All Questions
10,934 questions
152
votes
18
answers
24k
views
Why do we care about $L^p$ spaces besides $p = 1$, $p = 2$, and $p = \infty$?
I was helping a student study for a functional analysis exam and the question came up as to when, in practice, one needs to consider the Banach space $L^p$ for some value of $p$ other than the obvious ...
148
votes
11
answers
30k
views
Is Fourier analysis a special case of representation theory or an analogue?
I'm asking this question because I've been told by some people that Fourier analysis is "just representation theory of $S^1$."
I've been introduced to the idea that Fourier analysis is related to ...
- 15.4k
94
votes
6
answers
14k
views
Quasicrystals and the Riemann Hypothesis
Let $0 < k_1 < k_2 < k_3 < \cdots $ be all the zeros of the Riemann zeta function on the critical line:
$$ \zeta(\frac{1}{2} + i k_j) = 0 $$
Let $f$ be the Fourier transform of the sum ...
- 22.3k
94
votes
1
answer
11k
views
The mathematical theory of Feynman integrals
It is well known that Feynman integrals are one of the tools that physicists have and mathematicians haven't, sadly.
Arguably, they are the most important such tool. Briefly, the question I'd like to ...
- 23.5k
81
votes
4
answers
8k
views
Did Gelfand's theory of commutative Banach algebras influence algebraic geometers?
Guillemin and Sternberg wrote the following in 1987 in a short article called "Some remarks on I.M. Gelfand's works" accompanying Gelfand's Collected Papers, Volume I:
The theory of commutative ...
- 7,329
81
votes
3
answers
9k
views
Norms of commutators
If an $n$ by $n$ complex matrix $A$ has trace zero, then it is a commutator, which means that there are $n$ by $n$ matrices $B$ and $C$ so that $A= BC-CB$. What is the order of the best constant $\...
- 31.5k
77
votes
0
answers
4k
views
2, 3, and 4 (a possible fixed point result ?)
The question below is related to the classical Browder-Goehde-Kirk fixed point theorem.
Let $K$ be the closed unit ball of $\ell^{2}$, and let $T:K\rightarrow K$
be a mapping such that
$$\Vert Tx-Ty\...
- 4,060
71
votes
16
answers
21k
views
Is there a nice application of category theory to functional/complex/harmonic analysis?
[Title changed, and wording of question tweaked, by YC, because the original title asked a question which seems different from the one people want to answer.]
I've read looked at the examples in most ...
71
votes
4
answers
11k
views
What are fixed points of the Fourier Transform
The obvious ones are 0 and $e^{-x^2}$ (with annoying factors), and someone I know suggested hyperbolic secant. What other fixed points (or even eigenfunctions) of the Fourier transform are there?
- 1,491
71
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Barrelled, bornological, ultrabornological, semi-reflexive, ... how are these used?
I'm not a functional analyst (though I like to pretend that I am from time to time) but I use it and I think it's a great subject. But whenever I read about locally convex topological vector spaces, ...
- 26.8k
69
votes
3
answers
12k
views
Nonconvexity and discretization
Edit: Here's a more down-to-earth, and somewhat weakened, but I believe still nontrivial, version of the main theorem.
Prototypical nonconvex spaces are $\ell^p$-spaces for $0<p<1$, say $\ell^p(\...
- 21.3k
66
votes
7
answers
10k
views
Why is the Hahn-Banach theorem so important?
Every time I hear it mentioned it is praised in the highest possible terms, and I remember one of my old lecturers saying that it is one of the 3 most important theorems in analysis. Yet the only ...
- 4,351
65
votes
9
answers
12k
views
Polish spaces in probability
Probabilists often work with Polish spaces, though it is not always very clear where this assumption is needed.
Question: What can go wrong when doing probability on non-Polish spaces?
- 651
65
votes
14
answers
6k
views
Notions of convergence not corresponding to topologies
This question concerns the ramifications of the following interesting problem that
appeared on Ed Nelson's final exam on Functional Analysis some years ago:
Exam question: Is there a metric on the ...
- 801
64
votes
4
answers
6k
views
How Does My Radio Work?
Bear with me for a moment while I invoke the real world; the main question at the end is purely mathematical.
I live in an area with $n$ AM radio stations and $m$ FM radio stations.
AM station ...
- 23k
63
votes
5
answers
10k
views
Jean Bourgain's relatively lesser known significant contributions
Jean Bourgain passed away on December 22, 2018.
A great mathematician is no longer with us.
Terry Tao has blogged about Bourgain's death and mentioned some of his more recent significant contributions,...
