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In mathematics, a duality translates concepts,
theorem In mathematics, a theorem is a statement that has been proved, or can be proved. The ''proof'' of a theorem is a logical argument that uses the inference rules of a deductive system to establish that the theorem is a logical consequence of t ...
s or mathematical structures into other concepts, theorems or structures, in a one-to-one fashion, often (but not always) by means of an
involution Involution may refer to: * Involute, a construction in the differential geometry of curves * '' Agricultural Involution: The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia'', a 1963 study of intensification of production through increased labour inpu ...
operation: if the dual of is , then the dual of is . Such involutions sometimes have fixed points, so that the dual of is itself. For example,
Desargues' theorem In projective geometry, Desargues's theorem, named after Girard Desargues, states: :Two triangles are in perspective ''axially'' if and only if they are in perspective ''centrally''. Denote the three vertices of one triangle by and , and tho ...
is self-dual in this sense under the ''standard duality in
projective geometry In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, ...
''. In mathematical contexts, ''duality'' has numerous meanings. It has been described as "a very pervasive and important concept in (modern) mathematics" and "an important general theme that has manifestations in almost every area of mathematics". Many mathematical dualities between objects of two types correspond to
pairing In mathematics, a pairing is an ''R''-bilinear map from the Cartesian product of two ''R''-modules, where the underlying ring ''R'' is commutative. Definition Let ''R'' be a commutative ring with unit, and let ''M'', ''N'' and ''L'' be ''R''-mod ...
s, bilinear functions from an object of one type and another object of the second type to some family of scalars. For instance, ''linear algebra duality'' corresponds in this way to bilinear maps from pairs of vector spaces to scalars, the ''duality between distributions and the associated
test function Distributions, also known as Schwartz distributions or generalized functions, are objects that generalize the classical notion of functions in mathematical analysis. Distributions make it possible to differentiate functions whose derivatives d ...
s'' corresponds to the pairing in which one integrates a distribution against a test function, and ''
Poincaré duality In mathematics, the Poincaré duality theorem, named after Henri Poincaré, is a basic result on the structure of the homology and cohomology groups of manifolds. It states that if ''M'' is an ''n''-dimensional oriented closed manifold (compact ...
'' corresponds similarly to
intersection number In mathematics, and especially in algebraic geometry, the intersection number generalizes the intuitive notion of counting the number of times two curves intersect to higher dimensions, multiple (more than 2) curves, and accounting properly for ta ...
, viewed as a pairing between submanifolds of a given manifold. From a category theory viewpoint, duality can also be seen as a
functor In mathematics, specifically category theory, a functor is a mapping between categories. Functors were first considered in algebraic topology, where algebraic objects (such as the fundamental group) are associated to topological spaces, and m ...
, at least in the realm of vector spaces. This functor assigns to each space its dual space, and the
pullback In mathematics, a pullback is either of two different, but related processes: precomposition and fiber-product. Its dual is a pushforward. Precomposition Precomposition with a function probably provides the most elementary notion of pullback: i ...
construction assigns to each arrow its dual .


Introductory examples

In the words of
Michael Atiyah Sir Michael Francis Atiyah (; 22 April 1929 – 11 January 2019) was a British-Lebanese mathematician specialising in geometry. His contributions include the Atiyah–Singer index theorem and co-founding topological K-theory. He was awarded th ...
, The following list of examples shows the common features of many dualities, but also indicates that the precise meaning of duality may vary from case to case.


Complement of a subset

A simple, maybe the most simple, duality arises from considering subsets of a fixed set . To any subset , the
complement A complement is something that completes something else. Complement may refer specifically to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-clas ...
consists of all those elements in that are not contained in . It is again a subset of . Taking the complement has the following properties: * Applying it twice gives back the original set, i.e., . This is referred to by saying that the operation of taking the complement is an ''
involution Involution may refer to: * Involute, a construction in the differential geometry of curves * '' Agricultural Involution: The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia'', a 1963 study of intensification of production through increased labour inpu ...
''. * An inclusion of sets is turned into an inclusion in the ''opposite'' direction . * Given two subsets and of , is contained in
if and only if In logic and related fields such as mathematics and philosophy, "if and only if" (shortened as "iff") is a biconditional logical connective between statements, where either both statements are true or both are false. The connective is b ...
is contained in . This duality appears in
topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ...
as a duality between
open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' ( ...
and closed subsets of some fixed topological space : a subset of is closed if and only if its complement in is open. Because of this, many theorems about closed sets are dual to theorems about open sets. For example, any union of open sets is open, so dually, any intersection of closed sets is closed. The interior of a set is the largest open set contained in it, and the closure of the set is the smallest closed set that contains it. Because of the duality, the complement of the interior of any set is equal to the closure of the complement of .


Dual cone

A duality in
geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...
is provided by the
dual cone Dual or Duals may refer to: Paired/two things * Dual (mathematics), a notion of paired concepts that mirror one another ** Dual (category theory), a formalization of mathematical duality *** see more cases in :Duality theories * Dual (grammatica ...
construction. Given a set C of points in the plane \mathbb R^2 (or more generally points in the dual cone is defined as the set C^* \subseteq \mathbb R^2 consisting of those points (x_1, x_2) satisfying x_1 c_1 + x_2 c_2 \ge 0 for all points (c_1, c_2) in C, as illustrated in the diagram. Unlike for the complement of sets mentioned above, it is not in general true that applying the dual cone construction twice gives back the original set C. Instead, C^ is the smallest cone containing C which may be bigger than C. Therefore this duality is weaker than the one above, in that * Applying the operation twice gives back a possibly bigger set: for all C, C is contained in C^. (For some C, namely the cones, the two are actually equal.) The other two properties carry over without change: * It is still true that an inclusion C \subseteq D is turned into an inclusion in the opposite direction (D^* \subseteq C^*). * Given two subsets C and D of the plane, C is contained in D^* if and only if D is contained in C^*.


