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Van Kampen Diagram
In the mathematical area of geometric group theory, a Van Kampen diagram (sometimes also called a Lyndon–Van Kampen diagram ) is a planar diagram used to represent the fact that a particular word in the generators of a group given by a group presentation represents the identity element in that group. History The notion of a Van Kampen diagram was introduced by Egbert van Kampen in 1933. This paper appeared in the same issue of American Journal of Mathematics as another paper of Van Kampen, where he proved what is now known as the Seifert–Van Kampen theorem. The main result of the paper on Van Kampen diagrams, now known as the ''van Kampen lemma'' can be deduced from the Seifert–Van Kampen theorem by applying the latter to the presentation complex of a group. However, Van Kampen did not notice it at the time and this fact was only made explicit much later (see, e.g.Aleksandr Yur'evich Ol'shanskii. ''Geometry of defining relations in groups.'' Translated from the 1989 Russia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematics
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] |
Free Group
In mathematics, the free group ''F''''S'' over a given set ''S'' consists of all words that can be built from members of ''S'', considering two words to be different unless their equality follows from the group axioms (e.g. ''st'' = ''suu''−1''t'', but ''s'' ≠ ''t''−1 for ''s'',''t'',''u'' ∈ ''S''). The members of ''S'' are called generators of ''F''''S'', and the number of generators is the rank of the free group. An arbitrary group ''G'' is called free if it is isomorphic to ''F''''S'' for some subset ''S'' of ''G'', that is, if there is a subset ''S'' of ''G'' such that every element of ''G'' can be written in exactly one way as a product of finitely many elements of ''S'' and their inverses (disregarding trivial variations such as ''st'' = ''suu''−1''t''). A related but different notion is a free abelian group; both notions are particular instances of a free object from universal algebra. As such, free groups are defined by their universal property. History Free ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whitehead Conjecture
The Whitehead conjecture (also known as the Whitehead asphericity conjecture) is a claim in algebraic topology. It was formulated by J. H. C. Whitehead in 1941. It states that every connected subcomplex of a two-dimensional aspherical CW complex is aspherical. A group presentation G=(S\mid R) is called ''aspherical'' if the two-dimensional CW complex K(S\mid R) associated with this presentation is aspherical or, equivalently, if \pi_2(K(S\mid R))=0. The Whitehead conjecture is equivalent to the conjecture that every sub-presentation of an aspherical presentation is aspherical. In 1997, Mladen Bestvina and Noel Brady constructed a group ''G'' so that either ''G'' is a counterexample to the Eilenberg–Ganea conjecture The Eilenberg–Ganea conjecture is a claim in algebraic topology. It was formulated by Samuel Eilenberg and Tudor Ganea in 1957, in a short, but influential paper. It states that if a group ''G'' has cohomological dimension 2, then it has ..., or there mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aspherical Space
In topology, a branch of mathematics, an aspherical space is a topological space with all homotopy groups \pi_n(X) equal to 0 when n>1. If one works with CW complexes, one can reformulate this condition: an aspherical CW complex is a CW complex whose universal cover is contractible. Indeed, contractibility of a universal cover is the same, by Whitehead's theorem, as asphericality of it. And it is an application of the exact sequence of a fibration that higher homotopy groups of a space and its universal cover are same. (By the same argument, if ''E'' is a path-connected space and p\colon E \to B is any covering map, then ''E'' is aspherical if and only if ''B'' is aspherical.) Each aspherical space ''X'' is, by definition, an Eilenberg–MacLane space of type K(G,1), where G = \pi_1(X) is the fundamental group of ''X''. Also directly from the definition, an aspherical space is a classifying space for its fundamental group (considered to be a topological group when endowed with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conjugacy Class
In mathematics, especially group theory, two elements a and b of a group are conjugate if there is an element g in the group such that b = gag^. This is an equivalence relation whose equivalence classes are called conjugacy classes. In other words, each conjugacy class is closed under b = gag^. for all elements g in the group. Members of the same conjugacy class cannot be distinguished by using only the group structure, and therefore share many properties. The study of conjugacy classes of non-abelian groups is fundamental for the study of their structure. For an abelian group, each conjugacy class is a set containing one element (singleton set). Functions that are constant for members of the same conjugacy class are called class functions. Definition Let G be a group. Two elements a, b \in G are conjugate if there exists an element g \in G such that gag^ = b, in which case b is called of a and a is called a conjugate of b. In the case of the general linear group \operatorna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annulus (mathematics)
In mathematics, an annulus (plural annuli or annuluses) is the region between two concentric circles. Informally, it is shaped like a ring or a hardware washer. The word "annulus" is borrowed from the Latin word ''anulus'' or ''annulus'' meaning 'little ring'. The adjectival form is annular (as in annular eclipse). The open annulus is topologically equivalent to both the open cylinder and the punctured plane. Area The area of an annulus is the difference in the areas of the larger circle of radius and the smaller one of radius : :A = \pi R^2 - \pi r^2 = \pi\left(R^2 - r^2\right). The area of an annulus is determined by the length of the longest line segment within the annulus, which is the chord tangent to the inner circle, in the accompanying diagram. That can be shown using the Pythagorean theorem since this line is tangent to the smaller circle and perpendicular to its radius at that point, so and are sides of a right-angled triangle with hypotenuse , and the ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homotopy Equivalence
