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20 votes
2 answers
7k views

Question about functional derivatives

This page on Wikipedia defines the so-called functional derivative as follows: "Given a manifold $M$ representing (continuous/smooth) functions $\rho$ (with certain boundary conditions, etc.) and a ...
JustWannaKnow's user avatar
25 votes
3 answers
13k views

Fourier transform of the unit sphere

The Fourier transform of the volume form of the (n-1)-sphere in $\mathbf R^n$ is given by the well-known formula $$ \int_{S^{n-1}}e^{i\langle\mathbf a,\mathbf u\rangle}d\sigma(\mathbf u) = (2\pi)^{\nu ...
Francois Ziegler's user avatar
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 ...
Bill Johnson's user avatar
  • 31.5k
5 votes
1 answer
630 views

Infinite dimensional involutions: infinitely large sets of multivariate polynomials self-inverse under self-substitution

Examples of infinite dimensional involutions Edit 2/25/23, as suggested by YCOR below: (Start) The first return on a Google search on involution--from late Latin 'a rolling up'--gives the Oxford ...
Tom Copeland's user avatar
  • 10.5k
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 ...
Andrew Stacey's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
1k views

Ramanujan's Master Formula: A proof and relation to umbral calculus

The Ramanujan's master theorem states that: $$ \int_0^{\infty}x^{s-1}\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}\frac{(-1)^n}{n!}a_nx^ndx=\Gamma(s)a_{-s} $$ I found a really strange proof recently on a personal blog: Define $...
FFjet's user avatar
  • 302
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 ...
Kenny Easwaran's user avatar
32 votes
6 answers
3k views

Can distribution theory be developed Riemann-free?

I imagine most people who frequent MO have been indoctrinated into the point of view that the Riemann integral can be safely discarded once one has taken the time to develop the Lebesgue integral. ...
Paul Siegel's user avatar
  • 29.2k
27 votes
5 answers
3k views

Nice applications for Schwartz distributions

I am to teach a second year grad course in analysis with focus on Schwartz distributions. Among the core topics I intend to cover are: Some multilinear algebra including the Kernel Theorem and ...
Abdelmalek Abdesselam's user avatar
28 votes
6 answers
12k views

Almost orthogonal vectors

This is to do with high dimensional geometry, which I'm always useless with. Suppose we have some large integer $n$ and some small $\epsilon>0$. Working in the unit sphere of $\mathbb R^n$ or $\...
Matthew Daws's user avatar
  • 18.7k
26 votes
6 answers
8k views

prime ideals in C([0,1])

It is clear that each maximal ideal in ring of continuous functions over $[0,1]\subset \mathbb R$ corresponds to a point and vice-versa. So, for each ideal $I$ define $Z(I) =\{x\in [0,1]\,|\,f(x)=0, ...
Nikita Kalinin's user avatar
23 votes
3 answers
6k views

Density of smooth functions under "Hölder metric"

This question came up when I was doing some reading into convolution squares of singular measures. Recall a function $f$ on the torus $T = [-1/2,1/2]$ is said to be $\alpha$-Hölder (for $0 < \alpha ...
Vince's user avatar
  • 505
5 votes
1 answer
499 views

Hausdorff dimension of the graph of a BV function

Let $u: \Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^N \to \mathbb{R}^M$ be a $BV$ function. Is the Hausdorff dimension of the graph of $u$ equal to $N$? How can we prove it? Update. In an answer to this post, it ...
Riku's user avatar
  • 839
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 ...
25 votes
2 answers
2k views

Functional approach vs jet approach to Lagrangian field theory

Context: I am a PhD student in theoretical physics with higher-than-average education on differential geometry. I am trying to understand Lagrangian and Hamiltonian field theories and related concepts ...
Bence Racskó's user avatar
23 votes
2 answers
3k views

States in C*-algebras and their origin in physics?

in $C^*-$algebras with unit element, there is the definition of a state, as a functional $\omega$ with $\omega(e)=||\omega||=1.$ Now, of course there is also in classical physics and quantum ...
Acuriousmind's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
1k views

Uniform boundedness of an $L^2[0,1]$-ONB in $C[0,1]$

Assume that we have an orthonormal basis of smooth functions in $L^2[0,1]$. Are there useful practical criteria to determine whether the sup-norm of the basis functions has a uniform bound? I am sure ...
András Bátkai's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
1k views

Harmonic oscillator discrete spectrum

Let us act intentionally stupid and assume we do not know that we can solve for the spectrum of the harmonic oscillator $$-\frac{d^2}{dx^2}+x^2$$ explicitly. Is there an abstract argument why the ...
Zinkin's user avatar
  • 501
10 votes
2 answers
925 views

Isomorphisms between spaces of test functions and sequence spaces

I am in the process of writing some self-contained notes on probability theory in spaces of distributions, for the purposes of statistical mechanics and quantum field theory. Perhaps the simplest ...
Abdelmalek Abdesselam's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
321 views

If the Hausforff dimension of the graph of a function $u$ is $N$ and $\tilde u = u$ a.e. then $\dim_H \mathrm{graph} \, \tilde u = N$ too

Let $\Omega$ be an open (non empty) set and $u:\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^N \to \mathbb{R}^M$ be a function such that the Hausdorff dimension of its graph is $N$. Let $\tilde u = u$ a.e. Is it true ...
Riku's user avatar
  • 839
5 votes
1 answer
699 views

Can $L^1_{loc}$ be represented as colimit?

