<?xml version="1.0"?>
<feed xmlns:planet="http://planet.intertwingly.net/" xmlns:indexing="urn:atom-extension:indexing" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" indexing:index="no">
  <title>Planet Musings</title>
  <updated>2010-02-09T17:53:58-06:00</updated>
  <generator uri="http://github.com/rubys/mars/tree/master">Mars</generator>
  <author>
    <name>Jacques Distler</name>
    <email>distler@golem.ph.utexas.edu</email>
  </author>
  <id>http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/planet/atom.xml</id>
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    <author>
			
      <name>Scott Morrison</name>
						
      <uri>http://tqft.net/</uri>
					
    </author>
		
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Grothendieck’s letter</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/grothendiecks-letter/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/?p=2899</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-09T22:36:55+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-09T22:20:22+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="Algebraic Geometry" scheme="http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Recently on meta.mathoverflow.net, Harry Gindi pointed out that Laszlo’s webpage for an edition of SGA 4 now contains the message
Alexandre Grothendieck a malheureusement souhaité que cessent les travaux de réédition de SGA.  Les pages qui étaient consacrées sont donc closes.
It has since come to light that this request came in the form of a [...]<img src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=sbseminar.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1217555&amp;post=2899&amp;subd=sbseminar&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" border="0" alt=""/></div>
    </summary>
		
    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/grothendiecks-letter/"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><br/><p>Recently on <a href="http://meta.mathoverflow.net/discussion/205/strange-message-on-yves-laszlos-sga-4-page/">meta.mathoverflow.net</a>, Harry Gindi pointed out that <a href="http://www.math.polytechnique.fr/~laszlo/sga4.html">Laszlo’s webpage</a> for an edition of SGA 4 now contains the message</p>
<blockquote><p>Alexandre Grothendieck a malheureusement souhaité que cessent les travaux de réédition de SGA.  Les pages qui étaient consacrées sont donc closes.</p></blockquote>
<p>It has since come to light that this request came in the form of a letter, which has been circulating in the French mathematical community for the last month. I include here <a href="http://tqft.net/misc/Grothendieck's%20Declaration.pdf">a link to a typed version of that letter</a>, vouching for neither its authenticity or accuracy, along with my pathetic attempt at translating it, for those few whose French is even worse than mine. Feel free to suggest better translations (I’ll incorporate them here).</p>
<blockquote>
<div>
<p>Declaration of intent of non-publication</p>
<p>I do not intend to publish or republish any work or text of which I am the author, in any form whatsoever, printed or electronic, whether in full or in excerpts, pieces of personal nature or otherwise, or letters addressed to anybody, and any translation of texts of which I am the author. Any edition or dissemination of such texts which have been made in the past without my consent, or which is made in the future, is against my will expressly specified here and is illegal in my eyes. I will ask readers of such pirate editions or any other publication containing without my permission the texts of my hand (beyond citations of a few lines each) to cease trade of these works, and those responsible for libraries in possession of such works to remove these titles from their libraries.</p>
<p>If my intentions, clearly expressed here, should go unheeded, then the shame of it falls on those responsible for the illegal editions, and those responsible for the libraries concerned (some of the former and of the latter have been informed about my intention).</p>
<p>Written at my home, January 3, 2010,</p>
<p>Alexandre Grothendieck.</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
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		<thr:total>3</thr:total>
	
    <source>
      <title type="text">Secret Blogging Seminar</title>
      <subtitle type="text">Representation theory, geometry and whatever else we decide is worth writing about today.</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-09T22:36:55+00:00</updated>
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    <title>Radio DogPhysics: Northern Great Plains Edition</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><a href="http://dogphysics.com/"><img class="inset right" src="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/upload/2009/12/how_to_teach_physics_to_your_d/sm_cover_draft_atom.jpg" height="242" alt="sm_cover_draft_atom.jpg" width="150"/></a>Just a reminder, I will be on <a href="http://www.ksoo.com/local-a-live-mainmenu-3/viewpoint-university-mainmenu-43/67-viewpoint-university-admissions-department.html">KSOO radio</a> Tuesday evening, 6:30 pm ET, if you'd like to hear about <a href="http://dogphysics.com/"><cite>How to Teach Physics to Your Dog</cite></a> on the radio at the end of an extremely long day. If you're in broadcast range of Sioux Falls, SD, tune it in, or you can listen live via their web site.</p>

<p>I'll also be at <a href="http://www.nesfa.org/boskone/program-schedule.html">Boskone</a> this weekend, reading book-related stuff on Sunday morning. If you're in the Boston area, stop by. If you're not, well, there's still no way to experience a convention over the Internet. Sorry.</p>
 <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/radio_dogphysics_northern_grea.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~4/8ibOK3ZAWcY" height="1" width="1"/></div>
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    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/radio_dogphysics_northern_grea.php</id>
         
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    <published>2010-02-09T11:55:23-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-09T11:55:23-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Uncertain Principles</title>
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      <subtitle>Physics, Politics, Pop Culture</subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-09T11:55:23-05:00</updated>
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    <title>From Eternity to Book Club: Chapters Four and Five</title>
		
    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CosmicVarianceBlog/~3/pSICaElE1G4/" rel="alternate"/>
		
    <link href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2010/02/09/from-eternity-to-book-club-chapters-four-and-five/#comments" rel="replies" type="text/html"/>
		
    <published>2010-02-09T16:05:50+00:00</published>
		
    <author>
      <name>Sean</name>
    </author>
				
    <category term="Time"/>
		
    <category term="Words"/>

		
    <id>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/?p=4045</id>
		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Welcome to this week’s installment of the From Eternity to Here book club.  This week we’re tackling two chapters at once:  Chapter Four, “Time is Personal,” and Chapter Five, “Time is Flexible.”  That’s just because these chapters are relatively short; next time we’ll return to one chapter per week.
Excerpt:
Starting from a single [...]</div>
    </summary>
			
    <content type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Welcome to this week’s installment of the <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/CosmicVarianceBlog"><em>From Eternity to Here</em></a> <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2010/01/12/from-eternity-to-here-book-club/">book club</a>.  This week we’re tackling two chapters at once:  Chapter Four, “Time is Personal,” and Chapter Five, “Time is Flexible.”  That’s just because these chapters are relatively short; next time we’ll return to one chapter per week.</p>
<p>Excerpt:</p>
<blockquote><p>Starting from a single event in Newtonian spacetime, we were able to define a surface of constant time that spread uniquely throughout the universe, splitting the set of all events into the past and the future (plus “simultaneous” events precisely on the surface). In relativity we can’t do that. Instead, the light cone associated with an event divides spacetime into the past of that event (events inside the past light cone), the future of that event (inside the future light cone), the light cone itself, and a bunch of points outside the light cone that are neither in the past nor the future.</p>
<p>It’s that last bit that really gets people. In our reflexively Newtonian way of thinking about the world, we insist that some far away event either happened in the past, the future, or at the same time as some event on our own world line. In relativity, for spacelike separated events (outside one another’s light cones), the answer is “none of the above.” We could choose to draw some surfaces that sliced through spacetime, and label them “surfaces of constant time,” if we really wanted to. That would be taking advantage of the definition of time as a coordinate on spacetime, as discussed in Chapter One. But the result reflects our personal choice, not a real feature of the universe. In relativity, the concept of “simultaneous faraway events” does not make sense.
</p></blockquote>
<p>These two chapters take on a task that is part of the responsibility of any good book on modern cosmology or gravity:  explaining Einstein’s theory of relativity.  Both special relativity and general relativity, hence two chapters.  In retrospect they are pretty short, so an argument could be made that I should have just combined them into a single chapter.</p>
<p>The special challenge of these chapters is precisely that many readers — but not all — will already have read numerous other popular-level expositions of relativity.  But you have to do it.  Fortunately, my favorite way of talking about relativity is a little bit different from the standard one, and lines up well with the overarching goal of understanding the meaning of “time.”  In particular, I try to make the point that the secret to relativity is to think <em>locally</em> — to compare things happening right next to each other in spacetime, not events that are widely separated.  You’re allowed to compare separated events, of course, but the answers are necessarily dependent on arbitrary choices of coordinates, and that leads to endless confusion.  So you won’t read a lot about “length contraction” or “time dilation,” but you will read a lot about the actual amount of time measured along a trajectory.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, a search for vivid examples of the maxim “freely-falling paths through spacetime experience the longest amount of proper time” led me directly to the most embarrassing mistake in the book.  (At least, “most embarrassing mistake so far uncovered.”) Sordid details below the fold!</p>
<p><span id="more-4045"/>  The mistake is the claim that a clock that sits stationary on a tower will experience less proper time than a clock that orbits the Earth at the same height above ground.  That’s wrong: the orbiting clock will measure less time.  This appears in the paragraph at the bottom of page 85 and top of 86, and is elevated from “unfortunate” to “a real doozy” by being illustrated in graphic detail by the figure on page 86.  Not really any way I can claim it was just a typo.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rdrop.com/~half/Creations/Puzzles/cone.geodesics/index.html"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-4050" title="sphere.two.geodesics" src="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/files/2010/02/sphere.two.geodesics.png" height="160" alt="sphere.two.geodesics" width="160"/></a>  The subtle issue underlying the mistake is illustrated in this figure, which shows two paths connecting two points on a sphere.  Both paths are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_circle">great circles</a>.  The shortest distance between two points on a sphere is a great circle; but it certainly doesn’t follow that any path following a great circle gives us the shortest distance between two points.  If you go more than half the way around the sphere, you end up with a pretty long path!</p>
<p>The same kind of thing happens in spacetime.  The trajectory of <em>longest</em> proper time between two events will always be a freely-falling trajectory (a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesic">geodesic</a>).  But not every freely-falling path gives us the longest time, and that’s exactly the case in this example.  Given two events at the same position above the Earth, the actual path of longest time is a <em>radial</em> freely-falling orbit.  If you want your clock to experience the longest time it can, you throw it straight up in the air to where the gravitational field is weaker (and clocks run more quickly with respect to time measured at infinity) and let it fall back down.  A circular orbit actually <em>loses</em> time by staying at the same altitude but zipping around the Earth.  I relied on my affection for the general underlying principle, and didn’t bother to sit down and work out the actual numbers in this case, so I never found the mistake.  Pretty sure my membership in the general relativists’ guild is going to be permanently revoked for this one.</p>
<p>If you’re still not convinced of the wrongness of my example, here’s an equation, the line element along a circular trajectory in the equatorial plane in the Schwarzschild metric:</p>
<p><img class="latex" title="d\tau^2 = \left(1-\frac{2GM}{r}\right) dt^2 - r^2 d\phi^2\,." src="http://s.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=d%5Ctau%5E2%20=%20%5Cleft(1-%5Cfrac%7B2GM%7D%7Br%7D%5Cright)%20dt%5E2%20-%20r%5E2%20d%5Cphi%5E2%5C,.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="d\tau^2 = \left(1-\frac{2GM}{r}\right) dt^2 - r^2 d\phi^2\,."/><br/>
On the left we have a small interval (squared) of the proper time τ, what a clock would measure along some path.  The first term on the right is the contribution from our motion with respect to <em>t</em>, the time measured at infinity; for any given amount of <em>t</em>, we experience less proper time τ as our height <em>r</em> decreases and the coefficient (1-<em>2GM</em>/<em>r</em>) becomes smaller.  The second term on the right is the contribution from our angular motion <em>φ</em>.  Taking the square root of the whole thing and integrating along a path gives you the proper time.  </p>
<p>We don’t have to go through the entire calculation to convince ourselves that staying stationary on the tower has a longer proper time than the circular orbit does.  Both trajectories get the same contribution from the first term on the right side, while the second term is zero for the clock on the tower (it’s not moving, so <em>dφ</em>=0), but it’s negative for the orbit.  So the orbit is definitely less time.  To be corrected in the next printing.</p>
<p>The deep point, of course, remains true:  the time measured by clocks in general relativity depends on their path through spacetime, and the way to maximize that time is to take a freely-falling path.  Just not that one.</p>

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    </content>
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    <updated>2010-02-09T16:05:50+00:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Cosmic Variance</title>
      <link href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Random samplings from a universe of ideas.</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-09T16:54:22+00:00</updated>
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    <author>
			
      <name>Ben Webster</name>
						
      <uri>http://math.mit.edu/~bwebster</uri>
					
    </author>
		
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">What happened to Clay Liftoff?</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/what-happened-to-clay-liftoff/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/?p=2897</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-09T15:03:01+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-09T15:03:01+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="inside baseball" scheme="http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="jobs" scheme="http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Clay has announced that in 2010, there will be no Liftoff Fellows; they say the program is suspended.  The title question was asked in MathOverflow a while back, and while it was rightly shut down there, I’m still kind of curious to know the answer.  Did Clay decide Liftoff was not a good [...]<img src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=sbseminar.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1217555&amp;post=2897&amp;subd=sbseminar&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" border="0" alt=""/></div>
    </summary>
		
    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/what-happened-to-clay-liftoff/"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><br/><p>Clay <a href="http://www.claymath.org/fas/liftoff/">has announced</a> that in 2010, there will be no Liftoff Fellows; they say the program is suspended.  <a href="http://mathoverflow.net/questions/6748/what-happened-to-clay-liftoff">The title question</a> was asked in MathOverflow a while back, and while it was rightly shut down there, I’m still kind of curious to know the answer.  Did Clay decide Liftoff was not a good program for some reason?  Did they not want to spend the money?  Obviously, I’m appreciative of the Liftoff program having been a Fellow myself, but its very unclear to me that it results in more math getting done, as opposed to having a few mathematicians pay off student loans faster, which I think was its main effect on me. </p>
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    <source>
      <title type="text">Secret Blogging Seminar</title>
      <subtitle type="text">Representation theory, geometry and whatever else we decide is worth writing about today.</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-09T22:36:55+00:00</updated>
      <generator uri="http://wordpress.com/">WordPress.com</generator>
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    <title>Non-Dorky Poll: Time to Rise and Shine</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>No substantive blogging for you today, as my alarm clock decided not to go off, causing me to oversleep by the hour that I usually spend on bloggy things. So that you're not left without blog-related entertainment, though, here's an appropriate poll topic:</p>

<p>
&lt;a href="http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/2673504/"&gt;How early do you have to set your alarm to get to work/class on time?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9px;"&gt;(&lt;a href="http://answers.polldaddy.com"&gt;polling&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;
</p>

<p>Of course, despite oversleeping by a full hour, I was still here twenty minutes before this morning's lab. And probably a good half-hour before the majority of my students. Their late arrival will do wonders for my mood.</p>
 <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/non-dorky_poll_time_to_rise_an.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~4/eHNeqX7YULE" height="1" width="1"/></div>
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    <category term="Academia"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-09T09:41:38-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-09T09:41:38-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Uncertain Principles</title>
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      <subtitle>Physics, Politics, Pop Culture</subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
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  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title>Links for 2010-02-09</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><ul class="delicious"><li>
                <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8501042.stm">BBC News - More cat owners 'have degrees' than dog-lovers</a></div>
                <div class="delicious-extended">My favorite bit is the note that "Cat and dog numbers were last estimated in a scientific peer-reviewed journal in 1989," because, of course, peer review is critical to the process...</div>
                <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/pets">pets</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/dog">dog</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/society">society</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/education">education</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/social-science">social-science</a>)</div>
            </li><li>
                <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://www.aip.org/history/exhibits/laser/sections/raydevices.html">Bright Idea: The First Lasers -- A history of discoveries leading to the 1960 invention.</a></div>
                <div class="delicious-extended">An excellent step-by-step history of the development of the laser, including interviews with laser pioneers.</div>
                <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/lasers">lasers</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/science">science</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/history">history</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/physics">physics</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/optics">optics</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/atoms">atoms</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/molecules">molecules</a>)</div>
            </li><li>
                <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-highs-and-lows-of-this-years-super-bowl-ads,37983/?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=feeds&amp;utm_source=avclub_rss_daily">The highs and lows of this year's Super Bowl ads | TV | Crosstalk | The A.V. Club</a></div>
                <div class="delicious-extended">"I'm pretty sure that the general response to this year's Super Bowl commercials will be mild-to-strong disgust over how anti-woman so many of them were. I know it's the norm for ads during sporting events to play up how "man time" is sacred and "woman time" is lame, but I've rarely seen that theme take such a hostile turn."</div>
                <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/gender">gender</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/television">television</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/sports">sports</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/society">society</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/culture">culture</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/avclub">avclub</a>)</div>
            </li><li>
                <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://www.theonion.com/content/news/nasa_launches_david_bowie_concept?utm_source=onion_rss_daily">NASA Launches David Bowie Concept Mission | The Onion - America's Finest News Source</a></div>
                <div class="delicious-extended">"According to NASA administrator Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden, Jr., the highly experimental glam space program--dubbed Project Starman--has been in development for exactly five years. Though engineers initially feared the mission might "blow our minds," the historic launch ultimately proceeded without incident.

"Admittedly, this is a very bold and risky departure for the agency," said Bolden, later adding that Bowie's Ziggy Stardust period and other outer-space-related work has been a major influence on NASA's direction since the early 1970s. "Those familiar with NASA's previous, more conventional research and exploration sensibilities are going to be in for quite a shock. Many are likely to be confused and threatened by the boundary-pushing nature of the project.""</div>
                <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/music">music</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/space">space</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/history">history</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/silly">silly</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/culture">culture</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/onion">onion</a>)</div>
            </li><li>
                <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2010/02/chatroulette.php?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed:+scienceblogs/wDAM+(The+Frontal+Cortex)&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader">ChatRoulette : The Frontal Cortex</a></div>
                <div class="delicious-extended">"ChatRoulette is an online version of the friction that cities produce for free. It's like a subway ride on your computer, a chance to bump into strangers on the "street" without leaving your desk. Sure, there are lots of weirdos out there, and plenty of those strangers won't stare back. But every once in a while, a meaningful interaction might occur, as the social slot machine dispenses a few quarters. "</div>
                <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/neuroscience">neuroscience</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/blogs">blogs</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/science">science</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/society">society</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/internet">internet</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/computing">computing</a>)</div>
            </li></ul> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/links_for_2010-02-09.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~4/P1hMfnTPu9M" height="1" width="1"/></div>
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    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/links_for_2010-02-09.php</id>
         
    <category term="Links Dump"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-09T07:49:49-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-09T07:49:49-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Uncertain Principles</title>
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    <author>
			
      <name>Florian</name>
					
    </author>
		
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">L’invasion des réseaux de neurones</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/2010/02/08/linvasion-des-reseaux-de-neurones/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://www.quantumdiaries.org/?p=5722</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-09T09:19:09+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-08T10:29:57+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="Latest Posts" scheme="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Si je vous dis réseau de neurones, vous pensez certainement au cerveau, ou même si vous avez suivi des cours de biologie vous pensez aux synapses, dendrites etc… Mais ce n’est pas là où je veux vous amener. Pour le moment.
Vous êtes vous déjà demandé comment était lu le code postal sur les enveloppes, ou [...]</div>
    </summary>
		
    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/2010/02/08/linvasion-des-reseaux-de-neurones/"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Si je vous dis réseau de neurones, vous pensez certainement au cerveau, ou même si vous avez suivi des cours de biologie vous pensez aux synapses, dendrites etc… Mais ce n’est pas là où je veux vous amener. Pour le moment.<br/>
Vous êtes vous déjà demandé comment était lu le code postal sur les enveloppes, ou encore comment le filtre anti-spam de votre messagerie préférée faisait pour stopper les mails indésirables ? Tout ceci demande une capacité à effectuer une décision reliée à un processus statistique. En effet, 2 personnes n’écriront jamais le même chiffre de la même manière et deux spams ne contiendront pas exactement les mêmes mots. Nous nous retrouvons face un ensemble d’éléments potentiellement infini tous différents les uns des autres et qui pourtant peuvent se regrouper en un nombre restreint de groupes de même caractéristique (ce caractère est un 3 ou encore ce mail est un spam…).</p>
<p>C’est dans cet objectif de tri que sont utilisés ce qu’on appelle des algorithmes d’apprentissage, dont font partie  les réseaux de neurones artificiels. Ceux-ci vont être capable d’apprendre à identifier une certaine caractéristique dans un échantillon qui lui est soumis.</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_5724" style="width: 310px"><img class="size-medium wp-image-5724" src="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Picture-1-300x205.png" height="205" alt="Architecture d'un r&#xE9;seau de neurones" width="300"/><p class="wp-caption-text">Architecture d'un réseau de neurones</p></div>
<p>Les réseaux de neurones sont basés sur un modèle simplifié du neurone biologique, ils se composent généralement de neurones d’entrée, puis une couche dite cachée enfin une couche de sortie (voir schéma). Le tout reliés par des synapses. En entrée sont donnés les différents critères utiles au tri (par exemple l’occurrence de certains mots pour l’identification de spams), la sortie est la réponse du réseau (c’est plutôt un spam ou non).<br/>
Mathématiquement le principe repose sur le fait que n’importe quelle fonction peut être approximée par une combinaison linéaire de fonctions d’activation ( sigmoïde, tangente hyperbolique ou fonction de Heaviside ). Ainsi chaque neurone se trouve doté de cette fonction et chaque lien entre les neurones (synapse) est pondéré suivant le problème à résoudre.</p>
<p>Un tel réseau est à la base parfaitement stupide, il ne sait rien faire à part un traitement purement aléatoire de l’information. Comme quand vous voulez apprendre à faire quelque chose, il va falloir s’entraîner!<br/>
Durant cette étape nous allons soumettre à notre algorithme un échantillon de caractéristiques connues à trier. On pourra ainsi comparer la réponse du réseau à la réponse correcte. Sachant cela, nous pourrons améliorer le résultat en modifiant les poids synaptiques. Après plusieurs essais, le réseau de neurones aura une sortie proche de celle attendue et sera désormais prêt à utiliser ses capacités sur un échantillon quelconque.<br/>
L’analogie avec l’apprentissage humain est très fort : imaginez que je doive apprendre à quelqu’un à reconnaître une souris d’ordinateur. Je vais lui présenter plusieurs objets en lui disant à chaque fois si c’est une souris. Si je lui montre un nombre important de souris (diverses et variées), il va au final réussir à repérer les caractéristiques pertinentes et va pouvoir en extrapoler un «concept souris». Après la phase d’apprentissage, la comparaison à ce concept général sera utilise à chaque fois qu’il devra reconnaître une souris :<br/>
«Ah d’accord… Une souris est plus ou moins ovale, possède deux boutons et parfois un bouton au milieu, et elle est souvent raccordée par un fil etc…  Donc si je vois toutes ces caractéristiques sur un objet, j’aurai de bonnes chances de présumer que c’est une souris d’ordinateur».</p>
<p>Très bien, mais je suis un peu loin de la physique des particules ici n’est-ce pas? Alors revenons-y.<br/>
En physique des particules, le principe critique est de pouvoir discerner un phénomène bien particulier (le signal) au milieu des millions de collisions amenant à des phénomènes qui ne nous intéresse pas (le bruit de fond). Autrement dit, trouver l’aiguille dans la botte de foin… La théorie physique sous-jacente aux phénomènes observés dans les collisionneurs de particules étant la mécanique quantique, nous ne pouvons jamais avec certitude connaître l’issue d’une collision en particulier. Nous ne pouvons donner que les probabilités.<br/>
La méthode première pour augmenter nos chances est d’effectuer des «coupures» : je ne regarde que ce qui a une énergie supérieure à un tel seuil ou encore je ne prends que ce qui a été détecté dans une certaine partie du détecteur etc… Car je sais que c’est dans ces cas que j’ai le plus de probabilités de trouver mon bonheur.<br/>
C’est exactement ce que va faire un réseau de neurone, mais de manière optimisée, il va, de part son entraînement, apprendre à ne sélectionner que les évènements possédant les caractéristiques qui ont le plus de chance d’être du signal et rejeter tout ce qui a de fortes chances d’être du bruit de fond.<br/>
Le sujet de ma thèse est justement de mettre en évidence un phénomène particulier qui fait intervenir le boson de Higgs et de par la même découvrir (ou exclure) son existence. Il faut savoir que ce phénomène a une probabilité extrêmement faible de survenir, il est donc crucial de pouvoir trier ces évènements. C’est pour cela que je travail à l’aide de réseaux de neurones adaptés à la reconnaissance de ce phénomène.</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignleft" id="attachment_5725" style="width: 161px"><a href="http://fr.akinator.com/"><img class="size-medium wp-image-5725     " src="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/akinator_1-202x300.png" height="224" alt="Akinator, une application internet capable de deviner &#xE0; quoi vous pensez gr&#xE2;ce a un algorithme d'apprentissage." width="151"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Akinator, une application internet capable de deviner à quoi vous pensez grâce a un algorithme d'apprentissage.</p></div>
<p>L’intérêt pour les réseaux de neurones et les algorithmes d’apprentissage en général n’a cessé de croître ces 20 dernières années et sont couramment utilisés dans des domaines aussi variés que les milieux financiers (prédiction des fluctuations de marches), dans le domaine bancaire (pour déceler les fraudes aux cartes de crédit), en aéronautique (pilotes automatiques), en intelligence artificielle  etc…  Même certaines applications internet se vantant de pouvoir lire dans vos pensées ont vu le jour sur la toile comme 20q ou encore Akinator et utilisent ces algorithmes.</p>
<p>Nous pouvons voir que ces nouvelles techniques d’analyse ont un bel avenir devant eux. Au delà des applications sans cesse plus nombreuses, celles-ci s’améliorent de jour en jour grâce au travail des chercheurs et deviennent ainsi plus puissantes, plus rapides et plus précises. Mais comme nous l’avons vu, malgré le mot neurone, nous sommes encore bien loin d’un cerveau humain. Alors avant d’imaginer une invasion de robot tueurs, sachez bien que Terminator sait pour le moment à peine lire et que c’est déjà pas mal!</p></div>
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      <subtitle type="text">Thoughts on work and life from particle physicists from around the world.</subtitle>
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    <id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-1126530973686031215</id>
    <published>2010-02-08T02:06:00-05:00</published>
    <updated>2010-02-09T02:14:31-05:00</updated>
    <category term="Physics" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="Humor" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <title type="text">Why, oh why, is the Psi called Psi?</title>
    <content type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I'm currently reading Sean Carroll's book "From Eternity to Here" and stumbled over this remark<br/><blockquote><i>In Newtonian mechanics, the space of states is called "phase space" for reasons that are pretty mysterious.</i></blockquote><br/>A mystery that hadn't occurred to me before, probably because the German word "Zustandsraum" means literally "state space," so no mystery there. Stefan and I were guessing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Willard_Gibbs">Gibbs</a>, who introduced the word, might have generalized the terminology from the harmonic oscillator where the location in phase space does indeed tell you the phase of the oscillation. (<a href="http://paws.kettering.edu/~drussell/Demos/phase-diagram/phase-diagram.html">You find a nice applet depicting the phase-space diagram of the damped and undamped oscillator here</a>).<br/><br/>In any case, this caused me to ponder what other words with funny origin physicists like to use. (Both funny ha-ha, and funny peculiar.) Why, for example, is the recombination in the early universe called recombination if there was no prior combination? <a href="http://zhurnaly.com/cgi-bin/wiki/RecombinationEra">Not that I was the first to ask that question</a>. <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2010/02/02/from-eternity-to-book-club-chapter-three/">Sean offered</a> the explanation that the word is borrowed from nuclear physics. But then why don't nuclear physicists call the fragmentation refragmentation?<br/><br/>There are more interesting nomenclatures though than presence or absence of prefixes.<br/><br/>A particularly well known oddity is the name "quarks" introduced by Gell-Mann, who couldn't decide how to spell the sound ducks make:<br/><blockquote><i>In 1963, when I assigned the name "quark" to the fundamental constituents of the nucleon, I had the sound first, without the spelling, which could have been "kwork". Then, in one of my occasional perusals of Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce, I came across the word "quark" in the phrase "Three quarks for Muster Mark". Since "quark" (meaning, for one thing, the cry of the gull) was clearly intended to rhyme with "Mark", as well as "bark" and other such words, I had to find an excuse to pronounce it as "kwork".</i></blockquote><div align="right">~M. Gell-Mann, The Quark and the Jaguar, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark">via Wikipedia</a></div><br/><a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/images/smas-02.gif"><img src="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/images/smas-02.gif" border="0" alt="" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;"/></a> Had Gell-Mann read a German dictionary instead of Joyce, he'd have noticed "Quark" is the German word for a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curd">milk product</a> (often mistakenly translated as "cottage cheese" which is something entirely different). Besides this, "Quark" is a frequently used colloquial expression for nonsense.<br/><br/><div>But at least we know how that word came along. A mystery remained to me why the English adaption of the German word "Eigenvektor" came out to be "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalue,_eigenvector_and_eigenspace">eigenvector</a>." The German word "eigen" simply means "innate," and could easily have been translated.</div><div><br/>A better example fo imaginative nomenclature is the<a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/smas-nf.html"> Psi-particle (now known as J/Psi)</a> whose cloud-chamber pictures frequently have the shape of a Psi (see picture above).<br/><br/><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Penguin_diagram.JPG"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Penguin_diagram.JPG" border="0" alt="" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;"/></a>Then there is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_diagram">the "Penguin diagram"</a>, which owes its name to a lost bet and some illegal substances, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadpole_(physics)">the "tadpole diagram"</a> which once run risk of turning into a "spermion." Probably a good thing the tadpoles kept their name - just imagine what issues the anti-abortionists would have had with spermion cancellation.<br/><br/>In General Relativity, we have the conjecture of "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_censorship_hypothesis">cosmic censorship</a>" to prevent us from seeing "naked singularities," and "<a href="http://synapticstimuli.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/wormhole.png">wormholes</a>" are already a classic. Cosmologists have further blessed us with MACHOs and WIMPs, acronyms for <b>MA</b>ssive <b>C</b>ompact <b>H</b>alo <b>O</b>bject and <b>W</b>eakly <b>I</b>nteracting <b>M</b>assive <b>P</b>articles respectively. Loop Quantum Gravity features a <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0504147">LOST theorem</a>, after the last names of its authors. The large gap between the energy scale of currently known physics and the scale where grand unification is thought to occur is also known as "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_(particle_physics)">desert</a>." We have <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seesaw_mechanism">a seesaw mechanism</a>, play with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mexican_hat_potential_polar.svg">Mexican hat potentials</a>, have <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faddeev%E2%80%93Popov_ghost">ghosts</a> and talk about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hqmc-vector.svg">stop</a> particles. There's a <a href="http://arxiv1.library.cornell.edu/abs/0708.3622">swiss cheese universe</a> and neutron stars have <a href="http://www.astro.umd.edu/~miller/nstar.html">pasta-antipasta layers with a spaghetti-phase</a>. The most stupid nomenclature I so far have come up with is a "<a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0807.2838">pullover</a>". Yes, I know, not terribly original, but then I didn't expect a Nobelprize for it ;-)<br/><br/>Did I miss something? Leave it in the comments!</div><p/><p/><div class="blogger-post-footer">"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother." ~ Albert Einstein<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/22973357-1126530973686031215?l=backreaction.blogspot.com" height="1" alt="" width="1"/></div></div>
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    <author>
      <name>Bee</name>
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      <id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357</id>
      <updated>2010-02-09T16:46:28-05:00</updated>
      <title type="text">Backreaction</title>
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  <entry xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/">
    <id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10448119.post-5120635945974388544</id>
    <published>2010-02-08T23:32:00-05:00</published>
    <updated>2010-02-08T23:34:57-05:00</updated>
    <category term="sdss" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="spectroscopy" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="talking" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
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    <category term="model" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="gravitational lensing" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <title type="text">double redshifts</title>
    <content type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Tsalmantza and I spoke about our multiple-redshift search in the SDSS spectroscopy.  The new technology we bring is a data-driven model of the spectra; the goal is to increase the number of known lenses.  We discussed tests of the model, and the hope that increasing the precision of the model will increase the sensitivity of the system to second (and third) redshifts.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/10448119-5120635945974388544?l=hoggresearch.blogspot.com" height="1" alt="" width="1"/></div></div>
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      <name>Hogg</name>
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      <updated>2010-02-08T23:34:57-05:00</updated>
      <title type="text">Hogg's Research</title>
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  <entry xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://asymptotia.com/wp-atom.php">
		
    <author>
			
      <name>Clifford</name>
						
      <uri>http://asymptotia.com/</uri>
					
    </author>
		
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Cassandra Wilson</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/08/cassandra-wilson/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://asymptotia.com/?p=5930</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-09T04:25:18+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-09T04:22:39+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="music" scheme="http://asymptotia.com/"/>
    <category term="personal" scheme="http://asymptotia.com/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><a href="http://asymptotia.com/wp-images/2010/01/cassandra_wilson.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-5931" title="cassandra_wilson" src="http://asymptotia.com/wp-images/2010/01/cassandra_wilson-300x245.jpg" alt="cassandra_wilson" width="200"/></a>Time for a little music with my nostalgia. I remember my days in Princeton  (where I was a postdoc at the Institute for Advanced Study and, later, at the University) particularly well when it comes to certain special things, and one of them was the music I was discovering, and venturing up to New York or down to Philadelphia to see live.

The wonderful Cassandra Wilson had just firmly settled into her astonishingly good Blue Note phase at that time, and the (then) newly released album <em>"Blue Light 'Til Dawn"</em> was pure magic to me (and remains so), and was considerably inspiring to me during that time of intense work and during a key period of career and personal development.