60
votes
23
answers
108k
views
A good book of functional analysis [closed]
I'm a student (I've been studying mathematics 4 years at the university) and I like functional analysis and topology, but I only studied 6 credits of functional analysis and 7 in topology (the basics)....
59
votes
9
answers
10k
views
Motivation for and history of pseudo-differential operators
Suppose you start from partial differential equations and functional analysis (on $\mathbb R^n$ and on real manifolds). Which prominent example problems lead you to work with pseudo-differential ...
- 5,327
59
votes
6
answers
13k
views
How does one use the Poisson summation formula?
While reading the answer to another Mathoverflow question, which mentioned the Poisson summation formula, I felt a question of my own coming on. This is something I've wanted to know for a long time. ...
- 29k
59
votes
7
answers
29k
views
Learning roadmap for harmonic analysis
In short, I am interested to know of the various approaches one could take to learn modern harmonic analysis in depth. However, the question deserves additional details. Currently, I am reading Loukas ...
59
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Square root of dirac delta function
Is there a measurable function $ f:\mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}^+ $ so that $ f*f(x)=1 $ for all $ x\in \mathbb{R} $, i.e $$\int\limits_{-\infty}^{\infty} f(t)f(x-t) dt=1 $$ for all $ x\in \mathbb{R} $.
- 817
53
votes
3
answers
13k
views
Pullback measures
Why do all measure theory textbooks present the concept of push-forward measure, but never the concept of pull-back measure? Doesn't the latter exist?
It's true that the naive treatment of such a ...
- 5,407
53
votes
6
answers
13k
views
What does Mellin inversion "really mean"?
Given a function $f: \mathbb{R}^+ \rightarrow \mathbb{C}$ satisfying suitable conditions (exponential decay at infinity, continuous, and bounded variation) is good enough, its Mellin transform is ...
- 7,347
51
votes
2
answers
5k
views
A strengthening of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality
Suppose $\mathbf{v},\mathbf{w} \in \mathbb{R}^n$ (and if it helps, you can assume they each have non-negative entries), and let $\mathbf{v}^2,\mathbf{w}^2$ denote the vectors whose entries are the ...
- 6,351
50
votes
7
answers
16k
views
Way to memorize relations between the Sobolev spaces?
Consider the Sobolev spaces $W^{k,p}(\Omega)$ with a bounded domain $\Omega$ in n-dimensional Euclidean space. When facing the different embedding theorems for the first time, one can certainly feel ...
- 2,935
49
votes
2
answers
11k
views
Is this Riemann zeta function product equal to the Fourier transform of the von Mangoldt function?
Mathematica knows that:
$$\log(n) = \lim\limits_{s \rightarrow 1} \zeta(s)\left(1 - \frac{1}{n^{(s - 1)}}\right)\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\; (1)$$
The von Mangoldt function should then be:
$$\Lambda(n)=...
48
votes
6
answers
12k
views
Intuition for Integral Transforms
It is well known that the operations of differentiation and integration are reduced to multiplication and division after being transformed by an integral transform (like e.g. Fourier or Laplace ...
- 5,935
48
votes
6
answers
7k
views
Is there an "elegant" non-recursive formula for these coefficients? Also, how can one get proofs of these patterns?
Not sure if this is a "good" question for this forum or if it'll get panned, but here goes anyway...
Consider this problem. I've been trying to find a formula to expand the "regular iteration" of "...
47
votes
6
answers
6k
views
Can we actually find any fixed points with Brouwer's theorem?
Background
At the risk of greatly oversimplifying matters, let me state a heuristic from Granas and Dugundji's beautiful book: fixed point theorems fall into two broad categories. The first class is ...
- 15.5k
46
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Set-theoretic reformulation of the invariant subspace problem
The invariant subspace problem (ISP) for Hilbert spaces asks whether every bounded linear operator $A$ on $l^2$ (with complex scalars) must have a closed invariant subspace other than $\{0\}$ and $l^2$...
- 42.8k
45
votes
7
answers
9k
views
What's an example of a space that needs the Hahn-Banach Theorem?
The Hahn-Banach theorem is rightly seen as one of the Big Theorems in functional analysis. Indeed, it can be said to be where functional analysis really starts. But as it's one of those "there ...
- 26.8k
45
votes
7
answers
16k
views
What is an intuitive view of adjoints? (version 2: functional analysis)
After realising that I don't have an intuitive understanding of adjoint functors, I then realised that I don't have an intuitive understanding of adjoint linear transformations!
Again, I can use 'em, ...
- 26.8k
45
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Existence and uniqueness of Haar measure on compacta; a cohomological approach
I am trying to use a modification of group cohomology to prove the existence and uniqueness of Haar measure on a compact Hausdorff group.
