Unanswered Questions
49,211 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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Polynomials with roots in convex position
Let $\mathcal P_n$ denote the set of all monic polynomials of degree $n$ with real or complex coefficients such that $P\in\mathcal P_n$ if for all $k\in\lbrace 0,1,\dots,n-2\rbrace$ the $n-k$ roots of ...
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478
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On C*-rigidity problem for torsion-free groups
I'd like to address the $\mathrm{C}^\ast$-rigidity problem for
torsion-free groups (see
this paper),
which asks for non-isomorphic torsion-free groups with isomorphic
(reduced) group $\mathrm{C}^\ast$-...
- 10.1k
19
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553
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Talagrand's "Creating convexity" conjecture
We say a subset $A$ of $\mathbb{R}^N$ is balanced if
\begin{equation}
x \in A, \lambda \in [-1,1] \implies \lambda x \in A.
\end{equation}
Given a subset $A$ of $\mathbb{R}^N$, we write
\begin{...
- 484
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0
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642
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Large values of characters of the symmetric group
For $g$ an element of a group and $\chi$ an irreducible character, there are two easy bounds for the character value $\chi(g)$: First, the bound $|\chi(g)|\leq \chi(1)$ by the dimension of the ...
- 149k
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563
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What algebraic properties are preserved by $\mathbb{N}\leadsto\beta\mathbb{N}$?
Given a binary operation $\star$ on $\mathbb{N}$, we can naturally extend $\star$ to a semicontinuous operation $\widehat{\star}$ on the set $\beta\mathbb{N}$ of ultrafilters on $\mathbb{N}$ as ...
- 20.5k
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2k
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xkcd's "Unsolved Math Problems", straight lines in random walk patterns
STEM student's favourite source of amusement posted a comic titled "Unsolved Math Problems" one of which looks like something that could actually be tackled.
If I walk randomly on a grid, ...
- 309
19
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649
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Bernoulli & Betti numbers (of manifolds) and the prime 34511
The purpose of this question is to resolve a mystery surrounding the prime 34511 that has got me bogged down for a while now. If you only care about the number theory and not the motivation coming ...
- 11.9k
19
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0
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410
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are there high-dimensional knots with non-trivial normal bundle?
Does there exist a smooth embedding $\varphi\colon S^k\to S^n$ such that $\varphi(S^k)$ has non-trivial normal bundle?
I looked at some of the old papers by Kervaire, Haefliger, Massey, Levine but I ...
- 2,797
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1k
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Mumford-Tate conjecture for mixed Tate motives
Let $X$ be a (not necessarily smooth or proper) variety over a number field $k$. Suppose we are given
A subquotient $V_{dR}$ of the algebraic de Rham cohomology $H_{dR}^i(X)$ (defined in the non-...
- 23k
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523
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univariate integer version of Hilbert's 17th problem
Let $f(x)$ be a polynomial of degree $d$ with integer coefficients such that $f(x)\geqslant 0$ for all real $x$. Is it necessarily true that there exists an integer $N(d)$ such that $N(d)\cdot f$ is a ...
- 109k
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661
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Homotopy type of the affine Grassmannian and of the Beilinson-Drinfeld Grassmannian
The affine Grassmannian of a complex reductive group $G$ (for simplicity one can assume $G=GL_n$) admits the structure of a complex topological space. More precisely, the functor $$X\mapsto |X^{an}|$$ ...
- 455
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841
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I found a (probably new) family of real analytic closed Bezier-like curves; is it publishable?
Given $n$ distinct points $\mathbf{x} = (\mathbf{x}_1, \ldots, \mathbf{x}_n)$ in the plane $\mathbb{R}^2$, I associate a real analytic map:
$f_{\mathbf{x}}: S^1 \to \mathbb{R}^2$
with the following ...
- 5,215
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377
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Is there a classification of reflection groups over division rings?
I asked a version of this question in Math StackExchange about a week ago but I've received no feedback so far, so following the advice I received on meta I decided to post it here.
Details
The ...
- 1,206
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762
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An intriguing calculus question
Let $f:{\bf R}^n\to {\bf R}$ ($n\geq 2$) be a $C^1$ function. Is it true that
$$\sup_{x\in {\bf R}^n}f(x)=\sup_{x\in {\bf R}^n}f(x+\nabla f(x))\hskip 3pt ?$$
- 293
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What examples of existence forcing proofs are there?
Forcing proofs tend to be fairly constructive, in the sense that if I claim that there is a forcing that does something, I usually prove this by constructing that forcing.
There are only a handful of ...
- 39.8k
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604
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How is this group theoretic construct called?
Let $G$ be a finite group, $S\subset G$ a generating set, $|g| = |g|_S = $ word length with respect to $S$. Define the "defect" of $g,h$ to be
$$\psi(g,h) = |g|+|h|-|gh|$$
Then $\psi:G\times G \...
user6671
19
votes
0
answers
546
views
What is the centralizer of a Coxeter element?
Let $(W,S)$ be a Coxeter system (of finite rank) and $c \in W$ a Coxeter element.
