Unanswered Questions
49,206 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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Are these continued fractions of integrals known?
Simplified repost of Are these continued fractions of integrals known? on MSE
EDIT: The period of the oscillations of $$f(s)=\dfrac1{1+\dfrac s{1+\dfrac{s^2/2!}{1+\dfrac{s^3/3!}{1+\cdots}}}}$$ ...
- 1,459
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687
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Mysterious sum equal to $\frac{7(p^2-1)}{24}$ where $p \equiv 1 \pmod{4}$
Consider a prime number $p \equiv 1 \pmod{4}$ and $n_p$ denotes the remainder of $n$ upon division by $p$. Let $A_p=\{ a \in [[0,p]] \mid {(a+1)^2}_p<{a^2}_p\}$.
I Conjecture
$$\sum_{n \in A_p } n=\...
- 1,503
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373
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Colouring Gaussian integers according to a numeral system based on powers of $-1+i$
It is easy to check that every Gaussian integer can be written uniquely as a finite sum of the form $\sum_{n\geq 0}\epsilon_n(-1+i)^n$ for ‘digits’ $\epsilon_n$ in $\lbrace 0,1\rbrace$.
The sequence $\...
- 17.9k
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Cycles in algebraic de Rham cohomology
Let $F$ be a number field, $S$ a finite set of places, and $X$ a smooth projective $\mathscr{O}_{F,S}$-scheme with geometrically connected fibers. For each point $t\in \text{Spec}(\mathscr{O}_{F,S})$, ...
- 23k
18
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251
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About the equivariant analogue of $G_n/O_n$
Let $BO_n$ and $BG_n$ be the classifying spaces for rank $n$ vector bundles and for spherical fibrations with fiber $S^{n-1}$, respectively, and let $G_n/O_n$ be the homotopy fiber of $BO_n\to BG_n$.
...
- 55.9k
18
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698
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Do $\infty$-categories make Grothendieck duality simpler?
I've heard multiple times that the main difficulty of Grothendieck duality is that triangulated categories don't 'glue well'.
In my view, there are 3 parts in understanding Grothendieck duality:
We ...
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1k
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What is the strongest nerve lemma?
The most basic nerve lemma can be found as Corollary 4G.3 in Hatcher's Algebraic Topology:
If $\mathcal U$ is an open cover of a paracompact space $X$ such that every nonempty intersection of ...
- 81
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571
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Fundamental Theorem of Algebra via multiple integrals
Consider the product of complex linear monic polynomials times polynomials of degree less than $n$, that is $\big( (z-\lambda), p(z)\big)\mapsto (z-\lambda)p(z)$. If we represent a polynomial by its ...
- 60.6k
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1k
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Automorphic forms and coherent cohomology
Why is it (and what does it mean) that automorphic forms do not contribute in the coherent cohomology of Siegel modular varieties parametrizing abelian varieties of dimension $d>2$ (see section 7 ...
- 3,309
18
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496
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Orientation-reversing homotopy equivalence
If there is an orientation-reversing homotopy equivalence on a closed simply-connected orientable manifold is there an orientation-reversing homeomorphism?
It is not true, for instance, that if there ...
user164740
18
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429
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Is the Frog game solvable in the root of a full binary tree?
This is a cross-post from math.stackexchange.com$^{[1]}$, since the bounty there didn't lead to any new insights.
For reference,
The Frog game is the generalization of the Frog Jumping (see it on ...
- 611
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755
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Two curious series for $1/\pi$
On Jan. 18, 2012 I conjectured that for any prime $p>3$ we have
$$R_p^2\equiv\frac1{10}\left(512\left(\frac{10}p\right)-27\left(\frac{-15}p\right)-475\right)\pmod p,$$
where $(\frac{\cdot}p)$ ...
- 15.6k
18
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370
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Čech functions and the axiom of choice
A Čech closure function on $\omega$ is a function $\varphi:\mathcal P(\omega)\to\mathcal P(\omega)$ such that (i) $X\subseteq\varphi(X)$ for all $X\subseteq\omega$, (ii) $\varphi(\emptyset)=\emptyset$,...
- 13.4k
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1k
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What is the relationship between Artin and Lurie representability?
Artin's representability theorem gives conditions for a functor from commutative rings to sets (or groupoids) to be representable by an algebraic space (stack). The conditions are largely expressed ...
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864
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Are these local systems on $\mathscr{M}_{g,1}$ motivic?
Let $(\Sigma_g, x)$ be a pointed topological surface of genus $g$, and let $MCG(g,1)$ be the mapping class group of this pointed surface. Then $MCG(g,1)$ has a natural action on $\pi_1(\Sigma_g, x)$ $$...