Dual vector space

A very important example of a duality arises in
linear algebra Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning linear equations such as: :a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n=b, linear maps such as: :(x_1, \ldots, x_n) \mapsto a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n, and their representations in vector spaces and through matrices ...
by associating to any
vector space In mathematics and physics, a vector space (also called a linear space) is a set whose elements, often called '' vectors'', may be added together and multiplied ("scaled") by numbers called ''scalars''. Scalars are often real numbers, but can ...
its
dual vector space In mathematics, any vector space ''V'' has a corresponding dual vector space (or just dual space for short) consisting of all linear forms on ''V'', together with the vector space structure of pointwise addition and scalar multiplication by const ...
. Its elements are the
linear functional In mathematics, a linear form (also known as a linear functional, a one-form, or a covector) is a linear map from a vector space to its field of scalars (often, the real numbers or the complex numbers). If is a vector space over a field , the ...
s \varphi: V \to K, where is the
field Field may refer to: Expanses of open ground * Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes * Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport * Battlefield * Lawn, an area of mowed grass * Meadow, a grass ...
over which is defined. The three properties of the dual cone carry over to this type of duality by replacing subsets of \mathbb R^2 by vector space and inclusions of such subsets by linear maps. That is: * Applying the operation of taking the dual vector space twice gives another vector space . There is always a map . For some , namely precisely the
finite-dimensional vector space In mathematics, the dimension of a vector space ''V'' is the cardinality (i.e., the number of vectors) of a basis of ''V'' over its base field. p. 44, §2.36 It is sometimes called Hamel dimension (after Georg Hamel) or algebraic dimension to di ...
s, this map is an
isomorphism In mathematics, an isomorphism is a structure-preserving mapping between two structures of the same type that can be reversed by an inverse mapping. Two mathematical structures are isomorphic if an isomorphism exists between them. The word i ...
. * A linear map gives rise to a map in the opposite direction (). * Given two vector spaces and , the maps from to correspond to the maps from to . A particular feature of this duality is that and are isomorphic for certain objects, namely finite-dimensional vector spaces. However, this is in a sense a lucky coincidence, for giving such an isomorphism requires a certain choice, for example the choice of a
basis Basis may refer to: Finance and accounting * Adjusted basis, the net cost of an asset after adjusting for various tax-related items *Basis point, 0.01%, often used in the context of interest rates * Basis trading, a trading strategy consisting ...
of . This is also true in the case if is a Hilbert space, ''via'' the
Riesz representation theorem :''This article describes a theorem concerning the dual of a Hilbert space. For the theorems relating linear functionals to Measure (mathematics), measures, see Riesz–Markov–Kakutani representation theorem.'' The Riesz representation theorem, ...
.


Galois theory

In all the dualities discussed before, the dual of an object is of the same kind as the object itself. For example, the dual of a vector space is again a vector space. Many duality statements are not of this kind. Instead, such dualities reveal a close relation between objects of seemingly different nature. One example of such a more general duality is from
Galois theory In mathematics, Galois theory, originally introduced by Évariste Galois, provides a connection between field theory and group theory. This connection, the fundamental theorem of Galois theory, allows reducing certain problems in field theory to ...
. For a fixed
Galois extension In mathematics, a Galois extension is an algebraic field extension ''E''/''F'' that is normal and separable; or equivalently, ''E''/''F'' is algebraic, and the field fixed by the automorphism group Aut(''E''/''F'') is precisely the base field ' ...
, one may associate the
Galois group In mathematics, in the area of abstract algebra known as Galois theory, the Galois group of a certain type of field extension is a specific group associated with the field extension. The study of field extensions and their relationship to the po ...
to any intermediate field (i.e., ). This group is a subgroup of the Galois group . Conversely, to any such subgroup there is the fixed field consisting of elements fixed by the elements in . Compared to the above, this duality has the following features: * An extension of intermediate fields gives rise to an inclusion of Galois groups in the opposite direction: . * Associating to and to are inverse to each other. This is the content of the
fundamental theorem of Galois theory In mathematics, the fundamental theorem of Galois theory is a result that describes the structure of certain types of field extensions in relation to groups. It was proved by Évariste Galois in his development of Galois theory. In its most basi ...
.