I went to see her sing at the Theatre of the Living Arts in Philly one wonderful evening.  Here she is, (from around that time, I think, or at least it has the right feel), singing the opening song from the album in a slightly shaky live recording. It is a bit   [...]</div>
    </summary>
		
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    <source>
      <title type="text">Asymptotia</title>
      <updated>2010-02-09T04:25:18+00:00</updated>
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  <entry xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:geo="http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/wp-atom.php">
		
    <author>
			
      <name>JSE</name>
						
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    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Irrational likred</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/irrational-likred/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/?p=2060</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-09T04:04:08+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-09T04:04:08+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="baseball" scheme="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="lists" scheme="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="offhand" scheme="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="rationality" scheme="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="sports" scheme="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Deane Yang asks in comments:  “What athletes do you especially like?”  That’s actually what I was going to post about today anyway.  A short list, excluding people who play for teams I follow:  Rickey Henderson.  Manny Ramirez.  Barry Bonds.  Jim Thome.  Nomar Garciaparra.  Edgar Martinez.  Randall Cunningham.  Ricky Williams.  Jake Plummer.  Gus Frerotte.  Surya Bonaly.  [...]<img src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=quomodocumque.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1236000&amp;post=2060&amp;subd=quomodocumque&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" border="0" alt=""/></div>
    </summary>
		
    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/irrational-likred/"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><br/><p>Deane Yang asks in comments:  “What athletes do you especially like?”  That’s actually what I was going to post about today anyway.  A short list, excluding people who play for teams I follow:  Rickey Henderson.  Manny Ramirez.  Barry Bonds.  Jim Thome.  Nomar Garciaparra.  Edgar Martinez.  Randall Cunningham.  Ricky Williams.  Jake Plummer.  Gus Frerotte.  Surya Bonaly.  Arantxa Sanchez.</p>
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    <source>
      <title type="text">Quomodocumque</title>
      <subtitle type="text">Math, Madison, food, the Orioles, books, my kid.</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-09T04:04:08+00:00</updated>
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  <entry xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/">
    <id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13869903.post-3231898843115514875</id>
    <published>2010-02-08T22:00:00-06:00</published>
    <updated>2010-02-08T22:00:12-06:00</updated>
    <title type="text">This week in cond-mat, SQUID edition</title>
    <content type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Superconducting quantum interference devices, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQUID">SQUID</a>s, are fascinating gadgets.  Take a superconducting loop with two weak links (e.g., tunnel junctions, or constrictions with a lower critical current).   Now thread magnetic flux through the loop.  The superconducting wavefunction, which includes a phase factor that involves the vector potential, must be single-valued around the loop.  That means that the phase factor must return to itself modulo 2 pi going around the loop. The phase factor is proportional to the line integral of the vector potential, which itself is the magnetic flux through the loop.  Therefore, the total magnetic flux through the loop must be quantized.  If the external magnetic field doesn't give an integer number of flux quanta, then the superconductor must generate screening currents around the loop that produce flux and make up the difference.  If you had connected the loop to an external current source and run that external current (which splits itself around the two branches of the loop) up to the edge of the critical current, you would find that the screening currents would drive the loop normal and lead to a detectable voltage drop that is periodic in magnetic flux through the loop.  This periodicity allows SQUIDs to be phenomenally good magnetic field detectors.  One can integrate a tiny SQUID onto a movable probe, and make a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_SQUID_microscopy">scanning SQUID microscope</a>, and do amazing things like figure out the <a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/sup/kirtley.htm">pairing symmetry of high-Tc superconductors</a>.<br/>This week a paper appeared on the arxiv relevant to scanning SQUID microscopy:</span></span><br/><br/><span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1002.1529">arxiv:1002.1529</a> - Koshnick <i>et al</i>.,  Design concepts for an improved integrated scanning SQUID</span></span><br/><span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Here, Koshnick, together with scanning SQUID experts <a href="http://www.kirtleyscientific.com/">Kirtley</a> and <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/dept/physics/people/faculty/moler_kathryn.html">Moler</a>, lay out ideas that they have in the works for refining the technology of these gadgets.  Neat stuff.</span></span><br/><br/><span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Almost simultaneously, a <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl100009r">new paper</a> appeared in Nano Letters on an implementation of an aluminum scanning SQUID microscope.  The basic concept, involving the use of a drawn optical fiber tip as a template for deposition of an aluminum ring and leads, hearkens back to the <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/276/5312/579">scanning single-electron transistor</a> charge detector worked on <a href="http://yacoby.physics.harvard.edu/Publications/Electrical%20Imaging%20of%20the%20Quantum%20Hall%20State_1999.pdf">previously</a> by one of the <a href="http://yacoby.physics.harvard.edu/HomePage.html">coauthors</a>.</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/13869903-3231898843115514875?l=nanoscale.blogspot.com" height="1" alt="" width="1"/></div></div>
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    <author>
      <name>Doug Natelson</name>
      <uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13340091255404229559</uri>
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      <updated>2010-02-08T22:00:12-06:00</updated>
      <title type="text">nanoscale views</title>
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      <author>
        <name>Doug Natelson</name>
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        <email>noreply@blogger.com</email>
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  <entry xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:geo="http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://gowers.wordpress.com/wp-atom.php">
		
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      <name>gowers</name>
						
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    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">EDP7 — emergency post</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://gowers.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/edp7-emergency-post/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://gowers.wordpress.com/?p=1524</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-09T00:08:05+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-08T21:31:52+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="Uncategorized" scheme="http://gowers.wordpress.com/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I don’t feel particularly ready for a post at this point, but the previous one has got to 100 comments, so this is one of the quick summaries again — but this one is even shorter than usual.
We are still doing an experimental investigation of multiplicative functions, trying to understand how special they have to [...]<img src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gowers.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1659011&amp;post=1524&amp;subd=gowers&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" border="0" alt=""/></div>
    </summary>
		
    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://gowers.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/edp7-emergency-post/"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><br/><p>I don’t feel particularly ready for a post at this point, but the previous one has got to 100 comments, so this is one of the quick summaries again — but this one is even shorter than usual.</p>
<p>We are still doing an experimental investigation of multiplicative functions, trying to understand how special they have to be if they have low discrepancy. Ian Martin has produced some beautiful plots of the graphs of partial sums of multiplicative functions generated by various greedy algorithms. See <a href="http://gowers.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/edp6-what-are-the-chances-of-success/#comment-5909">this comment and the ensuing discussion</a>. </p>
<p>Terence Tao has <a href="http://gowers.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/edp6-what-are-the-chances-of-success/#comment-5916">some thoughts about how one might try to reduce to the character-like case</a>.</p>
<p>I came up with a proof strategy that I thought looked promising until I realized that it made predictions that are false for character-like functions such as <img class="latex" title="\lambda_3" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Clambda_3&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\lambda_3"/> and <img class="latex" title="\mu_3" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmu_3&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mu_3"/>. Even if the idea doesn’t solve the problem, I think it may be good for something, so I have written <a href="http://michaelnielsen.org/polymath1/index.php?title=Find_a_good_configuration_of_HAPs">a wiki page about it</a>. Gil has had <a href="http://gowers.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/edp6-what-are-the-chances-of-success/#comment-5942">thoughts of a somewhat similar, but not identical, kind</a>. Here is <a href="http://gowers.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/edp6-what-are-the-chances-of-success/#comment-5968">a related comment of Gil’s</a>, and here are <a href="http://gowers.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/edp6-what-are-the-chances-of-success/#comment-5969">some more amazing plots of Ian’s</a>. (I think we should set up a page on the wiki devoted to these plots and the ideas that led to them.) Regardless of what happens with EDP itself, I think we have some fascinating problems to think about, which can be summed up as, “What is going on with these plots?”</p>
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    <source>
      <title type="text">Gowers's Weblog</title>
      <subtitle type="text">Mathematics related discussions</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-09T00:08:05+00:00</updated>
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  <entry xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:geo="http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/wp-atom.php">
		
    <author>
			
      <name>Terence Tao</name>
						
      <uri>http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tao</uri>
					
    </author>
		
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">An epsilon of room: pages from year three of a mathematical blog</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/an-epsilon-of-room-pages-from-year-three-of-a-mathematical-blog/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://terrytao.wordpress.com/?p=3447</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-08T22:27:49+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-08T07:00:59+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="Mathematics" scheme="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="book" scheme="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="mathematical blogging" scheme="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I have just finished the first draft of my blog book for 2009, under the title of “An epsilon of room: pages from year three of a mathematical blog“.  It largely follows the format of my previous two blog books, “Structure and Randomness“ and “Poincaré’s legacies“.
There is still some amount of work to be done on [...]<img src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=terrytao.wordpress.com&amp;blog=817149&amp;post=3447&amp;subd=terrytao&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" border="0" alt=""/></div>
    </summary>
		
    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/an-epsilon-of-room-pages-from-year-three-of-a-mathematical-blog/"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><br/><p>I have just finished the <a href="http://terrytao.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/epsilon.pdf">first draft</a> of my blog book for 2009, under the title of “<a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/books/an-epsilon-of-room-pages-from-year-three-of-a-mathematical-blog/">An epsilon of room: pages from year three of a mathematical blog</a>“.  It largely follows the format of my previous two blog books, “<a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/books/whats-new-2007/">Structure and Randomness</a>“ and “<a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/books/poincares-legacies-course-notes-expository-articles-and-lecture-series-from-a-mathematical-blog/">Poincaré’s legacies</a>“.</p>
<p>There is still some amount of work to be done on the texts; for instance, I need to create an index (which I had neglected to do in the previous two books in the series), and will probably end up splitting the book into two volumes (as was done for “Poincaré’s legacies”).</p>
<p>As always, any feedback or comments are very welcome.</p>
Filed under: <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/category/paper/book/">book</a>, <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/category/mathematics/">Mathematics</a> Tagged: <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/tag/mathematical-blogging/">mathematical blogging</a> <a href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/terrytao.wordpress.com/3447/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/terrytao.wordpress.com/3447/" border="0" alt=""/></a> <a href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/godelicious/terrytao.wordpress.com/3447/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/delicious/terrytao.wordpress.com/3447/" border="0" alt=""/></a> <a href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gostumble/terrytao.wordpress.com/3447/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/stumble/terrytao.wordpress.com/3447/" border="0" alt=""/></a> <a href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/godigg/terrytao.wordpress.com/3447/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/digg/terrytao.wordpress.com/3447/" border="0" alt=""/></a> <a href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/goreddit/terrytao.wordpress.com/3447/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/reddit/terrytao.wordpress.com/3447/" border="0" alt=""/></a> <img src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=terrytao.wordpress.com&amp;blog=817149&amp;post=3447&amp;subd=terrytao&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" border="0" alt=""/></div>
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    <source>
      <title type="text">What's new</title>
      <subtitle type="text">Updates on my research and expository papers, discussion of open problems, and other maths-related topics.  By Terence Tao</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-08T22:27:49+00:00</updated>
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  <entry xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.neverendingbooks.org/wp-atom.php">
		
    <author>
			
      <name>lieven</name>
						
      <uri>http://www.neverendingbooks.org/</uri>
					
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    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Where’s Bourbaki’s Escorial?</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://www.neverendingbooks.org/index.php/wheres-bourbakis-escorial.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://www.neverendingbooks.org/?p=2565</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-08T19:17:25+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-08T14:30:59+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="Bourbaki" scheme="http://www.neverendingbooks.org/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">As explained in the bumpy-road-post, Andre Weil and Evelyne Gillet became involved sometime in 1935.
Early 1936, they made a pre-honeymooning trip to Spain and visited El Escorial. Weil was so taken by the place that he planned the next Bourbaki-conference to be held in a nearby college. 

However, the Bourbakis never made it to to [...]</div>
    </summary>
		
    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://www.neverendingbooks.org/index.php/wheres-bourbakis-escorial.html"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>As explained in the <a href="http://www.neverendingbooks.org/index.php/the-bumpy-road-to-the-first-bourbaki-congress.html">bumpy-road-post</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Weil">Andre Weil</a> and Evelyne Gillet became involved sometime in 1935.
Early 1936, they made a pre-honeymooning trip to Spain and visited <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Escorial">El Escorial</a>. Weil was so taken by the place that he planned the next Bourbaki-conference to be held in a nearby college. </p>

<p>However, the Bourbakis never made it to to Spain that summer as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War">Spanish civil war</a> broke out July 17th, a few weeks before the intended conference. Still, the second Bourbaki-meeting remains often referred to as the ‘Escorial conference’. Can we GEO-tag the exact location of Bourbaki’s “Escorial”?</p>

<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Chevalley">Claude Chevalley</a> came up with a Plan-B and suggested they would use his parents’ place in <a href="http://www.chancay.org/">Chançay</a> as their venue. Chevalley’s father was a French diplomat and his house sure did possess a matching ‘grandeur’ as can be seen from the famous picture below, taken at the (second) Chançay meeting in 1937 (Weil to the left, Chevalley to the right and Weil’s sister Simonne standing).</p>

<p/><center>
<img src="http://matrix.cmi.ua.ac.be/DATA2/chancay2.jpg"/>
</center><p/>

<p>Thanks to the <a href="http://portail.mathdoc.fr/archives-bourbaki/">Bourbaki archives</a> we know that the meeting took place from september 16th to 28th, that each of them had to pay 16 francs for full pension and had to bring along their own sheets and towels.</p>

<p/><center>
<img src="http://matrix.cmi.ua.ac.be/DATA2/ChancayPrix.jpg"/>
</center><p/>

<p>But where exactly is this beautiful house? Jacques Borowczyk has written a nice paper <a href="http://academie-de-touraine.ifrance.com/pages/T2007/bourbaki.pdf">Bourbaki et la touraine</a> in which he describes the Bourbaki congresses of 1936 and 1937 at the Chevalley-house in Chançay and further those held in 1956, 1957 and 1959 in ‘hôtel de la Brèche’ in Amboise. </p>

<p>Borowczyk places the Chevalley house in the little hamlet of Chançay, called “La Massoterie”. The village files assert that in 1931 three people were living at La Massoterie : father Abel Chevalley, who took residence there after his retirement in 1931, his wife Marguerite and their son Claude. But, at the time of the Bourbaki congres in 1936, Marguerite remained the only permanent inhabitant. Sadly,
Abel Chevalley, who together with Marguerite compiled the <a href="http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3645807?lookfor=subject:%22French%20language%20-%20Dictionaries%20-%20English.%22&amp;offset=6&amp;max=252">The concise Oxford French dictionary</a>, died in 1934.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.neverendingbooks.org/index.php/44-322829n-4-050861e.html">Usually</a> when you know the name of the hamlet, of the village and add just to be certain  ‘France’, <a href="http://maps.google.com/">Google Maps</a> takes you there within metres. So, this was going to be a quick post, for a change… Well, much to my surprise, typing ‘La Massoterie, Chançay, France’ only produced the answer “We could not understand the location La Massoterie, Chançay, France”.</p>

<p>Did I spell it wrong? Or, did the name change over times? No, Googling for it <a href="http://www.chancay.org/plan2.htm">the first hit</a> gives you the map of a 10km walk around Chançay passing through la Massoterie!</p>

<p>Now what? Fortunately Borowczyk included in his paper an old map, from Napoleonic times, showing the exact location of La Massoterie (just above the flash-sign), facing the castle of Volmer. If you compare it with the picture below from present day Chançay (via Google earth) it is surprising how many of the landmarks have survived the changes over two centuries.</p>

<p/><center>
<img src="http://matrix.cmi.ua.ac.be/DATA2/chancaiNapoleon.jpg"/>
</center><p/>

<p/><p/>

<p/><center>
<img src="http://matrix.cmi.ua.ac.be/DATA2/chancaiGoogle.jpg"/>
</center><p/>

<p>It is now easy to pinpoint the exact location and zoom into the Chavalley-house, and, you’re in for a small surprise : the place is called <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;source=s_q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=La+Massotterie,+37210+Chan%C3%A7ay,+France&amp;sll=37.0625,-95.677068&amp;sspn=32.38984,63.896484&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;hq=&amp;hnear=La+Massotterie,+37210+Chan%C3%A7ay,+Indre-et-Loire,+Centre,+France&amp;ll=47.459952,0.876809&amp;spn=0.001687,0.0039&amp;t=h&amp;z=18">La Massotterie</a> with 2 t’s… </p>

<p>Probably, Googles database is more reliable than the information provided by the village of Chançay, or the paper by Borowczyk as it is the same spelling as on the old Napoleonic map. Anyway, feel free to have a peek at Bourbaki’s Escorial yourself!</p></div>
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    <source>
      <title type="text">neverendingbooks</title>
      <subtitle type="text">lieven le bruyn's blog</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-08T19:17:25+00:00</updated>
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  <entry xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-atom.php">
		
    <author>
			
      <name>Zoe Louise Matthews</name>
						
					
    </author>
		
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Strange goings on in Brazil</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/2010/02/08/strange-goings-on-in-brazil/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://www.quantumdiaries.org/?p=5686</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-08T18:02:51+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-08T18:02:51+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="Latest Posts" scheme="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Around a week ago, I submitted the first paper to have me as the sole author. For someone working in such a large collaboration this is a pretty exciting moment, even if it is just proceedings  
Last September, I was given the incredible opportunity to attend one of the most prestigious conferences in the [...]</div>
    </summary>
		
    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/2010/02/08/strange-goings-on-in-brazil/"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Around a week ago, I submitted the first paper to have me as the sole author. For someone working in such a large collaboration this is a pretty exciting moment, even if it is just proceedings <img class="wp-smiley" src="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)"/> </p>
<p>Last September, I was given the incredible opportunity to attend one of the most prestigious conferences in the world of quark-related research. The Strangeness in Quark Matter conference, held every few years, gathers physicists from around the world to an exotic location to discuss our current understanding of the strange quark, and the unusual behavior of the particles it creates. In September last year it was held in Buzios, a tiny fishing village on the coast north of Rio de Janeiro.  I was invited to give a talk at the conference, and I was lucky enough to get funding for the trip as I was also giving a talk on diffraction the week before in Rio (See <a href="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/2009/10/12/strong-couplings-tales-from-brazil/">Strong couplings: Tales from Brazil</a>).</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5743" src="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/photoSQM7.jpg" height="453" alt="photoSQM7" width="604"/></p>
<p>This was truly the most beautiful place I have ever seen (even compared to the stunning French snowy mountains I was falling down just a few weeks ago). It was also one of the strangest experiences of my life, and I am not attempting a pun. International conferences are a world unto themselves – indulgent in every sense. You feast frequently on a variety of delicious foods. You mingle with minds that are expertly extreme, taking various representations and interpretations of experimental analysis, sampling ideas and concepts from theorists from around the globe and across the field. Having never been to South America (or anywhere near as far as that) before in my life, the setting, for me, was entrancing and alien. Everywhere you looked there was a mango tree or a parasitic orchid hanging from a palm. Our buffets and breakfasts were adorned with Papaya and Guava. We were even treated to an exciting boat trip to a nearby island (nicknamed “ugly island”), and  got to dive into the salty waters and snorkel!</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5739" src="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/photoSQM3.jpg" height="453" alt="photoSQM3" width="604"/></p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5742" src="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/photoSQM6.jpg" height="453" alt="photoSQM6" width="604"/></p>
<p>Outside scheduled talk time we were constantly supplied with Caipirinas – cocktails with ice, sugar, lime and Cachaca (a spirit made from sugar-cane). In fact, after one long day, during a lively and late discussion that united the attendees with outstanding questions, drinks were brought round to encourage us to stay!</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5741" src="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/photoSQM5.jpg" height="453" alt="photoSQM5" width="604"/></p>
<p>The topics under discussion, (and to some extent, debate), were just as unusual. At the start of my PhD, I had only known my own limitations in understanding data, theoretical concepts or predictions. Before the conference, discussion with many theorists to help me to understand the expectations for the LHC only served to confuse and excite me more. However, as well as answering a lot of questions for me, this conference demonstrated the true nature of being at the very front end of science – right now, we know very little for certain. Ask any scientist about what the LHC and RHIC heavy ion experiments are all about, and they will very quickly start to tell you about exciting things such as the “Quark Gluon Plasma”, and evidence to suggest its properties, like “strangeness enhancement”. Try saying either one of these phrases too loudly at a conference like this, however, and expect some funny looks. The fact is, there isn’t much you can say without a little skepticism (or careful rewording) right now.</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5740" src="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/photoSQM4.jpg" height="453" alt="photoSQM4" width="604"/></p>
<p>One thing I know for sure is that my analysis area is not lacking in interest. Strange particle production in heavy ion collisions at RHIC, compared to pp collisions, can be explained quite powerfully by theory, but the phi resonance, which is not technically strange (made up of an s and anti-s quark) is somewhat more confusing. Asking what might happen to phi production in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC is a tough enough question. However, begin to postulate what might occur in pp collisions with such high energy density that they become (in some ways) comparable to heavy ions, and you start to get some of those funny looks I mentioned. This was exactly what I did, and it sparked an argument between theorists of two extreme viewpoints, who eventually were asked to leave the room whilst the poor speaker continued. Of course, myself and another (very brilliant) ALICE physicist, Federico Antinori, who was keen to understand this issue, followed them out to take notes. <img class="wp-smiley" src="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)"/> </p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5737" src="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/photoSQM.jpg" height="800" alt="photoSQM" width="786"/></p>
<p>The conference was full of moments like this, and I am sure many of them are. Unusual data presented by experimentalists struggling to interpret it, theorists arguing passionately about the consequences. I’d like to make a rather controversial statement that there is probably an equivalent to the “Phlogiston” phenomenon at work in much of front-line science. (If you don’t know what I am talking about, don’t just Wikipedia it, you should also watch “Chemistry: A Volatile History”, presented by Prof. Jim Al-Khalili on BBC4 Catch up TV, and hurry as you only have a few days left!) What I mean is, wherever we are dealing with the unknown, there are many contradicting ideas and some of them have to be nonsense. Unfortunately what seems like nonsense can be exactly what we are looking for. You only have to look at the history and evolution of science to see how these red herrings can take a long time to unveil, and how what looks like a ridiculous mistake (parity violation, for example!) could turn out to be a curiously perfect answer.</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5738" src="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/photoSQM2.jpg" height="453" alt="photoSQM2" width="604"/></p></div>
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		<thr:total>0</thr:total>
	
    <source>
      <title type="text">Quantum Diaries</title>
      <subtitle type="text">Thoughts on work and life from particle physicists from around the world.</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-09T09:19:09+00:00</updated>
      <generator uri="http://wordpress.org/" version="2.8.6">WordPress</generator>
      <link href="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
      <id>http://www.quantumdiaries.org/feed/atom/</id>
      <link href="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/feed/atom/" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title>Amazing Laser Application 1: Light Show!</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><strong>What's the application?</strong> The use of lasers to provide an entertaining light show for humans, dogs, or cats.</p>

<p><strong>What problem(s) is it the solution to?</strong> 1) "How will I entertain my dog or cat?"</p>

<p/>

<p>2) "How can we distract people from the fact that Roger Daltrey has no voice left?"</p>
 <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/amazing_laser_application_1_li.php">Read the rest of this post...</a> | <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/amazing_laser_application_1_li.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~4/hwuzhieAsTw" height="1" width="1"/></div>
    </summary>
         
    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~3/hwuzhieAsTw/amazing_laser_application_1_li.php" rel="alternate"/>
         
    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/amazing_laser_application_1_li.php</id>
         
    <category term="Laser Smackdown"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-08T12:49:32-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-08T12:49:32-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Uncertain Principles</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Physics, Politics, Pop Culture</subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-09T11:55:23-05:00</updated>
      <generator>http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en</generator>
      <link href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
      <link href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" rel="hub"/>
      <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/</id>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title>Laser Smackdown: The Finalists</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>A couple of weeks ago, I <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/01/laser_smackdown_the_most_amazi.php">announced a contest</a> to determine the Most Amazing Laser Application. After a <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/laser_smackdown_amazing_laser.php">follow-up post listing the likely candidates</a>, we have a final list of candidate applications, an even dozen of them (after consolidating some related topics):</p>
<ul>
<li>Cat toy/ dog toy/ laser light show</li>
<li>Laser cooling/ BEC</li>
<li>Laser ranging/position measurement</li>
<li>Optical tweezers</li>
<li>Optical storage media (CD/DVD/Blu-Ray)</li>
<li>LIGO</li>
<li>Telecommunications</li>
<li>Holography</li>
<li>Laser ignited fusion</li>
<li>Laser eye surgery</li>
<li>Laser frequency comb/ spectroscopy</li>
<li>Laser guide stars/ adaptive optics</li>
</ul>

<p>Here's how this will work: over the next week or so, I will write up a series of blog posts explaining these applications, and the pros and cons of each. At the end of that time, I'll put up a poll, and we'll decide the winner based on that most scientific of methods: random people on the Internet clicking radio buttons.</p>

<p>Watch this space-- the first application post will appear this afternoon.</p>
 <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/laser_smackdown_the_finalists.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~4/IzlwjpeT7do" height="1" width="1"/></div>
    </summary>
         
    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~3/IzlwjpeT7do/laser_smackdown_the_finalists.php" rel="alternate"/>
         
    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/laser_smackdown_the_finalists.php</id>
         
    <category term="Physics"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-08T11:25:02-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-08T11:25:02-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Uncertain Principles</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Physics, Politics, Pop Culture</subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-09T11:55:23-05:00</updated>
      <generator>http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en</generator>
      <link href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
      <link href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" rel="hub"/>
      <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/</id>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://empg.maths.ed.ac.uk/blog/wp-atom.php">
		
    <author>
			
      <name>Patricia</name>
					
    </author>
		
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Last EMPJ before Easter</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://empg.maths.ed.ac.uk/blog/?p=1072" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://empg.maths.ed.ac.uk/blog/?p=1072</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-08T16:07:39+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-08T15:36:16+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="Maths&amp;Physics" scheme="http://empg.maths.ed.ac.uk/blog"/>
    <category term="Uncategorized" scheme="http://empg.maths.ed.ac.uk/blog"/>
    <category term="brane tilings" scheme="http://empg.maths.ed.ac.uk/blog"/>
    <category term="EMPJ" scheme="http://empg.maths.ed.ac.uk/blog"/>
    <category term="pre-seminar" scheme="http://empg.maths.ed.ac.uk/blog"/>
    <category term="quiver" scheme="http://empg.maths.ed.ac.uk/blog"/>
    <category term="student" scheme="http://empg.maths.ed.ac.uk/blog"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Just a quick post about our last EMPJ pre-seminar, to sum up our activities so far. 
First of all I’d like to thank Elena for giving us a great preseminar to Amihay Hanany’s talk. She gave us a very clear and interesting introduction to quiver diagrams and brane tilings, providing us with the essential information [...]</div>
    </summary>
		
    <link href="http://empg.maths.ed.ac.uk/blog/?p=1072#comments" rel="replies" type="text/html" thr:count="0"/>
		
    <link href="http://empg.maths.ed.ac.uk/blog/?feed=atom&amp;p=1072" rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" thr:count="0"/>
		<thr:total>0</thr:total>
	
    <source>
      <title type="text">EMPG Blog</title>
      <subtitle type="text">Mathematical Physics in Edinburgh</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-08T16:07:39+00:00</updated>
      <generator uri="http://wordpress.org/" version="2.9.1">WordPress</generator>
      <link href="http://empg.maths.ed.ac.uk/blog" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
      <id>http://empg.maths.ed.ac.uk/blog/?feed=atom</id>
      <link href="http://empg.maths.ed.ac.uk/blog/?feed=atom" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title>My Boskone Schedule</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The usual "This is the stuff that looks interesting to me" post, based on the <a href="http://www.nesfa.org/boskone/program-schedule.html">preliminary online program</a>. Subject to change if they move things around, or if I discover something I overlooked that sounds more interesting, or if I decide I'm hungry, and opt to blow off panels in favor of food.</p>

<p>This year's program is lighter on panels, but includes both a signing and a reading. Which will be a very different experience than years past...</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/my_boskone_schedule_2.php">Read the rest of this post...</a> | <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/my_boskone_schedule_2.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~4/PUPXufRodAU" height="1" width="1"/></div>
    </summary>
         
    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~3/PUPXufRodAU/my_boskone_schedule_2.php" rel="alternate"/>
         
    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/my_boskone_schedule_2.php</id>
         
    <category term="SF"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-08T09:56:20-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-08T09:56:20-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Uncertain Principles</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Physics, Politics, Pop Culture</subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-09T11:55:23-05:00</updated>
      <generator>http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en</generator>
      <link href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
      <link href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" rel="hub"/>
      <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/</id>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title>Way Cuter Than the Puppy Bowl</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>There was some discombobulation yesterday afternoon that kept me from posting these-- I had meant them to be a Super Bowl alternative for the non-football-inclined. They'll work just as well as a Monday brightener, though. So here's a clip of SteelyKid a couple of weeks ago, laughing at the "got your food wrapper" game:</p>

<p/>

<p>And here's one of her talking on the phone with her grandmother:</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/way_cuter_than_the_puppy_bowl.php">Read the rest of this post...</a> | <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/way_cuter_than_the_puppy_bowl.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~4/QcxrY5cGthU" height="1" width="1"/></div>
    </summary>
         
    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~3/QcxrY5cGthU/way_cuter_than_the_puppy_bowl.php" rel="alternate"/>
         
    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/way_cuter_than_the_puppy_bowl.php</id>
         
    <category term="Steelykid!"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-08T09:44:37-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-08T09:44:37-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Uncertain Principles</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Physics, Politics, Pop Culture</subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-09T11:55:23-05:00</updated>
      <generator>http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en</generator>
      <link href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
      <link href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" rel="hub"/>
      <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/</id>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title>Links for 2010-02-08</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><ul class="delicious"><li>
                <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://www.lohud.com/article/20100206/NEWS03/2060356/More-than-300-cases-of-mumps-reported-in-Monsey-New-Square">More than 300 cases of mumps reported in Monsey, New Square | LoHud.com | The Journal News</a></div>
                <div class="delicious-extended">"At least 60 percent of the people in Rockland who have gotten mumps during the current outbreak had not been fully immunized, Facelle said.

Mumps were common before the vaccine became available. In 2008, there were only two reported cases in Rockland, according to the Department of Health's year-end communicable disease report."</div>
                <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/medicine">medicine</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/vaccine">vaccine</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/health-care">health-care</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/stupid">stupid</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/science">science</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/news">news</a>)</div>
            </li><li>
                <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/temple-grandin,37960/?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=feeds&amp;utm_source=avclub_rss_daily">Temple Grandin | Other Shows | TV Club | TV | The A.V. Club</a></div>
                <div class="delicious-extended">"Playing Grandin in the HBO biopic Temple Grandin, Claire Danes captures the brilliance of the woman: how she sees things that others don't, and makes connections others can't. Danes gets Grandin's braying monotone, stooped posture and default defensive stance to other people--and more importantly she conveys it all unselfconsciously, as Grandin would, with no awareness of how she must look to others. (That is, until they start laughing or whispering behind her back.) The performance is more than just a collection of skillfully strung together tics. Danes also captures Grandin's sense of humor and her perception of everyday life: how she finds things funny that aren't necessarily jokes, and how unexpected sounds, lights and motion can put her in a mild state of panic."</div>
                <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/television">television</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/movies">movies</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/review">review</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/blogs">blogs</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/avclub">avclub</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/medicine">medicine</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/neuroscience">neuroscience</a>)</div>
            </li><li>
                <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://thonyc.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/when-did-the-scientific-renaissance-take-place/">When did the (Scientific) Renaissance take place? « The Renaissance Mathematicus</a></div>
                <div class="delicious-extended">"Periodisation in human history is an artifice. We the historians impose periods onto history in order to try to tame it and make it easier to handle and in doing so we run the very real risk of falsifying it. There are no sign posts rammed into the real roadmap of time saying you are now leaving the Early Middle Ages please conduct your self in future in a manner suitable for the High Middle Ages. In fact as the peasant farmer in Middle Europe turned over the page of his calendar from the 25th to the 26th of March in 1199 and thus entered the thirteenth century nothing changed in his life at all. Time is a constantly flowing river and change is incremental and on the ground mostly imperceptible as societies, cultures and ways of live evolve within the general flow. It is only with hindsight and selective interpretation of the facts that we can perceive the major changes that we then use to identify the periods that we stamp out of the riverbed."</div>
                <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/history">history</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/science">science</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/humanities">humanities</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/math">math</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/blogs">blogs</a>)</div>
            </li><li>
                <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/pl_arts_found/all/1">Arts: Photographer Loves Math, Graphs Her Images | Magazine</a></div>
                <div class="delicious-extended">"Most of us can't tell our secant from our cotangent. But the forms are everywhere, and Nikki Graziano wants to help us see them. Graziano, a math and photography student at Rochester Institute of Technology, overlays graphs and their corresponding equations onto her carefully composed photos. "I wanted to create something that could communicate how awesome math is, to everyone," she says. Graziano doesn't go out looking for a specific function but lets one find her instead. Once she's got an image she likes, Graziano whips up the numbers and tweaks the function until the graph it describes aligns perfectly with the photograph."</div>
                <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/art">art</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/math">math</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/science">science</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/pictures">pictures</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/culture">culture</a>)</div>
            </li><li>
                <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://twitpic.com/11mnec">Dear Jim: Congratulations! George. on Twitpic</a></div>
                <div class="delicious-extended">Star Wars vs. Titanic.</div>
                <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/pictures">pictures</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/silly">silly</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/movies">movies</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/sf">sf</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/culture">culture</a>)</div>
            </li><li>
                <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://thisrecording.com/today/2010/2/5/in-which-the-players-are-more-interesting-than-the-commercia.html">In Which The Players Are More Interesting Than The Commercials - Home - This Recording</a></div>
                <div class="delicious-extended">"As the middle linebacker, [Jonathan] Vilma is the quarterback of the defense. Watch him, and not Peyton Manning, for at least one drive during the Super Bowl and check out what kinds of furiously intense and split-second head games the two men are playing with each other. Maybe it looks uncomplicated, but you'd rather take a staple gun to your chode than replace either of these men for one play.