In topology, a branch of mathematics, two continuous functions from one topological space to another are called homotopic (from grc, ὁμός "same, similar" and "place") if one can be "continuously deformed" into the other, such a deformation being called a homotopy (, ; , ) between the two functions. A notable use of homotopy is the definition of homotopy groups and cohomotopy groups, important invariants in algebraic topology. In practice, there are technical difficulties in using homotopies with certain spaces. Algebraic topologists work with compactly generated spaces, CW complexes, or spectra. Formal definition Formally, a homotopy between two continuous functions ''f'' and ''g'' from a topological space ''X'' to a topological space ''Y'' is defined to be a continuous function H: X \times ,1\to Y from the product of the space ''X'' with the unit interval , 1to ''Y'' such that H(x,0) = f(x) and H(x,1) = g(x) for all x \in X. If we think of the second p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riemannian Geometry
Riemannian geometry is the branch of differential geometry that studies Riemannian manifolds, smooth manifolds with a ''Riemannian metric'', i.e. with an inner product on the tangent space at each point that varies smoothly from point to point. This gives, in particular, local notions of angle, length of curves, surface area and volume. From those, some other global quantities can be derived by integrating local contributions. Riemannian geometry originated with the vision of Bernhard Riemann expressed in his inaugural lecture "''Ueber die Hypothesen, welche der Geometrie zu Grunde liegen''" ("On the Hypotheses on which Geometry is Based.") It is a very broad and abstract generalization of the differential geometry of surfaces in R3. Development of Riemannian geometry resulted in synthesis of diverse results concerning the geometry of surfaces and the behavior of geodesics on them, with techniques that can be applied to the study of differentiable manifolds of higher dim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minimal Surface
In mathematics, a minimal surface is a surface that locally minimizes its area. This is equivalent to having zero mean curvature (see definitions below). The term "minimal surface" is used because these surfaces originally arose as surfaces that minimized total surface area subject to some constraint. Physical models of area-minimizing minimal surfaces can be made by dipping a wire frame into a soap solution, forming a soap film, which is a minimal surface whose boundary is the wire frame. However, the term is used for more general surfaces that may self-intersect or do not have constraints. For a given constraint there may also exist several minimal surfaces with different areas (for example, see minimal surface of revolution): the standard definitions only relate to a local optimum, not a global optimum. Definitions Minimal surfaces can be defined in several equivalent ways in R3. The fact that they are equivalent serves to demonstrate how minimal surface theory lies at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monotone Function
In mathematics, a monotonic function (or monotone function) is a function between ordered sets that preserves or reverses the given order. This concept first arose in calculus, and was later generalized to the more abstract setting of order theory. In calculus and analysis In calculus, a function f defined on a subset of the real numbers with real values is called ''monotonic'' if and only if it is either entirely non-increasing, or entirely non-decreasing. That is, as per Fig. 1, a function that increases monotonically does not exclusively have to increase, it simply must not decrease. A function is called ''monotonically increasing'' (also ''increasing'' or ''non-decreasing'') if for all x and y such that x \leq y one has f\!\left(x\right) \leq f\!\left(y\right), so f preserves the order (see Figure 1). Likewise, a function is called ''monotonically decreasing'' (also ''decreasing'' or ''non-increasing'') if, whenever x \leq y, then f\!\left(x\right) \geq f\!\left(y\ri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Normal Closure (group Theory)
In group theory, the normal closure of a subset S of a Group (mathematics), group G is the smallest normal subgroup of G containing S. Properties and description Formally, if G is a group and S is a subset of G, the normal closure \operatorname_G(S) of S is the intersection of all normal subgroups of G containing S: \operatorname_G(S) = \bigcap_ N. The normal closure \operatorname_G(S) is the smallest normal subgroup of G containing S, in the sense that \operatorname_G(S) is a subset of every normal subgroup of G that contains S. The subgroup \operatorname_G(S) is Generating set of a group, generated by the set S^G=\ = \ of all Conjugacy class, conjugates of elements of S in G. Therefore one can also write \operatorname_G(S) = \. Any normal subgroup is equal to its normal closure. The conjugate closure of the empty set \varnothing is the trivial subgroup. A variety of other notations are used for the normal closure in the literature, including \langle S^G\rangle, \langle S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abelian
Abelian may refer to: Mathematics Group theory * Abelian group, a group in which the binary operation is commutative ** Category of abelian groups (Ab), has abelian groups as objects and group homomorphisms as morphisms * Metabelian group, a group where the commutator subgroup is abelian * Abelianisation Topology and number theory * Abelian variety, a complex torus that can be embedded into projective space * Abelian surface, a two-dimensional abelian variety * Abelian function, a meromorphic function on an abelian variety * Abelian integral, a function related to the indefinite integral of a differential of the first kind Other mathematics * Abelian category, in category theory, a preabelian category in which every monomorphism is a kernel and every epimorphism is a cokernel * Abelian and Tauberian theorems, in real analysis, used in the summation of divergent series * Abelian extension, in Galois theory, a field extension for which the associated Galois group is abelian * Abeli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