Order-reversing dualities

Given a
poset In mathematics, especially order theory, a partially ordered set (also poset) formalizes and generalizes the intuitive concept of an ordering, sequencing, or arrangement of the elements of a set. A poset consists of a set together with a binary r ...
(short for partially ordered set; i.e., a set that has a notion of ordering but in which two elements cannot necessarily be placed in order relative to each other), the dual poset comprises the same ground set but the
converse relation In mathematics, the converse relation, or transpose, of a binary relation is the relation that occurs when the order of the elements is switched in the relation. For example, the converse of the relation 'child of' is the relation 'parent&n ...
. Familiar examples of dual partial orders include * the subset and superset relations and on any collection of sets, such as the subsets of a fixed set . This gives rise to the first example of a duality mentioned above. * the ''divides'' and ''multiple-of'' relations on the
integers An integer is the number zero (), a positive natural number (, , , etc.) or a negative integer with a minus sign ( −1, −2, −3, etc.). The negative numbers are the additive inverses of the corresponding positive numbers. In the language ...
. * the ''descendant-of'' and ''ancestor-of'' relations on the set of humans. A ''duality transform'' is an involutive antiautomorphism of a
partially ordered set In mathematics, especially order theory, a partially ordered set (also poset) formalizes and generalizes the intuitive concept of an ordering, sequencing, or arrangement of the elements of a set. A poset consists of a set together with a bina ...
, that is, an order-reversing involution . In several important cases these simple properties determine the transform uniquely up to some simple symmetries. For example, if , are two duality transforms then their
composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...
is an order automorphism of ; thus, any two duality transforms differ only by an order automorphism. For example, all order automorphisms of a
power set In mathematics, the power set (or powerset) of a set is the set of all subsets of , including the empty set and itself. In axiomatic set theory (as developed, for example, in the ZFC axioms), the existence of the power set of any set is post ...
are induced by permutations of . A concept defined for a partial order will correspond to a ''dual concept'' on the dual poset . For instance, a
minimal element In mathematics, especially in order theory, a maximal element of a subset ''S'' of some preordered set is an element of ''S'' that is not smaller than any other element in ''S''. A minimal element of a subset ''S'' of some preordered set is defin ...
of will be a maximal element of : minimality and maximality are dual concepts in order theory. Other pairs of dual concepts are
upper and lower bounds In mathematics, particularly in order theory, an upper bound or majorant of a subset of some preordered set is an element of that is greater than or equal to every element of . Dually, a lower bound or minorant of is defined to be an eleme ...
,
lower set In mathematics, an upper set (also called an upward closed set, an upset, or an isotone set in ''X'') of a partially ordered set (X, \leq) is a subset S \subseteq X with the following property: if ''s'' is in ''S'' and if ''x'' in ''X'' is larger ...
s and
upper set In mathematics, an upper set (also called an upward closed set, an upset, or an isotone set in ''X'') of a partially ordered set (X, \leq) is a subset S \subseteq X with the following property: if ''s'' is in ''S'' and if ''x'' in ''X'' is larger ...
s, and ideals and
filters Filter, filtering or filters may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming * Filter (software), a computer program to process a data stream * Filter (video), a software component tha ...
. In topology,
open set In mathematics, open sets are a generalization of open intervals in the real line. In a metric space (a set along with a distance defined between any two points), open sets are the sets that, with every point , contain all points that are su ...
s and closed sets are dual concepts: the complement of an open set is closed, and vice versa. In
matroid In combinatorics, a branch of mathematics, a matroid is a structure that abstracts and generalizes the notion of linear independence in vector spaces. There are many equivalent ways to define a matroid axiomatically, the most significant being ...
theory, the family of sets complementary to the independent sets of a given matroid themselves form another matroid, called the
dual matroid In matroid theory, the dual of a matroid M is another matroid M^\ast that has the same elements as M, and in which a set is independent if and only if M has a basis set disjoint from it... Matroid duals go back to the original paper by Hassler ...
.