They say there's only 11 minutes of actual "game" during a football game, but they're wrong. This tete-a-tete between quarterback and middle linebacker is the equivalent of watching a player's eyes during a chess match, if the pieces tried to kill each other, and their actions resulted in wanton crying and unnecessary financial ruin for some of the spectators. Enjoy."</div>
                <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/sports">sports</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/football">football</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/television">television</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/culture">culture</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/US">US</a>)</div>
            </li></ul> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/links_for_2010-02-08.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~4/q7Rv3AGRLIQ" height="1" width="1"/></div>
    </summary>
         
    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~3/q7Rv3AGRLIQ/links_for_2010-02-08.php" rel="alternate"/>
         
    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/links_for_2010-02-08.php</id>
         
    <category term="Links Dump"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-08T07:26:12-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-08T07:26:12-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Uncertain Principles</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Physics, Politics, Pop Culture</subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-09T11:55:23-05:00</updated>
      <generator>http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en</generator>
      <link href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
      <link href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" rel="hub"/>
      <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/</id>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Presidential Question Time</div>
    </title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><br/>
There was a truly weird advert or contributed op-ed on the radio a couple of days ago.</p>

<p>Some conservative anti-tax guy, and a left-wing editor had joined in calling for a US "Question Time",  a la the UK "Question Time" in Parliament. <br/>
ie the President doing questions and answers with Congress, formally.</p>

<p>Inspired, in part, I suspect, by Obama's performance against the congressional republicans in a question and answer session, though conservative dude brought out the old teleprompter canard against Obama in explaining why he thought it was a good idea. </p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2010/02/presidential_question_time.php">Read the rest of this post...</a> | <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2010/02/presidential_question_time.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DynamicsOfCats/~4/E2Ud96LN1_o" height="1" width="1"/></div>
    </summary>
         
    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DynamicsOfCats/~3/E2Ud96LN1_o/presidential_question_time.php" rel="alternate"/>
         
    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2010/02/presidential_question_time.php</id>
         
    <category term="politics"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-08T00:14:36-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-08T00:14:36-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Dynamics of Cats</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Speculations on astronomy, astrophysics, news I find interesting, theoretical issues, science and science policy.  
I will digress into computational physics, science fiction and general issues and basically whatever I feel like whenever. 
And, of course, cats. </subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-08T00:14:36-05:00</updated>
      <generator>http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en</generator>
      <link href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/DynamicsOfCats" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
      <link href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" rel="hub"/>
      <id>http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/</id>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">acts of gods</div>
    </title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Why do the gods keep interfering in football championships? <br/>
And which gods? </p>

<p>I'd think Loki, by default. <br/>
But Manning's throw away really smells of Óðinn - he always had a macabre sense of humour about bringing down established fighters through mischance or misjudgement.</p>

<p>'cause, y'know, when football players invoke the gods in their victory, you really have to think first about <i>"which god?"</i></p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2010/02/acts_of_gods.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DynamicsOfCats/~4/5DMg8hBsQQk" height="1" width="1"/></div>
    </summary>
         
    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DynamicsOfCats/~3/5DMg8hBsQQk/acts_of_gods.php" rel="alternate"/>
         
    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2010/02/acts_of_gods.php</id>
         
    <category term="random"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-07T23:57:18-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-07T23:57:18-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Dynamics of Cats</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Speculations on astronomy, astrophysics, news I find interesting, theoretical issues, science and science policy.  
I will digress into computational physics, science fiction and general issues and basically whatever I feel like whenever. 
And, of course, cats. </subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-08T00:14:36-05:00</updated>
      <generator>http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en</generator>
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      <id>http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/</id>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Y rant on Mann hunt</div>
    </title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><br/>
<a href="http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2010/02/guardians-great-mann-hunt.html">The Yorkshire Ranter analyses the Climate Research Unity coverage</a> in your friendly neighbourhood grauniad.</p>

<p><a href="http://it-networks.org/?p=222">Robert P. points us to an analysis of the crack itself</a>  - kinda blah.  Basically trawling through a misconfigured server by a script kiddie.</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2010/02/y_rant_on_mann_hunt.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DynamicsOfCats/~4/lj8ujwhB3Aw" height="1" width="1"/></div>
    </summary>
         
    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DynamicsOfCats/~3/lj8ujwhB3Aw/y_rant_on_mann_hunt.php" rel="alternate"/>
         
    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2010/02/y_rant_on_mann_hunt.php</id>
         
    <category term="politics"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-07T23:46:29-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-07T23:46:29-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Dynamics of Cats</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Speculations on astronomy, astrophysics, news I find interesting, theoretical issues, science and science policy.  
I will digress into computational physics, science fiction and general issues and basically whatever I feel like whenever. 
And, of course, cats. </subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-08T00:14:36-05:00</updated>
      <generator>http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en</generator>
      <link href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/DynamicsOfCats" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
      <link href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" rel="hub"/>
      <id>http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/</id>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title>The Super Bowl Index of Economic and Cultural Indicators</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>It occurs to me that if you take the Super Bowl as a comment on the current state of the US of A-- which, you might as well, because it's as good as anything else-- we are totally screwed.</p>

<p>I mean, consider the fact that two-thirds of the ads were for Bud Light. OK, that may be a slight exaggeration, but I think every commercial break in the first half had at least one Bud Light ad in it. That basically tells you that the only company with the money to spend on Super Bowl advertising is one that makes its money from helping people drown their sorrows. That's an encouraging statement.</p>

<p>Worse yet, the general crop of ads continued the deplorable trend of glorifying idiots. This has been going on for years, but has really reached a peak lately with things like the Sonic ad campaign with two idiots in a car, those Coors Light commercials with the football coaches, and pretty much any commercial Taco Bell has made in the last, say, ten years. Maybe longer.</p>

<p>And worst of all, the Simpsons totally sold out. I mean, really, is nothing sacred?</p>

<p>What a bunch of crap. Space aliens looking at this year's sorry crop of ads would probably decide to save time and just nuke us from orbit. The orbit of Jupiter.</p>

<p>On the bright side, it was at least a decent game. Congratulations to the Saints, the feel-good story of the century so far.</p>
 <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/the_super_bowl_index_of_econom.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~4/lDAMvAShdA0" height="1" width="1"/></div>
    </summary>
         
    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~3/lDAMvAShdA0/the_super_bowl_index_of_econom.php" rel="alternate"/>
         
    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/the_super_bowl_index_of_econom.php</id>
         
    <category term="Television"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-07T22:57:59-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-07T22:57:59-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Uncertain Principles</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Physics, Politics, Pop Culture</subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-09T11:55:23-05:00</updated>
      <generator>http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en</generator>
      <link href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
      <link href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" rel="hub"/>
      <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/</id>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:geo="http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/wp-atom.php">
		
    <author>
			
      <name>JSE</name>
						
      <uri>http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/</uri>
					
    </author>
		
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Irrational hatred and the Super Bowl</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/irrational-hatred-and-the-super-bowl/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/?p=2056</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-08T03:45:43+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-08T03:45:43+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="news" scheme="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="psychology" scheme="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="football" scheme="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="hatred" scheme="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="peyton manning" scheme="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="rationality" scheme="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I had never seen Peyton Manning play football until the last five minutes of tonight’s Super Bowl.  But I always rooted against him.  Just didn’t like the guy, while not knowing anything about him.  I have the same sour feeling about some other athletes — Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, Jim McMahon, Nancy Kerrigan, Michael Phelps [...]<img src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=quomodocumque.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1236000&amp;post=2056&amp;subd=quomodocumque&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" border="0" alt=""/></div>
    </summary>
		
    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/irrational-hatred-and-the-super-bowl/"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><br/><p>I had never seen Peyton Manning play football until the last five minutes of tonight’s Super Bowl.  But I always rooted against him.  Just didn’t like the guy, while not knowing anything about him.  I have the same sour feeling about some other athletes — Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, Jim McMahon, Nancy Kerrigan, Michael Phelps — but these are all people I’ve seen play.</p>
<p>I found the last five minutes of the Super Bowl extremely satisfying, justifiably or not.</p>
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    </content>
		
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		<thr:total>2</thr:total>
	
    <source>
      <title type="text">Quomodocumque</title>
      <subtitle type="text">Math, Madison, food, the Orioles, books, my kid.</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-09T04:04:08+00:00</updated>
      <generator uri="http://wordpress.com/">WordPress.com</generator>
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  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://blogs.uslhc.us/wp-atom.php">
		
    <author>
			
      <name>Ken Bloom</name>
						
					
    </author>
		
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">How much data, how soon?</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://blogs.uslhc.us/?p=3678" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://blogs.uslhc.us/?p=3678</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-08T03:38:31+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-08T03:38:31+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="Uncategorized" scheme="http://blogs.uslhc.us/"/>
    <category term="CMS" scheme="http://blogs.uslhc.us/"/>
    <category term="first results" scheme="http://blogs.uslhc.us/"/>
    <category term="LHC" scheme="http://blogs.uslhc.us/"/>
    <category term="luminosity" scheme="http://blogs.uslhc.us/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">First off, we should mention here that CMS’s first paper from collision data has now been accepted for publication by the Journal of High Energy Physics.  It’s a measurement of the angular distribution and momentum spectrum of charged particles produced in proton collisions at 0.9 and 2.36 TeV, using about 50,000 collision events recorded [...]</div>
    </summary>
		
    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://blogs.uslhc.us/?p=3678"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>First off, we should mention here that CMS’s <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1002.0621">first paper</a> from collision data has now been accepted for publication by the <a href="http://www.iop.org/EJ/jhep">Journal of High Energy Physics</a>.  It’s a measurement of the angular distribution and momentum spectrum of charged particles produced in proton collisions at 0.9 and 2.36 TeV, using about 50,000 collision events recorded in December.  It is really wonderful that this result could be turned around so quickly!  The first of many papers to come, we hope.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, as already mentioned here, we now have the news of the <a href="http://cdsweb.cern.ch/journal/CERNBulletin/2010/06/News%20Articles/1237578?ln=en">run plan</a> for the LHC.  CERN is preparing for the longest continuous accelerator run of its history, 18 to 24 months.  The inverse femtobarn of data to be recorded in that time is a lot, and will give us an opportunity to make many interesting measurements.  Whether any of them will be evidence of new physics, I for one am not going to speculate!  But if nothing else, this plan sets out what our LHC life for the next ~three years is going to look like.</p>
<p>But a shorter-term question comes to mind — 1 fb-1 over 18 to 24 months is one thing.  But what about just the next few months?  There is a <a href="http://www.ichep2010.fr/">major international conference</a> coming up in July.  What sort of LHC results might be ready by then?  That will depend in part on how many collisions are delivered.  I’ve seen various estimates for that, but they vary by an order of magnitude depending on the level of optimism, so I’d rather not guess.  It will also depend on the experiments’ performance.  How efficiently can we record those collisions?  How quickly can we process them?  How soon will we understand various parts of the detectors well enough to make quality measurements?  How smart and clever can we be throughout the entire process?  How much sleep is everyone going to get?</p>
<p>Ask me again in July.  Meanwhile, game on.</p>
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		<thr:total>2</thr:total>
	
    <source>
      <title type="text">US LHC Blog</title>
      <subtitle type="text">US LHC Blogs</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-08T03:38:31+00:00</updated>
      <generator uri="http://wordpress.org/" version="2.8.4">WordPress</generator>
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  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title>The End of Defining Chaos: Mixing it all together</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> The last major property of a chaotic system is topological mixing. You can
think of mixing as being, in some sense, the opposite of the dense periodic
orbits property. Intuitively, the dense orbits tell you that things that are
arbitrarily close together for arbitrarily long periods of time can have
vastly different behaviors. Mixing means that things that are arbitrarily far
apart will eventually wind up looking nearly the same - if only for a little
while.</p>

<p> Let's start with a formal definition.</p>

<p> As you can guess from the name, topological mixing is a property defined
using topology. In topology, we generally define things in terms of <em>open sets</em>
and <em>neighborhoods</em>. I don't want to go too deep into detail - but an
open set captures the notion of a collection of points with a well-defined boundary
that is <em>not</em> part of the set. So, for example, in a simple 2-dimensional 
euclidean space, the contents of a circle are one kind of open set; the boundary is
the circle itself. </p>

<p> Now, imagine that you've got a dynamical system whose phase space is
defined as a topological space. The system is defined by a recurrence
relation: s<sub>n+1</sub> = f(s<sub>n</sub>). Now, suppose that in this
dynamical system, we can expand the state function so that it works as a
continous map over sets. So if we have an open set of points A, then we can
talk about the set of points that that open set will be mapped to by f. Speaking
informally, we can say that if B=f(A), B is the space of points that could be mapped
to by points in A.</p>

<p> The phase space is topologically mixing if, for any two open spaces A
and B, there is <em>some</em> integer N such that f<sup>N</sup>(A) ∩ B &amp;neq; 0. That is, no matter where you start,
no matter how far away you are from some other point, <em>eventually</em>,
you'll wind up arbitrarily close to that other point. <em>(Note: I originally left out the quantification of N.)</em></p>

<p> Now, let's put that together with the other basic properties of
	a chaotic system. In informal terms, what it means is:</p>
	
<ol>
	<li> Exactly where you start has a huge impact on where you'll end up.</li>
	<li> No matter how close together two points are, no matter how long their
		 trajectories are close together, at any time, they <em>can</em>
		 suddenly go in completely different directions.</li>
	<li> No matter how far apart two points are, no matter how long
		 their trajectories stay far apart, eventually, they'll 
		 wind up in almost the same place.</li>
</ol>

<p> All of this is a fancy and complicated way of saying that in a chaotic
system, you never know what the heck is going to happen. No matter how long
the system's behavior appears to be perfectly stable and predictable, there's
absolutely no guarantee that the behavior is actually in a periodic orbit. It
could, at any time, diverge into something totally unpredictable.</p>

<p> Anyway - I've spent more than enough time on the definition; I think I've
pretty well driven this into the ground. But I hope that in doing so, I've
gotten across the degree of unpredictability of a chaotic system. There's a
reason that chaotic systems are considered to be a nightmare for numerical
analysis of dynamical systems. It means that the most miniscule errors
in any aspect of anything will produce drastic divergence. </p>

<p> So when you build a model of a chaotic system, you know that it's going to
break down. No matter how careful you are, even if you had impossibly perfect measurements,
just the nature of numerical computation - the limited precision and roundoff
errors of numerical representations - mean that your model is going to break.</p>

<p> From here, I'm going to move from defining things to analyzing things. Chaotic
systems are a nightmare for modeling. But there are ways of recognizing when
a systems behavior is going to become chaotic. What I'm going to do next is look
at how we can describe and analyze systems in order to recognize and predict
when they'll become chaotic.</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2010/02/the_end_of_defining_chaos_mixi.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/CyKN/~4/xnXnRyI4gqo" height="1" width="1"/></div>
    </summary>
         
    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/CyKN/~3/xnXnRyI4gqo/the_end_of_defining_chaos_mixi.php" rel="alternate"/>
         
    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2010/02/the_end_of_defining_chaos_mixi.php</id>
         
    <category term="Chaos"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-07T19:35:49-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-07T19:35:49-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Good Math, Bad Math</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Finding the fun in good math; Shredding bad math and squashing the crackpots who espouse it.</subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-07T19:35:49-05:00</updated>
      <generator>http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en</generator>
      <link href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/scienceblogs/CyKN" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
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      <id>http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/</id>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-atom.php">
		
    <author>
			
      <name>Frank Simon</name>
						
					
    </author>
		
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Heat to kill the pain</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/2010/02/07/heat-to-kill-the-pain/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://www.quantumdiaries.org/?p=5712</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-07T21:40:34+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-07T21:40:34+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="Latest Posts" scheme="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I’ve been a bit slow with blogging lately… And the reason is not a lack of things that are going on, far from that. Things got even more busy because of a long-planned week of skiing, and all the things I had to finish before then. Now, teaching is over for this semester, and since [...]</div>
    </summary>
		
    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/2010/02/07/heat-to-kill-the-pain/"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_5714" style="width: 410px"><img class="size-full wp-image-5714" src="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/SliverofSunlight.jpg" height="300" alt="A sliver of sunlight on the next mountain, amindst clouds and snowfall." width="400"/><p class="wp-caption-text">A sliver of sunlight on the next mountain, amidst clouds and snowfall.</p></div>
<p>I’ve been a bit slow with blogging lately… And the reason is not a lack of things that are going on, far from that. Things got even more busy because of a long-planned week of skiing, and all the things I had to finish before then. Now, teaching is over for this semester, and since yesterday around noon, we are in a small mountain village in south western Austria.</p>
<p>Over the last few days there has been quite a bit of fresh snow, good for the slopes, but bad for visibility, especially since the clouds this morning were right at the altitude of the ski resort. After lunch, we saw a first sliver of sunlight, and the day ended with sunshine. The snow was great to ski on, but of course in the middle of a cloud I went into a little depression a bit to fast without seeing it, and jolted my back. But the sauna in our hotel hopefully helped to loosen the muscles again… Nothing like baking for a while to kill the pain of a long day of skiing.</p>
<p>I hope that over the next few days I’ll also have the time to write a bit about things that have been going on lately: A submitted paper, meeting in Paris, maybe more…. But no promises, skiing comes first!</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_5716" style="width: 310px"><img class="size-full wp-image-5716" src="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Sauna.jpg" height="400" alt="The tool to soothe sore muscles: The sauna in our hotel in the ski resort." width="300"/><p class="wp-caption-text">The tool to soothe sore muscles: The sauna in our hotel in the ski resort.</p></div></div>
    </content>
		
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		<thr:total>0</thr:total>
	
    <source>
      <title type="text">Quantum Diaries</title>
      <subtitle type="text">Thoughts on work and life from particle physicists from around the world.</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-09T09:19:09+00:00</updated>
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  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title>Talking to My Dog About Science: Why Public Communication of Science Matters, and How Weblogs Can Help</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>My talk at Maryland last Thursday went pretty well-- the impending Snowpocalypse kept the audience down, as people tried to fit in enough work to compensate for the Friday shutdown, but the people who were there seemed to like it, and asked good questions. If you weren't there, but want to know what I talked about, here are the slides on SlideShare:</p>

<p/><div id="__ss_3097819" style="width:425px;text-align:left"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/orzelc/talking-to-my-dog-about-science-why-public-communication-of-science-matters-and-how-weblogs-can-help" title="Talking to My Dog About Science: Why Public Communication of Science Matters and How Weblogs Can Help" style="font:14px Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;display:block;margin:12px 0 3px 0;text-decoration:underline;">Talking to My Dog About Science: Why Public Communication of Science Matters and How Weblogs Can Help</a><div style="font-size:11px;font-family:tahoma,arial;height:26px;padding-top:2px;">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/" style="text-decoration:underline;">presentations</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/orzelc" style="text-decoration:underline;">Chad Orzel</a>.</div></div><p/>

<p>This flattens out some of the more animation-dependent jokes, but gets you the basic idea. It is, of course, much more entertaining live, in case you're running an organization that might like a talk about this sort of thing...</p>
 <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/talking_to_my_dog_about_scienc_1.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~4/f2BWWK6sMv4" height="1" width="1"/></div>
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    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~3/f2BWWK6sMv4/talking_to_my_dog_about_scienc_1.php" rel="alternate"/>
         
    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/talking_to_my_dog_about_scienc_1.php</id>
         
    <category term="Academia"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-07T14:26:38-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-07T14:26:38-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Uncertain Principles</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Physics, Politics, Pop Culture</subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-09T11:55:23-05:00</updated>
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      <link href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
      <link href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" rel="hub"/>
      <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/</id>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://asymptotia.com/wp-atom.php">
		
    <author>
			
      <name>Clifford</name>
						
      <uri>http://asymptotia.com/</uri>
					
    </author>
		
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Bad, but ever so Good</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/07/bad-but-ever-so-good/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://asymptotia.com/?p=6151</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-07T18:23:25+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-07T18:23:25+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="Los Angeles" scheme="http://asymptotia.com/"/>
    <category term="food and drink" scheme="http://asymptotia.com/"/>
    <category term="personal" scheme="http://asymptotia.com/"/>
    <category term="travel" scheme="http://asymptotia.com/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><a href="http://asymptotia.com/wp-images/2010/02/bakes_squid.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-6152" title="bakes_squid" src="http://asymptotia.com/wp-images/2010/02/bakes_squid-300x300.jpg" alt="bakes_squid" width="200"/></a>The other day I had a moment of nostalgia and made some of what we called <em>bakes</em> when I was a child, growing up (for some years) in the Caribbean. Bakes are known as Johnny cakes in the US, as far as I understand, and used in much the same ways that we used them. This is certainly not something you should have every day, since they involve fat (vegetable shortening, <small>or lard as we called it, although elsewhere the term is used for a kind of pig fat</small>), flour, salt, and a pan half full of oil to deep fry it all in. 

Definitely sinful. 

I have very happy memories of having bakes with tasty oily fishy goodness of some sort. <em>Salt fish </em> (salt dried cod)  would be a typical thing (bacalao as the Portuguese and  [...]</div>
    </summary>
		
    <link href="http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/07/bad-but-ever-so-good/#comments" rel="replies" type="text/html" thr:count="8"/>
		
    <link href="http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/07/bad-but-ever-so-good/feed/atom/" rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" thr:count="8"/>
		<thr:total>8</thr:total>
	
    <source>
      <title type="text">Asymptotia</title>
      <updated>2010-02-09T04:25:18+00:00</updated>
      <generator uri="http://wordpress.org/" version="2.7.1">WordPress</generator>
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  <entry xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xml:base="http://www.scientificblogging.com">
 
    <title>And CMS, In The Meantime...</title>
 
    <link href="http://www.scientificblogging.com/quantum_diaries_survivor/blog/and_cms_meantime" rel="alternate"/>
 
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Earlier today I reported about the publication of a paper by a non-professional physicist, Carl Brannen. Now I have to do the same for a paper -the first one in a long and groundbreaking series, you can bet- from the CMS collaboration, one of the two main experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.<br/><br/><br/>
<p><a href="http://www.scientificblogging.com/quantum_diaries_survivor/blog/and_cms_meantime" target="_blank">read more</a></p></div>
    </summary>
 
    <link href="http://www.scientificblogging.com/quantum_diaries_survivor/blog/and_cms_meantime#comments" rel="replies" type="text/html"/>
 
    <category term="Physics" scheme="http://www.scientificblogging.com/physics"/>
 
    <published>2010-02-07T16:23:56+00:00</published>
 
    <author>
      <name>dorigo</name>
    </author>
 
    <id>urn:feed-entry-id:64345 at http://www.scientificblogging.com</id>

    <updated>2010-02-07T16:23:56+00:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>dorigo's blog</title>
      <link href="http://www.scientificblogging.com/quantum_diaries_survivor" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Science 2.0</subtitle>
      <link href="http://www.scientificblogging.com/quantum_diaries_survivor/feed" rel="self"/>
      <id>http://www.scientificblogging.com/quantum_diaries_survivor</id>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title>How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><a href="http://dogphysics.com/"><img class="inset right" src="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/upload/2009/12/how_to_teach_physics_to_your_d/sm_cover_draft_atom.jpg" height="242" alt="sm_cover_draft_atom.jpg" width="150"/></a>Miscellaneous stories and links about <a href="http://dogphysics.com/"><cite>How to Teach Physics to Your Dog</cite></a>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Kathy Ceceri, who wrote the story about the book that ran in the <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/ASPStories/Story.asp?StoryID=891853&amp;LinkFrom=RSS">Times Union</a>, has posted the <a href="http://homephysics.blogspot.com/2010/02/book-review-how-to-teach-physics-to.html">full article on the Home Physics blog</a>. The link to the paper itself may very well disappear behind a paywall, but this post should remain accessible.</li>
<li>There's an <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Move-Over-Schr-dingers-Cat/63997/">article in the Chronicle of Higher Education</a> that I can't read because I'm not a subscriber, and I don't remember the password needed to access it via the library subscription. If anybody has access and would like to tell me what it says, that would be cool. (<strong>UPDATE:</strong> I've got it now, thanks very much.)</li>
<li><cite>How to Teach Physics to Your Dog</cite> is used as an example in a <a href="http://www.wandelweb.de/blog/?p=878">German presentation about problem solving</a>. Google translate is good enough to get the idea of the way it's being used, but is no help at all with the embedded presentation slide. I think it's a translation of part of the Introduction, but my German is nonexistent.</li>
</ul>

<p>That's the best of this week's vanity searching. Again, I will be on <a href="http://www.ksoo.com/local-a-live-mainmenu-3/viewpoint-university-mainmenu-43/67-viewpoint-university-admissions-department.html">KSOO radio</a> Tuesday evening, 6:30 pm ET, if you'd like to hear what I sound like live. I'll also be at <a href="http://www.nesfa.org/boskone/program-schedule.html">Boskone</a> next weekend, reading book-related stuff on Sunday morning.</p>
 <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/how_to_teach_physics_to_your_d_24.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~4/gqfc91MVOCQ" height="1" width="1"/></div>
    </summary>
         
    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~3/gqfc91MVOCQ/how_to_teach_physics_to_your_d_24.php" rel="alternate"/>
         
    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/how_to_teach_physics_to_your_d_24.php</id>
         
    <category term="Publicity"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-07T11:18:36-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-07T11:18:36-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Uncertain Principles</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Physics, Politics, Pop Culture</subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-09T11:55:23-05:00</updated>
      <generator>http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en</generator>
      <link href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
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      <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/</id>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title>Sports Science Poll: Super Bowl</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>We're mere hours away from the start of the Super Bowl, the biggest football game of the year. Obviously, the question of who will win has been the subject of much debate over the last couple of weeks on sports media and in offices around the country. What these discussions have lacked, though, is Science!!! (with any number of exclamation points).</p>

<p>So, let's employ science to determine the winner in advance, with a totally accurate Internet poll:</p>

<p>
&lt;a href="http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/2662709/"&gt;Who will win the Super Bowl?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9px;"&gt;(&lt;a href="http://www.polldaddy.com"&gt;polls&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;
</p>

<p>The game kicks off around 6:30pm ET, so make sure you vote before then, if you want your vote to have predictive power.</p>
 <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/sports_science_poll_super_bowl.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~4/TZkgwCPP0F8" height="1" width="1"/></div>
    </summary>
         
    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~3/TZkgwCPP0F8/sports_science_poll_super_bowl.php" rel="alternate"/>
         
    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/sports_science_poll_super_bowl.php</id>
         
    <category term="Football"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-07T09:30:17-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-07T09:30:17-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Uncertain Principles</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Physics, Politics, Pop Culture</subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-09T11:55:23-05:00</updated>
      <generator>http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en</generator>
      <link href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
      <link href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" rel="hub"/>
      <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/</id>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title>Links for 2010-02-07</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><ul class="delicious"><li>
                <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://prst-per.aps.org/abstract/PRSTPER/v6/i1/e010101">Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6, 010101 (2010): Teaching and understanding of quantum interpretations in modern physics courses</a></div>
                <div class="delicious-extended">"Just as expert physicists vary in their personal stances on interpretation in quantum mechanics, instructors vary on whether and how to teach interpretations of quantum phenomena in introductory modern physics courses. In this paper, we document variations in instructional approaches with respect to interpretation in two similar modern physics courses recently taught at the University of Colorado, and examine associated impacts on student perspectives regarding quantum physics. We find students are more likely to prefer realist interpretations of quantum-mechanical systems when instructors are less explicit in addressing student ontologies. We also observe contextual variations in student beliefs about quantum systems, indicating that instructors who choose to address questions of ontology in quantum mechanics should do so explicitly across a range of topics."</div>
                <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/physics">physics</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/quantum">quantum</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/education">education</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/academia">academia</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/articles">articles</a>)</div>
            </li><li>
                <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://www.mathematicians.org.uk/jum/">Journal of Unpublishable Mathematics</a></div>
                <div class="delicious-extended">This ought to be supported by the Bertrand Russell Foundation, which funds all foundations that don't fund themselves (h/t Michael Nielsen).</div>
                <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/math">math</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/science">science</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/silly">silly</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/journals">journals</a>)</div>
            </li><li>
                <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1001.5455">[1001.5455] Starry Messages: Searching for Signatures of Interstellar Archaeology</a></div>
                <div class="delicious-extended">"Searching for signatures of cosmic-scale archaeological artifacts such as Dyson spheres or Kardashev civilizations is an interesting alternative to conventional SETI. Uncovering such an artifact does not require the intentional transmission of a signal on the part of the original civilization. This type of search is called interstellar archaeology or sometimes cosmic archaeology. The detection of intelligence elsewhere in the Universe with interstellar archaeology or SETI would have broad implications for science. For example, the constraints of the anthropic principle would have to be loosened if a different type of intelligence was discovered elsewhere. A variety of interstellar archaeology signatures are discussed including non-natural planetary atmospheric constituents, stellar doping with isotopes of nuclear wastes, Dyson spheres, as well as signatures of stellar and galactic-scale engineering."</div>
                <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/space">space</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/astronomy">astronomy</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/science">science</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/articles">articles</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/sf">sf</a>)</div>
            </li><li>
                <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://twistedphysics.typepad.com/cocktail_party_physics/2010/02/my-kind-of-town.html">Cocktail Party Physics: my kind of town</a></div>
                <div class="delicious-extended">"Eureka is an affectionate paean to the small town, with a twist: it's population is made up of brilliant scientists (and their families), all of whom work at a vast, sooper sekrit lab called Global Dynamics that gets a large part of its funding from the Department of Defense, yet is dedicated to curiosity-driven research -- at least in principle. The show is a dramedy that combines elements of Northern Exposure and The X-Files, according to Jaime -- and I'd throw in a dash of Scrubs and Gilmore Girls to boot. In fact, it reminds me a little of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel without the mystical trappings, both of which combined drama with humor and featured terrific characters and smart, sassy dialogue. (Needless to say, I'm a Eureka fan.) "It's small town trappings with endless possibility," he says, and admits the show's premise is at least partially inspired by places like Los Alamos, Berkeley Lab, Livermore, Bell Labs, even Area 51."</div>
                <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/science">science</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/television">television</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/culture">culture</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/cocktail-party">cocktail-party</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/orzelc/blogs">blogs</a>)</div>
            </li></ul> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/links_for_2010-02-07.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~4/hC_cKdSfD-c" height="1" width="1"/></div>
    </summary>
         
    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~3/hC_cKdSfD-c/links_for_2010-02-07.php" rel="alternate"/>
         
    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/links_for_2010-02-07.php</id>
         
    <category term="Links Dump"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-07T08:09:38-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-07T08:09:38-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Uncertain Principles</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Physics, Politics, Pop Culture</subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-09T11:55:23-05:00</updated>
      <generator>http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en</generator>
      <link href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
      <link href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" rel="hub"/>
      <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/</id>
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  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/">
    <id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-1657420179531014753</id>
    <published>2010-02-07T07:10:00-05:00</published>
    <updated>2010-02-07T07:22:50-05:00</updated>
    <title type="text">Black Holes and Information Loss</title>
    <content type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Here is - finally! - the continuation of my previous posts on <a href="http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2009/11/causal-diagrams.html"><i>Causal Diagrams</i></a> and <a href="http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2009/11/causal-diagram-of-black-hole.html"><i>The Causal Diagram of the Black Hole</i></a>. Due to popular demand, this time we will discuss the black hole information loss paradox. <a href="http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2008/06/black-hole-information-loss-paradox.html">I previously wrote about this topic <i>here</i>, where I also listed the most common solution attempts</a>. I am not going to repeat this list of solution attempts, so please refer to the older post for that. I want to focus here instead on the causal diagram.<br/><br/><b>Preliminaries</b><br/><br/><a href="http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2009/11/causal-diagram-of-black-hole.html">Last time</a>, we finally arrived at the diagram of the evaporating black hole:<br/><center><a href="http://prime-spot.de/Bilder/BR/bhevap_l.jpg"><img src="http://prime-spot.de/Bilder/BR/bhevap.jpg" border="0" width="250"/></a></center><br/>More precisely, it's a non-rotating uncharged black hole.<br/><br/>The most important features of this spacetime are that it has a (spacelike) singularity and an event horizon. The blue line indicates the surface of some collapsing matter configuration [1]. Let me remind you that since we've chosen radial coordinates, curves that pass through <i>r</i>=0 (where it is non-singular) look like they are reflected back. These segments of curves are also referred to as in- and outgoing in an obvious terminology.<br/><br/>Shown in the figure is <i>v</i><sub>0</sub>, the last ray of light that passes through the collapsing matter and still manages to escape [2]. In the background depicted in the diagram, particle creation takes place at the horizon, which causes the black hole to lose mass. It then shrinks until it has finally completely evaporated, leaving behind nothing but thermal Hawking radiation [3].<br/><br/>Another important fact is that this spacetime is "asymptotically flat" or "asymptotically Minkowski," which means that at an infinite distance from the black hole spacetime is flat (flat as in "the curvature tensor vanishes"). This doesn't necessarily have to be the case (i.e. it could be asymptotically AdS instead), but it will make our discussion leaner. The reason for this asymptotic flatness is simply that in the beginning as well as in the end the matter is arbitrarily thinly dispersed.<br/><br/>To wrap up the summary, note that this diagram depicts a highly idealized situation. It's an evaporating black hole in an otherwise entirely empty spacetime. Realistic black holes are surrounded by matter and accrete mass, and occasionally Bob sends one of his Alices behind the horizon. But, as so often in physics, the uncluttered idealized version will help us understand the situation better without spoiling the conclusions.<br/><br/><b>Evolution</b><br/><br/>To understand the black hole information loss problem you need one further ingredient, that's what physicists mean with time-evolution. Intuitively, it means that one specifies a system at one moment in time, known as "initial conditions" and from this determines the status of that system at any other time by the help of a differential equation [4]. The most basic example is throwing a ball. The initial conditions needed are the location and velocity at one moment. The equation you use is Newton's law (or something equivalent).<br/><br/>In General Relativity the situation is more complicated but conceptually similar. You specify the initial conditions of your matter configuration at one moment in time and use Einstein's field equations to determine what space-time and matter are doing at any other time [5]. The attentive reader might remark that already in Special Relativity "one moment in time" is ambiguous. Indeed, and this is also the case in General Relativity. Point is, you can use any "moment in time" for you initial conditions, as long as it's at one moment, but everywhere in space (this is not the only option, but the most commonly used one). We call that a "complete spacelike hypersurface." Complete means basically it doesn't have holes and no expandable boundaries. <div><br/></div><div>Almost there now. In the below picture I've added two complete spacelike hypersurfaces denoted Σ<sub>1</sub> and Σ<sub>2</sub><br/><br/><center><a href="http://prime-spot.de/Bilder/BR/evapbhsurf.jpg"><img src="http://prime-spot.de/Bilder/BR/evapbhsurf.jpg" border="0" width="400"/></a></center><br/><b>Information Loss</b><br/><br/>The evolution of a quantum mechanical state is unitary. That means in particular it is time-reversible [6]. You can evolve the status of your system back and forth how you like. There are many ways to think about information, and when talking about the black hole evolution some people like to hang themselves up on the exact meaning of information. That's a very interesting topic, but we'll cut this discussion short because it's irrelevant to understand the problem. Consider you have an initial state and you evolve it into a final state. If your final state does not uniquely specify the initial state we'll consider this loss of information. It means you can't tell what happened.<br/><br/>Black hole evaporation causes a loss of information because the outgoing radiation depends only on the total mass. Once the black hole is evaporated, all states with the same initial mass are converted into the same endstate. There are many ways a system can be composed if you only know the total mass [7]. There's only one way it will look after evaporation. This process is thus not reversible: it is not possible to reconstruct the initial state from the final state. But if it's not reversible, it can't be unitary. And for beginners that's the problem: The formation and complete evaporation of the black hole seems to be incompatible with quantum mechanics. On the advanced level it's more complicated since we know the computation leading to Hawking radiation breaks down when quantum gravity becomes important. In this case the problem is that this quantum gravitational contribution doesn't help you to get enough information out.<br/><br/>There are several points that people tend to misunderstand about the problem already on the beginner's level, so let me mention some pitfalls. First, note that the problem is <i>not</i> that the information is inaccessible behind a horizon. There is no horizon in the endstate, look at the diagram. It's flat Minkowski space with infinitely thinly dispersed thermal radiation. Think of the black hole as a black box. You start with flat Minkowski space, something happens in between, you end with flat Minkowski space. Yet, this evolution cannot be described by quantum mechanics as we know it. Second, to lay out the problem I didn't have to refer to measurement at all. It's a fundamental incompatibility in the evolution, you don't solve that incompatibility by waving your hands and yelling "measurement problem." Third, we are talking about the microscopic laws. Yes, on macroscopic scales we do have an arrow of time and entropy tends to increase anyway, but the problem is to accommodate the black hole evolution with the fundamentals of quantum mechanics prior to coarse graining. Fourth, yes, it is possible to cover the the Schwarzschild geometry by what is known as "nice slices," hypersurfaces that avoid the singularity for any finite time. (You find some very good graphics for that <a href="http://wwwsfb.tpi.uni-jena.de/VideoSeminar/Files/20080421-ohme.pdf">here, on slide 10</a>). That doesn't solve the problem either because no matter how you turn it, your black hole evaporates away and you'll finally have to face that all you have left at scri minus is thermal radiation.<br/><br/>If you want to argue that the problem is a thought-experiment and unobservable, please read my earlier post on <a href="http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2009/11/thoughts-and-experiments.html">Thoughts and Experiments</a>. We have to pay attention to inconsistencies even if they are not observable since they document a gap in our knowledge. While troubelsome, they also offer us opportunities to improve our understanding of Nature, which is why physicists turn problems like this upside-down and inside-out.<br/><br/>The value of the causal diagram once again is that it captures a lot of physics in one simple picture. If you look at it one more time you can see the problem. At the singularity matter gets crushed to infinite density and absent non-local effects everything that crossed the horizon <i>has to</i> fall into the singularity. <a href="http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2009/11/causal-diagrams.html">Recall</a> that curves on 45° angles depict the trajectories light travels on. You'd have to be faster than light to avoid the singularity once you've passed the horizon. All information about the initial state that evolves into the singularity is thus not available on the final slice. And that's exactly what happens in the calculation. You have to finally let go of the part of the initial wave-function that vanished behind the horizon, because it cannot avoid the singularity.<br/><br/><b>Now what</b><br/><br/>This then opens the playground for solutions to the problem. You either have to get the information out before it hits the singularity or avoid that it crosses the horizon at all. Lee and I argued in <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.3156">our last year's paper</a> (<a href="http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2009/01/conservative-solutions-to-black-hole.html">see previous post for details</a>) that the easiest way to avoid hitting the singularity is if there is no singularity. This by itself doesn't mean information behind the horizon becomes accessible again for the observer outside the horizon. But if you recall, this wasn't the problem to begin with. The problem was to achieve compatibility with unitary evolution, and this doesn't require information to be accessible to everybody as long as it exists.<br/><br/>In any case, since the black evaporation is and will likely remain elusive to experiment, everybody has their favorite solution. String theorists like the idea that information never gets lost because the evolution of the black hole is equivalently described by a dual, unitary, theory formulated on the boundary of the space-time which has been shown to encode regions of the bulk both inside and outside the horizon. People working on other approaches to quantum gravity seem to favor the idea that the singularity is avoided and the information somehow makes it out of the horizon, though at least to me it's remained unclear how so. (<a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1001.3668">I sometimes suspect</a> they'll finally reinvent and adopt the string theory solution.) Scenarios with stable or quasi-stable remnants that keep information or slowly release it also occasionally reoccur, and then there's parallel- and baby universes and a long list of miscellaneous other. The idea that black holes can't be formed to begin with lies in a shadowy fringe-area and is not considered plausible by the vast majority of researchers in the field. </div><div><br/></div><div>I personally am somewhat agnostic on the how of information release, but am certain it can eventually only be achieved if the singularity is avoided (in the sense explained <a href="http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2009/01/conservative-solutions-to-black-hole.html">in mentioned paper</a>.) </div><div><br/></div><div>So. *wiping sweat off forehead* If you still haven't enough let me know.</div><div><br/><hr/><small><br/>[1] Modulo the question where it hits the singularity, <a href="http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2009/11/causal-diagram-of-black-hole.html#c1960224458182173977">see comments to previous post</a>, but that's not relevant for our purposes.<br/>[2] To be more precise, since we have assumed spherical symmetry to be able to draw a 4 dimensional manifold, a point in the figure is actually a sphere, but this distinction isn't so relevant. One can decompose the solutions to the wave-equation in spherical harmonics as usual. We are then talking here only about the s-wave state. States with higher angular momentum have a more complicated behavior.</small><div><small>[3] In the upheaval around <a href="http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2008/04/black-holes-at-lhc-again.html">the alleged risk of black holes at the LHC</a>, some people ridiculed the fact that Hawking's calculation does not "automatically" decrease the mass of the black hole but that energy conservation is "put in by hand." That is in fact true. But that in this calculation the radiation does not "automatically" carry away the mass of the black hole is an artifact of doing the analysis in a fixed background, which "by hand" prohibits the mass from changing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the argument that taking into account the energy loss through radiation the mass is not in fact constant. This in turn does not render the calculation false, it merely sets limits to its accuracy, and Hawking's calculation can be shown to be an excellent approximation as long as the ratio of mass loss is small. It is only in the end stage of evaporation when quantum gravity is important that the mass loss becomes relevant for the properties of the emitted radiation. This phase is thus still a matter of discussion.<br/>[4] Note that it is entirely irrelevant the "initial" conditions are indeed the beginning of the evolution from which you determine the past. You could equally well specify the state of your system in the future and evolve it into the past.<br/>[5] Note that this means once you've specified an equation of state for the matter, General Relativity does not allow you to specify what you <i>want</i> the matter to do over the course of time.<br/>[6] The reverse is not true. A reversible evolution is in general not also unitary.<br/>[7] Even if it's spherically symmetric. You lose all information in the radial direction.<br/><br/></small><br/></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother." ~ Albert Einstein<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/22973357-1657420179531014753?l=backreaction.blogspot.com" height="1" alt="" width="1"/></div></div>
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  <entry xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xml:base="http://www.scientificblogging.com">
 