Let $L^1_{loc}$ denote the set of all functions from $\mathbb{R}$ to itself which are locally integrable. For every infinite compact subset $K\subseteq \mathbb{R}$, let $L^1_{m_K}$ denote the space ...
ABIM's user avatar
  • 5,405
4 votes
1 answer
597 views

Meaning of Alberti rank-one theorem

Heuristically what does Alberti's rank-one theorem imply about the structure of a $\mathrm{BV}$ vector field $\boldsymbol{b}$? Is it rigorously fair to say that the level lines of $\boldsymbol{b}$ ...
user avatar
64 votes
6 answers
10k views

Are dagger categories truly evil?

Recall that a dagger category is a category equipped with an involution $*:Hom(x,y)\to Hom(y,x)$ that satisfies $f^{**}=f$ and $f^* g^*=(gf)^*$. A prominent example of a dagger category is the ...
André Henriques's user avatar
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 ...
Alex M.'s user avatar
  • 5,407
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, ...
33 votes
3 answers
3k views

Reference request for translating from Top to C*-alg

Some recent questions on MO (for example, Do subalgebras of C(X) admit a description in terms of the compact Hausdorff space X?) have been about Gelfand duality — namely, that the categories of ...
Matthew Daws's user avatar
  • 18.7k
27 votes
1 answer
4k views

Criteria for boundedness of power series

Consider a power series $\sum_{n=0}^{\infty} a_n x^n$ that is convergent for all real x, thus defining a function $f: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$. Can one give necessary and sufficient criteria the ...
Andreas Rüdinger's user avatar
27 votes
2 answers
8k views

Compact embeddings of Sobolev spaces: a counterexample showing the Rellich-Kondrachov theorem is sharp

Let $U$ be an open bounded subset of $\mathbb{R}^n$ with $C^{1}$ boundary. Let $1 \leq p < n$ and $p^{\ast} = pn/(n-p)$. Then the Sobolev space $W^{1,p}(U)$ is contained $L^{p^{\ast}}(U)$ and ...
NPC's user avatar
  • 309
23 votes
3 answers
1k views

Which $\ast$-algebras are $C^\ast$-algebras?

It's well-known that the norm on a $C^\ast$-algebra is uniquely determined by the underlying $\ast$-algebra by the spectral radius formula. Therefore there should be a way to axiomatize $C^\ast$-...
Tim Campion's user avatar
  • 63.9k
23 votes
5 answers
6k views

Hahn-Banach without Choice

The standard proof of the Hahn-Banach theorem makes use of Zorn's lemma. I hear that, however, Hahn-Banach is strictly weaker than Choice. A quick search leads to many sources stating that Hahn-Banach ...
Mark Kim-Mulgrew's user avatar
23 votes
1 answer
2k views

Which Fréchet spaces have a dual that is a Fréchet space?

I've read the claim that Fréchet spaces that are not Banach spaces never have a dual that is a Fréchet space, but have not been able to find a proof of this statement. Is it trivial or does someone ...
Tim van Beek's user avatar
  • 1,544
23 votes
4 answers
5k views

Are proper linear subspaces of Banach spaces always meager?

Let X be a Banach space, and let Y be a proper non-meager linear subspace of X. If Y is not dense in X, then it is easy to see that the closure of Y has empty interior, contradicting Y being non-...
Brandon Seward's user avatar
22 votes
2 answers
3k views

Does it make sense to talk about smooth bundles of Hilbert spaces?

Is there a notion of "smooth bundle of Hilbert spaces" (the base is a smooth finite dimensional manifold, and the fibers are Hilbert spaces) such that: 1• A smooth bundle of Hilbert spaces ...
André Henriques's user avatar
20 votes
6 answers
7k views

Does the derivative of log have a Dirac delta term?

Dirac writes down the following formula on page 61 of his "Principles of quantum mechanics": $\frac{d}{dx}\log x = \frac{1}{x} -i\pi\delta(x)$, see http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1947pqm..book.....D ...
Mikhail Katz's user avatar
  • 16.6k
20 votes
2 answers
4k views

Ideals of the ring of smooth functions

The ring $C^\infty(M)$ of smooth functions on a smooth manifold $M$ is a topological ring with respect to the Whitney topology and the usual ring operations. Is it possible to describe, maybe under ...
user18107's user avatar
  • 101
19 votes
2 answers
2k views

Can we take a supremum over all Hilbert spaces?

