space is a topological space such that every irreducible closed subset is the closure of exactly one point.
Is there any area of mathematics outside of general topology where non-...
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Concrete examples of derived categories
What examples of abelian categories $\mathcal{A}$ are there such that the derived category $\mathcal{D}(\mathcal{A})$ can be described concretely? For example, is there a concrete way of describing $\...
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Generating functions with all non-zero coefficients equal to one
I have been wondering if there are any useful generating functions with all non-zero coefficients equal to one. Obviously, the trivial generating function $\frac{1}{1-x}$ has significant applications, ...
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Is the Schwartz space a tame Frechet space?
I ran into the following definition of tame Frechet spaces and Nash-Moser therem.
It says that the space of smooth functions on a compact manifold is tame Frechet.
However, I wonder if
The Schwartz ...
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Hopf monads in categorical probability theory
1. Context. According to [1], probability monads are arguably the most important concept in categorical probability theory. In [2] Fritz and Perrone argue that "in order for a monad to really ...
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Nice, concrete example of pl-flipping contraction
In a course I'm giving on the MMP, I am discussing the importance of Shokurov's notion of a pl-flipping contraction for showing that flips exist for arbitrary flipping contractions. Does someone have ...
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Weakly contractible $X$, but none of the maps $*\to X$ are cofibrations
Let $\mathrm{Top}$ be the category of all topological spaces and continuous maps. The Quillen model structure on $\mathrm{Top}$ has weak equvalences $W = \{ \text{weak homotopy equivalences} \}$, ...
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What are examples of (collections of) papers which "close" a field?
There is sometimes talk of fields of mathematics being "closed", "ended", or "completed" by a paper or collection of papers. It seems as though this could happen in two ways:
A total characterisation,...
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Finding an element of Gelfand triple with a designated time derivative
Let $V$ be a real separable Banach space and $H$ be a real separable Hilbert space such that
\begin{equation}
V \subset H \subset V'
\end{equation}
where $V'$ is the dual of $V$ and the inclusions are ...
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An example of a beautiful proof that would be accessible at the high school level?
The background of my question comes from an observation that what we teach in schools does not always reflect what we practice. Beauty is part of what drives mathematicians, but we rarely talk about ...
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When is the Freudenthal compactification an ANR?
Let $X$ be a locally compact metric ANR (or, if preferred, a locally compact simplicial complex). If needed, assume that $X$ has finitely many ends or is of finite dimension. My question is:
What are ...
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An example of module which is square-free, CS, NOT C3, and NOT nonsingular
Let $M$ be a right $R$-module ($R$ has unity). Recall that $M$ is called square-free if $M$ does not contain two nonzero isomorphic submodules with zero intersection. $M$ is called CS if every ...
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Proof of no rational point on Selmer's Curve $3x^3+4y^3+5z^3=0$
The projective curve $3x^3+4y^3+5z^3=0$ is often cited as an example (given by Selmer) of a failure of the Hasse Principle: the equation has solutions in any completion of the rationals $\mathbb Q$, ...
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What notions are used but not clearly defined in modern mathematics?
"Everyone knows what a curve is, until he has studied enough mathematics to become confused through the countless number of possible exceptions."
Felix Klein
What notions are used but not ...
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An example of a non-paracompact tvs (over the reals, say)
What is an example of a non-paracompact topological vector space?
I'm aware of this question, but I don't care if my tvs is locally convex. In fact the wilder the better. The only criterion is that ...
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Examples of non-polynomial comonads on Set?
Question: What are examples of comonads on $\mathbf{Set}$ that are not polynomial?
Background: polynomial functors and comonads on Set
A functor $F\colon\mathbf{Set}\to\mathbf{Set}$ is called ...
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Best online mathematics videos?
I know of two good mathematics videos available online, namely:
Sphere inside out (part I and part II)
Moebius transformation revealed
Do you know of any other good math videos? Share.
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Natural set-theoretic principles implying the Ground Axiom
The Ground Axiom states that the set-theoretic universe is not a set-forcing extension of an inner model. By
Reitz, it is first-order expressible and easy to force over any given ZFC model with class-...
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Is $L^2(I,\mathbb Z)$ homeomorphic to the Hilbert space?
I am somehow puzzled by the subset $G:=L^2(I,\mathbb Z)$ of $H:=L^2(I,\mathbb R)$ of all integer valued functions on $I=[0,1]$ (in fact I mentioned as an example in this old MO question).
Some simple ...
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What are some examples of proving that a thing exists by proving that the set of such things has positive measure?
Suppose we want to prove that among some collection of things, at least one
of them has some desirable property. Sometimes the easiest strategy is to
equip the collection of all things with a measure, ...
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$\ast$-autonomous categories with non-invertible dualizing object?
1. Definition
Firstly, recall the following nLab-definition of a $\ast$-autonomous category:
A $\ast$-autonomous category is a symmetric closed monoidal category $(C,\otimes,I,\multimap)$ with a ...
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Non-real constants
Constants are usually real numbers e.g. e, pi, gamma etc. Can you give examples of special constants that are not real? e.g. complex or p-adic constants.
A real number in base10 can be viewed as the ...
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Is a compactly generated Hausdorff space functionally Hausdorff?
Question is the title. I suspect the answer is no, without some further conditions (clearly, normal is sufficient). Pointers to counterexamples would be appreciated, but not necessary.
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‘Naturally occurring’ $K(\pi, n)$ spaces, for $n \geq 2$
[edited!] Given a group $\pi$ and an integer $n>1$, what are examples of Eilenberg–MacLane spaces $K(\pi, n)$ that can be constructed as "known" manifolds? (Or if not a manifold, say some ...
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Taking a theorem as a definition and proving the original definition as a theorem
Gian-Carlo Rota's famous 1991 essay, "The pernicious influence of mathematics upon philosophy" contains the following passage:
Perform the following thought experiment. Suppose that you are ...
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Finding examples of functions which are infinite or undefined with current extensions of the expected value?
Preliminaries
Consider the expectations desribed in this paper, which is an extension of the Lebesgue density theorem; this paper which is an extension of the Hausdorff measure, using Hyperbolic ...
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