    <title>When Amateurs Get Published</title>
 
    <link href="http://www.scientificblogging.com/quantum_diaries_survivor/blog/when_amateurs_get_published" rel="alternate"/>
 
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This just in: <a href="http://brannenworks.com/" target="_blank">Carl Brannen</a> (<a href="http://carlbrannen.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">here his blog</a>) got a paper on gravitation published in a scientific magazine. Carl, who is the typical amateur who many "established scientists" in the blogosphere have labeled a crackpot in the last few years, does not actually fit the bill very well: he is a deep thinker who knows the literature of what he studies, and the fact that he is not salaried by a research institute means as little as this: he does it for Science, and not for a pay.<br/><br/><br/>
<p><a href="http://www.scientificblogging.com/quantum_diaries_survivor/blog/when_amateurs_get_published" target="_blank">read more</a></p></div>
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    <published>2010-02-07T08:47:02+00:00</published>
 
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      <name>dorigo</name>
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    <title>This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 293)</title>

    <link href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week293.html" rel="alternate"/>

    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><h4> John Baez </h4> <!-- END HEADER --> <p> This week I want to list a bunch of recent papers and books on n-categories. Then I'll tell you about a conference on the math of environmental sustainability and green technology. And then I'll continue my story about electrical circuits. But first... </p><p> This column started with some vague dreams about n-categories and physics. Thanks to a lot of smart youngsters - and a few smart oldsters - these dreams are now well on their way to becoming reality. They don't need my help anymore! I need to find some new dreams. So, "<a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week300.html">week300</a>" will be the last issue of This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics. </p><p> I still like learning things by explaining them. When I start work at the Centre for Quantum Technologies this summer, I'll want to tell you about that. And I've realized that our little planet needs my help a lot more than the abstract structure of the universe does! The deep secrets of math and physics are endlessly engrossing - but they can wait, and other things can't. So, I'm trying to learn more about ecology, economics, and technology. And I'd like to talk more about those. </p><p> So, I plan to start a new column. Not completely new, just a bit different from this. I'll call it This Week's Finds, and drop the "in Mathematical Physics". That should be sufficiently vague that I can talk about whatever I want. </p><p> I'll make some changes in format, too. For example, I won't keep writing each issue in ASCII and putting it on the usenet newsgroups. Sorry, but that's too much work. </p><p> I also want to start a new blog, since the n-Category Cafe is not the optimal place for talking about things like the melting of Arctic ice. But I don't know what to call this new blog - or where it should reside. Any suggestions? </p><p> I may still talk about fancy math and physics now and then. Or even a lot. We'll see. But if you want to learn about n-categories, you don't need me. There's a <i>lot</i> to read these days. I mentioned Carlos Simpson's book in "<a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week291.html">week291</a>" - that's one good place to start. Here's another introduction: </p><p> 1) John Baez and Peter May, Towards Higher Categories, Springer, 2009. Also available at <a href="http://ncatlab.org/johnbaez/show/Towards+Higher+Categories">http://ncatlab.org/johnbaez/show/Towards+Higher+Categories</a> </p><p> This has a bunch of papers in it, namely: </p><ul> <li> John Baez and Michael Shulman, Lectures on n-categories and cohomology. <p> </p></li> <li> Julia Bergner, A survey of (∞,1)-categories. <p> </p></li> <li> Simona Paoli, Internal categorical structures in homotopical algebra. <p> </p></li> <li> Stephen Lack, A 2-categories companion. <p> </p></li> <li> Lawrence Breen, Notes on 1- and 2-gerbes. <p> </p></li> <li> Ross Street, An Australian conspectus of higher categories. </li> </ul> <p> After browsing these, you should probably start studying (∞,1)-categories, which are ∞-categories where all the n-morphisms for n &gt; 1 are invertible. There are a few different approaches, but luckily they're nicely connected by some results described in Julia Bergner's paper. Two of the most important approaches are "Segal spaces" and "quasicategories". For the latter, start here: </p><p> 2) Andre Joyal, The Theory of Quasicategories and Its Applications, <a href="http://www.crm.cat/HigherCategories/hc2.pdf">http://www.crm.cat/HigherCategories/hc2.pdf</a> </p><p> and then go here: </p><p> 3) Jacob Lurie, Higher Topos Theory, Princeton U. Press, 2009. Also available at <a href="http://www.math.harvard.edu/~lurie/papers/highertopoi.pdf">http://www.math.harvard.edu/~lurie/papers/highertopoi.pdf</a> </p><p> This book is 925 pages long! Luckily, Lurie writes well. After setting up the machinery, he went on to use (∞,1)-categories to revolutionize algebraic geometry: </p><p> 4) Jacob Lurie, Derived algebraic geometry I: stable infinity-categories, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0608228">arXiv:math/0608228</a>. <br/> Derived algebraic geometry II: noncommutative algebra, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0702299">arXiv:math/0702299</a>. <br/> Derived algebraic geometry III: commutative algebra, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0703204">arXiv:math/0703204</a>. <br/> Derived algebraic geometry IV: deformation theory, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0709.3091">arXiv:0709.3091</a>. <br/> Derived algebraic geometry V: structured spaces, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.0459">arXiv:0905.0459</a>. <br/> Derived algebraic geometry VI: E<sub>k</sub> algebras, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.0018">arXiv:0911.0018</a>. </p><p> For related work, try these: </p><p> 5) David Ben-Zvi, John Francis and David Nadler, Integral transforms and Drinfeld centers in derived algebraic geometry available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0805.0157">arXiv:0805.0157</a>. </p><p> 6) David Ben-Zvi and David Nadler, The character theory of a complex group, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0904.1247">arXiv:0904.1247</a>. </p><p> Lurie is now using (∞,n)-categories to study topological quantum field theory. He's making precise and proving some old conjectures that James Dolan and I made: </p><p> 7) Jacob Lurie, On the classification of topological field theories, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.0465">arXiv:0905.0465</a>. </p><p> Jonathan Woolf is doing it in a somewhat different way, which I hope will be unified with Lurie's work eventually: </p><p> 8) Jonathan Woolf, Transversal homotopy theory, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.3322">arXiv:0910.3322</a>. </p><p> All this stuff is starting to transform math in amazing ways. And I hope physics, too - though so far, it's mainly helping us understand the physics we already have. </p><p> Meanwhile, I've been trying to figure out something else to do. Like a lot of academics who think about beautiful abstractions and soar happily from one conference to another, I'm always feeling a bit guilty, wondering what I could do to help "save the planet". Yes, we recycle and turn off the lights when we're not in the room. If we all do just a little bit... a little will get done. But surely mathematicians have the skills to do more! </p><p> But what? </p><p> I'm sure lots of you have had such thoughts. That's probably why Rachel Levy ran this conference last weekend: </p><p> 9) Conference on the Mathematics of Environmental Sustainability and Green Technology, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California, Friday-Saturday, January 29-30, 2010. Organized by Rachel Levy. </p><p> Here's a quick brain dump of what I learned. </p><p> First, Harry Atwater of Caltech gave a talk on photovoltaic solar power: </p><p> 10) Atwater Research Group, <a href="http://daedalus.caltech.edu/">http://daedalus.caltech.edu/</a> </p><p> The efficiency of silicon crystal solar cells peaked out at 24% in 2000. Fancy "multijunctions" get up to 40% and are still improving. But they use fancy materials like gallium arsenide, gallium indium phosphate, and so on. The world currently uses 13 terawatts of power. The US uses 3. But building just 1 terawatt of these fancy photovoltaics would use up more rare substances than we can get our hands on: </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/element_abundances.gif"/> </div> <p> </p><p> 11) Gordon B. Haxel, James B. Hedrick, and Greta J. Orris, Rare earth elements - critical resources for high technology, US Geological Survey Fact Sheet 087-02, available at <a href="http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/">http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/</a> </p><p> So, if we want solar power, we need to keep thinking about silicon and use as many tricks as possible to boost its efficiency. </p><p> There are some limits. In 1961, Shockley and Quiesser wrote a paper on the limiting efficiency of a solar cell. It's limited by thermodynamical reasons! Since anything that can absorb energy can also emit it, any solar cell also acts as a light-emitting diode, turning electric power back into light: </p><p> 12) W. Shockley and H. J. Queisser, Detailed balance limit of efficiency of p-n junction solar cells, J. Appl. Phys. 32 (1961) 510-519. </p><p> 13) Wikipedia, Schockley-Quiesser limit, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley%E2%80%93Queisser_limit">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley%E2%80%93Queisser_limit</a> </p><p> What are the tricks used to approach this theoretical efficiency? Multijunctions use layers of different materials to catch photons of different frequencies. The materials are expensive, so people use a lens to focus more sunlight on the photovoltaic cell. The same is true even for silicon - see the Umuwa Solar Power Station in Australia. But then the cells get hot and need to be cooled. </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/solar_power_umuwa.jpg" width="600"/> </div> <p> Roughening the surface of a solar cell promotes light trapping, by large factors! Light bounces around ergodically and has more chances to get absorbed and turned into useful power. There are theoretical limits on how well this trick works. But those limits were derived using ray optics, where we assume light moves in straight lines. So, we can beat those limits by leaving the regime where the ray-optics approximation holds good. In other words, make the surface complicated at length scales comparable to the wavelength at light. </p><p> For example: we can grow silicon wires from vapor! They can form densely packed structures that absorb more light: </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja074897c"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/silicon_nanorod.gif"/> </a> </div> <p> </p><p> 14) B. M. Kayes, H. A. Atwater, and N. S. Lewis, Comparison of the device physics principles of planar and radial p-n junction nanorod solar cells, J. Appl. Phys. 97 (2005), 114302. </p><p> James R. Maiolo III, Brendan M. Kayes, Michael A. Filler, Morgan C. Putnam, Michael D. Kelzenberg, Harry A. Atwater and Nathan S. Lewis, High aspect ratio silicon wire array photoelectrochemical cells, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129 (2007), 12346-12347. </p><p> Also, with such structures the charge carriers don't need to travel so far to get from the n-type material to the p-type material. This also boosts efficiency. </p><p> There are other tricks, still just under development. Using quasiparticles called "surface plasmons" we can adjust the dispersion relations to create materials with really low group velocity. Slow light has more time to get absorbed! We can also create "meta-materials" whose refractive index is really wacky - like n = -5! </p><p> I should explain this a bit, in case you don't understand. Remember, the refractive index of a substance is the inverse of the speed of light in that substance - in units where the speed of light in vacuum equals 1. When light passes from material 1 to material 2, it takes the path of least time - at least in the ray-optics approximation. Using this you can show Snell's law: </p><p> sin(θ<sub>1</sub>)/sin(θ<sub>2</sub>) = n<sub>2</sub>/n<sub>1</sub> </p><p> where n<sub>i</sub> is the index of refraction in the ith material and θ<sub>i</sub> is the angle between the light's path and the line normal to the interface between materials: </p><div align="center"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/200px-Snells_law.svg.png"/> </div> <p> Air has an index of refraction close to 1. Glass has an index of refraction greater than 1. So, when light passes from air to glass, it "straightens out": its path becomes closer to perpendicular to the air-glass interface. When light passes from glass to air, the reverse happens: the light bends more. But the sine of an angle can never exceed 1 - so sometimes Snell's law has no solution. Then the light gets stuck! More precisely, it's forced to bounce back into the glass. This is called "total internal reflection", and the easiest way to see it is not with glass, but water. Dive into a swimming pool and look up from below. You'll only see the sky in a limited disk. Outside that, you'll see total internal reflection. </p><p> Okay, that's stuff everyone learns in optics. But <em>negative</em> indices of refraction are much weirder! The light entering such a material will bend <em>backwards</em>. </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/negative%20refraction.gif"/> </div> <p> </p><p> Materials with a negative index of refraction also exhibit a reversed version of the ordinary <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goos%E2%80%93H%C3%A4nchen_effect">Goos-Hänchen</a> effect. In the ordinary version, light "slips" a little before reflecting during total internal reflection. The "slip" is actually a slight displacement of the light's wave crests from their expected location - a "phase slip". But for a material of negative refractive index, the light slips <em>backwards</em>. This allows for resonant states where light gets trapped in thin films. Maybe this can be used to make better solar cells. </p><p> Next, Kenneth Golden gave a talk on sea ice, which covers 7-10% of the ocean's surface and is a great detector of global warming. He's a mathematician at the University of Utah who also does measurements in the Arctic and Antarctic. If you want to go to math grad school without becoming a nerd - if you want to brave 70-foot swells, dig trenches in the snow and see emperor penguins - you want Golden as your advisor: </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/3.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/kenneth_golden.jpg" width="500"/> </a> </div> <p> 15) Ken Golden's website, <a href="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/">http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/</a> </p><p> Salt gets incorporated into sea ice via millimeter-scale brine inclusions between ice platelets, forming a "dendritic platelet structure". Melting sea ice forms fresh water in melt ponds atop the ice, while the brine sinks down to form "bottom water" driving the global thermohaline conveyor belt. You've heard of the Gulf Stream, right? Well, that's just part of this story. </p><p> When it gets hotter, the Earth's poles get less white, so they absorb more light, making it hotter: this is "ice albedo feedback". Ice albedo feedback is <i>largely controlled by melt ponds</i>. So if you're interested in climate change, questions like the following become important: when do melt ponds get larger, and when do they drain out? </p><p> Sea ice is diminishing rapidly in the Arctic - much faster than all the existing climate models had predicted. In the Arctic, winter sea ice diminished in area by about 10% from 1978 to 2008. But summer sea ice diminished by about 40%! It took a huge plunge in 2007, leading to a big increase in solar heat input due to the ice albedo effect. </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/seaice.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/arctic_sea_ice.jpg" width="500"/> </a> <br/> <font size="-1"> Time series of the percent difference in ice extent in March (the month of ice extent maximum) and September (the month of ice extent minimum) relative to the mean values for the period 1979-2000. Based on a least squares linear regression for the period 1979-2009, the rate of decrease for the March and September ice extents is -2.5% and -8.9% per decade, respectively. Figure from <a href="http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/seaice.html">Perovich <i>et al</i></a>. </font>  </div> <p> 16) Donald K. Perovich, Jacqueline A. Richter-Menge, Kathleen F. Jones, and Bonnie Light, Sunlight, water, and ice: Extreme Arctic sea ice melt during the summer of 2007, Geophysical Research Letters, 35 (2008), L11501. Also available at <a href="http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/sid/personnel/perovichweb/index1.htm">http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/sid/personnel/perovichweb/index1.htm</a> </p><p> There's a lot less sea ice in the Antarctic than in the Arctic. Most of it is the Weddell Sea, and there it seems to be growing, maybe due to increased precipitation. </p><p> There's a lot of interesting math involved in understanding the dynamics of sea ice. The ice thickness distribution equation was worked out by Thorndike et al in 1975. The heat equation for ice and snow was worked out by Maykut and Understeiner in 1971. Sea ice dynamics was studied by Kibler. </p><p> Ice floes have two fractal regimes, one from 1 to 20 meters, another from 100 to 1500 meters. Brine channels have a fractal character well modeled by "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion-limited_aggregation">diffusion limited aggregation</a>". Brine starts flowing when there's about 5% of brine in the ice - a kind of percolation problem familiar in statistical mechanics. Here's what it looks like when there's 5.7% brine and the temperature is -8 °C: </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/7.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/kenneth_golden_brine_inclusions.jpg" width="500"/> </a> </div> <p> 17) Kenneth Golden, Brine inclusions in a crystal of lab-grown sea ice, <a href="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/7.html">http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/7.html</a> </p><p> Nobody knows why polycrystalline metals have a log-normal distribution of crystal sizes. Similar behavior, also unexplained, is seen in sea ice. </p><p> A "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynya">polynya</a>" is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. Polynyas occupy just .001% of the overall area in Antarctic sea ice, but create 1% of the icea. Icy cold <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catabatic_wind">katabatic winds</a> blow off the mainland, pushing away ice and creating patches of open water which then refreeze. </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynya"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/500px-antarctic_shelf_ice_hg.png"/> </a> </div> <p> </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynya"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/500px-katabatic-wind_hg.png"/> </a> </div> <p> There was anomalous export of sea ice through Fran Strait in the 1990s, which may have been one of the preconditions for high ice albedo feedback. </p><p> 20-40% of sea ice is formed by surface flooding followed by refreezing. This was <i>not included</i> in the sea ice models that gave such inaccurate predictions. </p><p> The food chain is founded on diatoms. These form "extracellular polymeric substances"- goopy mucus-like stuff made of polysaccharides that protects them and serves as antifreeze. There's a lot of this stuff; the ice gets visibly stained by it. </p><p> For more, see: </p><p> 18) Kenneth M. Golden, Climate change and the mathematics of transport in sea ice, AMS Notices, May 2009. Also available at <a href="http://www.ams.org/notices/200905/">http://www.ams.org/notices/200905/</a> </p><p> 19) Mathematics Awareness Month, April 2009: Mathematics and Climate, <a href="http://www.mathaware.org/mam/09/">http://www.mathaware.org/mam/09/</a> </p><p> Next, Julie Lundquist, who just moved from Lawrence Livermore Labs to the University of Colorado, spoke about wind power: </p><p> 20) Julie Lunquist, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado, <a href="http://paos.colorado.edu/people/lundquist.php">http://paos.colorado.edu/people/lundquist.php</a> </p><p> With increased reliance on wind, the power grid will need to be redesigned to handle fluctuating power sources. In the US, currently, companies aren't paid for power they generate in excess of the amount they promised to make. So, accurate prediction is a hugely important game. Being off by 1% can cost millions of dollars! Europe has different laws, which encourage firms to maximize the amount of wind power they generate. </p><p> If you had your choice about where to build a wind turbine, you'd build it on the ocean or a very flat plain, where the air flows rather smoothly. Hilly terrain leads to annoying turbulence - but sometimes that's your only choice. Then you need to find the best spots, where the turbulence is least bad. Complete simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations is too computationally intensive, so people use fancier tricks. There's a lot of math and physics here. </p><p> For weather reports people use "mesoscale simulation" which cleverly treats smaller-scale features in an averaged way - but we need more fine-grained simulations to see how much wind a turbine will get. This is where "large eddy simulation" comes in. Eddy diffusivity is modeled by Monin-Obukhov similarity theory: </p><p> 21) American Meteorological Society Glossary, Monin-Obukhov similarity theory, <a href="http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?id=monin-obukhov-similarity-theory1">http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?id=monin-obukhov-similarity-theory1</a> </p><p> A famous Brookhaven study suggested that the power spectrum of wind has peaks at 4 days, 1/2 day, and 1 minute. This perhaps justifies an approach where different time scales, and thus length scales, are treated separately and the results then combined somehow. The study is actually a bit controversial. But anyway, this is the approach people are taking, and it seems to work. </p><p> Night air is stable - but day air is often not, since the ground is hot, and hot air rises. So when a parcel of air moving along hits a hill, it can just shoot upwards, and not come back down! This means lots of turbulence. </p><p> The wind turbines at Altamont Pass in California kill more raptors than all other wind farms in the world combined! Old-fashioned wind turbines look like nice places to perch, spelling death to birds. Cracks in concrete attract rodents, which attract raptors, who get killed. The new ones are far better. </p><p> For more: </p><p> 22) National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Research needs for winds resource characterization, available as <a href="http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy08osti/43521.pdf">http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy08osti/43521.pdf</a> </p><p> Finally, there was a talk by Ron Lloyd of Fat Spaniel Technologies. This is a company that makes software for solar plants and other sustainable energy companies: </p><p> 23) Fat Spaniel Technologies, <a href="http://www.fatspaniel.com/products/">http://www.fatspaniel.com/products/</a> </p><p> His talk was less technical so I didn't take detailed notes. One big point I took away was this: we need better tools for modelling! This is especially true with the coming of the "smart grid". In its simplest form, this is a power grid that uses lots of data - for example, data about power generation and consumption - to regulate itself and increase efficiency. Surely there will be a lot of math here. Maybe even the topic I've been talking about lately: bond graphs! </p><p> But now I want to talk about some very simple aspects of electrical circuits. Last week I listed various kinds of circuits. Now let's go into a bit more detail - starting with the simplest kind: circuits made of just wires and linear resistors, where the currents and voltages are independent of time. </p><p> Mathematically, such a circuit is a graph equipped with some extra data. First, each edge has a number associated to it - the "resistance". For example: </p><pre> o----1----o----3----o | | | | | | 2 3 2 | | | | | | o----3----o----1----o </pre> Second, we have current flowing through this circuit. To describe this, we first arbitrarily pick an orientation on each edge: <pre> o----&gt;----o----&gt;----o | | | | | | V V V | | | | | | o----&lt;----o----&gt;----o </pre> Then we label each edge with a number saying how much "current" is flowing through that edge, in the direction of the arrow: <pre> 2 3 o----&gt;----o----&gt;----o | | | | | | 3 V V 1 V 3 | | | | | | o----&lt;----o----&gt;----o 2 -3 </pre> Electrical engineers call the current I. Mathematically it's good to think of I as a "1-chain": a linear combination of oriented edges of our graph, with the coefficients of the linear combination being the numbers shown above. <p> If we know the current, we can work out a number for each vertex of our graph, saying how much current is flowing out of that vertex, minus how much is flowing in: </p><pre> 2 5 o----&gt;----o----&gt;----o 0 | | | | | | V V V | | | | | | -5 o----&lt;----o----&gt;----o 0 -2 </pre> Mathematically we can think of this as a "0-chain": a formal linear combination of the vertices of our graph, with the numbers shown above as coefficients. We call this 0-chain the "boundary" of the 1-chain we started with. Since our current was called I, we call its boundary δI. <p> Kirchhoff's current law says that </p><p> δI = 0 </p><p> When this holds, let's say our circuit is a "closed". Physically this follows from the law of conservation of electrical charge, together with a reasonable assumption. Current is the flow of charge. If the total current flowing into a vertex wasn't equal to the amount flowing out, charge - positive or negative - would be building up there. But for a closed circuit, we assume it's not. </p><p> If a circuit is not closed, let's call it "open". These are interesting too. For example, we might have a circuit like this: </p><pre> x | | V | | o----&gt;----o | | | | V V | | | | x x </pre> where we have current flowing in the wire on top and flowing out the two wires at bottom. We allow δI to be nonzero at the ends of these wires - the 3 vertices labelled x. This circuit is an "open system" in the sense of "<a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week290.html">week290</a>", because it has these wires dangling out of it. It's not self-contained; we can use it as part of some bigger circuit. We should really formalize this more, but I won't now. Derek Wise did it more generally here: <p> 24) Derek Wise, Lattice p-form electromagnetism and chain field theory, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0510033">gr-qc/0510033</a>. </p><p> The idea here was to get a category where chain complexes are morphisms. In our situation, composing morphisms amounts to gluing the output wires of one circuit into the input wires of another. This is an example of the general philosophy I'm trying to pursue, where open systems are treated as morphisms. </p><p> We've talked about 1-chains and 0-chains... but we can also back up and talk about 2-chains! Let's suppose our graph is connected - it is in our example - and let's fill it in with enough 2-dimensional "faces" to get something contractible. We can do this in a god-given way if our graph is drawn on the plane: just fill in all the holes! </p><pre> o---------o---------o |/////////|/////////| |/////////|/////////| |//FACE///|///FACE//| |/////////|/////////| |/////////|/////////| o---------o---------o </pre> In electrical engineering these faces are often called "meshes". <p> This give us a chain complex </p><pre> δ δ C<sub>0</sub> &lt;-------- C<sub>1</sub> &lt;-------- C<sub>2</sub> </pre> and a cochain complex: <pre> d d C<sup>0</sup> --------&gt; C<sup>1</sup> ---------&gt; C<sup>2</sup> </pre> As I've already said, it's good to think of the current I as a 1-chain, since then <p> δI = 0 </p><p> is Kirchoff's current law. Since our little space is contractible the above equation implies that </p><p> I = δJ </p><p> for some 2-chain J called the "mesh current". This assigns to each face or "mesh" the current flowing around that face. </p><p> An electrical circuit also comes with a third piece of data, which I haven't mentioned yet. Each oriented edge should be labelled by a number called the "voltage" across that edge. Electrical engineers call the voltage V. It's good to think of V as a 1-cochain, which assigns to each edge the voltage across that edge. </p><p> Why a 1-cochain instead of a 1-chain? Because then </p><p> dV = 0 </p><p> is the other basic law of electrical circuits - Kirchhoff's voltage law! This law says that the sum of these voltages around a mesh is zero. Since our little space is contractible the above equation implies that </p><p> V = dφ </p><p> for some 0-cochain φ called the "electrostatic potential". In electrostatics, this potential is a function on space. Here it assigns a number to each vertex of our graph. </p><p> Since the space of 1-cochains is the dual of the space of 1-chains, we can take the voltage V and the current I, glom them together, and get a number: </p><p> V(I) </p><p> This the "power": that is, the rate at which our network soaks up energy and dissipates it into heat. Note that this is just a fancy version of formula for power that I explained in "<a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week290.html">week290</a>" - power is effort times flow. </p><p> I've given you three basic pieces of data labelling our circuit: the resistance R, the current I, and the voltage V. But these aren't independent! Ohm's law says that the voltage across any edge is the current through that times the resistance of that edge. But this remember: voltage is a 1-cochain while current is a 1-chain. So "resistance" can be thought of as a map from 1-cochains to 1-chains: </p><p> R: C<sup>1</sup> → C<sub>1</sub> </p><p> This lets us write Ohm's law like this: </p><p> V = RI </p><p> This, in turn, means the power of our circuit is </p><p> V(I) = (RI)(I) </p><p> For physical reasons, this power is always nonnegative. In fact, let's assume it's positive unless I = 0. This is just another way of saying that resistance labelling each edge is positive. It can be very interesting to think about circuits with perfectly conducting wires. These would give edges whose resistance is zero. But that's a bit of an idealization, and right now I'd rather allow only <i>positive</i> resistances. </p><p> Why? Because then we can think of the above formula as the inner product of I with itself! In other words, then there's a unique inner product on 1-cochains with </p><p> (RI)(I) = &lt;I,I&gt; </p><p> In this situation </p><p> R: C<sup>1</sup> → C<sub>1</sub> </p><p> is the usual isomorphism that we get between a finite-dimensional inner product space and its dual. (For this statement to be true, we'd better assume our graph has finitely many vertices and edges.) </p><p> Now, if you've studied de Rham cohomlogy, all this should start reminding you of Hodge theory. And indeed, it's a baby version of that! So, we're getting a little bit of Hodge theory, but in a setting where our chain complexes are really morphisms in a category. Or more generally, n-morphisms in an n-category! </p><p> There's a lot more to say, but that's enough for now. Here are some references on "electrical circuits as chain complexes": </p><p> 25) Paul Bamberg and Shlomo Sternberg, <em>A Course of Mathematics for Students of Physics</em>, Cambridge University, Cambridge, 1982. </p><p> Bamberg and Sternberg is a great book overall for folks wanting to get started on mathematical physics. The stuff about circuits starts in chapter 12. </p><p> 26) P. W. Gross and P. Robert Kotiuga, Electromagnetic Theory and Computation: A Topological Approach, Cambridge University Press, 2004. </p><p> This book says just a little about electrical circuits of the sort we're discussing, but it says a <i>lot</i> about chain complexes and electromagnetism. It's a great place to start if you know some electromagnetism but have never seen a chain complex. </p><p> </p><hr/> <p> <b>Addenda:</b> I thank Colin Backhurst, David Corfield, and Tim Silverman for corrections. I thank Garett Leskowitz for pointing out the material in Bamberg and Sternberg's book. </p><p> For more discussion, visit the <a href="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2010/02/this_weeks_finds_in_mathematic_54.html"><i>n</i>-Category Café</a>. </p><p> </p><hr/> <p> <em>So many young people are forced to specialize in one line or another that a young person can't afford to try and cover this waterfront - only an old fogy who can afford to make a fool of himself. If I don't, who will?</em> - John Wheeler </p><p> </p><hr/><p> <!-- BEGIN FOOTER --> © 2010 John Baez<br/> baez@math.removethis.ucr.andthis.edu <br/> </p><p> </p><table width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="10%"> <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week292.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/lastweek.png" border="none;"/></a> </td><td width="80%"> <center> <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/README.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/home.png" border="none;"/><br/> </a> <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/TWF.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/contents.png" border="none;"/> </a> </center> </td><td width="10%"> <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week294.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/nextweek.png" border="none;"/> </a> </td></tr></tbody></table><!-- END FOOTER --><p><sub><i>-- Delivered by <a href="http://feed43.com/">Feed43</a> service</i></sub></p></div>
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      <name>Terence Tao</name>
						