Dimension-reversing dualities

There are many distinct but interrelated dualities in which geometric or topological objects correspond to other objects of the same type, but with a reversal of the dimensions of the features of the objects. A classical example of this is the duality of the
Platonic solid In geometry, a Platonic solid is a convex, regular polyhedron in three-dimensional Euclidean space. Being a regular polyhedron means that the faces are congruent (identical in shape and size) regular polygons (all angles congruent and all e ...
s, in which the cube and the octahedron form a dual pair, the dodecahedron and the icosahedron form a dual pair, and the tetrahedron is self-dual. The
dual polyhedron In geometry, every polyhedron is associated with a second dual structure, where the vertices of one correspond to the faces of the other, and the edges between pairs of vertices of one correspond to the edges between pairs of faces of the other. ...
of any of these polyhedra may be formed as the convex hull of the center points of each face of the primal polyhedron, so the vertices of the dual correspond one-for-one with the faces of the primal. Similarly, each edge of the dual corresponds to an edge of the primal, and each face of the dual corresponds to a vertex of the primal. These correspondences are incidence-preserving: if two parts of the primal polyhedron touch each other, so do the corresponding two parts of the
dual polyhedron In geometry, every polyhedron is associated with a second dual structure, where the vertices of one correspond to the faces of the other, and the edges between pairs of vertices of one correspond to the edges between pairs of faces of the other. ...
. More generally, using the concept of
polar reciprocation In geometry, a pole and polar are respectively a point and a line that have a unique reciprocal relationship with respect to a given conic section. Polar reciprocation in a given circle is the transformation of each point in the plane into it ...
, any
convex polyhedron A convex polytope is a special case of a polytope, having the additional property that it is also a convex set contained in the n-dimensional Euclidean space \mathbb^n. Most texts. use the term "polytope" for a bounded convex polytope, and the wo ...
, or more generally any convex polytope, corresponds to a
dual polyhedron In geometry, every polyhedron is associated with a second dual structure, where the vertices of one correspond to the faces of the other, and the edges between pairs of vertices of one correspond to the edges between pairs of faces of the other. ...
or dual polytope, with an -dimensional feature of an -dimensional polytope corresponding to an -dimensional feature of the dual polytope. The incidence-preserving nature of the duality is reflected in the fact that the
face lattice A convex polytope is a special case of a polytope, having the additional property that it is also a convex set contained in the n-dimensional Euclidean space \mathbb^n. Most texts. use the term "polytope" for a bounded convex polytope, and the wo ...
s of the primal and dual polyhedra or polytopes are themselves order-theoretic duals. Duality of polytopes and order-theoretic duality are both
involution Involution may refer to: * Involute, a construction in the differential geometry of curves * '' Agricultural Involution: The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia'', a 1963 study of intensification of production through increased labour inpu ...
s: the dual polytope of the dual polytope of any polytope is the original polytope, and reversing all order-relations twice returns to the original order. Choosing a different center of polarity leads to geometrically different dual polytopes, but all have the same combinatorial structure. From any three-dimensional polyhedron, one can form a planar graph, the graph of its vertices and edges. The dual polyhedron has a
dual graph In the mathematical discipline of graph theory, the dual graph of a plane graph is a graph that has a vertex for each face of . The dual graph has an edge for each pair of faces in that are separated from each other by an edge, and a self-lo ...
, a graph with one vertex for each face of the polyhedron and with one edge for every two adjacent faces. The same concept of planar graph duality may be generalized to graphs that are drawn in the plane but that do not come from a three-dimensional polyhedron, or more generally to
graph embedding In topological graph theory, an embedding (also spelled imbedding) of a graph G on a surface \Sigma is a representation of G on \Sigma in which points of \Sigma are associated with vertices and simple arcs (homeomorphic images of ,1/math> ...
s on surfaces of higher genus: one may draw a dual graph by placing one vertex within each region bounded by a cycle of edges in the embedding, and drawing an edge connecting any two regions that share a boundary edge. An important example of this type comes from computational geometry: the duality for any finite set of points in the plane between the
Delaunay triangulation In mathematics and computational geometry, a Delaunay triangulation (also known as a Delone triangulation) for a given set P of discrete points in a general position is a triangulation DT(P) such that no point in P is inside the circumcircle o ...
of and the
Voronoi diagram In mathematics, a Voronoi diagram is a partition of a plane into regions close to each of a given set of objects. In the simplest case, these objects are just finitely many points in the plane (called seeds, sites, or generators). For each seed ...
of . As with dual polyhedra and dual polytopes, the duality of graphs on surfaces is a dimension-reversing involution: each vertex in the primal embedded graph corresponds to a region of the dual embedding, each edge in the primal is crossed by an edge in the dual, and each region of the primal corresponds to a vertex of the dual. The dual graph depends on how the primal graph is embedded: different planar embeddings of a single graph may lead to different dual graphs.
Matroid duality In combinatorics, a branch of mathematics, a matroid is a structure that abstracts and generalizes the notion of linear independence in vector spaces. There are many equivalent ways to define a matroid axiomatically, the most significant being ...
is an algebraic extension of planar graph duality, in the sense that the dual matroid of the graphic matroid of a planar graph is isomorphic to the graphic matroid of the dual graph. A kind of geometric duality also occurs in
optimization theory Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criterion, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfi ...
, but not one that reverses dimensions. A
linear program Linear programming (LP), also called linear optimization, is a method to achieve the best outcome (such as maximum profit or lowest cost) in a mathematical model whose requirements are represented by linear relationships. Linear programming i ...
may be specified by a system of real variables (the coordinates for a point in Euclidean space a system of linear constraints (specifying that the point lie in a
halfspace Half-space may refer to: * Half-space (geometry), either of the two parts into which a plane divides Euclidean space * Half-space (punctuation), a spacing character half the width of a regular space * (Poincaré) Half-space model, a model of 3-di ...
; the intersection of these halfspaces is a convex polytope, the feasible region of the program), and a linear function (what to optimize). Every linear program has a
dual problem In mathematical optimization theory, duality or the duality principle is the principle that optimization problems may be viewed from either of two perspectives, the primal problem or the dual problem. If the primal is a minimization problem then t ...
with the same optimal solution, but the variables in the dual problem correspond to constraints in the primal problem and vice versa.


Duality in logic and set theory

In logic, functions or relations and are considered dual if , where ¬ is logical negation. The basic duality of this type is the duality of the ∃ and ∀ quantifiers in classical logic. These are dual because and are equivalent for all predicates in classical logic: if there exists an for which fails to hold, then it is false that holds for all (but the converse does not hold constructively). From this fundamental logical duality follow several others: * A formula is said to be ''
satisfiable In mathematical logic, a formula is ''satisfiable'' if it is true under some assignment of values to its variables. For example, the formula x+3=y is satisfiable because it is true when x=3 and y=6, while the formula x+1=x is not satisfiable over ...
'' in a certain model if there are assignments to its
free variable In mathematics, and in other disciplines involving formal languages, including mathematical logic and computer science, a free variable is a notation (symbol) that specifies places in an expression where substitution may take place and is not ...
s that render it true; it is ''valid'' if ''every'' assignment to its free variables makes it true. Satisfiability and validity are dual because the invalid formulas are precisely those whose negations are satisfiable, and the unsatisfiable formulas are those whose negations are valid. This can be viewed as a special case of the previous item, with the quantifiers ranging over interpretations. * In classical logic, the and operators are dual in this sense, because and are equivalent. This means that for every theorem of classical logic there is an equivalent dual theorem.
De Morgan's laws In propositional logic and Boolean algebra, De Morgan's laws, also known as De Morgan's theorem, are a pair of transformation rules that are both valid rules of inference. They are named after Augustus De Morgan, a 19th-century British math ...
are examples. More generally, . The left side is true if and only if , and the right side if and only if ¬∃''i''.''x''''i''. * In modal logic, means that the proposition is "necessarily" true, and that is "possibly" true. Most interpretations of modal logic assign dual meanings to these two operators. For example in
Kripke semantics Kripke semantics (also known as relational semantics or frame semantics, and often confused with possible world semantics) is a formal semantics for non-classical logic systems created in the late 1950s and early 1960s by Saul Kripke and André Jo ...
, " is possibly true" means "there exists some world such that is true in ", while " is necessarily true" means "for all worlds , is true in ". The duality of and then follows from the analogous duality of and . Other dual modal operators behave similarly. For example,
temporal logic In logic, temporal logic is any system of rules and symbolism for representing, and reasoning about, propositions qualified in terms of time (for example, "I am ''always'' hungry", "I will ''eventually'' be hungry", or "I will be hungry ''until'' I ...
has operators denoting "will be true at some time in the future" and "will be true at all times in the future" which are similarly dual. Other analogous dualities follow from these: * Set-theoretic union and intersection are dual under the
set complement In set theory, the complement of a set , often denoted by (or ), is the set of elements not in . When all sets in the universe, i.e. all sets under consideration, are considered to be members of a given set , the absolute complement of is th ...
operator . That is, , and more generally, . This follows from the duality of and : an element is a member of if and only if , and is a member of if and only if .