If $W$ is finite, then the centralizer $C_W(c)$ is the cyclic group generated by $c$ (e.g. see the book "Reflection ...
- 366
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361
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Rationality of sum of reciprocals of irreducible polynomial
(Sorry for my poor english..)
I have a question in number theory. (Just my curiosity)
Let $f(z)\in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ be an irreducible polynomial with degree is larger than or equal to 2. Then is the ...
- 661
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722
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Eckmann-Hilton argument / Grothendieck
In terse terms, the “Eckmann-Hilton argument” says that a monoid in the category of monoids is commutative. It is essentially used, for example, to prove that homotopy groups of topological groups are ...
- 12.9k
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641
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Is there a simpler proof of the key lemma in the paper by Hiroshi Iriyeh and Masataka Shibata on the 3D Mahler conjecture?
In this remarkable paper 30 pages are occupied by the proof of the following innocently looking lemma:
Let $K$ be an origin-symmetric convex body in $\mathbb R^3$. There exist three planes through ...
- 61.9k
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answers
1k
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Can a number be palindromic in more than 3 consecutive number bases?
$2017:$ Was initially asked on MSE - but wasn't solved or updated there since.
Update $2019$: I've returned to this problem, made some progress and updated the post here. (I've basically rewritten ...
- 611
19
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492
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Fermat Descent and the "Grand Unified Theory" of Obstructions
In Bjorn Poonen's book Rational Points on Varieties he says that Fermat Descent is an example of cohomology. There is also a book by Soulé. Even Wikipedia mentions this with no further explanation. [...
- 22.8k
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answers
513
views
Checking Mertens and the like in less than linear time or less than $\sqrt{x}$ space
Say you want to check that $|\sum_{n\leq x} \mu(n)|\leq \sqrt{x}$ for all
$x\leq X$. (I am actually interested in checking that $\sum_{n\leq x} \mu(n)/n|\leq c/\sqrt{x}$, where $c$ is a constant, and ...
- 20.2k
19
votes
0
answers
937
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What is the Cantor-Bendixson rank of the space of first order theories?
Let $L$ be the language $\{R\}$ containing a single binary relation symbol. Consider the space $S_0(L)$ of complete, first-order $L$-theories. This is a seperable, compact Hausdorff space; what is its ...
- 2,146
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703
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The cofinality of $(\mathbb{N}^\kappa,\le)$ for uncountable $\kappa$?
For a partially ordered set $P$, a set $A\subseteq P$ is cofinal if for each element of $P$ there is a larger element in $A$. The cofinality of $P$, ${\rm cof}(P)$, is the minimal cardinality of a ...
- 3,104
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626
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Simpler proofs of certain Ramsey numbers
The reason for the gorgeous simplicity of the classic proofs of $R(3,3)$, $R(4,4)$, $R(3,4)$ and $R(3,5)$ is that essentially all you need is the trivial bound and a picture.
But for bigger Ramsey ...
- 17.6k
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0
answers
775
views
A Linear Order from AP Calculus
In teaching my calculus students about limits and function domination, we ran into the class of functions
$$\Theta=\{x^\alpha (\ln{x})^\beta\}_{(\alpha,\beta)\in\mathbb{R}^2}$$
Suppose we say that $...
- 433
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0
answers
782
views
Reference request: Parallel processor theorem of William Thurston
Sometime in the 1980's or 1990's, Bill Thurston proved a theorem regarding the existence of a universal parallel processing machine, using a certain class for such machines having finite deterministic ...
- 15.4k
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0
answers
610
views
Coarse moduli spaces of stacks for which every atlas is a scheme
Let $X = [P/G]$ be a smooth finite type separated DM-stack over $\mathbb C$ given as the quotient of a smooth quasi-projective scheme $P$ by the action of a smooth (finite type separated) reductive ...
- 9,497
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answers
540
views
Why $\gcd \{ {\rm ord}_p(q)\colon q\mid p-1 \}$ likes to be large?
For a prime $p$, let $F_p$ denote the greatest common divisor of the orders modulo $p$ of all prime divisors of $p-1$:
$$ F_p = \gcd \{ {\rm ord}_p(q)\colon q\mid p-1 \}; $$
thus, for instance, $F_3=...
- 23k
19
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0
answers
577
views
"Japanese Theorem" on cyclic polygons: Higher-dimensional generalizations?
A beautiful theorem known as the Japanese Theorem (Wikipedia, MathWorld)
says that, no matter how one triangulates a cyclic (inscribed in a circle) polygon,
the sum of the radii of the incircles is ...
- 151k
19
votes
0
answers
590
views
Can Gentzen-style proofs give omega-consistency and beyond?
In 1936, Gentzen famously showed that Primitive Recursive Arithmetic, plus the assumption that the ordinal $\epsilon_0$ is well-founded, is able to prove Con(PA). But of course, Con(PA) doesn't yet ...
- 9,833
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votes
0
answers
418
views
Constructible derived category and fundamental category
Introduction (may be skipped)
Given a nice topological space $X$, the category of local systems (say over a field $k$) on it is equivalent to the category of representations of its fundamental ...