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    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">254A, Notes 4: The semi-circular law</div>
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    <category term="Wigner semi-circular law" scheme="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">We can now turn attention to one of the centerpiece universality results in random matrix theory, namely the Wigner semi-circle law for Wigner matrices. Recall from previous notes that a Wigner Hermitian matrix ensemble is a random matrix ensemble  of Hermitian matrices (thus ; this includes real symmetric matrices as an important special [...]<img src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=terrytao.wordpress.com&amp;blog=817149&amp;post=3426&amp;subd=terrytao&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" border="0" alt=""/></div>
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 We can now turn attention to one of the centerpiece universality results in random matrix theory, namely the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wigner_semi-circle_distribution">Wigner semi-circle law</a> for Wigner matrices. Recall from <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/254a-notes-3-the-operator-norm-of-a-random-matrix/">previous notes</a> that a <em>Wigner Hermitian matrix ensemble</em> is a random matrix ensemble <img class="latex" title="{M_n = (\xi_{ij})_{1 \leq i,j \leq n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n+=+(%5Cxi_%7Bij%7D)_%7B1+%5Cleq+i,j+%5Cleq+n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n = (\xi_{ij})_{1 \leq i,j \leq n}}"/> of Hermitian matrices (thus <img class="latex" title="{\xi_{ij} = \overline{\xi_{ji}}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cxi_%7Bij%7D+=+%5Coverline%7B%5Cxi_%7Bji%7D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\xi_{ij} = \overline{\xi_{ji}}}"/>; this includes <em>real symmetric matrices</em> as an important special case), in which the upper-triangular entries <img class="latex" title="{\xi_{ij}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cxi_%7Bij%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\xi_{ij}}"/>, <img class="latex" title="{i&gt;j}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bi%3Ej%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{i&gt;j}"/> are iid complex random variables with mean zero and unit variance, and the diagonal entries <img class="latex" title="{\xi_{ii}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cxi_%7Bii%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\xi_{ii}}"/> are iid real variables, independent of the upper-triangular entries, with bounded mean and variance. Particular special cases of interest include the <em>Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble (GOE)</em>, the <em>symmetric random sign matrices</em> (aka <em>symmetric Bernoulli ensemble</em>), and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_Unitary_Ensemble">Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (GUE)</a>.
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<p>
In <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/254a-notes-3-the-operator-norm-of-a-random-matrix/">previous notes</a> we saw that the operator norm of <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> was typically of size <img class="latex" title="{O(\sqrt{n})}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O(\sqrt{n})}"/>, so it is natural to work with the normalised matrix <img class="latex" title="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}"/>. Accordingly, given any <img class="latex" title="{n \times n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Ctimes+n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \times n}"/> Hermitian matrix <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/>, we can form the (normalised) <em>empirical spectral distribution</em> (or <em>ESD</em> for short) </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n} := \frac{1}{n} \sum_{j=1}^n \delta_{\lambda_j(M_n) / \sqrt{n}}," src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D+:=+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Csum_%7Bj=1%7D%5En+%5Cdelta_%7B%5Clambda_j(M_n)+/+%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D,&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n} := \frac{1}{n} \sum_{j=1}^n \delta_{\lambda_j(M_n) / \sqrt{n}},"/></p>
<p> of <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/>, where <img class="latex" title="{\lambda_1(M_n) \leq \ldots \leq \lambda_n(M_n)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda_1(M_n)+%5Cleq+%5Cldots+%5Cleq+%5Clambda_n(M_n)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda_1(M_n) \leq \ldots \leq \lambda_n(M_n)}"/> are the (necessarily real) eigenvalues of <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/>, counting multiplicity. The ESD is a probability measure, which can be viewed as a distribution of the normalised eigenvalues of <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/>.</p>
<p>
When <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> is a random matrix ensemble, then the ESD <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/> is now a <em>random</em> measure – i.e. a random variable taking values in the space <img class="latex" title="{\hbox{Pr}({\mathbb R})}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Chbox%7BPr%7D(%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\hbox{Pr}({\mathbb R})}"/> of probability measures on the real line. (Thus, the distribution of <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/> is a probability measure on probability measures!)
</p>
<p>
Now we consider the behaviour of the ESD of a sequence of Hermitian matrix ensembles <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> as <img class="latex" title="{n \rightarrow \infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Crightarrow+%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \rightarrow \infty}"/>. Recall from <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/254a-notes-0-a-review-of-probability-theory/">Notes 0</a> that for any sequence of random variables in a <img class="latex" title="{\sigma}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Csigma%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\sigma}"/>-compact metrisable space, one can define notions of <em>convergence in probability</em> and <em>convergence almost surely</em>. Specialising these definitions to the case of random probability measures on <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb R}}"/>, and to deterministic limits, we see that a sequence of random ESDs <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/> <em>converge in probability</em> (resp. <em>converge almost surely</em>) to a deterministic limit <img class="latex" title="{\mu \in \hbox{Pr}({\mathbb R})}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu+%5Cin+%5Chbox%7BPr%7D(%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu \in \hbox{Pr}({\mathbb R})}"/> (which, confusingly enough, is a deterministic probability measure!) if, for every test function <img class="latex" title="{\varphi \in C_c({\mathbb R})}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cvarphi+%5Cin+C_c(%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\varphi \in C_c({\mathbb R})}"/>, the quantities <img class="latex" title="{\int_{\mathbb R} \varphi\ d\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+%5Cvarphi%5C+d%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\int_{\mathbb R} \varphi\ d\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/> converge in probability (resp. converge almost surely) to <img class="latex" title="{\int_{\mathbb R} \varphi\ d\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+%5Cvarphi%5C+d%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\int_{\mathbb R} \varphi\ d\mu}"/>.
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Remark 1</b>  As usual, convergence almost surely implies convergence in probability, but not vice versa. In the special case of random probability measures, there is an even weaker notion of convergence, namely <em>convergence in expectation</em>, defined as follows. Given a random ESD <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/>, one can form its <em>expectation</em> <img class="latex" title="{{\bf E} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n} \in \hbox{Pr}({\mathbb R})}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D+%5Cin+%5Chbox%7BPr%7D(%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf E} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n} \in \hbox{Pr}({\mathbb R})}"/>, defined via duality (the Riesz representation theorem) as
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \int_{\mathbb R} \varphi\ d{\bf E} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n} := {\bf E} \int_{\mathbb R} \varphi\ d  \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n};" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+%5Cvarphi%5C+d%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D+:=+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+%5Cvarphi%5C+d%09+%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D;&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \int_{\mathbb R} \varphi\ d{\bf E} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n} := {\bf E} \int_{\mathbb R} \varphi\ d  \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n};"/></p>
<p> this probability measure can be viewed as the law of a <em>random</em> eigenvalue <img class="latex" title="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}\lambda_i(M_n)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D%5Clambda_i(M_n)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}\lambda_i(M_n)}"/> drawn from a random matrix <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> from the ensemble. We then say that the ESDs converge in expectation to a limit <img class="latex" title="{\mu \in \hbox{Pr}({\mathbb R})}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu+%5Cin+%5Chbox%7BPr%7D(%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu \in \hbox{Pr}({\mathbb R})}"/> if <img class="latex" title="{{\bf E} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf E} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/> converges the vague topology to <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/>, thus
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf E} \int_{\mathbb R} \varphi\ d  \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n} \rightarrow \int_{\mathbb R} \varphi\ d\mu" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+%5Cvarphi%5C+d%09+%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D+%5Crightarrow+%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+%5Cvarphi%5C+d%5Cmu&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf E} \int_{\mathbb R} \varphi\ d  \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n} \rightarrow \int_{\mathbb R} \varphi\ d\mu"/></p>
<p> for all <img class="latex" title="{\phi \in C_c({\mathbb R})}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cphi+%5Cin+C_c(%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\phi \in C_c({\mathbb R})}"/>.</p>
<p>
In general, these notions of convergence are distinct from each other; but in practice, one often finds in random matrix theory that these notions are effectively equivalent to each other, thanks to the concentration of measure phenomenon. </p>
</blockquote>
<p/>
<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 1</b>  Let <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> be a sequence of <img class="latex" title="{n \times n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Ctimes+n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \times n}"/> Hermitian matrix ensembles, and let <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/> be a continuous probability measure on <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb R}}"/>. </p>
<ul>
<li> Show that <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/> converges almost surely to <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/> if and only if <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}}(-\infty,\lambda)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D%7D(-%5Cinfty,%5Clambda)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}}(-\infty,\lambda)}"/> converges almost surely to <img class="latex" title="{\mu(-\infty,\lambda)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu(-%5Cinfty,%5Clambda)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu(-\infty,\lambda)}"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{\lambda &gt; 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda+%3E+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda &gt; 0}"/>. </li>
<li> Show that <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/> converges in probability to <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/> if and only if <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}}(-\infty,\lambda)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D%7D(-%5Cinfty,%5Clambda)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}}(-\infty,\lambda)}"/> converges in probability to <img class="latex" title="{\mu(-\infty,\lambda)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu(-%5Cinfty,%5Clambda)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu(-\infty,\lambda)}"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{\lambda &gt; 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda+%3E+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda &gt; 0}"/>. </li>
<li> Show that <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/> converges in expectation to <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/> if and only if <img class="latex" title="{\mathop{\mathbb E} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}}(-\infty,\lambda)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmathop%7B%5Cmathbb+E%7D+%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D%7D(-%5Cinfty,%5Clambda)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mathop{\mathbb E} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}}(-\infty,\lambda)}"/> converges to <img class="latex" title="{\mu(-\infty,\lambda)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu(-%5Cinfty,%5Clambda)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu(-\infty,\lambda)}"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{\lambda &gt; 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda+%3E+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda &gt; 0}"/>.
</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
We can now state the Wigner semi-circular law.
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Theorem 1 (Semicircular law)</b> <a name="wigner-law"/> Let <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> be the top left <img class="latex" title="{n \times n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Ctimes+n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \times n}"/> minors of an infinite Wigner matrix <img class="latex" title="{(\xi_{ij})_{i,j \geq 1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(%5Cxi_%7Bij%7D)_%7Bi,j+%5Cgeq+1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(\xi_{ij})_{i,j \geq 1}}"/>. Then the ESDs <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/> converge almost surely (and hence also in probability and in expectation) to the <em>Wigner semi-circular distribution</em> <a name="sc">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="sc"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \mu_{sc} := \frac{1}{2\pi} (4-|x|^2)^{1/2}_+\ dx. \ \ \ \ \ (1)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cmu_%7Bsc%7D+:=+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B2%5Cpi%7D+(4-%7Cx%7C%5E2)%5E%7B1/2%7D_+%5C+dx.+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(1)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \mu_{sc} := \frac{1}{2\pi} (4-|x|^2)^{1/2}_+\ dx. \ \ \ \ \ (1)"/></a></p><a name="sc">
</a><p><a name="sc"/> </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
A numerical example of this theorem in action can be seen at the <a href="http://mathworld.wolfram.com/WignersSemicircleLaw.html">MathWorld entry for this law</a>.
</p>
<p>
The semi-circular law nicely complements the <em>upper Bai-Yin theorem</em> from <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/254a-notes-3-the-operator-norm-of-a-random-matrix/">Notes 3</a>, which asserts that (in the case when the entries have finite fourth moment, at least), the matrices <img class="latex" title="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}"/> almost surely has operator norm at most <img class="latex" title="{2+o(1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B2+o(1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{2+o(1)}"/>. Note that the operator norm is the same thing as the largest magnitude of the eigenvalues. Because the semi-circular distribution <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#sc">(1)</a> is supported on the interval <img class="latex" title="{[-2,2]}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5B-2,2%5D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{[-2,2]}"/> with positive density on the interior of this interval, Theorem <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#wigner-law">1</a> easily supplies the <em>lower Bai-Yin theorem</em>, that the operator norm of <img class="latex" title="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}"/> is almost surely <em>at least</em> <img class="latex" title="{2-o(1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B2-o(1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{2-o(1)}"/>, and thus (in the finite fourth moment case) the norm is in fact <em>equal</em> to <img class="latex" title="{2+o(1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B2+o(1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{2+o(1)}"/>. Indeed, we have just shown that the circular law provides an alternate proof of the lower Bai-Yin bound (Proposition 11 of <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/254a-notes-3-the-operator-norm-of-a-random-matrix/">Notes 3</a>).
</p>
<p>
As will hopefully become clearer in the next set of notes, the semi-circular law is the noncommutative (or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_probability">free probability</a>) analogue of the central limit theorem, with the semi-circular distribution <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#sc">(1)</a> taking on the role of the normal distribution. Of course, there is a striking difference between the two distributions, in that the former is compactly supported while the latter is merely subgaussian. One reason for this is that the concentration of measure phenomenon is more powerful in the case of ESDs of Wigner matrices than it is for averages of iid variables; compare the concentration of measure results in <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/254a-notes-3-the-operator-norm-of-a-random-matrix/">Notes 3</a> with those in <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/03/254a-notes-1-concentration-of-measure/">Notes 1</a>.
</p>
<p>
There are several ways to prove (or at least to heuristically justify) the circular law. In this set of notes we shall focus on the two most popular methods, the <em>moment method</em> and the <em>Stieltjes transform method</em>, together with a third (heuristic) method based on Dyson Brownian motion (<a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/254a-notes-3b-brownian-motion-and-dyson-brownian-motion/">Notes 3b</a>). In the next set of notes we shall also study the free probability method, and in the set of notes after that we use the determinantal processes method (although this method is initially only restricted to highly symmetric ensembles, such as GUE).
</p>
<p>
<span id="more-3426"/>
</p>
<p/>
<p align="center"><b> —  1. Preliminary reductions  — </b></p>
<p>
Before we begin any of the proofs of the circular law, we make some simple observations which will reduce the difficulty of the arguments in the sequel.
</p>
<p>
The first observation is that the Cauchy interlacing law (Exercise 14 from <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/254a-notes-3a-eigenvalues-and-sums-of-hermitian-matrices/">Notes 3a</a>) shows that the ESD of <img class="latex" title="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}"/> is very stable in <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/>. Indeed, we see from the interlacing law that </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \frac{n}{m} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}( -\infty, \lambda / \sqrt{n}) \leq \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{m}} M_m}( -\infty, \lambda / \sqrt{m})" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cfrac%7Bn%7D%7Bm%7D+%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D(+-%5Cinfty,+%5Clambda+/+%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D)+%5Cleq+%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bm%7D%7D+M_m%7D(+-%5Cinfty,+%5Clambda+/+%5Csqrt%7Bm%7D)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \frac{n}{m} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}( -\infty, \lambda / \sqrt{n}) \leq \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{m}} M_m}( -\infty, \lambda / \sqrt{m})"/></p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle \leq \frac{n}{m} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}( -\infty, \lambda / \sqrt{n}) + \frac{n-m}{m}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle+%5Cleq+%5Cfrac%7Bn%7D%7Bm%7D+%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D(+-%5Cinfty,+%5Clambda+/+%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D)+++%5Cfrac%7Bn-m%7D%7Bm%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle \leq \frac{n}{m} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}( -\infty, \lambda / \sqrt{n}) + \frac{n-m}{m}"/></p>
<p> for any threshold <img class="latex" title="{\lambda}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda}"/> and any <img class="latex" title="{n &gt; m &gt; 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%3E+m+%3E+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n &gt; m &gt; 0}"/>.</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 2</b>  Using this observation, show that to establish the circular law (in any of the three senses of convergence), it suffices to do so for a lacunary sequence <img class="latex" title="{n_1, n_2, \ldots}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn_1,+n_2,+%5Cldots%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n_1, n_2, \ldots}"/> of <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/> (thus <img class="latex" title="{n_{j+1}/n_j \geq c}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn_%7Bj+1%7D/n_j+%5Cgeq+c%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n_{j+1}/n_j \geq c}"/> for some <img class="latex" title="{c&gt;1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bc%3E1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{c&gt;1}"/> and all <img class="latex" title="{j}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bj%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{j}"/>). </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
The above lacunary reduction does not help one establish convergence in probability or expectation, but will be useful when establishing almost sure convergence, as it significantly reduces the inefficiency of the union bound. (Note that a similar lacunary reduction was also used to prove the strong law of large numbers in <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/03/254a-notes-1-concentration-of-measure/">Notes 1</a>.)
</p>
<p>
Next, we exploit the stability of the ESD with respect to perturbations, by taking advantage of the <em>Weilandt-Hoffmann inequality</em> <a name="wh">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="wh"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \sum_{j=1}^n |\lambda_j(A+B)-\lambda_j(A)|^2 \leq \|B\|_F^2 \ \ \ \ \ (2)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Csum_%7Bj=1%7D%5En+%7C%5Clambda_j(A+B)-%5Clambda_j(A)%7C%5E2+%5Cleq+%5C%7CB%5C%7C_F%5E2+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(2)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \sum_{j=1}^n |\lambda_j(A+B)-\lambda_j(A)|^2 \leq \|B\|_F^2 \ \ \ \ \ (2)"/></a></p><a name="wh">
</a><p><a name="wh"/> for Hermitian matrices <img class="latex" title="{A, B}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA,+B%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A, B}"/>, where <img class="latex" title="{\|B\|_F := (\hbox{tr} B^2)^{1/2}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5C%7CB%5C%7C_F+:=+(%5Chbox%7Btr%7D+B%5E2)%5E%7B1/2%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\|B\|_F := (\hbox{tr} B^2)^{1/2}}"/> is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_norm#Frobenius_norm">Frobenius norm</a> of <img class="latex" title="{B}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B}"/>. (This inequality was established in Exercise 6 or Exercise 11 of <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/254a-notes-3a-eigenvalues-and-sums-of-hermitian-matrices/">Notes 3a</a>.) We convert this inequality into an inequality about ESDs:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Lemma 2</b>  For any <img class="latex" title="{n \times n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Ctimes+n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \times n}"/> Hermitian matrices <img class="latex" title="{A, B}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA,+B%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A, B}"/>, any <img class="latex" title="{\lambda}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda}"/>, and any <img class="latex" title="{\epsilon &gt; 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cepsilon+%3E+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\epsilon &gt; 0}"/>, we have
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}(A+B)}(-\infty, \lambda) \leq \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}(A)}(-\infty, \lambda+\epsilon) + \frac{1}{\epsilon^2 n^2} \|B\|_F^2" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D(A+B)%7D(-%5Cinfty,+%5Clambda)+%5Cleq+%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D(A)%7D(-%5Cinfty,+%5Clambda+%5Cepsilon)+++%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Cepsilon%5E2+n%5E2%7D+%5C%7CB%5C%7C_F%5E2&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}(A+B)}(-\infty, \lambda) \leq \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}(A)}(-\infty, \lambda+\epsilon) + \frac{1}{\epsilon^2 n^2} \|B\|_F^2"/></p>
<p> and similarly
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}(A+B)}(-\infty, \lambda) \geq \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}(A)}(-\infty, \lambda-\epsilon) - \frac{1}{\epsilon^2 n^2} \|B\|_F^2." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D(A+B)%7D(-%5Cinfty,+%5Clambda)+%5Cgeq+%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D(A)%7D(-%5Cinfty,+%5Clambda-%5Cepsilon)+-+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Cepsilon%5E2+n%5E2%7D+%5C%7CB%5C%7C_F%5E2.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}(A+B)}(-\infty, \lambda) \geq \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}(A)}(-\infty, \lambda-\epsilon) - \frac{1}{\epsilon^2 n^2} \|B\|_F^2."/></p>
</blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
<em>Proof:</em>  We just prove the first inequality, as the second is similar (and also follows from the first, by reversing the sign of <img class="latex" title="{A, B}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA,+B%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A, B}"/>).
</p>
<p>
Let <img class="latex" title="{\lambda_i(A+B)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda_i(A+B)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda_i(A+B)}"/> be the largest eigenvalue of <img class="latex" title="{A+B}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+B%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A+B}"/> less than <img class="latex" title="{\lambda \sqrt{n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda+%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda \sqrt{n}}"/>, and let <img class="latex" title="{\lambda_j(A)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda_j(A)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda_j(A)}"/> be the largest eigenvalue of <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> less than <img class="latex" title="{(\lambda+\epsilon) \sqrt{n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(%5Clambda+%5Cepsilon)+%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(\lambda+\epsilon) \sqrt{n}}"/>. Our task is to show that </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  i \leq j + \frac{1}{\epsilon^2 n^2} \|B\|_F^2." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++i+%5Cleq+j+++%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Cepsilon%5E2+n%5E2%7D+%5C%7CB%5C%7C_F%5E2.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  i \leq j + \frac{1}{\epsilon^2 n^2} \|B\|_F^2."/></p>
<p> If <img class="latex" title="{i \leq j}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bi+%5Cleq+j%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{i \leq j}"/> then we are clearly done, so suppose that <img class="latex" title="{i&gt;j}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bi%3Ej%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{i&gt;j}"/>. Then we have <img class="latex" title="{|\lambda_l(A+B)-\lambda_l(A)| \geq \epsilon \sqrt{n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7C%5Clambda_l(A+B)-%5Clambda_l(A)%7C+%5Cgeq+%5Cepsilon+%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|\lambda_l(A+B)-\lambda_l(A)| \geq \epsilon \sqrt{n}}"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{j &lt; l \leq i}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bj+%3C+l+%5Cleq+i%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{j &lt; l \leq i}"/>, and hence
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \sum_{j=1}^n |\lambda_j(A+B)-\lambda_j(A)|^2 \geq \epsilon^2 (j-i) n." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Csum_%7Bj=1%7D%5En+%7C%5Clambda_j(A+B)-%5Clambda_j(A)%7C%5E2+%5Cgeq+%5Cepsilon%5E2+(j-i)+n.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \sum_{j=1}^n |\lambda_j(A+B)-\lambda_j(A)|^2 \geq \epsilon^2 (j-i) n."/></p>
<p> <img class="latex" title="\Box" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5CBox&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\Box"/></p>
<p>
This has the following corollary:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 3 (Stability of ESD laws wrt small perturbations)</b>  Let <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> be a sequence of random Hermitian matrix ensembles such that <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/> converges almost surely to a limit <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/>. Let <img class="latex" title="{N_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BN_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{N_n}"/> be another sequence of random matrix ensembles such that <img class="latex" title="{\frac{1}{n^2} \|N_n\|_F^2}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%5E2%7D+%5C%7CN_n%5C%7C_F%5E2%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\frac{1}{n^2} \|N_n\|_F^2}"/> converges almost surely to zero. Show that <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}(M_n+N_n)}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D(M_n+N_n)%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}(M_n+N_n)}}"/> converges almost surely to <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/>. </p>
<p>
Show that the same claim holds if “almost surely” is replaced by “in probability” or “in expectation” throughout. </p>
</blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
Informally, this exercise allows us to discard any portion of the matrix which is <img class="latex" title="{o(n^2)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bo(n%5E2)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{o(n^2)}"/> in the Frobenius norm. For instance, the diagonal entries of <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> have a Frobenius norm of <img class="latex" title="{O(n)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(n)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O(n)}"/> almost surely, by the strong law of large numbers. Hence, without loss of generality, we may set the diagonal equal to zero for the purposes of the semi-circular law.
</p>
<p>
One can also remove any component of <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> that is of rank <img class="latex" title="{o(n)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bo(n)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{o(n)}"/>:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 4 (Stability of ESD laws wrt small rank perturbations)</b> <a name="smallrank"/> Let <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> be a sequence of random Hermitian matrix ensembles such that <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/> converges almost surely to a limit <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/>. Let <img class="latex" title="{N_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BN_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{N_n}"/> be another sequence of random matrix ensembles such that <img class="latex" title="{\frac{1}{n} \hbox{rank}(N_n)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Chbox%7Brank%7D(N_n)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\frac{1}{n} \hbox{rank}(N_n)}"/> converges almost surely to zero. Show that <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}(M_n+N_n)}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D(M_n+N_n)%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}(M_n+N_n)}}"/> converges almost surely to <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/>. (Hint: use the Weyl inequalities instead of the Wielandt-Hoffman law.)</p>
<p>
Show that the same claim holds if “almost surely” is replaced by “in probability” or “in expectation” throughout. </p>
</blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
In a similar vein, we may apply the truncation argument (much as was done for the central limit theorem in <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/254a-notes-2-the-central-limit-theorem/">Notes 2</a>) to reduce the semi-circular law to the bounded case:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 5</b>  Show that in order to prove the semi-circular law (in the almost sure sense), it suffices to do so under the additional hypothesis that the random variables are bounded. Similarly for the convergence in probability or in expectation senses. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<blockquote><p><b>Remark 2</b>  These facts ultimately rely on the stability of eigenvalues with respect to perturbations. This stability is automatic in the Hermitian case, but for non-symmetric matrices, serious instabilities can occur due to the presence of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudospectrum">pseudospectrum</a>. We will discuss this phenomenon more in later lectures (but see also this <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/when-are-eigenvalues-stable/">earlier blog post</a>). </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p align="center"><b> —  2. The moment method  — </b></p>
<p>
We now prove the semi-circular law via the <em>method of moments</em>, which we have already used several times in the previous notes. In order to use this method, it is convenient to use the preceding reductions to assume that the coefficients are bounded, the diagonal vanishes, and that <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/> ranges over a lacunary sequence. We will implicitly assume these hypotheses throughout the rest of the section.
</p>
<p>
As we have already discussed the moment method extensively, much of the argument here will be delegated to exercises. A full treatment of these computations can be found in the <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=kd-o5Qdm7ngC&amp;dq=bai+silverstein+spectral&amp;source=gbs_navlinks_s">book of Bai and Silverstein</a>.
</p>
<p>
The basic starting point is the observation that the moments of the ESD <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/> can be written as normalised traces of powers of <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/>: <a name="mom">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="mom"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \int_{\mathbb R} x^k\ d\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}(x) = \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k. \ \ \ \ \ (3)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+x%5Ek%5C+d%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D(x)+=+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Chbox%7Btr%7D+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n)%5Ek.+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(3)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \int_{\mathbb R} x^k\ d\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}(x) = \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k. \ \ \ \ \ (3)"/></a></p><a name="mom">
</a><p><a name="mom"/> In particular, on taking expectations, we have </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \int_{\mathbb R} x^k\ d{\bf E}\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}(x) = {\bf E} \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+x%5Ek%5C+d%7B%5Cbf+E%7D%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D(x)+=+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Chbox%7Btr%7D+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n)%5Ek.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \int_{\mathbb R} x^k\ d{\bf E}\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}(x) = {\bf E} \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k."/></p>
<p> From concentration of measure (and the Bai-Yin theorem) for the operator norm of a random matrix (Proposition 7 of <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/254a-notes-3-the-operator-norm-of-a-random-matrix/">Notes 3</a>), we see that the <img class="latex" title="{{\bf E} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf E} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/> are uniformly subgaussian, indeed we have
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf E} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}\{ |x| \geq \lambda \} \leq C e^{-c \lambda^2 n^2}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%5C%7B+%7Cx%7C+%5Cgeq+%5Clambda+%5C%7D+%5Cleq+C+e%5E%7B-c+%5Clambda%5E2+n%5E2%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf E} \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}\{ |x| \geq \lambda \} \leq C e^{-c \lambda^2 n^2}"/></p>
<p> for <img class="latex" title="{\lambda &gt; C}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda+%3E+C%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda &gt; C}"/>, where <img class="latex" title="{C, c}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC,+c%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C, c}"/> are absolute (so the decay in fact improves quite rapidly with <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/>. From this and the moment continuity theorem (Theorem 4 of <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/254a-notes-2-the-central-limit-theorem/">Notes 2</a>), we can now establish the circular law through computing the mean and variance of moments:</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 6</b>  </p>
<ul>
<li> Show that to prove convergence in expectation to the semi-circular law, it suffices to show that <a name="conv-exp">
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf E} \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k = \int_{\mathbb R} x^k\ d\mu_{sc}(x) + o_k(1) \ \ \ \ \ (4)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Chbox%7Btr%7D+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n)%5Ek+=+%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+x%5Ek%5C+d%5Cmu_%7Bsc%7D(x)+++o_k(1)+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(4)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf E} \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k = \int_{\mathbb R} x^k\ d\mu_{sc}(x) + o_k(1) \ \ \ \ \ (4)"/></p>
</a><p><a name="conv-exp"/> for <img class="latex" title="{k=1,2,\ldots}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk=1,2,%5Cldots%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k=1,2,\ldots}"/>, where <img class="latex" title="{o_k(1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bo_k(1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{o_k(1)}"/> is an expression that goes to zero as <img class="latex" title="{n \rightarrow \infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Crightarrow+%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \rightarrow \infty}"/> for fixed <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/> (and fixed choice of coefficient distribution <img class="latex" title="{\xi}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cxi%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\xi}"/>. </p></li>
<li> Show that to prove convergence in probability to the semi-circular law, it suffices to show <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#conv-exp">(4)</a> together with the variance bound <a name="conv-var">
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf Var}(\frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k) = o_k(1) \ \ \ \ \ (5)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+Var%7D(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Chbox%7Btr%7D+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n)%5Ek)+=+o_k(1)+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(5)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf Var}(\frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k) = o_k(1) \ \ \ \ \ (5)"/></p>
</a><p><a name="conv-var"/> for <img class="latex" title="{k=1,2,\ldots}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk=1,2,%5Cldots%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k=1,2,\ldots}"/>. </p></li>
<li> Show that to prove almost sure convergence to the semi-circular law, it suffices to show <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#conv-exp">(4)</a> together with the variance bound <a name="conv-var2">
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf Var}(\frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k) = O_k(n^{-c_k}) \ \ \ \ \ (6)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+Var%7D(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Chbox%7Btr%7D+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n)%5Ek)+=+O_k(n%5E%7B-c_k%7D)+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(6)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf Var}(\frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k) = O_k(n^{-c_k}) \ \ \ \ \ (6)"/></p>
</a><p><a name="conv-var2"/> for <img class="latex" title="{k=1,2,\ldots}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk=1,2,%5Cldots%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k=1,2,\ldots}"/> and some <img class="latex" title="{c_k&gt;0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bc_k%3E0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{c_k&gt;0}"/>. (Note here that it is useful to restrict <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/> to a lacunary sequence!)
</p></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
Ordinarily, computing second-moment quantities such as the left-hand side of <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#conv-var">(5)</a> is harder than computing first-moment quantities such as <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#conv-exp">(4)</a>. But one can obtain the required variance bounds from concentration of measure:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 7</b>  </p>
<ul>
<li> When <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/> is a positive even integer, Use Talagrand’s inequality and convexity of the Schatten norm <img class="latex" title="{\|A\|_{S^k} = (\hbox{tr}(A^k))^{1/k}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5C%7CA%5C%7C_%7BS%5Ek%7D+=+(%5Chbox%7Btr%7D(A%5Ek))%5E%7B1/k%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\|A\|_{S^k} = (\hbox{tr}(A^k))^{1/k}}"/> to establish <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#conv-var2">(6)</a> (and hence <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#conv-var">(5)</a>) when <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/> is even. </li>
<li> For <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/> odd, the formula <img class="latex" title="{\|A\|_{S^k} = (\hbox{tr}(A^k))^{1/k}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5C%7CA%5C%7C_%7BS%5Ek%7D+=+(%5Chbox%7Btr%7D(A%5Ek))%5E%7B1/k%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\|A\|_{S^k} = (\hbox{tr}(A^k))^{1/k}}"/> still applies as long as <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> is positive definite. Applying this observation, the Bai-Yin theorem, and Talagrand’s inequality to the <img class="latex" title="{S^k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS%5Ek%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S^k}"/> norms of <img class="latex" title="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n + c I_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n+++c+I_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n + c I_n}"/> for a constant <img class="latex" title="{c&gt;2}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bc%3E2%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{c&gt;2}"/>, establish <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#conv-var2">(6)</a> (and hence <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#conv-var">(5)</a>) when <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/> is odd also.
</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p/>
<blockquote><p><b>Remark 3</b>  More generally, concentration of measure results (such as Talagrand’s inequality) can often be used to automatically upgrade convergence in expectation to convergence in probability or almost sure convergence. We will not attempt to formalise this principle here. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
It is not difficult to establish <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#conv-var2">(6)</a>, <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#conv-var">(5)</a> through the moment method as well. Indeed, recall from Theorem 10 of <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/254a-notes-3-the-operator-norm-of-a-random-matrix/">Notes 3</a> that we have the expected moment <a name="conv-form">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="conv-form"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf E} \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k = C_{k/2} + o_k(1) \ \ \ \ \ (7)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Chbox%7Btr%7D+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n)%5Ek+=+C_%7Bk/2%7D+++o_k(1)+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(7)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf E} \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k = C_{k/2} + o_k(1) \ \ \ \ \ (7)"/></a></p><a name="conv-form">
</a><p><a name="conv-form"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{k=1,2,\ldots}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk=1,2,%5Cldots%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k=1,2,\ldots}"/>, where the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_number">Catalan number</a> <img class="latex" title="{C_{k/2}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC_%7Bk/2%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C_{k/2}}"/> is zero when <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/> is odd, and is equal to <a name="ck2-again">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="ck2-again"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  C_{k/2} := \frac{k!}{(k/2+1)! (k/2)!} \ \ \ \ \ (8)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++C_%7Bk/2%7D+:=+%5Cfrac%7Bk!%7D%7B(k/2+1)!+(k/2)!%7D+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(8)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  C_{k/2} := \frac{k!}{(k/2+1)! (k/2)!} \ \ \ \ \ (8)"/></a></p><a name="ck2-again">
</a><p><a name="ck2-again"/> for <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/> even.
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 8</b>  By modifying the proof of that theorem, show that <a name="conv-form2">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="conv-form2"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf E} |\frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k|^2 = C_{k/2}^2 + o_k(1) \ \ \ \ \ (9)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%7C%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Chbox%7Btr%7D+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n)%5Ek%7C%5E2+=+C_%7Bk/2%7D%5E2+++o_k(1)+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(9)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf E} |\frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k|^2 = C_{k/2}^2 + o_k(1) \ \ \ \ \ (9)"/></a></p><a name="conv-form2">
</a><p><a name="conv-form2"/> and deduce <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#conv-var">(5)</a>. By refining the error analysis (e.g. using Theorem 12 of <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/254a-notes-3-the-operator-norm-of-a-random-matrix/">Notes 3</a>, also establish <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#conv-var2">(6)</a>. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
In view of the above computations, the establishment of the semi-circular law now reduces to computing the moments of the semi-circular distribution:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 9</b> <a name="exa"/> Show that for any <img class="latex" title="{k=1,2,3,\ldots}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk=1,2,3,%5Cldots%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k=1,2,3,\ldots}"/>, one has
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \int_{\mathbb R} x^k\ d\mu_{sc}(x) = C_{k/2}." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+x%5Ek%5C+d%5Cmu_%7Bsc%7D(x)+=+C_%7Bk/2%7D.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \int_{\mathbb R} x^k\ d\mu_{sc}(x) = C_{k/2}."/></p>
<p> (Hint: use a trigonometric substitution <img class="latex" title="{x = 2 \cos \theta}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx+=+2+%5Ccos+%5Ctheta%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x = 2 \cos \theta}"/>, and then express the integrand in terms of Fourier phases <img class="latex" title="{e^{in\theta}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Be%5E%7Bin%5Ctheta%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{e^{in\theta}}"/>.) </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
This concludes the proof of the semi-circular law (for any of the three modes of convergence).