Dual objects

A group of dualities can be described by endowing, for any mathematical object , the set of morphisms into some fixed object , with a structure similar to that of . This is sometimes called
internal Hom In mathematics, specifically in category theory, hom-sets (i.e. sets of morphisms between objects) give rise to important functors to the category of sets. These functors are called hom-functors and have numerous applications in category theory ...
. In general, this yields a true duality only for specific choices of , in which case is referred to as the ''dual'' of . There is always a map from to the ''bidual'', that is to say, the dual of the dual, X \to X^ := (X^*)^* = \operatorname(\operatorname(X, D), D). It assigns to some the map that associates to any map (i.e., an element in ) the value . Depending on the concrete duality considered and also depending on the object , this map may or may not be an isomorphism.


Dual vector spaces revisited

The construction of the dual vector space V^* = \operatorname(V, K) mentioned in the introduction is an example of such a duality. Indeed, the set of morphisms, i.e.,
linear map In mathematics, and more specifically in linear algebra, a linear map (also called a linear mapping, linear transformation, vector space homomorphism, or in some contexts linear function) is a mapping V \to W between two vector spaces that pr ...
s, forms a vector space in its own right. The map mentioned above is always injective. It is surjective, and therefore an isomorphism, if and only if the
dimension In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coor ...
of is finite. This fact characterizes finite-dimensional vector spaces without referring to a basis.


Isomorphisms of and and inner product spaces

A vector space is isomorphic to precisely if is finite-dimensional. In this case, such an isomorphism is equivalent to a non-degenerate bilinear form \varphi: V \times V \to K In this case is called an
inner product space In mathematics, an inner product space (or, rarely, a Hausdorff pre-Hilbert space) is a real vector space or a complex vector space with an operation called an inner product. The inner product of two vectors in the space is a scalar, often ...
. For example, if is the field of
real Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (2010) ...
or
complex number In mathematics, a complex number is an element of a number system that extends the real numbers with a specific element denoted , called the imaginary unit and satisfying the equation i^= -1; every complex number can be expressed in the fo ...
s, any
positive definite In mathematics, positive definiteness is a property of any object to which a bilinear form or a sesquilinear form may be naturally associated, which is positive-definite. See, in particular: * Positive-definite bilinear form * Positive-definite f ...
bilinear form gives rise to such an isomorphism. In
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 ...
, is taken to be the
tangent space In mathematics, the tangent space of a manifold generalizes to higher dimensions the notion of '' tangent planes'' to surfaces in three dimensions and ''tangent lines'' to curves in two dimensions. In the context of physics the tangent space to a ...
of a manifold and such positive bilinear forms are called
Riemannian metric In differential geometry, a Riemannian manifold or Riemannian space , so called after the German mathematician Bernhard Riemann, is a real, smooth manifold ''M'' equipped with a positive-definite inner product ''g'p'' on the tangent space '' ...
s. Their purpose is to measure angles and distances. Thus, duality is a foundational basis of this branch of geometry. Another application of inner product spaces is the
Hodge star In mathematics, the Hodge star operator or Hodge star is a linear map defined on the exterior algebra of a finite-dimensional oriented vector space endowed with a nondegenerate symmetric bilinear form. Applying the operator to an element of the ...
which provides a correspondence between the elements of the
exterior algebra In mathematics, the exterior algebra, or Grassmann algebra, named after Hermann Grassmann, is an algebra that uses the exterior product or wedge product as its multiplication. In mathematics, the exterior product or wedge product of vectors is a ...
. For an -dimensional vector space, the Hodge star operator maps -forms to -forms. This can be used to formulate
Maxwell's equation Maxwell's equations, or Maxwell–Heaviside equations, are a set of coupled partial differential equations that, together with the Lorentz force law, form the foundation of classical electromagnetism, classical optics, and electric circuits. ...
s. In this guise, the duality inherent in the inner product space exchanges the role of magnetic and electric fields.


Duality in projective geometry

In some
projective plane In mathematics, a projective plane is a geometric structure that extends the concept of a plane. In the ordinary Euclidean plane, two lines typically intersect in a single point, but there are some pairs of lines (namely, parallel lines) that d ...
s, it is possible to find
geometric transformation In mathematics, a geometric transformation is any bijection of a set to itself (or to another such set) with some salient geometrical underpinning. More specifically, it is a function whose domain and range are sets of points — most often b ...
s that map each point of the projective plane to a line, and each line of the projective plane to a point, in an incidence-preserving way. For such planes there arises a general principle of duality in projective planes: given any theorem in such a plane projective geometry, exchanging the terms "point" and "line" everywhere results in a new, equally valid theorem. A simple example is that the statement "two points determine a unique line, the line passing through these points" has the dual statement that "two lines determine a unique point, the
intersection point In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, their ...
of these two lines". For further examples, see Dual theorems. A conceptual explanation of this phenomenon in some planes (notably field planes) is offered by the dual vector space. In fact, the points in the projective plane \mathbb^2 correspond to one-dimensional subvector spaces V \subset \mathbb R^3 while the lines in the projective plane correspond to subvector spaces W of dimension 2. The duality in such projective geometries stems from assigning to a one-dimensional V the subspace of (\mathbb R^3)^* consisting of those linear maps f: \mathbb R^3 \to \mathbb R which satisfy f (V) = 0. As a consequence of the dimension formula of
linear algebra Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning linear equations such as: :a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n=b, linear maps such as: :(x_1, \ldots, x_n) \mapsto a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n, and their representations in vector spaces and through matrices ...
, this space is two-dimensional, i.e., it corresponds to a line in the projective plane associated to (\mathbb R^3)^*. The (positive definite) bilinear form \langle \cdot , \cdot \rangle : \R^3 \times \R^3 \to \R, \langle x , y \rangle = \sum_^3 x_i y_i yields an identification of this projective plane with the \mathbb^2. Concretely, the duality assigns to V \subset \mathbb R^3 its orthogonal \left\. The explicit formulas in duality in projective geometry arise by means of this identification.