In my paper On the optimal error bound for the first step in the method of cyclic alternating projections, I defined functions $f_n:[0,1]\to\mathbb{R}$, $n\geqslant 2$, by $$ f_n(c)=\sup\{\|P_n\dotsm ...
Ivan Feshchenko's user avatar
16 votes
5 answers
3k views

Measure theory treatment geared toward the Riesz representation theorem

I'm looking for recommendations for books (or lecture notes) that develop measure theory in sufficient detail to state and prove the Riesz representation theorem (which is the characterization of the ...
Igor Khavkine's user avatar
16 votes
4 answers
2k views

Is there a maximum to the amount of disjoint non-measurable subsets of the unit interval with full outer measure?

This question arose a few years back when I was an assistant teacher on a course of basic (Lebesgue) measure theory, but I didn't find an answer or anyone able to solve the problem. The setting of the ...
Rami Luisto's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
2k views

What (classes of) Banach spaces are known to have Schauder basis?

Motivation: I am trying to see for what class of Banach spaces the following result is true: There exists an increasing sequence of finite dimensional subspace {$V_n$} of a Banach space X (with ...
Clark Chong's user avatar
15 votes
4 answers
3k views

Universal $C^*$-algebra with generators and relations

We say that the $C^*$-algebra $A$ generated by $a_1,...,a_n$ is universal subject to relations $R_1,...,R_m$ if for every $C^*$-algebra $B$ with elements $b_1,...,b_n$ satisfying relations $R_1,...,...
truebaran's user avatar
  • 9,330
14 votes
1 answer
2k views

Infinite tensor product of states

Tensor products of finite number of different objects are always well described in the literature. However, the situation of infinite tensor products seems to be much tougher. Even in the simplest ...
Glacier's user avatar
  • 143
13 votes
2 answers
1k views

Calkin Algebra and the embedding

Let $H$ be a separable, infinite dimensional Hilbert Space and $Calk(H):=B(H)/K(H)$ denotes the Calkin algebra. There is obvious surjection $\pi: B(H) \to Calk(H)$ but I'm interested in somehow ...
truebaran's user avatar
  • 9,330
12 votes
2 answers
3k views

Direct proof of injectivity of $L_\infty$

I would like to know a simple proof of isometric injectivity of $L_\infty$. The proof I've found in Topics in Banach space theory. F. Albiac, N. Kalton uses two deep result. $L_\infty$ as ...
Norbert's user avatar
  • 1,697
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

Stone-Weierstrass analogue for $L^p$

Let $A$ be a complex algebra of bounded measurable functions on the measure space $(X,\mu)$ (case of $[0,1]$ with Lebesgue measure is enough for me) closed under conjugation. Assume that $A$ separates ...
Fedor Petrov's user avatar
11 votes
4 answers
1k views

Norm continuous infinite dimenisonal representation of a Lie group

Given a Lie group G and an infinite dimensional Hilbert space $\mathcal{H}$. In the literature I have only encountered the two following notions of a representation $\pi$ of G on $\mathcal{H}$ : 1) $\...
jsb's user avatar
  • 403
10 votes
3 answers
739 views

Is there a version of Fischer-Riesz theorem for Banach space?

$( \Omega,F, P )$: a measurable space equipped with a finite measure $(B , \Vert \cdot \Vert) $ : a Banach space with $\mathcal{B}$ as its borelian $\sigma$-algebra $p$ : a constant bigger than $1$ ...
Taro Tokyo's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
2k views

Density of smooth functions on Hölder spaces

The following result is often cited without reference in the context of PDEs: Let $\varOmega \subset\mathbb R^n$ be a bounded open set with smooth boundary. If $0<\beta<\alpha<1$ then $C^\...
Nautilus's user avatar
  • 727
9 votes
3 answers
2k views

Generalizations and relative applications of Fekete's subadditive lemma

Fekete's (subadditive) lemma takes its name from a 1923 paper by the Hungarian mathematician Michael Fekete [1]. A historical overview and references to (a couple of) generalizations and applications ...
Salvo Tringali's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
380 views

Lavrentiev phenomenon between $C^1$ and Lipschitz

Does there exist a (onedimensional) integral functional of calculus of variations (with $f$ finite everywhere) $$ F(y)=\int_a^b f(t,y(t),y'(t))\,dt
 $$ such that $$ \inf_{y\in Lip([a,b])}F(y)<\inf_{...
Carlo Mantegazza's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
716 views

A non-hyperfinite type III factor from an action of the free group on the circle

We define below a von Neumann algebra $\mathcal{M}$ from an action of the free group on the circle, and we prove that $\mathcal{M}$ is a non-hyperfinite type ${\rm III}$ factor. Question : Is $\...
Sebastien Palcoux's user avatar

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