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Remark 4</b> <a name="remo"/> In the spirit of the Lindeberg exchange method, observe that Exercise <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#exa">(9)</a> is unnecessary if one already knows that the semi-circular law holds for at least one ensemble of Wigner matrices (e.g. the GUE ensemble). Indeed, Exercise <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#exa">9</a> can be <em>deduced</em> from such a piece of knowledge. In such a situation, it is not necessary to actually compute the main term <img class="latex" title="{C_{k/2}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC_%7Bk/2%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C_{k/2}}"/> on the right of <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#conv-exp">(4)</a>; it would be sufficient to know that that limit is <em>universal</em>, in that it does not depend on the underlying distribution. In fact, it would even suffice to establish the slightly weaker statement
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf E} \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k = {\bf E} \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M'_n)^k + o_k(1)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Chbox%7Btr%7D+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n)%5Ek+=+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Chbox%7Btr%7D+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M'_n)%5Ek+++o_k(1)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf E} \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n)^k = {\bf E} \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M'_n)^k + o_k(1)"/></p>
<p> whenever <img class="latex" title="{M_n, M'_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n,+M'_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n, M'_n}"/> are two ensembles of Wigner matrices arising from different underlying distributions (but still normalised to have mean zero, unit variance, and to be bounded (or at worst subgaussian)). We will take advantage of this perspective later in these notes. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p align="center"><b> —  3. The Stieltjes transform method  — </b></p>
<p>
The moment method was computationally intensive, but straightforward. As noted in Remark <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#remo">4</a>, even without doing much of the algebraic computation, it is clear that the moment method will show that some universal limit for Wigner matrices exists (or, at least, that the differences between the distributions of two different Wigner matrices converge to zero). But it is not easy to see from this method why the limit should be given by the semi-circular law, as opposed to some other distribution (although one could eventually work this out from an inverse moment computation).
</p>
<p>
When studying the central limit theorem, we were able to use the Fourier method to control the distribution of random matrices in a cleaner way than in the moment method. Analogues of this method exist, but require non-trivial formulae from noncommutative Fourier analysis, such as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plancherel_theorem_for_spherical_functions">Harish-Chandra integration formula</a> (and also only work for highly symmetric ensembles, such as GUE or GOE), and will not be discussed in this course. (Our later notes on determinantal processes, however, will contain some algebraic identities related in some ways to the noncommutative Fourier-analytic approach.)
</p>
<p>
We now turn to another method, the <em>Stieltjes transform method</em>, which uses complex-analytic methods rather than Fourier-analytic methods, and has turned out to be one of the most powerful and accurate tools in dealing with the ESD of random Hermitian matrices. Whereas the moment method started from the identity <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#mom">(3)</a>, the Stieltjes transform method proceeds from the identity </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \int_{\mathbb R} \frac{1}{x-z}\ d\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}(x) = \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n-zI)^{-1} " src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bx-z%7D%5C+d%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D(x)+=+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Chbox%7Btr%7D+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n-zI)%5E%7B-1%7D+&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \int_{\mathbb R} \frac{1}{x-z}\ d\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}(x) = \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n-zI)^{-1} "/></p>
<p> for any complex <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> not in the support of <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/>. We refer to the expression on the left-hand side as the <em>Stieltjes transform</em> of <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> or of <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/>, and denote it by <img class="latex" title="{s_{\mu_{\frac{1}{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_{\mu_{\frac{1}{n}} M_n}}"/> or as <img class="latex" title="{s_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n}"/> for short. The expression <img class="latex" title="{(\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n-zI)^{-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n-zI)%5E%7B-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n-zI)^{-1}}"/> is the normalised <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolvent_formalism">resolvent</a> of <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/>, and plays an important role in the spectral theory of that matrix. Indeed, in contrast to general-purpose methods such as the moment method, the Stieltjes transform method draws heavily on the specific linear-algebraic structure of this problem, and in particular on the rich structure of resolvents.</p>
<p>
On the other hand, the Stieltjes transform can be viewed as a generating function of the moments via the Taylor series expansion </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  s_n(z) = -\frac{1}{z} - \frac{1}{z^2} \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} M_n - \frac{1}{z^3} \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} M_n^2 - \ldots," src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++s_n(z)+=+-%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bz%7D+-+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bz%5E2%7D+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Chbox%7Btr%7D+M_n+-+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bz%5E3%7D+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Chbox%7Btr%7D+M_n%5E2+-+%5Cldots,&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  s_n(z) = -\frac{1}{z} - \frac{1}{z^2} \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} M_n - \frac{1}{z^3} \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr} M_n^2 - \ldots,"/></p>
<p> valid for <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> sufficiently large. This is somewhat (though not exactly) analogous to how the characteristic function <img class="latex" title="{{\bf E} e^{itX}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+e%5E%7BitX%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf E} e^{itX}}"/> of a scalar random variable can be viewed as a generating function of the moments <img class="latex" title="{{\bf E} X^k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+X%5Ek%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf E} X^k}"/>.</p>
<p>
Now let us study the Stieltjes transform more systematically. Given any probability measure <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/> on the real line, we can form its <em>Stieltjes transform</em> </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  s_\mu(z) := \int_{\mathbb R} \frac{1}{x-z}\ d\mu(x)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++s_%5Cmu(z)+:=+%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bx-z%7D%5C+d%5Cmu(x)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  s_\mu(z) := \int_{\mathbb R} \frac{1}{x-z}\ d\mu(x)"/></p>
<p> for any <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> outside of the support of <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/>; in particular, the Stieltjes transform is well-defined on the upper and lower half-planes in the complex plane. Even without any further hypotheses on <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/> other than it is a probability measure, we can say a remarkable amount about how this transform behaves in <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/>. Applying conjugations we obtain the symmetry <a name="symu">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="symu"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \overline{s_\mu(z)} = s_\mu(\overline{z}) \ \ \ \ \ (10)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Coverline%7Bs_%5Cmu(z)%7D+=+s_%5Cmu(%5Coverline%7Bz%7D)+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(10)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \overline{s_\mu(z)} = s_\mu(\overline{z}) \ \ \ \ \ (10)"/></a></p><a name="symu">
</a><p><a name="symu"/> so we may as well restrict attention to <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> in the upper half-plane (say). Next, from the trivial bound
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  |\frac{1}{x-z}| \leq \frac{1}{|\hbox{Im}(z)|}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7C%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bx-z%7D%7C+%5Cleq+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%7C%5Chbox%7BIm%7D(z)%7C%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  |\frac{1}{x-z}| \leq \frac{1}{|\hbox{Im}(z)|}"/></p>
<p> one has the pointwise bound <a name="s-point">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="s-point"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  |s_\mu(z)| \leq \frac{1}{|\hbox{Im}(z)|}. \ \ \ \ \ (11)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7Cs_%5Cmu(z)%7C+%5Cleq+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%7C%5Chbox%7BIm%7D(z)%7C%7D.+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(11)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  |s_\mu(z)| \leq \frac{1}{|\hbox{Im}(z)|}. \ \ \ \ \ (11)"/></a></p><a name="s-point">
</a><p><a name="s-point"/> In a similar spirit, an easy application of dominated convergence gives the asymptotic <a name="sasym">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="sasym"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  s_\mu(z) = \frac{1+o_\mu(1)}{z} \ \ \ \ \ (12)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++s_%5Cmu(z)+=+%5Cfrac%7B1+o_%5Cmu(1)%7D%7Bz%7D+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(12)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  s_\mu(z) = \frac{1+o_\mu(1)}{z} \ \ \ \ \ (12)"/></a></p><a name="sasym">
</a><p><a name="sasym"/> where <img class="latex" title="{o_\mu(1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bo_%5Cmu(1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{o_\mu(1)}"/> is an expression that, for any fixed <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/>, goes to zero as <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> goes to infinity <em>non-tangentially</em> in the sense that <img class="latex" title="{|\hbox{Re}(z)|/|\hbox{Im(z)}|}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7C%5Chbox%7BRe%7D(z)%7C/%7C%5Chbox%7BIm(z)%7D%7C%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|\hbox{Re}(z)|/|\hbox{Im(z)}|}"/> is kept bounded, where the rate of convergence is allowed to depend on <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/>. From differentiation under the integral sign (or an application of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morera's_theorem">Morera’s theorem</a> and Fubini’s theorem) we see that <img class="latex" title="{s_\mu(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%5Cmu(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_\mu(z)}"/> is <em>complex analytic</em> on the upper and lower half-planes; in particular, it is smooth away from the real axis. From the Cauchy integral formula (or differentiation under the integral sign) we in fact get some bounds for higher derivatives of the Stieltjes transform away from this axis: <a name="stielt-deriv">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="stielt-deriv"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  |\frac{d^j}{dz^j} s_\mu(z)| = O_j( \frac{1}{|\hbox{Im}(z)|^{j+1}} ). \ \ \ \ \ (13)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7C%5Cfrac%7Bd%5Ej%7D%7Bdz%5Ej%7D+s_%5Cmu(z)%7C+=+O_j(+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%7C%5Chbox%7BIm%7D(z)%7C%5E%7Bj+1%7D%7D+).+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(13)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  |\frac{d^j}{dz^j} s_\mu(z)| = O_j( \frac{1}{|\hbox{Im}(z)|^{j+1}} ). \ \ \ \ \ (13)"/></a></p><a name="stielt-deriv">
</a><p><a name="stielt-deriv"/> Informally, <img class="latex" title="{s_\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_\mu}"/> “behaves like a constant” at scales significantly less than the distance <img class="latex" title="{|\hbox{Im}(z)|}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7C%5Chbox%7BIm%7D(z)%7C%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|\hbox{Im}(z)|}"/> to the real axis; all the really interesting action here is going on near that axis.</p>
<p>
The imaginary part of the Stieltjes transform is particularly interesting. Writing <img class="latex" title="{z = a+ib}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz+=+a+ib%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z = a+ib}"/>, we observe that </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \hbox{Im}\frac{1}{x-z} = \frac{b}{(x-a)^2 + b^2} &gt; 0" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Chbox%7BIm%7D%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bx-z%7D+=+%5Cfrac%7Bb%7D%7B(x-a)%5E2+++b%5E2%7D+%3E+0&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \hbox{Im}\frac{1}{x-z} = \frac{b}{(x-a)^2 + b^2} &gt; 0"/></p>
<p> and so we see that
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \hbox{Im}( s_\mu(z) ) &gt; 0" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Chbox%7BIm%7D(+s_%5Cmu(z)+)+%3E+0&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \hbox{Im}( s_\mu(z) ) &gt; 0"/></p>
<p> for <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> in the upper half-plane; thus <img class="latex" title="{s_\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_\mu}"/> is a complex-analytic map from the upper half-plane to itself, a type of function known as a <em>Herglotz function</em>. (In fact, all complex-analytic maps from the upper half-plane to itself that obey the asymptotic <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#sasym">(12)</a> are of this form; this is a special case of the <em>Herglotz representation theorem</em>, which also gives a slightly more general description in the case when the asymptotic <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#sasym">(12)</a> is not assumed. A good reference for this material and its consequences is this <a href="http://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=2261424">book of Garnett</a>.)</p>
<p>
One can also express the imaginary part of the Stieltjes transform as a convolution <a name="ims">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="ims"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \hbox{Im}( s_\mu(a+ib) ) = \pi \mu * P_b(a) \ \ \ \ \ (14)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Chbox%7BIm%7D(+s_%5Cmu(a+ib)+)+=+%5Cpi+%5Cmu+*+P_b(a)+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(14)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \hbox{Im}( s_\mu(a+ib) ) = \pi \mu * P_b(a) \ \ \ \ \ (14)"/></a></p><a name="ims">
</a><p><a name="ims"/> where <img class="latex" title="{P_b}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BP_b%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{P_b}"/> is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_kernel">Poisson kernel</a> </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  P_b(x) := \frac{1}{\pi} \frac{b}{x^2+b^2} = \frac{1}{b} P_1(\frac{x}{b})." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++P_b(x)+:=+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Cpi%7D+%5Cfrac%7Bb%7D%7Bx%5E2+b%5E2%7D+=+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bb%7D+P_1(%5Cfrac%7Bx%7D%7Bb%7D).&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  P_b(x) := \frac{1}{\pi} \frac{b}{x^2+b^2} = \frac{1}{b} P_1(\frac{x}{b})."/></p>
<p> As is well known, these kernels form a family of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nascent_delta_function#nascent_delta_function">approximations to the identity</a>, and thus <img class="latex" title="{\mu * P_b}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu+*+P_b%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu * P_b}"/> converges in the vague topology to <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/> (see e.g. my <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/245c-notes-3-distributions/">notes on distributions</a>). Thus we see that
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \hbox{Im} s_\mu(\cdot+ib) \rightharpoonup \pi \mu" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Chbox%7BIm%7D+s_%5Cmu(%5Ccdot+ib)+%5Crightharpoonup+%5Cpi+%5Cmu&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \hbox{Im} s_\mu(\cdot+ib) \rightharpoonup \pi \mu"/></p>
<p> as <img class="latex" title="{b \rightarrow 0^+}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bb+%5Crightarrow+0%5E+%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{b \rightarrow 0^+}"/> in the vague topology,or equivalently (by <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#symu">(10)</a>) that <a name="smib">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="smib"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \frac{s_\mu(\cdot+ib) - s_\mu(\cdot-ib)}{2\pi i} \rightharpoonup \mu \ \ \ \ \ (15)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cfrac%7Bs_%5Cmu(%5Ccdot+ib)+-+s_%5Cmu(%5Ccdot-ib)%7D%7B2%5Cpi+i%7D+%5Crightharpoonup+%5Cmu+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(15)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \frac{s_\mu(\cdot+ib) - s_\mu(\cdot-ib)}{2\pi i} \rightharpoonup \mu \ \ \ \ \ (15)"/></a></p><a name="smib">
</a><p><a name="smib"/> as <img class="latex" title="{b \rightarrow 0^+}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bb+%5Crightarrow+0%5E+%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{b \rightarrow 0^+}"/> (this is closely related to the <em>Plemelj formula</em> in potential theory). Thus we see that a probability measure <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/> can be recovered in terms of the limiting behaviour of the Stieltjes transform on the real axis.</p>
<p>
A variant of the above machinery gives us a criterion for convergence:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 10 (Stieltjes continuity theorem)</b>  Let <img class="latex" title="{\mu_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_n}"/> be a sequence of random probability measures on the real line, and let <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/> be a deterministic probability measure. </p>
<ul>
<li> <img class="latex" title="{\mu_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_n}"/> converges almost surely to <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/> in the vague topology if and only if <img class="latex" title="{s_{\mu_n}(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%7B%5Cmu_n%7D(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_{\mu_n}(z)}"/> converges almost surely to <img class="latex" title="{s_\mu(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%5Cmu(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_\mu(z)}"/> for every <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> in the upper half-plane. </li>
<li> <img class="latex" title="{\mu_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_n}"/> converges in probability to <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/> in the vague topology if and only if <img class="latex" title="{s_{\mu_n}(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%7B%5Cmu_n%7D(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_{\mu_n}(z)}"/> converges in probability to <img class="latex" title="{s_\mu(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%5Cmu(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_\mu(z)}"/> for every <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> in the upper half-plane. </li>
<li> <img class="latex" title="{\mu_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_n}"/> converges in expectation to <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/> in the vague topology if and only if <img class="latex" title="{{\bf E} s_{\mu_n}(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_%7B%5Cmu_n%7D(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf E} s_{\mu_n}(z)}"/> converges to <img class="latex" title="{s_\mu(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%5Cmu(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_\mu(z)}"/> for every <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> in the upper half-plane.
</li>
</ul>
<p> (Hint: The “only if” parts are fairly easy. For the “if” parts, take a test function <img class="latex" title="{\phi \in C_c({\mathbb R})}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cphi+%5Cin+C_c(%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\phi \in C_c({\mathbb R})}"/> and approximate <img class="latex" title="{\int_{\mathbb R} \phi\ d\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+%5Cphi%5C+d%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\int_{\mathbb R} \phi\ d\mu}"/> by <img class="latex" title="{\int_{\mathbb R} \phi*P_b\ d\mu = \frac{1}{\pi} \int_{\mathbb R} s_\mu(a+ib) \phi(a)\ da}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+%5Cphi*P_b%5C+d%5Cmu+=+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Cpi%7D+%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+s_%5Cmu(a+ib)+%5Cphi(a)%5C+da%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\int_{\mathbb R} \phi*P_b\ d\mu = \frac{1}{\pi} \int_{\mathbb R} s_\mu(a+ib) \phi(a)\ da}"/>. Then approximate this latter integral in turn by a Riemann sum, using <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#stielt-deriv">(13)</a>.) </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
Thus, to prove the semi-circular law, it suffices to show that for each <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> in the upper half-plane, the Stieltjes transform </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle s_n(z) = s_{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}(z) = \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr}( \frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n - zI )^{-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle+s_n(z)+=+s_%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D(z)+=+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Chbox%7Btr%7D(+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n+-+zI+)%5E%7B-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle s_n(z) = s_{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}(z) = \frac{1}{n} \hbox{tr}( \frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n - zI )^{-1}"/></p>
<p> converges almost surely (and thus in probability and in expectation) to the Stieltjes transform <img class="latex" title="{s_{\mu_{sc}}(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%7B%5Cmu_%7Bsc%7D%7D(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_{\mu_{sc}}(z)}"/> of the semi-circular law. </p>
<p>
It is not difficult to compute the Stieltjes transform <img class="latex" title="{s_{\mu_{sc}}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%7B%5Cmu_%7Bsc%7D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_{\mu_{sc}}}"/> of the semi-circular law, but let us hold off on that task for now, because we want to illustrate how the Stieltjes transform method can be used to <em>find</em> the semi-circular law, even if one did not know this law in advance, by directly controlling <img class="latex" title="{s_n(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n(z)}"/>. We will fix <img class="latex" title="{z=a+ib}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz=a+ib%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z=a+ib}"/> to be a complex number not on the real line, and allow all implied constants in the discussion below to depend on <img class="latex" title="{a}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Ba%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{a}"/> and <img class="latex" title="{b}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bb%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{b}"/> (we will focus here only on the behaviour as <img class="latex" title="{n \rightarrow \infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Crightarrow+%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \rightarrow \infty}"/>).
</p>
<p>
The main idea here is <em>predecessor comparison</em>: to compare the transform <img class="latex" title="{s_n(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n(z)}"/> of the <img class="latex" title="{n \times n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Ctimes+n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \times n}"/> matrix <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> with the transform <img class="latex" title="{s_{n-1}(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%7Bn-1%7D(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_{n-1}(z)}"/> of the top left <img class="latex" title="{n-1 \times n-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn-1+%5Ctimes+n-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n-1 \times n-1}"/> minor <img class="latex" title="{M_{n-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_%7Bn-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_{n-1}}"/>, or of other minors. For instance, we have the <em>Cauchy interlacing law</em> (Exercise 14 from <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/254a-notes-3a-eigenvalues-and-sums-of-hermitian-matrices/">Notes 3a</a>), which asserts that the eigenvalues <img class="latex" title="{\lambda_1(M_{n-1}),\ldots,\lambda_{n-1}(M_{n-1})}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda_1(M_%7Bn-1%7D),%5Cldots,%5Clambda_%7Bn-1%7D(M_%7Bn-1%7D)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda_1(M_{n-1}),\ldots,\lambda_{n-1}(M_{n-1})}"/> of <img class="latex" title="{M_{n-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_%7Bn-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_{n-1}}"/> intersperse that of <img class="latex" title="{\lambda_1(M_n),\ldots,\lambda_n(M_n)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda_1(M_n),%5Cldots,%5Clambda_n(M_n)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda_1(M_n),\ldots,\lambda_n(M_n)}"/>. This implies that for a complex number <img class="latex" title="{a+ib}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Ba+ib%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{a+ib}"/> with <img class="latex" title="{b&gt;0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bb%3E0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{b&gt;0}"/>, the difference </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \sum_{j=1}^{n-1} \frac{b}{(\lambda_j(M_{n-1})/\sqrt{n}-a)^2 + b^2} - \sum_{j=1}^{n} \frac{b}{(\lambda_j(M_{n})/\sqrt{n}-a)^2 + b^2}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Csum_%7Bj=1%7D%5E%7Bn-1%7D+%5Cfrac%7Bb%7D%7B(%5Clambda_j(M_%7Bn-1%7D)/%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D-a)%5E2+++b%5E2%7D+-+%5Csum_%7Bj=1%7D%5E%7Bn%7D+%5Cfrac%7Bb%7D%7B(%5Clambda_j(M_%7Bn%7D)/%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D-a)%5E2+++b%5E2%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \sum_{j=1}^{n-1} \frac{b}{(\lambda_j(M_{n-1})/\sqrt{n}-a)^2 + b^2} - \sum_{j=1}^{n} \frac{b}{(\lambda_j(M_{n})/\sqrt{n}-a)^2 + b^2}"/></p>
<p> is an alternating sum of evaluations of the function <img class="latex" title="{x \mapsto \frac{b}{(x-a)^2+b^2}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx+%5Cmapsto+%5Cfrac%7Bb%7D%7B(x-a)%5E2+b%5E2%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x \mapsto \frac{b}{(x-a)^2+b^2}}"/>. The total variation of this function is <img class="latex" title="{O( 1 )}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(+1+)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O( 1 )}"/> (recall that we are suppressing dependence of constaants on <img class="latex" title="{a,b}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Ba,b%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{a,b}"/>), and so the alternating sum above is <img class="latex" title="{O(1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O(1)}"/>. Writing this in terms of the Stieltjes transform, we conclude that
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \sqrt{n(n-1)} s_{n-1}( \frac{\sqrt{n}}{\sqrt{n-1}}(a+ib) ) - n s_n( a+ib ) = O(1)." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Csqrt%7Bn(n-1)%7D+s_%7Bn-1%7D(+%5Cfrac%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn-1%7D%7D(a+ib)+)+-+n+s_n(+a+ib+)+=+O(1).&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \sqrt{n(n-1)} s_{n-1}( \frac{\sqrt{n}}{\sqrt{n-1}}(a+ib) ) - n s_n( a+ib ) = O(1)."/></p>
<p> Applying <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#stielt-deriv">(13)</a> to approximate <img class="latex" title="{s_{n-1}( \frac{\sqrt{n}}{\sqrt{n-1}}(a+ib) )}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%7Bn-1%7D(+%5Cfrac%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn-1%7D%7D(a+ib)+)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_{n-1}( \frac{\sqrt{n}}{\sqrt{n-1}}(a+ib) )}"/> by <img class="latex" title="{s_{n-1}(a+ib)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%7Bn-1%7D(a+ib)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_{n-1}(a+ib)}"/>, we conclude that <a name="snab">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="snab"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  s_n(a+ib) = s_{n-1}(a+ib) + O( \frac{1}{n} ). \ \ \ \ \ (16)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++s_n(a+ib)+=+s_%7Bn-1%7D(a+ib)+++O(+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+).+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(16)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  s_n(a+ib) = s_{n-1}(a+ib) + O( \frac{1}{n} ). \ \ \ \ \ (16)"/></a></p><a name="snab">
</a><p><a name="snab"/> So for fixed <img class="latex" title="{z=a+ib}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz=a+ib%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z=a+ib}"/> away from the real axis, the Stieltjes transform <img class="latex" title="{s_n(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n(z)}"/> is quite stable in <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/>.</p>
<p>
This stability has the following important consequence. Observe that while the left-hand side of <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#snab">(16)</a> depends on the <img class="latex" title="{n \times n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Ctimes+n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \times n}"/> matrix <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/>, the right-hand side depends only on the top left minor <img class="latex" title="{M_{n-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_%7Bn-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_{n-1}}"/> of that matrix. In particular, it is <em>independent</em> of the <img class="latex" title="{n^{th}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%5E%7Bth%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n^{th}}"/> row and column of <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/>. This implies that this entire row and column has only a limited amount of <em>influence</em> on the Stieltjes transform <img class="latex" title="{s_n(a+ib)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n(a+ib)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n(a+ib)}"/>: no matter what value one assigns to this row and column (including possibly unbounded values, as long as one keeps the matrix Hermitian of course), the transform <img class="latex" title="{s_n(a+ib)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n(a+ib)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n(a+ib)}"/> can only move by <img class="latex" title="{O( \frac{|a|+|b|}{b^2 n} )}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(+%5Cfrac%7B%7Ca%7C+%7Cb%7C%7D%7Bb%5E2+n%7D+)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O( \frac{|a|+|b|}{b^2 n} )}"/>.
</p>
<p>
By permuting the rows and columns, we obtain that in fact any row or column of <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> can influence <img class="latex" title="{s_n(a+ib)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n(a+ib)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n(a+ib)}"/> is at most <img class="latex" title="{O( \frac{1}{n} )}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O( \frac{1}{n} )}"/>. (This is closely related to the observation in Exercise <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#smallrank">4</a> that low rank perturbations do not significantly affect the ESD.) On the other hand, the rows of (the upper triangular portion of) <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> are jointly independent. When <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> is a Wigner random matrix, we can then apply a standard concentration of measure result, such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDiarmid's_inequality">McDiarmid’s inequality</a> (Theorem 7 from <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/03/254a-notes-1-concentration-of-measure/">Notes 1</a>) to conclude concetration of <img class="latex" title="{s_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n}"/> around its mean: <a name="snac">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="snac"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf P}( |s_n(a+ib) - {\Bbb E} s_n(a+ib)| \geq \lambda/\sqrt{n} ) \leq C e^{-c\lambda^2} \ \ \ \ \ (17)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+P%7D(+%7Cs_n(a+ib)+-+%7B%5CBbb+E%7D+s_n(a+ib)%7C+%5Cgeq+%5Clambda/%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D+)+%5Cleq+C+e%5E%7B-c%5Clambda%5E2%7D+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(17)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf P}( |s_n(a+ib) - {\Bbb E} s_n(a+ib)| \geq \lambda/\sqrt{n} ) \leq C e^{-c\lambda^2} \ \ \ \ \ (17)"/></a></p><a name="snac">
</a><p><a name="snac"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{\lambda &gt; 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda+%3E+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda &gt; 0}"/> and some absolute constants <img class="latex" title="{C, c &gt; 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC,+c+%3E+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C, c &gt; 0}"/>. (This is not necessarily the strongest concentration result one can establish for the Stieltjes transform, but it will certainly suffice for our discussion here.) In particular, we see from the Borel-Cantelli lemma (Exercise 24 of <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/254a-notes-0-a-review-of-probability-theory/">Notes 0a</a>)that for any fixed <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> away from the real line, <img class="latex" title="{s_n(z) - {\bf E} s_n(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n(z)+-+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_n(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n(z) - {\bf E} s_n(z)}"/> converges almost surely (and thus also in probability) to zero. As a consequence, convergence of <img class="latex" title="{s_n(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n(z)}"/> in expectation automatically implies convergence in probability or almost sure convergence.
</p>
<p>
However, while concentration of measure tells us that <img class="latex" title="{s_n(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n(z)}"/> is close to its mean, it does not shed much light as to what this mean <em>is</em>. For this, we have to go beyond the Cauchy interlacing formula and deal with the resolvent <img class="latex" title="{(\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n - z I_n)^{-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n+-+z+I_n)%5E%7B-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n - z I_n)^{-1}}"/> more directly. Firstly, we observe from the linearity of trace that </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf E} s_n(z) = \frac{1}{n} \sum_{j=1}^n {\bf E} [ (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n - z I_n)^{-1} ]_{jj}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_n(z)+=+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Csum_%7Bj=1%7D%5En+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5B+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n+-+z+I_n)%5E%7B-1%7D+%5D_%7Bjj%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf E} s_n(z) = \frac{1}{n} \sum_{j=1}^n {\bf E} [ (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n - z I_n)^{-1} ]_{jj}"/></p>
<p> where <img class="latex" title="{[A]_{jj}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5BA%5D_%7Bjj%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{[A]_{jj}}"/> denotes the <img class="latex" title="{jj}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bjj%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{jj}"/> component of a matrix <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/>. Because <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> is a Wigner matrix, it is easy to see on permuting the rows and columns that all of the random variables <img class="latex" title="{[ (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n - z I_n)^{-1} ]_{jj}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5B+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n+-+z+I_n)%5E%7B-1%7D+%5D_%7Bjj%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{[ (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n - z I_n)^{-1} ]_{jj}}"/> have the same distribution. Thus we may simplify the above formula as <a name="esn">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="esn"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf E} s_n(z) = {\bf E} [ (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n - z I_n)^{-1} ]_{nn}. \ \ \ \ \ (18)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_n(z)+=+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5B+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n+-+z+I_n)%5E%7B-1%7D+%5D_%7Bnn%7D.+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(18)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf E} s_n(z) = {\bf E} [ (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n - z I_n)^{-1} ]_{nn}. \ \ \ \ \ (18)"/></a></p><a name="esn">
</a><p><a name="esn"/> So now we have to compute the last entry of an inverse of a matrix. There are of course a number of formulae for this, such as Cramer’s rule. But it will be more convenient here to use a formula based instead on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schur_complement">Schur complement</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 11</b>  Let <img class="latex" title="{A_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_n}"/> be a <img class="latex" title="{n \times n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Ctimes+n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \times n}"/> matrix, let <img class="latex" title="{A_{n-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%7Bn-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_{n-1}}"/> be the top left <img class="latex" title="{n-1 \times n-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn-1+%5Ctimes+n-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n-1 \times n-1}"/> minor, let <img class="latex" title="{a_{nn}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Ba_%7Bnn%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{a_{nn}}"/> be the bottom right entry of <img class="latex" title="{A_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_n}"/>, let <img class="latex" title="{X \in {\mathbb C}^{n-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX+%5Cin+%7B%5Cmathbb+C%7D%5E%7Bn-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X \in {\mathbb C}^{n-1}}"/> be the right column of <img class="latex" title="{A_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_n}"/> with the bottom right entry removed, and let <img class="latex" title="{(X')^* \in ({\mathbb C}^{n-1})^*}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(X')%5E*+%5Cin+(%7B%5Cmathbb+C%7D%5E%7Bn-1%7D)%5E*%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(X')^* \in ({\mathbb C}^{n-1})^*}"/> be the bottom row with the bottom right entry removed. In other words,
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  A_n = \begin{pmatrix} A_{n-1} &amp; X \\ (X')^* &amp; a_{nn} \end{pmatrix}." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++A_n+=+%5Cbegin%7Bpmatrix%7D+A_%7Bn-1%7D+&amp;+X+%5C%5C+(X')%5E*+&amp;+a_%7Bnn%7D+%5Cend%7Bpmatrix%7D.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  A_n = \begin{pmatrix} A_{n-1} &amp; X \\ (X')^* &amp; a_{nn} \end{pmatrix}."/></p>
<p> Assume that <img class="latex" title="{A_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_n}"/> and <img class="latex" title="{A_{n-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%7Bn-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_{n-1}}"/> are both invertible. Show that
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  [A_n^{-1}]_{nn} = \frac{1}{a_{nn} - (X')^* A_{n-1}^{-1} X}." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5BA_n%5E%7B-1%7D%5D_%7Bnn%7D+=+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Ba_%7Bnn%7D+-+(X')%5E*+A_%7Bn-1%7D%5E%7B-1%7D+X%7D.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  [A_n^{-1}]_{nn} = \frac{1}{a_{nn} - (X')^* A_{n-1}^{-1} X}."/></p>
<p> (<em>Hint:</em> Solve the equation <img class="latex" title="{A_n v = e_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_n+v+=+e_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_n v = e_n}"/>, where <img class="latex" title="{e_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Be_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{e_n}"/> is the <img class="latex" title="{n^{th}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%5E%7Bth%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n^{th}}"/> basis vector, using the method of Schur complements (or from first principles).) </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
The point of this identity is that it describes (part of) the inverse of <img class="latex" title="{A_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_n}"/> in terms of the inverse of <img class="latex" title="{A_{n-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%7Bn-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_{n-1}}"/>, which will eventually provide a non-trivial recursive relationship between <img class="latex" title="{s_n(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n(z)}"/> and <img class="latex" title="{s_{n-1}(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%7Bn-1%7D(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_{n-1}(z)}"/>, which can then be played off against <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#snab">(16)</a> to solve for <img class="latex" title="{s_n(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n(z)}"/> in the asymptotic limit <img class="latex" title="{n \rightarrow \infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Crightarrow+%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \rightarrow \infty}"/>.
</p>
<p>
In our situation, the matrix <img class="latex" title="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n - z I_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n+-+z+I_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n - z I_n}"/> and its minor <img class="latex" title="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_{n-1} - z I_{n-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_%7Bn-1%7D+-+z+I_%7Bn-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_{n-1} - z I_{n-1}}"/> is automatically invertible. Inserting the above formula into <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#esn">(18)</a> (and recalling that we normalised the diagonal of <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> to vanish), we conclude that <a name="esn2">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="esn2"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf E} s_n(z) = - {\bf E} \frac{1}{z + \frac{1}{n} X^* (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_{n-1} - z I_{n-1})^{-1} X }, \ \ \ \ \ (19)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_n(z)+=+-+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bz+++%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+X%5E*+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_%7Bn-1%7D+-+z+I_%7Bn-1%7D)%5E%7B-1%7D+X+%7D,+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(19)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf E} s_n(z) = - {\bf E} \frac{1}{z + \frac{1}{n} X^* (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_{n-1} - z I_{n-1})^{-1} X }, \ \ \ \ \ (19)"/></a></p><a name="esn2">
</a><p><a name="esn2"/> where <img class="latex" title="{X \in {\mathbb C}^{n-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX+%5Cin+%7B%5Cmathbb+C%7D%5E%7Bn-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X \in {\mathbb C}^{n-1}}"/> is the top right column of <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> with the bottom entry <img class="latex" title="{\xi_{nn}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cxi_%7Bnn%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\xi_{nn}}"/> removed.
</p>
<p>
One may be concerned that the denominator here could vanish. However, observe that <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> has imaginary part <img class="latex" title="{b}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bb%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{b}"/> if <img class="latex" title="{z=a+ib}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz=a+ib%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z=a+ib}"/>. Furthermore, from the spectral theorem we see that the imaginary part of <img class="latex" title="{(\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_{n-1} - z I_{n-1})^{-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_%7Bn-1%7D+-+z+I_%7Bn-1%7D)%5E%7B-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_{n-1} - z I_{n-1})^{-1}}"/> is positive definite, and so <img class="latex" title="{X^* (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_{n-1} - z I_{n-1})^{-1} X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%5E*+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_%7Bn-1%7D+-+z+I_%7Bn-1%7D)%5E%7B-1%7D+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X^* (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_{n-1} - z I_{n-1})^{-1} X}"/> has non-negative imaginary part. As a consequence the magnitude of the denominator here is bounded below by <img class="latex" title="{|b|}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7Cb%7C%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|b|}"/>, and so its reciprocal is <img class="latex" title="{O(1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O(1)}"/> (compare with <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#s-point">(11)</a>). So the reciprocal here is not going to cause any discontinuity, as we are considering <img class="latex" title="{b}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bb%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{b}"/> is fixed and non-zero.
</p>
<p>
Now we need to understand the expression <img class="latex" title="{X^* (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_{n-1} - z I_{n-1})^{-1} X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%5E*+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_%7Bn-1%7D+-+z+I_%7Bn-1%7D)%5E%7B-1%7D+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X^* (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_{n-1} - z I_{n-1})^{-1} X}"/>. We write this as <img class="latex" title="{X^* R X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%5E*+R+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X^* R X}"/>, where <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/> is the resolvent matrix <img class="latex" title="{R := (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_{n-1} - z I_{n-1})^{-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR+:=+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_%7Bn-1%7D+-+z+I_%7Bn-1%7D)%5E%7B-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R := (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_{n-1} - z I_{n-1})^{-1}}"/>. The distribution of the random matrix <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/> could conceivably be quite complicated. However, the key point is that the vector <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> only involves the entries of <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> that do not lie in <img class="latex" title="{M_{n-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_%7Bn-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_{n-1}}"/>, and so the random matrix <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/> and the vector <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> are <em>independent</em>. Because of this, we can use the randomness of <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> to do most of the work in understanding the expression <img class="latex" title="{X^* R X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%5E*+R+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X^* R X}"/>, without having to know much about <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/> at all.
</p>
<p>
To understand this, let us first condition <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/> to be a <em>deterministic</em> matrix <img class="latex" title="{R = (r_{ij})_{1 \leq i,j \leq n-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR+=+(r_%7Bij%7D)_%7B1+%5Cleq+i,j+%5Cleq+n-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R = (r_{ij})_{1 \leq i,j \leq n-1}}"/>, and see what we can do with the expression <img class="latex" title="{X^* R X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%5E*+R+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X^* R X}"/>.
</p>
<p>