Topological vector spaces and Hilbert spaces

In the realm of
topological vector space In mathematics, a topological vector space (also called a linear topological space and commonly abbreviated TVS or t.v.s.) is one of the basic structures investigated in functional analysis. A topological vector space is a vector space that is als ...
s, a similar construction exists, replacing the dual by the topological dual vector space. There are several notions of topological dual space, and each of them gives rise to a certain concept of duality. A topological vector space X that is canonically isomorphic to its bidual X'' is called a
reflexive space In the area of mathematics known as functional analysis, a reflexive space is a locally convex topological vector space (TVS) for which the canonical evaluation map from X into its bidual (which is the strong dual of the strong dual of X) is an i ...
: X\cong X''. Examples: * As in the finite-dimensional case, on each Hilbert space its
inner product In mathematics, an inner product space (or, rarely, a Hausdorff pre-Hilbert space) is a real vector space or a complex vector space with an operation called an inner product. The inner product of two vectors in the space is a scalar, often ...
defines a map H \to H^*, v \mapsto (w \mapsto \langle w,v \rangle), which is a bijection due to the
Riesz representation theorem :''This article describes a theorem concerning the dual of a Hilbert space. For the theorems relating linear functionals to Measure (mathematics), measures, see Riesz–Markov–Kakutani representation theorem.'' The Riesz representation theorem, ...
. As a corollary, every Hilbert space is a
reflexive Banach space In the area of mathematics known as functional analysis, a reflexive space is a locally convex topological vector space (TVS) for which the canonical evaluation map from X into its bidual (which is the strong dual of the strong dual of X) is an iso ...
. * The dual normed space of an -space is where provided that , but the dual of is bigger than . Hence is not reflexive. * Distributions are linear functionals on appropriate spaces of functions. They are an important technical means in the theory of partial differential equations (PDE): instead of solving a PDE directly, it may be easier to first solve the PDE in the "weak sense", i.e., find a distribution that satisfies the PDE and, second, to show that the solution must, in fact, be a function. All the standard spaces of distributions — '(U), '(\R^n), ^\infty(U)' — are reflexive locally convex spaces.


Further dual objects

The
dual lattice In the theory of lattices, the dual lattice is a construction analogous to that of a dual vector space. In certain respects, the geometry of the dual lattice of a lattice L is the reciprocal of the geometry of L , a perspective which underlie ...
of a
lattice Lattice may refer to: Arts and design * Latticework, an ornamental criss-crossed framework, an arrangement of crossing laths or other thin strips of material * Lattice (music), an organized grid model of pitch ratios * Lattice (pastry), an orna ...
is given by \operatorname (L, \mathbf), which is used in the construction of
toric varieties In algebraic geometry, a toric variety or torus embedding is an algebraic variety containing an algebraic torus as an open dense subset, such that the action of the torus on itself extends to the whole variety. Some authors also require it to be no ...
. The
Pontryagin dual In mathematics, Pontryagin duality is a duality between locally compact abelian groups that allows generalizing Fourier transform to all such groups, which include the circle group (the multiplicative group of complex numbers of modulus one), ...
of locally compact
topological group In mathematics, topological groups are logically the combination of groups and topological spaces, i.e. they are groups and topological spaces at the same time, such that the continuity condition for the group operations connects these two st ...
s ''G'' is given by \operatorname (G, S^1), continuous
group homomorphisms In mathematics, given two groups, (''G'', ∗) and (''H'', ·), a group homomorphism from (''G'', ∗) to (''H'', ·) is a function ''h'' : ''G'' → ''H'' such that for all ''u'' and ''v'' in ''G'' it holds that : h(u*v) = h(u) \cdot h(v) ...
with values in the circle (with multiplication of complex numbers as group operation).