- 23k
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462
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Is there a model category describing shape theory?
Is there a nice model structure on some category of topological spaces compatible with shape theory? In particular, weak equivalences should induce isomorphisms on sheaf cohomology.
As an example, ...
- 6,813
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666
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Are simplicial finite CW complexes and simplicial finite simplicial sets equivalent?
Edit Originally the question was whether an arbitrary diagram of finite CW complexes can be approximated by a diagram of finite simplicial sets. In view of Tyler's comment, this was clearly asking for ...
- 10.9k
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540
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A curious switch in infinite dimensions
Let $V$ be a finite dimensional real vector space. Let $GL(V)$ be the set of invertible linear transformations, and $\Phi(V)$ be the set of all linear transformations. We can also characterize $\Phi(V)...
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Story of "Grothendieck's prime number" 57
I asked this question earlier, at hsm.stackexchange.com without much luck. Maybe somebody can answer it here.
There is a story about Alexander Grothendieck and the "Grothendieck Prime" 57, which ...
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612
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Who first noticed the duality for finite groups?
A.A.Kirillov in section 12.3 of his "Elements of the Theory of Representations" writes that the first "symmetric" duality theory for non-commutative groups was the theory for finite groups. In short ...
- 7,426
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549
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Donaldson-Thomas Theory and "Quantum Foam" for Mathematicians
Let $X$ be a smooth, projective Calabi-Yau threefold. From an algebro-geometric perspective, the Donaldson-Thomas invariants $\text{DT}_{\beta, n}(X)$ are virtual counts of ideal sheaves on $X$ with ...
- 1,701
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1k
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Number Theory and Gravity
Langlands program is a web of far-reaching and influential conjectures about connections between number theory and geometry. Proposed by Robert Langlands at IAS (1967, 1970), it seeks to relate Galois ...
- 10.5k
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1
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2k
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Function of two sets intersection
Let $U$ be the set of all nonempty subsets of $[0,1]$ that are a union of finitely many closed intervals (where an "interval" that is a single point does not count as an interval). Does ...
- 1,209
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439
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An integral in Gradshteyn and Ryzhik
Section 3.248 of the 4th edition of the table of integrals by Gradshteyn and Ryzhik contains three entries. They are of elementary examples of the beta function. In the 5th edition there are two new ...
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310
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Profiles of very high dimensional functions
This question comes from trying to understand the recent success of deep neural nets. Neural networks just (crudely speaking) create a very complicated function of very many variables, and then ...
- 96.4k
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702
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Homotopy groups of spheres and differential forms
The only infinite homotopy groups of spheres are $\pi_n(\mathbb{S}^n)$ and $\pi_{4n-1}(\mathbb{S}^{2n})$. This is a well known result of Serre. In both cases the nontriviality of these groups can be ...
- 28k
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594
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Perturbation of a smooth manifold and transversality
Let $M$ be a compact smooth manifold and $N$ be a compact smooth submanifold of $M$. The usual transversality theorem claims that for a generic diffeomorphism $f$ of $M$, the submanifolds $N$ and $f(N)...
- 181
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740
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Infinite extensions such that every elliptic curve has finite rank
The comments to this answer seem to make the following claim.
Claim. Let $K$ be the maximal abelian extension of $\mathbf Q$ that is unramified away from $p$ (more generally, away from a finite set $S$...
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496
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What is the logical complexity of the Hodge conjecture?
The Hodge conjecture seems to me the most mysterious among the Millennium problems
(and many others). In particular, I am not sure about its logical complexity. It is not difficult to see that the ...
- 6,891
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480
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Trapping lightrays with segment mirrors
Q. Is it possible to trap all the light from one point source by a finite collection of two-sided disjoint segment mirrors?
I posed this question in several forums before (e.g., here
and in an ...
- 151k
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855
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Is this Variation of the Continuum Hypothesis Inconsistent with ZFC or ZF?
It is a well-known fact that the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis is undecidable from ZFC. For similar sentences $\phi$, this is simply equivalent to ZFC having a model $M$ for which $M\models\phi$.
...
- 1,252
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Is the set of integers of the form $a/(b+c)+b/(a+c)+c/(a+b)$ computable?
The starting point of this question is the observation that the smallest positive integers $a,b,c$ satisfying
$$\frac{a}{b+c} + \frac{b}{a+c} + \frac{c}{a+b} = 4$$
are absurdly high, namely $$(...
- 48.9k
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$G$ a group, with $p$ a prime number, and $|G|=2^p-1$, is it abelian?
During my research I came across this question, I proposed it in the chat, but nobody could find a counterexample, so I allow myself to ask you :
$G$ a group, with $p$ a prime number, and $|G|=2^p-1$, ...
