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Obstacle Problem
The obstacle problem is a classic motivating example in the mathematical study of variational inequalities and free boundary problems. The problem is to find the equilibrium position of an elastic membrane whose boundary is held fixed, and which is constrained to lie above a given obstacle. It is deeply related to the study of minimal surfaces and the capacity of a set in potential theory as well. Applications include the study of fluid filtration in porous media, constrained heating, elasto-plasticity, optimal control, and financial mathematics.See . The mathematical formulation of the problem is to seek minimizers of the Dirichlet energy functional, :J = \int_D , \nabla u, ^2 \mathrmx in some domains ''D'' where the functions ''u'' represent the vertical displacement of the membrane. In addition to satisfying Dirichlet boundary conditions corresponding to the fixed boundary of the membrane, the functions ''u'' are in addition constrained to be greater than some given ''obstacle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematical
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics with the major subdisciplines of number theory, algebra, geometry, and analysis, respectively. There is no general consensus among mathematicians about a common definition for their academic discipline. Most mathematical activity involves the discovery of properties of abstract objects and the use of pure reason to prove them. These objects consist of either abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicsentities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. A ''proof'' consists of a succession of applications of deductive rules to already established results. These results include previously proved theorems, axioms, andin case of abstraction from naturesome basic properties that are considered true starting points of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stochastic Process
In probability theory and related fields, a stochastic () or random process is a mathematical object usually defined as a family of random variables. Stochastic processes are widely used as mathematical models of systems and phenomena that appear to vary in a random manner. Examples include the growth of a bacterial population, an electrical current fluctuating due to thermal noise, or the movement of a gas molecule. Stochastic processes have applications in many disciplines such as biology, chemistry, ecology, neuroscience, physics, image processing, signal processing, control theory, information theory, computer science, cryptography and telecommunications. Furthermore, seemingly random changes in financial markets have motivated the extensive use of stochastic processes in finance. Applications and the study of phenomena have in turn inspired the proposal of new stochastic processes. Examples of such stochastic processes include the Wiener process or Brownian motion process, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weak Derivative
In mathematics, a weak derivative is a generalization of the concept of the derivative of a function (''strong derivative'') for functions not assumed differentiable, but only integrable, i.e., to lie in the L''p'' space L^1( ,b. The method of integration by parts holds that for differentiable functions u and \varphi we have :\begin \int_a^b u(x) \varphi'(x) \, dx & = \Big (x) \varphi(x)\Biga^b - \int_a^b u'(x) \varphi(x) \, dx. \\ pt \end A function ''u''' being the weak derivative of ''u'' is essentially defined by the requirement that this equation must hold for all infinitely differentiable functions ''φ'' vanishing at the boundary points (\varphi(a)=\varphi(b)=0). Definition Let u be a function in the Lebesgue space L^1( ,b. We say that v in L^1( ,b is a weak derivative of u if :\int_a^b u(t)\varphi'(t) \, dt=-\int_a^b v(t)\varphi(t) \, dt for ''all'' infinitely differentiable functions \varphi with \varphi(a)=\varphi(b)=0. Generalizing to n dimensions, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Integrable Function
In mathematics, an integral assigns numbers to functions in a way that describes displacement, area, volume, and other concepts that arise by combining infinitesimal data. The process of finding integrals is called integration. Along with differentiation, integration is a fundamental, essential operation of calculus,Integral calculus is a very well established mathematical discipline for which there are many sources. See and , for example. and serves as a tool to solve problems in mathematics and physics involving the area of an arbitrary shape, the length of a curve, and the volume of a solid, among others. The integrals enumerated here are those termed definite integrals, which can be interpreted as the signed area of the region in the plane that is bounded by the graph of a given function between two points in the real line. Conventionally, areas above the horizontal axis of the plane are positive while areas below are negative. Integrals also refer to the concept of a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sobolev Space
In mathematics, a Sobolev space is a vector space of functions equipped with a norm that is a combination of ''Lp''-norms of the function together with its derivatives up to a given order. The derivatives are understood in a suitable weak sense to make the space complete, i.e. a Banach space. Intuitively, a Sobolev space is a space of functions possessing sufficiently many derivatives for some application domain, such as partial differential equations, and equipped with a norm that measures both the size and regularity of a function. Sobolev spaces are named after the Russian mathematician Sergei Sobolev. Their importance comes from the fact that weak solutions of some important partial differential equations exist in appropriate Sobolev spaces, even when there are no strong solutions in spaces of continuous functions with the derivatives understood in the classical sense. Motivation In this section and throughout the article \Omega is an open subset of \R^n. There are many c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subset
In mathematics, Set (mathematics), set ''A'' is a subset of a set ''B'' if all Element (mathematics), elements of ''A'' are also elements of ''B''; ''B'' is then a superset of ''A''. It is possible for ''A'' and ''B'' to be equal; if they are unequal, then ''A'' is a proper subset of ''B''. The relationship of one set being a subset of another is called inclusion (or sometimes containment). ''A'' is a subset of ''B'' may also be expressed as ''B'' includes (or contains) ''A'' or ''A'' is included (or contained) in ''B''. A ''k''-subset is a subset with ''k'' elements. The subset relation defines a partial order on sets. In fact, the subsets of a given set form a Boolean algebra (structure), Boolean algebra under the subset relation, in which the join and meet are given by Intersection (set theory), intersection and Union (set theory), union, and the subset relation itself is the Inclusion (Boolean algebra), Boolean inclusion relation. Definition If ''A'' and ''B'' are sets and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Convex Set