Firstly, observe that <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/> will not be arbitrary; indeed, from the spectral theorem we see that <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/> will have operator norm at most <img class="latex" title="{O(1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O(1)}"/>. Meanwhile, from the Chernoff (or Hoeffding) inequality (Theorem 2 or Exercise 4 of <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/03/254a-notes-1-concentration-of-measure/">Notes 1</a>) we know that <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> has magnitude <img class="latex" title="{O( \sqrt{n} )}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(+%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D+)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O( \sqrt{n} )}"/> with overwhelming probability. So we know that <img class="latex" title="{X^* R X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%5E*+R+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X^* R X}"/> has magnitude <img class="latex" title="{O( n )}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(+n+)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O( n )}"/> with overwhelming probability.
</p>
<p>
Furthermore, we can use concentration of measure as follows. Given any positive semi-definite matrix <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> of operator norm <img class="latex" title="{O(1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O(1)}"/>, the expression <img class="latex" title="{(X^* A X)^{1/2} = \| A^{1/2} X \|}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(X%5E*+A+X)%5E%7B1/2%7D+=+%5C%7C+A%5E%7B1/2%7D+X+%5C%7C%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(X^* A X)^{1/2} = \| A^{1/2} X \|}"/> is a Lipschitz function of <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> with operator norm <img class="latex" title="{O(1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O(1)}"/>. Applying Talagrand’s inequality (Theorem 9 of <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/03/254a-notes-1-concentration-of-measure/">Notes 1</a>) we see that this expression concentrates around its median: </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf P}( |(X^* A X)^{1/2} - {\bf M} (X^* A X)^{1/2}| \geq \lambda ) \leq C e^{-c\lambda^2}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+P%7D(+%7C(X%5E*+A+X)%5E%7B1/2%7D+-+%7B%5Cbf+M%7D+(X%5E*+A+X)%5E%7B1/2%7D%7C+%5Cgeq+%5Clambda+)+%5Cleq+C+e%5E%7B-c%5Clambda%5E2%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf P}( |(X^* A X)^{1/2} - {\bf M} (X^* A X)^{1/2}| \geq \lambda ) \leq C e^{-c\lambda^2}"/></p>
<p> for any <img class="latex" title="{\lambda &gt; 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda+%3E+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda &gt; 0}"/>. On the other hand, <img class="latex" title="{\|A^{1/2} X\| = O( \|X\| )}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5C%7CA%5E%7B1/2%7D+X%5C%7C+=+O(+%5C%7CX%5C%7C+)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\|A^{1/2} X\| = O( \|X\| )}"/> has magnitude <img class="latex" title="{O(\sqrt{n})}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O(\sqrt{n})}"/> with overwhelming probability, so the median <img class="latex" title="{{\bf M} (X^* A X)^{1/2}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+M%7D+(X%5E*+A+X)%5E%7B1/2%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf M} (X^* A X)^{1/2}}"/> must be <img class="latex" title="{O(\sqrt{n})}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O(\sqrt{n})}"/>. Squaring, we conclude that
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf P}( |X^* A X - {\bf M} X^* A X| \geq \lambda \sqrt{n} ) \leq C e^{-c\lambda^2}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+P%7D(+%7CX%5E*+A+X+-+%7B%5Cbf+M%7D+X%5E*+A+X%7C+%5Cgeq+%5Clambda+%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D+)+%5Cleq+C+e%5E%7B-c%5Clambda%5E2%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf P}( |X^* A X - {\bf M} X^* A X| \geq \lambda \sqrt{n} ) \leq C e^{-c\lambda^2}"/></p>
<p> (possibly after adjusting the absolute constants <img class="latex" title="{C, c}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC,+c%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C, c}"/>). As usual, we may replace the median with the expectation:
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf P}( |X^* A X - {\bf E} X^* A X| \geq \lambda \sqrt{n} ) \leq C e^{-c\lambda^2}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+P%7D(+%7CX%5E*+A+X+-+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+X%5E*+A+X%7C+%5Cgeq+%5Clambda+%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D+)+%5Cleq+C+e%5E%7B-c%5Clambda%5E2%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf P}( |X^* A X - {\bf E} X^* A X| \geq \lambda \sqrt{n} ) \leq C e^{-c\lambda^2}"/></p>
<p> This was for positive-definite matrices, but one can easily use the triangle inequality to generalise to self-adjoint matrices, and then to arbitrary matrices, of operator norm <img class="latex" title="{1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{1}"/>, and conclude that <a name="rconc">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="rconc"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf P}( |X^* R X - {\bf E} X^* R X| \geq \lambda \sqrt{n} ) \leq C e^{-c\lambda^2} \ \ \ \ \ (20)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+P%7D(+%7CX%5E*+R+X+-+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+X%5E*+R+X%7C+%5Cgeq+%5Clambda+%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D+)+%5Cleq+C+e%5E%7B-c%5Clambda%5E2%7D+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(20)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf P}( |X^* R X - {\bf E} X^* R X| \geq \lambda \sqrt{n} ) \leq C e^{-c\lambda^2} \ \ \ \ \ (20)"/></a></p><a name="rconc">
</a><p><a name="rconc"/> for any deterministic matrix <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/> of operator norm <img class="latex" title="{O(1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O(1)}"/>.</p>
<p>
But what is the expectation <img class="latex" title="{{\bf E} X^* R X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+X%5E*+R+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf E} X^* R X}"/>? This can be expressed in components as </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle {\bf E} X^* R X = \sum_{i=1}^{n-1} \sum_{j=1}^{n-1} {\bf E} \overline{\xi_{in}} r_{ij} \xi_{jn}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+X%5E*+R+X+=+%5Csum_%7Bi=1%7D%5E%7Bn-1%7D+%5Csum_%7Bj=1%7D%5E%7Bn-1%7D+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Coverline%7B%5Cxi_%7Bin%7D%7D+r_%7Bij%7D+%5Cxi_%7Bjn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle {\bf E} X^* R X = \sum_{i=1}^{n-1} \sum_{j=1}^{n-1} {\bf E} \overline{\xi_{in}} r_{ij} \xi_{jn}"/></p>
<p> where <img class="latex" title="{\xi_{in}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cxi_%7Bin%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\xi_{in}}"/> are the entries of <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/>, and <img class="latex" title="{r_{ij}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Br_%7Bij%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{r_{ij}}"/> are the entries of <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/>. But the <img class="latex" title="{\xi_{in}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cxi_%7Bin%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\xi_{in}}"/> are iid with mean zero and variance one, so the standard second moment computation shows that this expectation is nothing more than the trace
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \hbox{tr}(R) = \sum_{i=1}^{n-1} r_{ii}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Chbox%7Btr%7D(R)+=+%5Csum_%7Bi=1%7D%5E%7Bn-1%7D+r_%7Bii%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \hbox{tr}(R) = \sum_{i=1}^{n-1} r_{ii}"/></p>
<p> of <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/>. We have thus shown the concentration of measure result <a name="rconc2">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="rconc2"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf P}( |X^* R X - \hbox{tr}(R)| \geq \lambda \sqrt{n} ) \leq C e^{-c\lambda^2} \ \ \ \ \ (21)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+P%7D(+%7CX%5E*+R+X+-+%5Chbox%7Btr%7D(R)%7C+%5Cgeq+%5Clambda+%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D+)+%5Cleq+C+e%5E%7B-c%5Clambda%5E2%7D+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(21)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf P}( |X^* R X - \hbox{tr}(R)| \geq \lambda \sqrt{n} ) \leq C e^{-c\lambda^2} \ \ \ \ \ (21)"/></a></p><a name="rconc2">
</a><p><a name="rconc2"/> for any deterministic matrix <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/> of operator norm <img class="latex" title="{O(1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O(1)}"/>, and any <img class="latex" title="{\lambda &gt; 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda+%3E+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda &gt; 0}"/>. Informally, <img class="latex" title="{X^* R X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%5E*+R+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X^* R X}"/> is typically <img class="latex" title="{\hbox{tr}(R) +O(\sqrt{n})}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Chbox%7Btr%7D(R)++O(%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\hbox{tr}(R) +O(\sqrt{n})}"/>.</p>
<p>
The bound <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#rconc2">(21)</a> was proven for deterministic matrices, but by using conditional expectation it also applies for any random matrix <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/>, so long as that matrix is independent of <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/>. In particular, we may apply it to our specific matrix of interest </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle R := (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_{n-1} - z I_{n-1})^{-1}." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle+R+:=+(%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_%7Bn-1%7D+-+z+I_%7Bn-1%7D)%5E%7B-1%7D.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle R := (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_{n-1} - z I_{n-1})^{-1}."/></p>
<p> The trace of this matrix is essentially just the Stieltjes transform <img class="latex" title="{s_{n-1}(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%7Bn-1%7D(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_{n-1}(z)}"/> at <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/>. Actually, due to the normalisation factor being slightly off, we actually have
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \hbox{tr}(R) = n \frac{\sqrt{n}}{\sqrt{n-1}} s_{n-1}( \frac{\sqrt{n}}{\sqrt{n-1}} z )," src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Chbox%7Btr%7D(R)+=+n+%5Cfrac%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn-1%7D%7D+s_%7Bn-1%7D(+%5Cfrac%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn-1%7D%7D+z+),&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \hbox{tr}(R) = n \frac{\sqrt{n}}{\sqrt{n-1}} s_{n-1}( \frac{\sqrt{n}}{\sqrt{n-1}} z ),"/></p>
<p> but by using the smoothness <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#stielt-deriv">(13)</a> of the Stieltjes transform, together with the stability property <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#snab">(16)</a> we can simplify this as
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \hbox{tr}(R) = n ( s_n(z) + o(1) )." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Chbox%7Btr%7D(R)+=+n+(+s_n(z)+++o(1)+).&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \hbox{tr}(R) = n ( s_n(z) + o(1) )."/></p>
<p> In particular, from <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#rconc2">(21)</a> and <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#snac">(17)</a>, we see that
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  X^* R X = n ( {\bf E} s_n(z) + o(1) )" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++X%5E*+R+X+=+n+(+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_n(z)+++o(1)+)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  X^* R X = n ( {\bf E} s_n(z) + o(1) )"/></p>
<p> with overwhelming probability. Putting this back into <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#esn2">(19)</a>, and recalling that the denominator is bounded away from zero, we have the remarkable equation <a name="snaz">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="snaz"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf E} s_n(z) = - \frac{1}{z + {\bf E} s_n(z)} + o(1). \ \ \ \ \ (22)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_n(z)+=+-+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bz+++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_n(z)%7D+++o(1).+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(22)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf E} s_n(z) = - \frac{1}{z + {\bf E} s_n(z)} + o(1). \ \ \ \ \ (22)"/></a></p><a name="snaz">
</a><p><a name="snaz"/> Note how this equation came by playing off two ways in which the spectral properties of a matrix <img class="latex" title="{M_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_n}"/> interacted with that of its minor <img class="latex" title="{M_{n-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_%7Bn-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_{n-1}}"/>; firstly via the Cauchy interlacing inequality, and secondly via the Schur complement formula.</p>
<p>
This equation already describes the behaviour of <img class="latex" title="{{\bf E} s_n(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_n(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf E} s_n(z)}"/> quite well, but we will content ourselves with understanding the limiting behaviour as <img class="latex" title="{n \rightarrow \infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Crightarrow+%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \rightarrow \infty}"/>. From <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#stielt-deriv">(13)</a> and Fubini’s theorem we know that the function <img class="latex" title="{{\bf E} s_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf E} s_n}"/> is locally uniformly equicontinuous and locally uniformly bounded away from the real line. Applying the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arzel%C3%A0%E2%80%93Ascoli_theorem">Arzelá-Ascoli theorem</a>, we thus conclude that on a subsequence at least, <img class="latex" title="{{\bf E} s_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf E} s_n}"/> converges locally uniformly to a limit <img class="latex" title="{s}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s}"/>. This will be a Herglotz function (i.e. an analytic function mapping the upper half-plane to the upper half-plane), and taking limits in <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#snaz">(22)</a> (observing that the imaginary part of the denominator here is bounded away from zero) we end up with the exact equation <a name="sexact">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="sexact"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  s(z) = -\frac{1}{z+s(z)}. \ \ \ \ \ (23)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++s(z)+=+-%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bz+s(z)%7D.+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(23)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  s(z) = -\frac{1}{z+s(z)}. \ \ \ \ \ (23)"/></a></p><a name="sexact">
</a><p><a name="sexact"/> We can of course solve this by the quadratic formula, obtaining </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  s(z) = - \frac{z \pm \sqrt{z^2-4}}{2} = \frac{2}{z \pm \sqrt{z^2-4}}. " src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++s(z)+=+-+%5Cfrac%7Bz+%5Cpm+%5Csqrt%7Bz%5E2-4%7D%7D%7B2%7D+=+%5Cfrac%7B2%7D%7Bz+%5Cpm+%5Csqrt%7Bz%5E2-4%7D%7D.+&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  s(z) = - \frac{z \pm \sqrt{z^2-4}}{2} = \frac{2}{z \pm \sqrt{z^2-4}}. "/></p>
<p> To figure out what branch of the square root one has to use here, we use <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#sasym">(12)</a>, which easily implies that
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  s(z) = \frac{1+o(1)}{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++s(z)+=+%5Cfrac%7B1+o(1)%7D%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  s(z) = \frac{1+o(1)}{z}"/></p>
<p> as <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> goes to infinity non-tangentially away from the real line. (To justify this, one has to make the error term in <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#sasym">(12)</a> uniform in <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/>, but this can be accomplished without difficulty using the Bai-Yin theorem (for instance).) Also, we know that <img class="latex" title="{s}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s}"/> has to be complex analytic (and in particular, continuous) away from the real line. From this and basic complex analysis, we conclude that <a name="stielt-form">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="stielt-form"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  s(z) = \frac{-z + \sqrt{z^2-4}}{2} \ \ \ \ \ (24)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++s(z)+=+%5Cfrac%7B-z+++%5Csqrt%7Bz%5E2-4%7D%7D%7B2%7D+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(24)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  s(z) = \frac{-z + \sqrt{z^2-4}}{2} \ \ \ \ \ (24)"/></a></p><a name="stielt-form">
</a><p><a name="stielt-form"/> where <img class="latex" title="{\sqrt{z^2-4}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Csqrt%7Bz%5E2-4%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\sqrt{z^2-4}}"/> is the branch of the square root with a branch cut at <img class="latex" title="{[-2,2]}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5B-2,2%5D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{[-2,2]}"/> and which equals <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> at infinity.</p>
<p>
As there is only one possible subsequence limit of the <img class="latex" title="{{\bf E} s_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf E} s_n}"/>, we conclude that <img class="latex" title="{{\bf E} s_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf E} s_n}"/> converges locally uniformly (and thus pointwise) to the function <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#stielt-form">(24)</a>, and thus (by the concentration of measure of <img class="latex" title="{s_n(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n(z)}"/>) we see that for each <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/>, <img class="latex" title="{s_n(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n(z)}"/> converges almost surely (and in probability) to <img class="latex" title="{s(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s(z)}"/>.
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 12</b> <a name="direct"/> Find a direct proof (starting from <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#snaz">(22)</a>, <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#sasym">(12)</a>, and the smoothness of <img class="latex" title="{{\bf E} s_n(z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_n(z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf E} s_n(z)}"/>) that <img class="latex" title="{{\bf E} s_n(z) = s(z) + o(1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_n(z)+=+s(z)+++o(1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf E} s_n(z) = s(z) + o(1)}"/> for any fixed <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/>, that avoids using the Arzelá-Ascoli theorem. (The basic point here is that one has to solve the approximate equation <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#snaz">(22)</a>, using some robust version of the quadratic formula. The fact that <img class="latex" title="{{\bf E} s_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\bf E} s_n}"/> is a Herglotz function will help eliminate various unwanted possibilities, such as one coming from the wrong branch of the square root.) </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
To finish computing the limiting ESD of Wigner matrices, we have to figure out what probability measure <img class="latex" title="{s}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s}"/> comes from. But this is easily read off from <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#stielt-form">(24)</a> and <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#smib">(15)</a>: <a name="smib-2">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="smib-2"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \frac{s(\cdot+ib) - s(\cdot-ib)}{2\pi i} \rightharpoonup \frac{1}{2\pi} (4-x^2)^{1/2}_+\ dx = \mu_{sc} \ \ \ \ \ (25)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cfrac%7Bs(%5Ccdot+ib)+-+s(%5Ccdot-ib)%7D%7B2%5Cpi+i%7D+%5Crightharpoonup+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B2%5Cpi%7D+(4-x%5E2)%5E%7B1/2%7D_+%5C+dx+=+%5Cmu_%7Bsc%7D+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(25)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \frac{s(\cdot+ib) - s(\cdot-ib)}{2\pi i} \rightharpoonup \frac{1}{2\pi} (4-x^2)^{1/2}_+\ dx = \mu_{sc} \ \ \ \ \ (25)"/></a></p><a name="smib-2">
</a><p><a name="smib-2"/> as <img class="latex" title="{b \rightarrow 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bb+%5Crightarrow+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{b \rightarrow 0}"/>. Thus the semi-circular law is the only possible measure which has Stieltjes transform <img class="latex" title="{s}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s}"/>, and indeed a simple application of the Cauchy integral formula and <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#smib-2">(25)</a> shows us that <img class="latex" title="{s}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s}"/> is indeed the Stieltjes transform of <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{sc}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7Bsc%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{sc}}"/>.
</p>
<p>
Putting all this together, we have completed the Stieltjes transform proof of the semi-circular law.
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Remark 5</b>  In order to simplify the above exposition, we opted for a qualitative analysis of the semi-circular law here, ignoring such questions as the rate of convergence to this law. However, an inspection of the above arguments reveals that it is easy to make all of the above analysis quite quantitative, with quite reasonable control on all terms. (One has to use Exercise <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#direct">12</a> instead of the Arzelá-Ascoli theorem if one wants everything to be quantitative.) In particular, it is not hard to use the above analysis to show that for <img class="latex" title="{|\hbox{Im}(z)| \geq n^{-c}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7C%5Chbox%7BIm%7D(z)%7C+%5Cgeq+n%5E%7B-c%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|\hbox{Im}(z)| \geq n^{-c}}"/> for some small absolute constant <img class="latex" title="{c&gt;0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bc%3E0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{c&gt;0}"/>, one has <img class="latex" title="{s_n(z) = s(z) + O(n^{-c})}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_n(z)+=+s(z)+++O(n%5E%7B-c%7D)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_n(z) = s(z) + O(n^{-c})}"/> with overwhelming probability. Combining this with a suitably quantitative version of the Stieltjes continuity theorem, this in turn gives a <em>polynomial rate</em> of convergence of the ESDs <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}}"/> to the semi-circular law <img class="latex" title="{\mu_{sc}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu_%7Bsc%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu_{sc}}"/>, in that one has
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}( -\infty, \lambda ) = \mu_{sc}(-\infty,\lambda) + O(n^{-c})" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cmu_%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D+M_n%7D(+-%5Cinfty,+%5Clambda+)+=+%5Cmu_%7Bsc%7D(-%5Cinfty,%5Clambda)+++O(n%5E%7B-c%7D)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \mu_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n}( -\infty, \lambda ) = \mu_{sc}(-\infty,\lambda) + O(n^{-c})"/></p>
<p> with overwhelming probability for all <img class="latex" title="{\lambda \in {\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda+%5Cin+%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda \in {\mathbb R}}"/>.</p>
<p>
A variant of this quantitative analysis can in fact get very good control on this ESD down to quite fine scales, namely to scales <img class="latex" title="{\frac{\log^{O(1)} n}{n}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cfrac%7B%5Clog%5E%7BO(1)%7D+n%7D%7Bn%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\frac{\log^{O(1)} n}{n}}"/>, which is only just a little bit larger than the mean spacing <img class="latex" title="{O(1/n)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(1/n)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O(1/n)}"/> of the normalised eigenvalues (recall that we have <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/> normalised eigenvalues, constrained to lie in the interval <img class="latex" title="{[-2-o(1), 2+o(1)]}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5B-2-o(1),+2+o(1)%5D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{[-2-o(1), 2+o(1)]}"/> by the Bai-Yin theorem). This was accomplished by Erdös, Schlein, and Yau (under some additional regularity hypotheses on the distribution <img class="latex" title="{\xi}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cxi%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\xi}"/>, but these can be easily removed with the assistance of Talagrand’s inequality) by using an additional observation, namely that the <em>eigenvectors</em> of a random matrix are very likely to be <em>delocalised</em> in the sense that their <img class="latex" title="{\ell^2}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cell%5E2%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\ell^2}"/> energy is dispersed more or less evenly across its coefficients. We will return to this point in later notes. </p>
</blockquote>
<p/>
<p align="center"><b> —  4. Dyson Brownian motion and the Stieltjes transform  — </b></p>
<p>
We now explore how the Stieltjes transform interacts with the Dyson Brownian motion introduced in <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/254a-notes-3b-brownian-motion-and-dyson-brownian-motion/">Notes 3b</a>. We let <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/> be a large number, and let <img class="latex" title="{M_{n}(t)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_%7Bn%7D(t)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_{n}(t)}"/> be a Wiener process of Hermitian random matrices, with associated eigenvalues <img class="latex" title="{\lambda_{1}(t),\ldots,\lambda_{n}(t)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda_%7B1%7D(t),%5Cldots,%5Clambda_%7Bn%7D(t)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda_{1}(t),\ldots,\lambda_{n}(t)}"/>, Stieltjes transforms <a name="stz">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="stz"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  s(t,z) := \frac{1}{n} \sum_{j=1}^n \frac{1}{\lambda_{j}(t)/\sqrt{n} - z} \ \ \ \ \ (26)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++s(t,z)+:=+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Csum_%7Bj=1%7D%5En+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Clambda_%7Bj%7D(t)/%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D+-+z%7D+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(26)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  s(t,z) := \frac{1}{n} \sum_{j=1}^n \frac{1}{\lambda_{j}(t)/\sqrt{n} - z} \ \ \ \ \ (26)"/></a></p><a name="stz">
</a><p><a name="stz"/> and spectral measures <a name="mutz">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="mutz"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \mu(t,z) := \frac{1}{n} \sum_{j=1}^n \delta_{\lambda_j(t)/\sqrt{n}}. \ \ \ \ \ (27)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cmu(t,z)+:=+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Csum_%7Bj=1%7D%5En+%5Cdelta_%7B%5Clambda_j(t)/%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D%7D.+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(27)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \mu(t,z) := \frac{1}{n} \sum_{j=1}^n \delta_{\lambda_j(t)/\sqrt{n}}. \ \ \ \ \ (27)"/></a></p><a name="mutz">
</a><p><a name="mutz"/> We now study how <img class="latex" title="{s}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s}"/>, <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/> evolve in time in the asymptotic limit <img class="latex" title="{n \rightarrow \infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Crightarrow+%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \rightarrow \infty}"/>. Our computation will be only heuristic in nature.
</p>
<p>
Recall from <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/254a-notes-3b-brownian-motion-and-dyson-brownian-motion/">Notes 3b</a> that the eigenvalues <img class="latex" title="{\lambda_i = \lambda_i(t)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clambda_i+=+%5Clambda_i(t)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lambda_i = \lambda_i(t)}"/> undergo Dyson Brownian motion <a name="dlam">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="dlam"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  d\lambda_i = dB_i + \sum_{j \neq i} \frac{dt}{\lambda_i-\lambda_j}. \ \ \ \ \ (28)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++d%5Clambda_i+=+dB_i+++%5Csum_%7Bj+%5Cneq+i%7D+%5Cfrac%7Bdt%7D%7B%5Clambda_i-%5Clambda_j%7D.+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(28)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  d\lambda_i = dB_i + \sum_{j \neq i} \frac{dt}{\lambda_i-\lambda_j}. \ \ \ \ \ (28)"/></a></p><a name="dlam">
</a><p><a name="dlam"/> Applying <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#stz">(26)</a> and Taylor expansion (dropping all terms of higher order than <img class="latex" title="{dt}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bdt%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{dt}"/>, using the Ito heuristic <img class="latex" title="{dB_i = O(dt^{1/2})}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BdB_i+=+O(dt%5E%7B1/2%7D)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{dB_i = O(dt^{1/2})}"/>), we conclude that </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  ds = - \frac{1}{n^{3/2}} \sum_{i=1}^n \frac{dB_i}{(\lambda_i/\sqrt{n}-z)^2} - \frac{1}{2n^2} \sum_{i=1}^n \frac{|dB_i|^2}{(\lambda_i/\sqrt{n}-z)^3}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++ds+=+-+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%5E%7B3/2%7D%7D+%5Csum_%7Bi=1%7D%5En+%5Cfrac%7BdB_i%7D%7B(%5Clambda_i/%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D-z)%5E2%7D+-+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B2n%5E2%7D+%5Csum_%7Bi=1%7D%5En+%5Cfrac%7B%7CdB_i%7C%5E2%7D%7B(%5Clambda_i/%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D-z)%5E3%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  ds = - \frac{1}{n^{3/2}} \sum_{i=1}^n \frac{dB_i}{(\lambda_i/\sqrt{n}-z)^2} - \frac{1}{2n^2} \sum_{i=1}^n \frac{|dB_i|^2}{(\lambda_i/\sqrt{n}-z)^3}"/></p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle - \frac{1}{n^{3/2}} \sum_{1 \leq i,j \leq n: i \neq j}\frac{dt}{(\lambda_i - \lambda_j) (\lambda_j/\sqrt{n}-z)^2}." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle+-+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%5E%7B3/2%7D%7D+%5Csum_%7B1+%5Cleq+i,j+%5Cleq+n:+i+%5Cneq+j%7D%5Cfrac%7Bdt%7D%7B(%5Clambda_i+-+%5Clambda_j)+(%5Clambda_j/%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D-z)%5E2%7D.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle - \frac{1}{n^{3/2}} \sum_{1 \leq i,j \leq n: i \neq j}\frac{dt}{(\lambda_i - \lambda_j) (\lambda_j/\sqrt{n}-z)^2}."/></p>
<p> For <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> away from the real line, the term <img class="latex" title="{\frac{1}{2n^2} \sum_{i=1}^n \frac{|dB_i|^2}{(\lambda_i/\sqrt{n}-z)^3}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B2n%5E2%7D+%5Csum_%7Bi=1%7D%5En+%5Cfrac%7B%7CdB_i%7C%5E2%7D%7B(%5Clambda_i/%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D-z)%5E3%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\frac{1}{2n^2} \sum_{i=1}^n \frac{|dB_i|^2}{(\lambda_i/\sqrt{n}-z)^3}}"/> is of size <img class="latex" title="{O( dt / n )}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO(+dt+/+n+)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{O( dt / n )}"/> and can heuristically be ignored in the limit <img class="latex" title="{n \rightarrow \infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Crightarrow+%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \rightarrow \infty}"/>. Dropping this term, and then taking expectations to remove the Brownian motion term <img class="latex" title="{dB_i}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BdB_i%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{dB_i}"/>, we are led to
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf E} ds = - {\bf E} \frac{1}{n^{3/2}} \sum_{1 \leq i,j \leq n: i \neq j}\frac{dt}{(\lambda_i - \lambda_j) (\lambda_j/\sqrt{n}-z)^2}." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+ds+=+-+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%5E%7B3/2%7D%7D+%5Csum_%7B1+%5Cleq+i,j+%5Cleq+n:+i+%5Cneq+j%7D%5Cfrac%7Bdt%7D%7B(%5Clambda_i+-+%5Clambda_j)+(%5Clambda_j/%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D-z)%5E2%7D.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf E} ds = - {\bf E} \frac{1}{n^{3/2}} \sum_{1 \leq i,j \leq n: i \neq j}\frac{dt}{(\lambda_i - \lambda_j) (\lambda_j/\sqrt{n}-z)^2}."/></p>
<p> Performing the <img class="latex" title="{i}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bi%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{i}"/> summation using <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#stz">(26)</a> we obtain
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf E} ds = - {\bf E} \frac{1}{n} \sum_{1 \leq j \leq n} \frac{s(\lambda_j) dt}{(\lambda_j/\sqrt{n}-z)^2}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+ds+=+-+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7Bn%7D+%5Csum_%7B1+%5Cleq+j+%5Cleq+n%7D+%5Cfrac%7Bs(%5Clambda_j)+dt%7D%7B(%5Clambda_j/%5Csqrt%7Bn%7D-z)%5E2%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf E} ds = - {\bf E} \frac{1}{n} \sum_{1 \leq j \leq n} \frac{s(\lambda_j) dt}{(\lambda_j/\sqrt{n}-z)^2}"/></p>
<p> where we adopt the convention that for real <img class="latex" title="{x}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x}"/>, <img class="latex" title="{s(x)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs(x)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s(x)}"/> is the average of <img class="latex" title="{s(x+i0)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs(x+i0)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s(x+i0)}"/> and <img class="latex" title="{s(x-i0)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs(x-i0)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s(x-i0)}"/>. Using <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#mutz">(27)</a>, this becomes <a name="stasi">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="stasi"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf E} s_t = - {\bf E} \int_{\mathbb R} \frac{s(x)}{(x-z)^2}\ d\mu(x) \ \ \ \ \ (29)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_t+=+-+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+%5Cfrac%7Bs(x)%7D%7B(x-z)%5E2%7D%5C+d%5Cmu(x)+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(29)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf E} s_t = - {\bf E} \int_{\mathbb R} \frac{s(x)}{(x-z)^2}\ d\mu(x) \ \ \ \ \ (29)"/></a></p><a name="stasi">
</a><p><a name="stasi"/> where the <img class="latex" title="{t}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{t}"/> subscript denotes differentiation in <img class="latex" title="{t}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{t}"/>. From <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#smib">(15)</a> we heuristically have
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  s(x \pm i0) = s(x) \pm \pi i \mu(x)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++s(x+%5Cpm+i0)+=+s(x)+%5Cpm+%5Cpi+i+%5Cmu(x)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  s(x \pm i0) = s(x) \pm \pi i \mu(x)"/></p>
<p> (heuristically treating <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/> as a function rather than a measure) and on squaring one obtains
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  s(x \pm i0)^2 = (s(x)^2 - \pi^2 \mu^2(x)) \pm 2 \pi i s(x) \mu(x)." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++s(x+%5Cpm+i0)%5E2+=+(s(x)%5E2+-+%5Cpi%5E2+%5Cmu%5E2(x))+%5Cpm+2+%5Cpi+i+s(x)+%5Cmu(x).&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  s(x \pm i0)^2 = (s(x)^2 - \pi^2 \mu^2(x)) \pm 2 \pi i s(x) \mu(x)."/></p>
<p> From this the Cauchy integral formula around a slit in real axis (using the bound <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#s-point">(11)</a> to ignore the contributions near infinity) we thus have
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  s^2(z) = \int_{\mathbb R} \frac{2s(x)}{x-z}\ d\mu(x)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++s%5E2(z)+=+%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+%5Cfrac%7B2s(x)%7D%7Bx-z%7D%5C+d%5Cmu(x)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  s^2(z) = \int_{\mathbb R} \frac{2s(x)}{x-z}\ d\mu(x)"/></p>
<p> and thus on differentiation in <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/>
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  2 s s_z(z) = \int_{\mathbb R} \frac{2s(x)}{(x-z)^2}\ d\mu(x)." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++2+s+s_z(z)+=+%5Cint_%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+%5Cfrac%7B2s(x)%7D%7B(x-z)%5E2%7D%5C+d%5Cmu(x).&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  2 s s_z(z) = \int_{\mathbb R} \frac{2s(x)}{(x-z)^2}\ d\mu(x)."/></p>
<p> Comparing this with <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#stasi">(29)</a>, we obtain
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  {\bf E} s_t + {\bf E} s s_z = 0." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s_t+++%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s+s_z+=+0.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  {\bf E} s_t + {\bf E} s s_z = 0."/></p>
<p> From concentration of measure, we expect <img class="latex" title="{s}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s}"/> to concentrate around its mean <img class="latex" title="{\overline{s} := {\bf E} s}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Coverline%7Bs%7D+:=+%7B%5Cbf+E%7D+s%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\overline{s} := {\bf E} s}"/>, and similarly <img class="latex" title="{s_z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_z%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_z}"/> should concentrate around <img class="latex" title="{\overline{s}_z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Coverline%7Bs%7D_z%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\overline{s}_z}"/>. In the limit <img class="latex" title="{n \rightarrow \infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Crightarrow+%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \rightarrow \infty}"/>, the expected Stieltjes transform <img class="latex" title="{\overline{s}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Coverline%7Bs%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\overline{s}}"/> should thus obey <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgers'_equation">Burgers’ equation</a> <a name="burgers">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="burgers"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  s_t + s s_z = 0. \ \ \ \ \ (30)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++s_t+++s+s_z+=+0.+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(30)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  s_t + s s_z = 0. \ \ \ \ \ (30)"/></a></p><a name="burgers">
</a><p><a name="burgers"/> To illustrate how this equation works in practice, let us give an informal derivation of the semi-circular law. We consider the case when the Wiener process starts from <img class="latex" title="{M(0) = 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM(0)+=+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M(0) = 0}"/>, thus <img class="latex" title="{M_t \equiv \sqrt{t} G}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_t+%5Cequiv+%5Csqrt%7Bt%7D+G%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_t \equiv \sqrt{t} G}"/> for a GUE matrix <img class="latex" title="{G}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G}"/>. As such, we have the scaling symmetry
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle s(t,z) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{t}} s_{GUE}(\frac{z}{\sqrt{t}})" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle+s(t,z)+=+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bt%7D%7D+s_%7BGUE%7D(%5Cfrac%7Bz%7D%7B%5Csqrt%7Bt%7D%7D)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle s(t,z) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{t}} s_{GUE}(\frac{z}{\sqrt{t}})"/></p>
<p> where <img class="latex" title="{s_{GUE}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%7BGUE%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_{GUE}}"/> is the asymptotic Stieltjes transform for GUE (which we secretly know to be given by <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#stielt-form">(24)</a>, but let us pretend that we did not yet know this fact). Inserting this self-similar ansatz into <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#burgers">(30)</a> and setting <img class="latex" title="{t=1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt=1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{t=1}"/>, we conclude that
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  -\frac{1}{2} s_{GUE} - \frac{1}{2} z s'_{GUE} + s s'_{GUE} = 0;" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++-%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B2%7D+s_%7BGUE%7D+-+%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B2%7D+z+s'_%7BGUE%7D+++s+s'_%7BGUE%7D+=+0;&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  -\frac{1}{2} s_{GUE} - \frac{1}{2} z s'_{GUE} + s s'_{GUE} = 0;"/></p>
<p> multiplying by two and integrating, we conclude that
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  z s_{GUE} + s_{GUE}^2 = C" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++z+s_%7BGUE%7D+++s_%7BGUE%7D%5E2+=+C&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  z s_{GUE} + s_{GUE}^2 = C"/></p>
<p> for some constant <img class="latex" title="{C}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C}"/>. But from the asymptotic <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#sasym">(12)</a> we see that <img class="latex" title="{C}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C}"/> must equal <img class="latex" title="{-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{-1}"/>. But then the above equation can be rearranged into <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#sexact">(23)</a>, and so by repeating the arguments at the end of the previous section we can deduce the formula <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#stielt-form">(24)</a>, which then gives the semi-circular law by <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#smib">(15)</a>.</p>
<p>
As is well known in PDE, one can solve Burgers’ equation more generally by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_characteristics">method of characteristics</a>. For reasons that will be come clearer in the next set of notes, I will solve this equation by a slightly different (but ultimately equivalent) method. The idea is that rather than think of <img class="latex" title="{s=s(t,z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs=s(t,z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s=s(t,z)}"/> as a function of <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> for fixed <img class="latex" title="{t}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{t}"/>, we think of <img class="latex" title="{z=z(t,s)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz=z(t,s)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z=z(t,s)}"/> as a function of <img class="latex" title="{s}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s}"/> for fixed <img class="latex" title="{t}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{t}"/>. (This trick is sometimes known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hodograph">hodograph</a> transform, especially if one views <img class="latex" title="{s}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s}"/> as “velocity” and <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> as “position”.) Note from <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#sasym">(12)</a> that we expect to be able to invert the relationship between <img class="latex" title="{s}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s}"/> and <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> as long as <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> is large (and <img class="latex" title="{s}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s}"/> is small).
</p>
<p>
To exploit this change of perspective, we think of <img class="latex" title="{s, z, t}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs,+z,+t%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s, z, t}"/> as all varying by infinitesimal amounts <img class="latex" title="{ds, dz, dt}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bds,+dz,+dt%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{ds, dz, dt}"/> respectively. Using <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/254a-notes-4-the-semi-circular-law/#burgers">(30)</a> and the total derivative formula <img class="latex" title="{ds = s_t dt + s_z dz}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bds+=+s_t+dt+++s_z+dz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{ds = s_t dt + s_z dz}"/>, we see that </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  ds = - s s_z dt + s_z dz." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++ds+=+-+s+s_z+dt+++s_z+dz.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  ds = - s s_z dt + s_z dz."/></p>
<p> If we hold <img class="latex" title="{s}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s}"/> fixed (i.e. <img class="latex" title="{ds=0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bds=0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{ds=0}"/>), so that <img class="latex" title="{z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z}"/> is now just a function of <img class="latex" title="{t}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{t}"/>, and cancel off the <img class="latex" title="{s_z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_z%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s_z}"/> factor, we conclude that
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \frac{dz}{dt} = s." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cfrac%7Bdz%7D%7Bdt%7D+=+s.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \frac{dz}{dt} = s."/></p>
<p> Integrating this, we see that <a name="zits">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="zits"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  z(t,s) = z(0,s) + ts. \ \ \ \ \ (31)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++z(t,s)+=+z(0,s)+++ts.+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(31)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  z(t,s) = z(0,s) + ts. \ \ \ \ \ (31)"/></a></p><a name="zits">
</a><p><a name="zits"/> This, in principle, gives a way to compute <img class="latex" title="{s(t,z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs(t,z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s(t,z)}"/> from <img class="latex" title="{s(0,z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs(0,z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s(0,z)}"/>. First, we invert the relationship <img class="latex" title="{s=s(0,z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs=s(0,z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s=s(0,z)}"/> to <img class="latex" title="{z=z(0,s)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz=z(0,s)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z=z(0,s)}"/>; then we add <img class="latex" title="{ts}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bts%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{ts}"/> to <img class="latex" title="{z(0,s)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bz(0,s)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{z(0,s)}"/>; then we invert again to recover <img class="latex" title="{s(t,z)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs(t,z)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s(t,z)}"/>.</p>
<p>
Since <img class="latex" title="{M_t \equiv M_0 + \sqrt{t} G}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_t+%5Cequiv+M_0+++%5Csqrt%7Bt%7D+G%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_t \equiv M_0 + \sqrt{t} G}"/>, where <img class="latex" title="{G}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G}"/> is a GUE matrix independent of <img class="latex" title="{M_0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_0}"/>, we have thus given a formula to describe the Stieltjes transform of <img class="latex" title="{M_0 + \sqrt{t} G}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_0+++%5Csqrt%7Bt%7D+G%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_0 + \sqrt{t} G}"/> in terms of the Stieltjes transform of <img class="latex" title="{M_0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_0}"/>. This formula is a special case of a more general formula of Voiculescu for <em>free convolution</em>, with the operation of inverting the Stieltjes transform essentially being the famous <em><img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/>-transform</em> of Voiculescu; we will discuss this more in the next section.
</p><p/>
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    <title type="text">"Not my job!"</title>
    <content type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.energy.gov/organization/dr_steven_chu.htm">US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu</a> is going to be on <a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/">"Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me"</a> this coming Saturday, presumably doing their "Not my job!" game.  For those not in the US, WWDTM is a comedic radio quiz program, and "Not my job!" is a game in which the guest must answer three questions about some subject that is very, very far from their area of expertise.  This should be amusing.</span></span><br/><br/><span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>Update</b>:  Here is a <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123411873">link</a> to the relevant part of the show. </span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/13869903-842007397384522407?l=nanoscale.blogspot.com" height="1" alt="" width="1"/></div></div>
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    <title>This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 293)</title>