- 13.2k
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answers
852
views
Which manifolds decompose into pants?
In this nice paper Mikhalkin uses certain (more geometrical than algebraic) aspects of tropical geometry to prove that every complex projective hypersurface in $\mathbb C \mathbb P ^n$ decomposes as a ...
- 10.5k
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votes
0
answers
575
views
The oriented homeomorphism problem for Haken 3-manifolds
Haken famously described an algorithm to solve the homeomorphism problem for the 3-manifolds that bear his name (fleshed out by many others, including Hemion and Matveev who fixed some gaps). But it'...
- 25k
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Does this variant of a theorem of Hasse (really due to Gauss) have an "elementary" proof?
BACKGROUND
Here are 3 theorems of varying difficulty. Let $M$ be the $Z/2$ subspace of $Z/2[[x]]$ spanned by $f^k$, with the $k>0$ and odd, and $f=x+x^9+x^{25}+x^{49}+\cdots$. For $g$ in $M$, let $...
- 5,422
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2k
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A question in Fontaine--Laffaille theory
Let $K$ be finite unramified extension of $\mathbf{Q}_p$ with ring of integers $W$. Let ${\rm MF}$ be the category of strongly divisible $W$-modules $M$ with ${\rm Fil}^0M=M$ and ${\rm Fil}^{p-1}M=0$. ...
- 190
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682
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support of the coupling between two probability measures
Given two Borel probability measures $\mu$ and $\nu$ on $\mathbb{R}$, let $\Pi(\mu, \nu)$ denote all couplings between them, i.e., all Borel probability measures on $\mathbb{R}^2$ such that the ...
- 1,839
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988
views
On random Dirichlet distributions
Fix a dimension $d\ge2$.
Let $Q_d$ denote the positive quadrant of $\mathbb{R}^d$, that is, $Q_d$ is the set of points $\mathbf{x}=(x_i)_i$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ such that $x_i>0$ for every $i$.
For ...
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0
answers
1k
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coloring ${\mathbb Z}^k$
This question is related to but seems to be simpler than this one, so perhaps somebody can solve it.
Question. Is there $k\ge 1$ and a coloring of vertices of the lattice ${\mathbb Z}^k$ in $k$ ...
user6976
19
votes
0
answers
1k
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Is there some way to see a Hilbert space as a C-enriched category?
The inner product of vectors in a Hilbert space has many properties in common with a hom functor. I know that one can make a projectivized Hilbert space into a metric space with the Fubini-Study ...
- 1,532
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2k
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Hodge star and harmonic simplicial differential forms
Is there a notion of harmonic forms and Hodge theory for Sullivan's piecewise smooth differential forms on a simplicial set?
Let me recall some background.
Hodge Theory on a Riemannian manifold
A ...
- 6,229
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0
answers
3k
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sums of digits of powers of integers
It is known (Senge and Straus, 1971, see also C.L.Stewart, 1980) that for every natural $a $, not a power of 10, and every natural $s$, there are only finitely many $k$ such that the sum of decimal ...
user6976
19
votes
0
answers
773
views
Folk Functorial Figuring
In the CRM Proceedings & Lecture Notes Volume 50 "A Celebration of the Mathematical Legacy of Raoul Bott" Herbert Shulman writes (p. 48):
"[Bott] taught many of us to think functorially, like ...
- 2,684
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504
views
Other examples of computations using transfer of structure from the chains to the homology?
There is a `long' history of transfer (up to homotopy!) of algebraic structure from a dg _ algebra A to its homology H(A) (e.g. Kadeishvili for the associative case and Heubschmann for the Lie case). ...
- 3,880
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323
views
The analogy between dualizable categories and compact Hausdorff spaces
Efimov has in his recent preprint K-theory and localizing invariants of large categories, Appendix F, a long table of analogies between the categories $\text{Cat}^\text{dual}_\text{st}$ and $\text{...
- 2,303
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0
answers
658
views
Consecutive integers of the form $2^a 3^b 5^c$
Let $\mathcal{N}$ denote the set of all products of (powers of) $2,3$ and $5$:
$$ \mathcal{N} = \{ 2^a 3^b 5^c \ : \ a,b,c \geq 0 \} \subset \mathbb{N}.$$
We use the elements of $\mathcal{N}$ to ...
- 1,914
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0
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374
views
Can Rep(G) tell us whether G is discrete?
Given a locally compact group $G$, let $$\mathrm{Rep}(G)$$ be its category of unitary representations.
The objects of that category are strongly continuous unitary representations of $G$ on Hilbert ...
- 43.2k
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1k
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Does there exist a continuous open map from the closed annulus to the closed disk?
(Originally from MSE, but crossposted here upon suggestion from the comments)
In this MSE post, user Moishe Kohan provides an example of a non-continuous open and closed ("clopen") function $...
- 833
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1k
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"Next steps" after TQFT?
(Disclaimer: I'm rather nervous that this isn't appropriate for MathOverflow, but given the contents of my question I don't really know a better place to ask something like this.)
Recently, I've been ...
- 377