In geometry, a subset of a Euclidean space, or more generally an affine space over the reals, is convex if, given any two points in the subset, the subset contains the whole line segment that joins them. Equivalently, a convex set or a convex region is a subset that intersects every line into a single line segment (possibly empty). For example, a solid cube is a convex set, but anything that is hollow or has an indent, for example, a crescent shape, is not convex. The boundary of a convex set is always a convex curve. The intersection of all the convex sets that contain a given subset of Euclidean space is called the convex hull of . It is the smallest convex set containing . A convex function is a real-valued function defined on an interval with the property that its epigraph (the set of points on or above the graph of the function) is a convex set. Convex minimization is a subfield of optimization that studies the problem of minimizing convex functions over convex se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Closed Set
In geometry, topology, and related branches of mathematics, a closed set is a set whose complement is an open set. In a topological space, a closed set can be defined as a set which contains all its limit points. In a complete metric space, a closed set is a set which is closed under the limit operation. This should not be confused with a closed manifold. Equivalent definitions By definition, a subset A of a topological space (X, \tau) is called if its complement X \setminus A is an open subset of (X, \tau); that is, if X \setminus A \in \tau. A set is closed in X if and only if it is equal to its closure in X. Equivalently, a set is closed if and only if it contains all of its limit points. Yet another equivalent definition is that a set is closed if and only if it contains all of its boundary points. Every subset A \subseteq X is always contained in its (topological) closure in X, which is denoted by \operatorname_X A; that is, if A \subseteq X then A \subseteq \oper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trace Operator
In mathematics, the trace operator extends the notion of the restriction of a function to the boundary of its domain to "generalized" functions in a Sobolev space. This is particularly important for the study of partial differential equations with prescribed boundary conditions ( boundary value problems), where weak solutions may not be regular enough to satisfy the boundary conditions in the classical sense of functions. Motivation On a bounded, smooth domain \Omega \subset \mathbb R^n, consider the problem of solving Poisson's equation with inhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions: :\begin -\Delta u &= f &\quad&\text \Omega,\\ u &= g &&\text \partial \Omega \end with given functions f and g with regularity discussed in the application section below. The weak solution u \in H^1(\Omega) of this equation must satisfy :\int_\Omega \nabla u \cdot \nabla \varphi \,\mathrm dx = \int_\Omega f \varphi \,\mathrm dx for all \varphi \in H^1_0(\Omega). The H^1(\Omega)-regularity of u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boundary (topology)
In topology and mathematics in general, the boundary of a subset of a topological space is the set of points in the closure of not belonging to the interior of . An element of the boundary of is called a boundary point of . The term boundary operation refers to finding or taking the boundary of a set. Notations used for boundary of a set include \operatorname(S), \operatorname(S), and \partial S. Some authors (for example Willard, in ''General Topology'') use the term frontier instead of boundary in an attempt to avoid confusion with a different definition used in algebraic topology and the theory of manifolds. Despite widespread acceptance of the meaning of the terms boundary and frontier, they have sometimes been used to refer to other sets. For example, ''Metric Spaces'' by E. T. Copson uses the term boundary to refer to Hausdorff's border, which is defined as the intersection of a set with its boundary. Hausdorff also introduced the term residue, which is defi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smooth Function
In mathematical analysis, the smoothness of a function (mathematics), function is a property measured by the number of Continuous function, continuous Derivative (mathematics), derivatives it has over some domain, called ''differentiability class''. At the very minimum, a function could be considered smooth if it is differentiable everywhere (hence continuous). At the other end, it might also possess derivatives of all Order of derivation, orders in its Domain of a function, domain, in which case it is said to be infinitely differentiable and referred to as a C-infinity function (or C^ function). Differentiability classes Differentiability class is a classification of functions according to the properties of their derivatives. It is a measure of the highest order of derivative that exists and is continuous for a function. Consider an open set U on the real line and a function f defined on U with real values. Let ''k'' be a non-negative integer. The function f is said to be of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Domain (mathematical Analysis)
In mathematical analysis, a domain or region is a non-empty connected open set in a topological space, in particular any non-empty connected open subset of the real coordinate space or the complex coordinate space . This is a different concept than the domain of a function, though it is often used for that purpose, for example in partial differential equations and Sobolev spaces. The basic idea of a connected subset of a space dates from the 19th century, but precise definitions vary slightly from generation to generation, author to author, and edition to edition, as concepts developed and terms were translated between German, French, and English works. In English, some authors use the term ''domain'', some use the term ''region'', some use both terms interchangeably, and some define the two terms slightly differently; some avoid ambiguity by sticking with a phrase such as ''non-empty connected open subset''. One common convention is to define a ''domain'' as a connected open se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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