I think the best way of introducing the idea I am pursuing is ...
user30211
44
votes
10
answers
47k
views
Is square of Delta function defined somewhere?
I am wondering whether anyone knows if the square of Dirac Delta function is defined somewhere.
In the beginning, this question might look strange. But by restricting the space of the test functions, ...
44
votes
10
answers
25k
views
Fourier transform for dummies [closed]
So ... what is the Fourier transform? What does it do? Why is it useful (both in math and in engineering, physics, etc)?
(Answers at any level of sophistication are welcome.)
- 21k
44
votes
4
answers
19k
views
Truth of the Poisson summation formula
The Poisson summation says, roughly, that summing a smooth $L^1$-function of a real variable at integral points is the same as summing its Fourier transform at integral points(after suitable ...
- 481
44
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Example of a compact set that isn't the spectrum of an operator
This question is somewhat ill-posed (due to the word easy) and is triggered by idle curiosity:
Is there an easy example of a (separable, infinite-dimensional) Banach space $X$ and a nonempty ...
- 5,743
43
votes
3
answers
9k
views
Why the name 'separable' space?
It is well known that a separable space is a topological space that has a countable dense subset. I am wondering how is this related to the name 'separable'? Any intuition where the name come from?
- 1,157
43
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Can $L^p(\mathbb{R})$ and $ L^q(\mathbb{R})$ be isomorphic?
Let $p,q \in (1,\infty)$ with $p\neq q$. Are the Banach spaces $L^p(\mathbb{R})$, $L^q(\mathbb{R})$ isomorphic?
- 559
42
votes
7
answers
5k
views
How should an analytic number theorist look at Bessel functions?
(And a related question: Where should an analytic number theorist learn about Bessel functions?)
Bessel functions occur quite frequently in analytic number theory. One example, Corollary 4.7 of ...
- 7,347
41
votes
4
answers
16k
views
Product of Borel sigma algebras
If $X$ and $Y$ are separable metric spaces, then the Borel $\sigma$-algebra $B(X \times Y)$ of the product is the $\sigma$-algebra generated by $B(X)\times B(Y)$. I am embarrassed to admit that I ...
- 31.5k
41
votes
6
answers
87k
views
Fourier vs Laplace transforms
In solving a linear system, when would I use a Fourier transform versus a Laplace transform? I am not a mathematician, so the little intuition I have tells me that it could be related to the boundary ...
- 411
40
votes
5
answers
5k
views
"Entropy" proof of Brunn-Minkowski Inequality?
I read in an information theory textbook the Brunn-Minkowski inequality follows from the Entropy Power inequality.
The first one says that if $A,B$ are convex polygons in $\mathbb{R}^d$, then
$$ m(...
- 22.8k
40
votes
5
answers
10k
views
Is there a natural measures on the space of measurable functions?
Given a set Ω and a σ-algebra F of subsets, is there some natural way to assign something like a "uniform" measure on the space of all measurable functions on this space? (I suppose first ...
- 1,475
39
votes
3
answers
14k
views
Is the Invariant Subspace Problem interesting?
There's an amusing comment in Peter Lax's Functional Analysis book. After a brief description of the Invariant Subspace Problem, he says (paraphrasing) "...this question is still open. It is also an ...
- 1,241
38
votes
2
answers
13k
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What, exactly, has Louis de Branges proved about the Riemann Hypothesis?
I know this is a dangerous topic which could attract many cranks and nutters, but:
According to Wikipedia [and probably his own website, but I have a hard time seeing exactly what he's claiming] Louis ...
- 1,990
38
votes
2
answers
5k
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Is the set of primes "translation-finite"?
The definition in the title probably needs explaining. I should say that the question itself was an idea I had for someone else's undergraduate research project, but we decided early on it would be ...
- 25.8k
37
votes
4
answers
4k
views
Which differential equations allow for a variational formulation?
Many ODE's and PDE's arising in nature have a variational formulation. An example of what I mean is the following. Classical motions are solutions $q(t)$ to Lagrange's equation
$$
\frac{d}{dt}\frac{\...
- 7,583
37
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Moving one family of commuting self-adjoint operators to another without losing commutativity on the way
This is actually not a question of mine, so I'll be short on motivation and say nothing beyond that if this were true, a few fancy harmonic analysis techniques that a colleague of mine used in proving ...
- 61.9k
35
votes
5
answers
6k
views
Why is Fourier analysis so handy for proving the isoperimetric inequality?
I have just completed an introductory course on analysis, and have been looking over my notes for the year. For me, although it was certainly not the most powerful or important theorem which we ...
- 12.1k