- 4,074
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What is the geometric intuition behind Wilf-Zeilberger theory?
This problem is somehow inspired by a bunch of impressive posts of combinatorial identities by T. Amdeberhan. Earlier this month I learnt from computer scientists that they have a generic algorithmic ...
- 8,071
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758
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An "exercise" on von Neumann algebra tensor product
The following problem appears to be an easy exercise on von Neumann algebra tensor products, but since I've been failing to find a rigorous proof, I'd like to make sure it's not that trivial. Suppose $...
- 10.1k
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Definition of Pin groups?
When looking into the definition of a Pin group, it turns out that there are - at least - three different ones in the literature, and they do not agree --- but thankfully all yield the same Spin ...
- 339
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511
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Does the "holomorphic spheres-to-continuous spheres" forgetful function respect the mixed Hodge structures on homotopy groups?
For each smooth, projective, complex variety $X$ that is simply connected, John Morgan constructed a natural mixed Hodge structure on the homotopy group $\pi_k(X,x)\otimes \mathbb{Q}$. This was ...
- 4,111
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533
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A cohomology class associated with a complex representation of a group
$\newcommand\CC{\mathbb C}\newcommand\ZZ{\mathbb Z}\newcommand\ad{\mathsf{ad}}\newcommand\Ext{\operatorname{Ext}}$ Suppose that $G$ is a finite group and that it acts on a finite dimensional complex ...
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History of the functor of points
Until now, I thought the functor of points approach was introduced by Grothendieck at the 1973 Buffalo seminar.
However, in this note by Lawvere the author writes:
"I myself had learned the ...
- 10.5k
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895
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Is the universality of the surreal number line a weak global choice principle?
I'd like to consider the principle asserting that the surreal
number line is universal for all class linear orders, or in other
words, that every linear order (including proper-class-sized)
linear ...
- 236k
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328
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"High-concept" explanation for proof of a theorem of Ochanine?
See Akhil Mathew's notes on Ochanine's theorem for elliptic genera here and here.
Let $\phi: \Omega_{SO} \to \Lambda$ be a genus. We might ask when $\phi$ satisfies the following multiplicative ...
user82367
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What is the Hochschild cohomology of the Fukaya-Seidel category?
Let $(Y, \omega)$ be a compact symplectic manifold and let $Fuk(X,\omega)$ be its Fukaya category. The Hochschild cohomology of this category should be given by $HH^\bullet(Fuk(Y,\omega))=H^\bullet(Y, ...
- 6,920
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734
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How boundedly generated is $SL_3(\mathbb{Z})$?
The group $G = \mathrm{SL}_3(\mathbb{Z})$ is known to be boundedly generated, that is, there exists some $m \in \mathbb{N}$, and $g_1, \dots, g_m \in G$ such that we have the following equality of ...
- 11.3k
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An algebraic strengthening of the Saturation Conjecture
The Saturation Conjecture (proved by Knutson-Tao) asserts that
$c_{n\mu,n\nu}^{n\lambda}\neq 0\Rightarrow c_{\mu,\nu}^{\lambda} \neq
0$, where $c$ denotes a Littlewood-Richardson coefficient and $n$ ...
- 50.8k
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382
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Deforming a basis of a polynomial ring
The ring $Symm$ of symmetric functions in infinitely many variables is well-known to be a polynomial ring in the elementary symmetric functions, and has a $\mathbb Z$-basis of Schur functions $\{S_\...
- 27.9k
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477
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Linear groups which don't contain products of free groups
Let $G \subset GL(n, \Bbb Z)$ be a f.g. linear group. The Tits alternative says that $G$ is either virtually solvable (i.e. has a solvable subgroup of finite index), or contains a free group $F_2$. ...
- 17k
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881
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What is operator tmf?
One of the many wonderful things about K-theory, relative to other generalized cohomology theories, is that it can be defined for not-necessarily-commutative C*-algebras. The resulting construction, ...
- 118k
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2k
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Etale Slice Theorem
I found the Luna's Slice Theorem very Technical. It will be helpful if someone illustrates the geometry involved in the theorem. Also why this theorem so useful?
This is Luna's Slice theorem from a ...
- 290
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987
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Are the moves/rules of standard chess delicately balanced?
(While the world chess championship is in progress in Sochi...)
Is there mathematical evidence that standard chess is somehow
...
- 151k
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400
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Elliptic $\infty$-line bundles over $B G$
Theorem 5.2 in Jacob Lurie's "Survey of Elliptic Cohomology" (pdf) states the equivalence of two maps
$$
B G \longrightarrow B \mathrm{GL}_1(A)
$$
for $A$ an $E_\infty$-ring carrying an oriented ...
- 19.8k