Dual categories


Opposite category and adjoint functors

In another group of dualities, the objects of one theory are translated into objects of another theory and the maps between objects in the first theory are translated into morphisms in the second theory, but with direction reversed. Using the parlance of category theory, this amounts to a
contravariant functor In mathematics, specifically category theory, a functor is a mapping between categories. Functors were first considered in algebraic topology, where algebraic objects (such as the fundamental group) are associated to topological spaces, and ...
between two
categories Category, plural categories, may refer to: Philosophy and general uses *Categorization, categories in cognitive science, information science and generally *Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) *Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) * ...
and : which for any two objects ''X'' and ''Y'' of ''C'' gives a map That functor may or may not be an
equivalence of categories In category theory, a branch of abstract mathematics, an equivalence of categories is a relation between two categories that establishes that these categories are "essentially the same". There are numerous examples of categorical equivalences f ...
. There are various situations, where such a functor is an equivalence between the
opposite category In category theory, a branch of mathematics, the opposite category or dual category ''C''op of a given category ''C'' is formed by reversing the morphisms, i.e. interchanging the source and target of each morphism. Doing the reversal twice yields t ...
of , and . Using a duality of this type, every statement in the first theory can be translated into a "dual" statement in the second theory, where the direction of all arrows has to be reversed. Therefore, any duality between categories and is formally the same as an equivalence between and ( and ). However, in many circumstances the opposite categories have no inherent meaning, which makes duality an additional, separate concept. A category that is equivalent to its dual is called ''self-dual''. An example of self-dual category is the category of Hilbert spaces. Many category-theoretic notions come in pairs in the sense that they correspond to each other while considering the opposite category. For example, Cartesian products and
disjoint union In mathematics, a disjoint union (or discriminated union) of a family of sets (A_i : i\in I) is a set A, often denoted by \bigsqcup_ A_i, with an injection of each A_i into A, such that the images of these injections form a partition of A ( ...
s of sets are dual to each other in the sense that and for any set . This is a particular case of a more general duality phenomenon, under which
limits Limit or Limits may refer to: Arts and media * ''Limit'' (manga), a manga by Keiko Suenobu * ''Limit'' (film), a South Korean film * Limit (music), a way to characterize harmony * "Limit" (song), a 2016 single by Luna Sea * "Limits", a 2019 ...
in a category correspond to
colimit In category theory, a branch of mathematics, the abstract notion of a limit captures the essential properties of universal constructions such as products, pullbacks and inverse limits. The dual notion of a colimit generalizes constructions such ...
s in the opposite category ; further concrete examples of this are
epimorphism In category theory, an epimorphism (also called an epic morphism or, colloquially, an epi) is a morphism ''f'' : ''X'' → ''Y'' that is right-cancellative in the sense that, for all objects ''Z'' and all morphisms , : g_1 \circ f = g_2 \circ f ...
s vs.
monomorphism In the context of abstract algebra or universal algebra, a monomorphism is an injective homomorphism. A monomorphism from to is often denoted with the notation X\hookrightarrow Y. In the more general setting of category theory, a monomorphism ...
, in particular factor modules (or groups etc.) vs. submodules, direct products vs. Direct sum of groups, direct sums (also called coproducts to emphasize the duality aspect). Therefore, in some cases, proofs of certain statements can be halved, using such a duality phenomenon. Further notions displaying related by such a categorical duality are projective module, projective and injective modules in homological algebra, fibrations and cofibrations in topology and more generally model category, model categories. Two functors and are adjoint functor, adjoint if for all objects ''c'' in ''C'' and ''d'' in ''D'' in a natural way. Actually, the correspondence of limits and colimits is an example of adjoints, since there is an adjunction between the colimit functor that assigns to any diagram in indexed by some category its colimit and the diagonal functor that maps any object of to the constant diagram which has at all places. Dually,


Spaces and functions

Gelfand duality is a duality between commutative C*-algebras ''A'' and compact space, compact Hausdorff spaces ''X'' is the same: it assigns to ''X'' the space of continuous functions (which vanish at infinity) from ''X'' to C, the complex numbers. Conversely, the space ''X'' can be reconstructed from ''A'' as the spectrum of ''A''. Both Gelfand and Pontryagin duality can be deduced in a largely formal, category-theoretic way. In a similar vein there is a duality in algebraic geometry between commutative rings and affine schemes: to every commutative ring ''A'' there is an affine spectrum, spectrum of a ring, Spec ''A''. Conversely, given an affine scheme ''S'', one gets back a ring by taking global sections of the structure sheaf O''S''. In addition, ring homomorphisms are in one-to-one correspondence with morphisms of affine schemes, thereby there is an equivalence : (Commutative rings)op ≅ (affine schemes) Affine schemes are the local building blocks of scheme (mathematics), schemes. The previous result therefore tells that the local theory of schemes is the same as commutative algebra, the study of commutative rings. Noncommutative geometry draws inspiration from Gelfand duality and studies noncommutative C*-algebras as if they were functions on some imagined space. Tannaka–Krein duality is a non-commutative analogue of Pontryagin duality.


Galois connections

In a number of situations, the two categories which are dual to each other are actually arising from partially ordered sets, i.e., there is some notion of an object "being smaller" than another one. A duality that respects the orderings in question is known as a Galois connection. An example is the standard duality in
Galois theory In mathematics, Galois theory, originally introduced by Évariste Galois, provides a connection between field theory and group theory. This connection, the fundamental theorem of Galois theory, allows reducing certain problems in field theory to ...
mentioned in the introduction: a bigger field extension corresponds—under the mapping that assigns to any extension ''L'' ⊃ ''K'' (inside some fixed bigger field Ω) the Galois group Gal (Ω / ''L'') —to a smaller group. The collection of all open subsets of a topological space ''X'' forms a complete Heyting algebra. There is a duality, known as Stone duality, connecting sober spaces and spatial locale (mathematics), locales. * Birkhoff's representation theorem relating distributive lattices and partial orders


Pontryagin duality

Pontryagin duality gives a duality on the category of locally compact abelian groups: given any such group ''G'', the character group :χ(''G'') = Hom (''G'', ''S''1) given by continuous group homomorphisms from ''G'' to the circle group ''S''1 can be endowed with the compact-open topology. Pontryagin duality states that the character group is again locally compact abelian and that :''G'' ≅ χ(χ(''G'')). Moreover, discrete groups correspond to compact group, compact abelian groups; finite groups correspond to finite groups. On the one hand, Pontryagin is a special case of Gelfand duality. On the other hand, it is the conceptual reason of Fourier analysis, see below.


Analytic dualities

In mathematical analysis, analysis, problems are frequently solved by passing to the dual description of functions and operators. Fourier transform switches between functions on a vector space and its dual: \widehat(\xi) := \int_^\infty f(x)\ e^ \, dx, and conversely f(x) = \int_^\infty \widehat(\xi)\ e^ \, d\xi. If ''f'' is an Lebesgue integration, ''L''2-function on R or R''N'', say, then so is \widehat and f(-x) = \widehat(x). Moreover, the transform interchanges operations of multiplication and convolution on the corresponding function spaces. A conceptual explanation of the Fourier transform is obtained by the aforementioned Pontryagin duality, applied to the locally compact groups R (or R''N'' etc.): any character of R is given by ξ ↦ ''e''−2''πixξ''. The dualizing character of Fourier transform has many other manifestations, for example, in alternative descriptions of quantum mechanics, quantum mechanical systems in terms of coordinate and momentum representations. * Laplace transform is similar to Fourier transform and interchanges linear operator, operators of multiplication by polynomials with constant coefficient linear differential operators. * Legendre transformation is an important analytic duality which switches between velocity, velocities in Lagrangian mechanics and momentum, momenta in Hamiltonian mechanics.


Homology and cohomology

Theorems showing that certain objects of interest are the dual spaces (in the sense of linear algebra) of other objects of interest are often called ''dualities''. Many of these dualities are given by a bilinear function, bilinear pairing of two ''K''-vector spaces :''A'' ⊗ ''B'' → ''K''. For perfect pairings, there is, therefore, an isomorphism of ''A'' to the dual vector space, dual of ''B''.


Poincaré duality

Poincaré duality In mathematics, the Poincaré duality theorem, named after Henri Poincaré, is a basic result on the structure of the homology and cohomology groups of manifolds. It states that if ''M'' is an ''n''-dimensional oriented closed manifold (compact ...
of a smooth compact complex manifold ''X'' is given by a pairing of singular cohomology with C-coefficients (equivalently, sheaf cohomology of the constant sheaf C) :H''i''(X) ⊗ H2''n''−''i''(X) → C, where ''n'' is the (complex) dimension of ''X''. Poincaré duality can also be expressed as a relation of singular homology and de Rham cohomology, by asserting that the map :(\gamma, \omega) \mapsto \int_\gamma \omega (integrating a differential ''k''-form over an 2''n''−''k''-(real) -dimensional cycle) is a perfect pairing. Poincaré duality also reverses dimensions; it corresponds to the fact that, if a topological manifold is represented as a cell complex, then the dual of the complex (a higher-dimensional generalization of the planar graph dual) represents the same manifold. In Poincaré duality, this homeomorphism is reflected in an isomorphism of the ''k''th homology (mathematics), homology group and the (''n'' − ''k'')th cohomology group.


Duality in algebraic and arithmetic geometry

The same duality pattern holds for a smooth projective variety over a separably closed field, using l-adic cohomology with Q-coefficients instead. This is further generalized to possibly singular variety, singular varieties, using intersection cohomology instead, a duality called Verdier duality. Serre duality or coherent duality are similar to the statements above, but applies to cohomology of coherent sheaves instead. With increasing level of generality, it turns out, an increasing amount of technical background is helpful or necessary to understand these theorems: the modern formulation of these dualities can be done using derived category, derived categories and certain image functors for sheaves, direct and inverse image functors of sheaves (with respect to the classical analytical topology on manifolds for Poincaré duality, l-adic sheaves and the étale topology in the second case, and with respect to coherent sheaves for coherent duality). Yet another group of similar duality statements is encountered in arithmetics: étale cohomology of finite field, finite, local field, local and global fields (also known as Galois cohomology, since étale cohomology over a field is equivalent to group cohomology of the (absolute)
Galois group In mathematics, in the area of abstract algebra known as Galois theory, the Galois group of a certain type of field extension is a specific group associated with the field extension. The study of field extensions and their relationship to the po ...
of the field) admit similar pairings. The absolute Galois group ''G''(F''q'') of a finite field, for example, is isomorphic to \widehat , the profinite completion of Z, the integers. Therefore, the perfect pairing (for any G-module, ''G''-module ''M'') :H''n''(''G'', ''M'') × H1−''n'' (''G'', Hom (''M'', Q/Z)) → Q/Z is a direct consequence of Pontryagin duality of finite groups. For local and global fields, similar statements exist (Local Tate duality, local duality and global or Poitou–Tate duality).;


See also

* Adjoint functor * Autonomous category * Dual abelian variety * Dual basis * Dual (category theory) * Dual code * Duality (electrical engineering) * Duality (optimization) * Dualizing module * Dualizing sheaf * Dual lattice * Dual norm * Dual numbers, a certain associative algebra; the term "dual" here is synonymous with ''double'', and is unrelated to the notions given above. * Dual system * Koszul duality * Langlands dual * Linear programming#Duality * List of dualities * Matlis duality * Petrie polygon#Petrie dual, Petrie duality * Pontryagin duality * S-duality * T-duality, Homological mirror symmetry, Mirror symmetry


Notes


References


Duality in general

* Atiyah, Michael (2007)
Duality in Mathematics and Physics
lecture notes from the Institut de Matematica de la Universitat de Barcelona (IMUB). *. *. * (a non-technical overview about several aspects of geometry, including dualities)


Duality in algebraic topology

*James C. Becker and Daniel Henry Gottlieb
A History of Duality in Algebraic Topology


Specific dualities

* . Als

* . Als

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{cite book , last = Edwards , first = R. E. , year = 1965 , title = Functional analysis. Theory and applications , publisher = Holt, Rinehart and Winston , location = New York , isbn = 0030505356 Duality theories, * ja:双対