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    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><h4> John Baez </h4> <!-- END HEADER --> <p> This week I want to list a bunch of recent papers and books on n-categories. Then I'll tell you about a conference on the math of environmental sustainability and green technology. And then I'll continue my story about electrical circuits. But first... </p><p> This column started with some vague dreams about n-categories and physics. Thanks to a lot of smart youngsters - and a few smart oldsters - these dreams are now well on their way to becoming reality. They don't need my help anymore! I need to find some new dreams. So, "<a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week300.html">week300</a>" will be the last issue of This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics. </p><p> I still like learning things by explaining them. When I start work at the Centre for Quantum Technologies this summer, I'll want to tell you about that. And I've realized that our little planet needs my help a lot more than the abstract structure of the universe does! The deep secrets of math and physics are endlessly engrossing - but they can wait, and other things can't. So, I'm trying to learn more about ecology, economics, and technology. And I'd like to talk more about those. </p><p> So, I plan to start a new column. Not completely new, just a bit different from this. I'll call it This Week's Finds, and drop the "in Mathematical Physics". That should be sufficiently vague that I can talk about whatever I want. </p><p> I'll make some changes in format, too. For example, I won't keep writing each issue in ASCII and putting it on the usenet newsgroups. Sorry, but that's too much work. </p><p> I also want to start a new blog, since the n-Category Cafe is not the optimal place for talking about things like the melting of Arctic ice. But I don't know what to call this new blog - or where it should reside. Any suggestions? </p><p> I may still talk about fancy math and physics now and then. Or even a lot. We'll see. But if you want to learn about n-categories, you don't need me. There's a <i>lot</i> to read these days. I mentioned Carlos Simpson's book in "<a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week291.html">week291</a>" - that's one good place to start. Here's another introduction: </p><p> 1) John Baez and Peter May, Towards Higher Categories, Springer, 2009. Also available at <a href="http://ncatlab.org/johnbaez/show/Towards+Higher+Categories">http://ncatlab.org/johnbaez/show/Towards+Higher+Categories</a> </p><p> This has a bunch of papers in it, namely: </p><ul> <li> John Baez and Michael Shulman, Lectures on n-categories and cohomology. <p> </p></li> <li> Julia Bergner, A survey of (∞,1)-categories. <p> </p></li> <li> Simona Paoli, Internal categorical structures in homotopical algebra. <p> </p></li> <li> Stephen Lack, A 2-categories companion. <p> </p></li> <li> Lawrence Breen, Notes on 1- and 2-gerbes. <p> </p></li> <li> Ross Street, An Australian conspectus of higher categories. </li> </ul> <p> After browsing these, you should probably start studying (∞,1)-categories, which are ∞-categories where all the n-morphisms for n &gt; 1 are invertible. There are a few different approaches, but luckily they're nicely connected by some results described in Julia Bergner's paper. Two of the most important approaches are "Segal spaces" and "quasicategories". For the latter, start here: </p><p> 2) Andre Joyal, The Theory of Quasicategories and Its Applications, <a href="http://www.crm.cat/HigherCategories/hc2.pdf">http://www.crm.cat/HigherCategories/hc2.pdf</a> </p><p> and then go here: </p><p> 3) Jacob Lurie, Higher Topos Theory, Princeton U. Press, 2009. Also available at <a href="http://www.math.harvard.edu/~lurie/papers/highertopoi.pdf">http://www.math.harvard.edu/~lurie/papers/highertopoi.pdf</a> </p><p> This book is 925 pages long! Luckily, Lurie writes well. After setting up the machinery, he went on to use (∞,1)-categories to revolutionize algebraic geometry: </p><p> 4) Jacob Lurie, Derived algebraic geometry I: stable infinity-categories, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0608228">arXiv:math/0608228</a>. <br/> Derived algebraic geometry II: noncommutative algebra, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0702299">arXiv:math/0702299</a>. <br/> Derived algebraic geometry III: commutative algebra, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0703204">arXiv:math/0703204</a>. <br/> Derived algebraic geometry IV: deformation theory, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0709.3091">arXiv:0709.3091</a>. <br/> Derived algebraic geometry V: structured spaces, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.0459">arXiv:0905.0459</a>. <br/> Derived algebraic geometry VI: E<sub>k</sub> algebras, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.0018">arXiv:0911.0018</a>. </p><p> For related work, try these: </p><p> 5) David Ben-Zvi, John Francis and David Nadler, Integral transforms and Drinfeld centers in derived algebraic geometry available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0805.0157">arXiv:0805.0157</a>. </p><p> 6) David Ben-Zvi and David Nadler, The character theory of a complex group, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0904.1247">arXiv:0904.1247</a>. </p><p> Lurie is now using (∞,n)-categories to study topological quantum field theory. He's making precise and proving some old conjectures that James Dolan and I made: </p><p> 7) Jacob Lurie, On the classification of topological field theories, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.0465">arXiv:0905.0465</a>. </p><p> Jonathan Woolf is doing it in a somewhat different way, which I hope will be unified with Lurie's work eventually: </p><p> 8) Jonathan Woolf, Transversal homotopy theory, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.3322">arXiv:0910.3322</a>. </p><p> All this stuff is starting to transform math in amazing ways. And I hope physics, too - though so far, it's mainly helping us understand the physics we already have. </p><p> Meanwhile, I've been trying to figure out something else to do. Like a lot of academics who think about beautiful abstractions and soar happily from one conference to another, I'm always feeling a bit guilty, wondering what I could do to help "save the planet". Yes, we recycle and turn off the lights when we're not in the room. If we all do just a little bit... a little will get done. But surely mathematicians have the skills to do more! </p><p> But what? </p><p> I'm sure lots of you have had such thoughts. That's probably why Rachel Levy ran this conference last weekend: </p><p> 9) Conference on the Mathematics of Environmental Sustainability and Green Technology, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California, Friday-Saturday, January 29-30, 2010. Organized by Rachel Levy. </p><p> Here's a quick brain dump of what I learned. </p><p> First, Harry Atwater of Caltech gave a talk on photovoltaic solar power: </p><p> 10) Atwater Research Group, <a href="http://daedalus.caltech.edu/">http://daedalus.caltech.edu/</a> </p><p> The efficiency of silicon crystal solar cells peaked out at 24% in 2000. Fancy "multijunctions" get up to 40% and are still improving. But they use fancy materials like gallium arsenide, gallium indium phosphate, and so on. The world currently uses 13 terawatts of power. The US uses 3. But building just 1 terawatt of these fancy photovoltaics would use up more rare substances than we can get our hands on: </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/element_abundances.gif"/> </div> <p> </p><p> 11) Gordon B. Haxel, James B. Hedrick, and Greta J. Orris, Rare earth elements - critical resources for high technology, US Geological Survey Fact Sheet 087-02, available at <a href="http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/">http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/</a> </p><p> So, if we want solar power, we need to keep thinking about silicon and use as many tricks as possible to boost its efficiency. </p><p> There are some limits. In 1961, Shockley and Quiesser wrote a paper on the limiting efficiency of a solar cell. It's limited by thermodynamical reasons! Since anything that can absorb energy can also emit it, any solar cell also acts as a light-emitting diode, turning electric power back into light: </p><p> 12) W. Shockley and H. J. Queisser, Detailed balance limit of efficiency of p-n junction solar cells, J. Appl. Phys. 32 (1961) 510-519. </p><p> 13) Wikipedia, Schockley-Quiesser limit, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley%E2%80%93Queisser_limit">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley%E2%80%93Queisser_limit</a> </p><p> What are the tricks used to approach this theoretical efficiency? Multijunctions use layers of different materials to catch photons of different frequencies. The materials are expensive, so people use a lens to focus more sunlight on the photovoltaic cell. The same is true even for silicon - see the Umuwa Solar Power Station in Australia. But then the cells get hot and need to be cooled. </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/solar_power_umuwa.jpg" width="600"/> </div> <p> Roughening the surface of a solar cell promotes light trapping, by large factors! Light bounces around ergodically and has more chances to get absorbed and turned into useful power. There are theoretical limits on how well this trick works. But those limits were derived using ray optics, where we assume light moves in straight lines. So, we can beat those limits by leaving the regime where the ray-optics approximation holds good. In other words, make the surface complicated at length scales comparable to the wavelength at light. </p><p> For example: we can grow silicon wires from vapor! They can form densely packed structures that absorb more light: </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja074897c"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/silicon_nanorod.gif"/> </a> </div> <p> </p><p> 14) B. M. Kayes, H. A. Atwater, and N. S. Lewis, Comparison of the device physics principles of planar and radial p-n junction nanorod solar cells, J. Appl. Phys. 97 (2005), 114302. </p><p> James R. Maiolo III, Brendan M. Kayes, Michael A. Filler, Morgan C. Putnam, Michael D. Kelzenberg, Harry A. Atwater and Nathan S. Lewis, High aspect ratio silicon wire array photoelectrochemical cells, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129 (2007), 12346-12347. </p><p> Also, with such structures the charge carriers don't need to travel so far to get from the n-type material to the p-type material. This also boosts efficiency. </p><p> There are other tricks, still just under development. Using quasiparticles called "surface plasmons" we can adjust the dispersion relations to create materials with really low group velocity. Slow light has more time to get absorbed! We can also create "meta-materials" whose refractive index is really wacky - like n = -5! </p><p> I should explain this a bit, in case you don't understand. Remember, the refractive index of a substance is the inverse of the speed of light in that substance - in units where the speed of light in vacuum equals 1. When light passes from material 1 to material 2, it takes the path of least time - at least in the ray-optics approximation. Using this you can show Snell's law: </p><p> sin(θ<sub>1</sub>)/sin(θ<sub>2</sub>) = n<sub>2</sub>/n<sub>1</sub> </p><p> where n<sub>i</sub> is the index of refraction in the ith material and θ<sub>i</sub> is the angle between the light's path and the line normal to the interface between materials: </p><div align="center"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/200px-Snells_law.svg.png"/> </div> <p> Air has an index of refraction close to 1. Glass has an index of refraction greater than 1. So, when light passes from air to glass, it "straightens out": its path becomes closer to perpendicular to the air-glass interface. When light passes from glass to air, the reverse happens: the light bends more. But the sine of an angle can never exceed 1 - so sometimes Snell's law has no solution. Then the light gets stuck! More precisely, it's forced to bounce back into the glass. This is called "total internal reflection", and the easiest way to see it is not with glass, but water. Dive into a swimming pool and look up from below. You'll only see the sky in a limited disk. Outside that, you'll see total internal reflection. </p><p> Okay, that's stuff everyone learns in optics. But <em>negative</em> indices of refraction are much weirder! The light entering such a material will bend <em>backwards</em>. </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/negative%20refraction.gif"/> </div> <p> </p><p> Materials with a negative index of refraction also exhibit a reversed version of the ordinary <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goos%E2%80%93H%C3%A4nchen_effect">Goos-Hänchen</a> effect. In the ordinary version, light "slips" a little before reflecting during total internal reflection. The "slip" is actually a slight displacement of the light's wave crests from their expected location - a "phase slip". But for a material of negative refractive index, the light slips <em>backwards</em>. This allows for resonant states where light gets trapped in thin films. Maybe this can be used to make better solar cells. </p><p> Next, Kenneth Golden gave a talk on sea ice, which covers 7-10% of the ocean's surface and is a great detector of global warming. He's a mathematician at the University of Utah who also does measurements in the Arctic and Antarctic. If you want to go to math grad school without becoming a nerd - if you want to brave 70-foot swells, dig trenches in the snow and see emperor penguins - you want Golden as your advisor: </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/3.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/kenneth_golden.jpg" width="500"/> </a> </div> <p> 15) Ken Golden's website, <a href="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/">http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/</a> </p><p> Salt gets incorporated into sea ice via millimeter-scale brine inclusions between ice platelets, forming a "dendritic platelet structure". Melting sea ice forms fresh water in melt ponds atop the ice, while the brine sinks down to form "bottom water" driving the global thermohaline conveyor belt. You've heard of the Gulf Stream, right? Well, that's just part of this story. </p><p> When it gets hotter, the Earth's poles get less white, so they absorb more light, making it hotter: this is "ice albedo feedback". Ice albedo feedback is <i>largely controlled by melt ponds</i>. So if you're interested in climate change, questions like the following become important: when do melt ponds get larger, and when do they drain out? </p><p> Sea ice is diminishing rapidly in the Arctic - much faster than all the existing climate models had predicted. In the Arctic, winter sea ice diminished in area by about 10% from 1978 to 2008. But summer sea ice diminished by about 40%! It took a huge plunge in 2007, leading to a big increase in solar heat input due to the ice albedo effect. </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/seaice.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/arctic_sea_ice.jpg" width="500"/> </a> <br/> <font size="-1"> Time series of the percent difference in ice extent in March (the month of ice extent maximum) and September (the month of ice extent minimum) relative to the mean values for the period 1979-2000. Based on a least squares linear regression for the period 1979-2009, the rate of decrease for the March and September ice extents is -2.5% and -8.9% per decade, respectively. Figure from <a href="http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/seaice.html">Perovich <i>et al</i></a>. </font>  </div> <p> 16) Donald K. Perovich, Jacqueline A. Richter-Menge, Kathleen F. Jones, and Bonnie Light, Sunlight, water, and ice: Extreme Arctic sea ice melt during the summer of 2007, Geophysical Research Letters, 35 (2008), L11501. Also available at <a href="http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/sid/personnel/perovichweb/index1.htm">http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/sid/personnel/perovichweb/index1.htm</a> </p><p> There's a lot less sea ice in the Antarctic than in the Arctic. Most of it is the Weddell Sea, and there it seems to be growing, maybe due to increased precipitation. </p><p> There's a lot of interesting math involved in understanding the dynamics of sea ice. The ice thickness distribution equation was worked out by Thorndike et al in 1975. The heat equation for ice and snow was worked out by Maykut and Understeiner in 1971. Sea ice dynamics was studied by Kibler. </p><p> Ice floes have two fractal regimes, one from 1 to 20 meters, another from 100 to 1500 meters. Brine channels have a fractal character well modeled by "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion-limited_aggregation">diffusion limited aggregation</a>". Brine starts flowing when there's about 5% of brine in the ice - a kind of percolation problem familiar in statistical mechanics. Here's what it looks like when there's 5.7% brine and the temperature is -8 °C: </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/7.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/kenneth_golden_brine_inclusions.jpg" width="500"/> </a> </div> <p> 17) Kenneth Golden, Brine inclusions in a crystal of lab-grown sea ice, <a href="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/7.html">http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/7.html</a> </p><p> Nobody knows why polycrystalline metals have a log-normal distribution of crystal sizes. Similar behavior, also unexplained, is seen in sea ice. </p><p> A "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynya">polynya</a>" is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. Polynyas occupy just .001% of the overall area in Antarctic sea ice, but create 1% of the icea. Icy cold <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catabatic_wind">katabatic winds</a> blow off the mainland, pushing away ice and creating patches of open water which then refreeze. </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynya"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/500px-antarctic_shelf_ice_hg.png"/> </a> </div> <p> </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynya"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/500px-katabatic-wind_hg.png"/> </a> </div> <p> There was anomalous export of sea ice through Fran Strait in the 1990s, which may have been one of the preconditions for high ice albedo feedback. </p><p> 20-40% of sea ice is formed by surface flooding followed by refreezing. This was <i>not included</i> in the sea ice models that gave such inaccurate predictions. </p><p> The food chain is founded on diatoms. These form "extracellular polymeric substances"- goopy mucus-like stuff made of polysaccharides that protects them and serves as antifreeze. There's a lot of this stuff; the ice gets visibly stained by it. </p><p> For more, see: </p><p> 18) Kenneth M. Golden, Climate change and the mathematics of transport in sea ice, AMS Notices, May 2009. Also available at <a href="http://www.ams.org/notices/200905/">http://www.ams.org/notices/200905/</a> </p><p> 19) Mathematics Awareness Month, April 2009: Mathematics and Climate, <a href="http://www.mathaware.org/mam/09/">http://www.mathaware.org/mam/09/</a> </p><p> Next, Julie Lundquist, who just moved from Lawrence Livermore Labs to the University of Colorado, spoke about wind power: </p><p> 20) Julie Lunquist, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado, <a href="http://paos.colorado.edu/people/lundquist.php">http://paos.colorado.edu/people/lundquist.php</a> </p><p> With increased reliance on wind, the power grid will need to be redesigned to handle fluctuating power sources. In the US, currently, companies aren't paid for power they generate in excess of the amount they promised to make. So, accurate prediction is a hugely important game. Being off by 1% can cost millions of dollars! Europe has different laws, which encourage firms to maximize the amount of wind power they generate. </p><p> If you had your choice about where to build a wind turbine, you'd build it on the ocean or a very flat plain, where the air flows rather smoothly. Hilly terrain leads to annoying turbulence - but sometimes that's your only choice. Then you need to find the best spots, where the turbulence is least bad. Complete simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations is too computationally intensive, so people use fancier tricks. There's a lot of math and physics here. </p><p> For weather reports people use "mesoscale simulation" which cleverly treats smaller-scale features in an averaged way - but we need more fine-grained simulations to see how much wind a turbine will get. This is where "large eddy simulation" comes in. Eddy diffusivity is modeled by Monin-Obukhov similarity theory: </p><p> 21) American Meteorological Society Glossary, Monin-Obukhov similarity theory, <a href="http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?id=monin-obukhov-similarity-theory1">http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?id=monin-obukhov-similarity-theory1</a> </p><p> A famous Brookhaven study suggested that the power spectrum of wind has peaks at 4 days, 1/2 day, and 1 minute. This perhaps justifies an approach where different time scales, and thus length scales, are treated separately and the results then combined somehow. The study is actually a bit controversial. But anyway, this is the approach people are taking, and it seems to work. </p><p> Night air is stable - but day air is often not, since the ground is hot, and hot air rises. So when a parcel of air moving along hits a hill, it can just shoot upwards, and not come back down! This means lots of turbulence. </p><p> The wind turbines at Altamont Pass in California kill more raptors than all other wind farms in the world combined! Old-fashioned wind turbines look like nice places to perch, spelling death to birds. Cracks in concrete attract rodents, which attract raptors, who get killed. The new ones are far better. </p><p> For more: </p><p> 22) National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Research needs for winds resource characterization, available as <a href="http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy08osti/43521.pdf">http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy08osti/43521.pdf</a> </p><p> Finally, there was a talk by Ron Lloyd of Fat Spaniel Technologies. This is a company that makes software for solar plants and other sustainable energy companies: </p><p> 23) Fat Spaniel Technologies, <a href="http://www.fatspaniel.com/products/">http://www.fatspaniel.com/products/</a> </p><p> His talk was less technical so I didn't take detailed notes. One big point I took away was this: we need better tools for modelling! This is especially true with the coming of the "smart grid". In its simplest form, this is a power grid that uses lots of data - for example, data about power generation and consumption - to regulate itself and increase efficiency. Surely there will be a lot of math here. Maybe even the topic I've been talking about lately: bond graphs! </p><p> But now I want to talk about some very simple aspects of electrical circuits. Last week I listed various kinds of circuits. Now let's go into a bit more detail - starting with the simplest kind: circuits made of just wires and linear resistors, where the currents and voltages are independent of time. </p><p> Mathematically, such a circuit is a graph equipped with some extra data. First, each edge has a number associated to it - the "resistance". For example: </p><pre> o----1----o----3----o | | | | | | 2 3 2 | | | | | | o----3----o----1----o </pre> Second, we have current flowing through this circuit. To describe this, we first arbitrarily pick an orientation on each edge: <pre> o----&gt;----o----&gt;----o | | | | | | V V V | | | | | | o----&lt;----o----&gt;----o </pre> Then we label each edge with a number saying how much "current" is flowing through that edge, in the direction of the arrow: <pre> 2 3 o----&gt;----o----&gt;----o | | | | | | 3 V V 1 V 3 | | | | | | o----&lt;----o----&gt;----o 2 -3 </pre> Electrical engineers call the current I. Mathematically it's good to think of I as a "1-chain": a linear combination of oriented edges of our graph, with the coefficients of the linear combination being the numbers shown above. <p> If we know the current, we can work out a number for each vertex of our graph, saying how much current is flowing out of that vertex, minus how much is flowing in: </p><pre> 2 5 o----&gt;----o----&gt;----o 0 | | | | | | V V V | | | | | | -5 o----&lt;----o----&gt;----o 0 -2 </pre> Mathematically we can think of this as a "0-chain": a formal linear combination of the vertices of our graph, with the numbers shown above as coefficients. We call this 0-chain the "boundary" of the 1-chain we started with. Since our current was called I, we call its boundary δI. <p> Kirchhoff's current law says that </p><p> δI = 0 </p><p> When this holds, let's say our circuit is a "closed". Physically this follows from the law of conservation of electrical charge, together with a reasonable assumption. Current is the flow of charge. If the total current flowing into a vertex wasn't equal to the amount flowing out, charge - positive or negative - would be building up there. But for a closed circuit, we assume it's not. </p><p> If a circuit is not closed, let's call it "open". These are interesting too. For example, we might have a circuit like this: </p><pre> x | | V | | o----&gt;----o | | | | V V | | | | x x </pre> where we have current flowing in the wire on top and flowing out the two wires at bottom. We allow δI to be nonzero at the ends of these wires - the 3 vertices labelled x. This circuit is an "open system" in the sense of "<a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week290.html">week290</a>", because it has these wires dangling out of it. It's not self-contained; we can use it as part of some bigger circuit. We should really formalize this more, but I won't now. Derek Wise did it more generally here: <p> 24) Derek Wise, Lattice p-form electromagnetism and chain field theory, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0510033">gr-qc/0510033</a>. </p><p> The idea here was to get a category where chain complexes are morphisms. In our situation, composing morphisms amounts to gluing the output wires of one circuit into the input wires of another. This is an example of the general philosophy I'm trying to pursue, where open systems are treated as morphisms. </p><p> We've talked about 1-chains and 0-chains... but we can also back up and talk about 2-chains! Let's suppose our graph is connected - it is in our example - and let's fill it in with enough 2-dimensional "faces" to get something contractible. We can do this in a god-given way if our graph is drawn on the plane: just fill in all the holes! </p><pre> o---------o---------o |/////////|/////////| |/////////|/////////| |//FACE///|///FACE//| |/////////|/////////| |/////////|/////////| o---------o---------o </pre> In electrical engineering these faces are often called "meshes". <p> This give us a chain complex </p><pre> δ δ C<sub>0</sub> &lt;-------- C<sub>1</sub> &lt;-------- C<sub>2</sub> </pre> and a cochain complex: <pre> d d C<sup>0</sup> --------&gt; C<sup>1</sup> ---------&gt; C<sup>2</sup> </pre> As I've already said, it's good to think of the current I as a 1-chain, since then <p> δI = 0 </p><p> is Kirchoff's current law. Since our little space is contractible the above equation implies that </p><p> I = δJ </p><p> for some 2-chain J called the "mesh current". This assigns to each face or "mesh" the current flowing around that face. </p><p> An electrical circuit also comes with a third piece of data, which I haven't mentioned yet. Each oriented edge should be labelled by a number called the "voltage" across that edge. Electrical engineers call the voltage V. It's good to think of V as a 1-cochain, which assigns to each edge the voltage across that edge. </p><p> Why a 1-cochain instead of a 1-chain? Because then </p><p> dV = 0 </p><p> is the other basic law of electrical circuits - Kirchhoff's voltage law! This law says that the sum of these voltages around a mesh is zero. Since our little space is contractible the above equation implies that </p><p> V = dφ </p><p> for some 0-cochain φ called the "electrostatic potential". In electrostatics, this potential is a function on space. Here it assigns a number to each vertex of our graph. </p><p> Since the space of 1-cochains is the dual of the space of 1-chains, we can take the voltage V and the current I, glom them together, and get a number: </p><p> V(I) </p><p> This the "power": that is, the rate at which our network soaks up energy and dissipates it into heat. Note that this is just a fancy version of formula for power that I explained in "<a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week290.html">week290</a>" - power is effort times flow. </p><p> I've given you three basic pieces of data labelling our circuit: the resistance R, the current I, and the voltage V. But these aren't independent! Ohm's law says that the voltage across any edge is the current through that times the resistance of that edge. But this remember: voltage is a 1-cochain while current is a 1-chain. So "resistance" can be thought of as a map from 1-cochains to 1-chains: </p><p> R: C<sup>1</sup> → C<sub>1</sub> </p><p> This lets us write Ohm's law like this: </p><p> V = RI </p><p> This, in turn, means the power of our circuit is </p><p> V(I) = (RI)(I) </p><p> For physical reasons, this power is always nonnegative. In fact, let's assume it's positive unless I = 0. This is just another way of saying that resistance labelling each edge is positive. It can be very interesting to think about circuits with perfectly conducting wires. These would give edges whose resistance is zero. But that's a bit of an idealization, and right now I'd rather allow only <i>positive</i> resistances. </p><p> Why? Because then we can think of the above formula as the inner product of I with itself! In other words, then there's a unique inner product on 1-cochains with </p><p> (RI)(I) = &lt;I,I&gt; </p><p> In this situation </p><p> R: C<sup>1</sup> → C<sub>1</sub> </p><p> is the usual isomorphism that we get between a finite-dimensional inner product space and its dual. (For this statement to be true, we'd better assume our graph has finitely many vertices and edges.) </p><p> Now, if you've studied de Rham cohomlogy, all this should start reminding you of Hodge theory. And indeed, it's a baby version of that! So, we're getting a little bit of Hodge theory, but in a setting where our chain complexes are really morphisms in a category. Or more generally, n-morphisms in an n-category. </p><p> There's a lot more to say, but that's enough for now. </p><p> </p><hr/> <p> <b>Addenda:</b> I thank Colin Backhurst, David Corfield, and Tim Silverman for corrections. </p><p> For more discussion, visit the <a href="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2010/02/this_weeks_finds_in_mathematic_54.html"><i>n</i>-Category Café</a>. </p><p> </p><hr/> <p> <em>So many young people are forced to specialize in one line or another that a young person can't afford to try and cover this waterfront - only an old fogy who can afford to make a fool of himself. If I don't, who will?</em> - John Wheeler </p><p> </p><hr/><p> <!-- BEGIN FOOTER --> © 2010 John Baez<br/> baez@math.removethis.ucr.andthis.edu <br/> </p><p> </p><table width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="10%"> <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week292.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/lastweek.png" border="none;"/></a> </td><td width="80%"> <center> <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/README.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/home.png" border="none;"/><br/> </a> <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/TWF.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/contents.png" border="none;"/> </a> </center> </td><td width="10%"> <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week294.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/nextweek.png" border="none;"/> </a> </td></tr></tbody></table><!-- END FOOTER --><p><sub><i>-- Delivered by <a href="http://feed43.com/">Feed43</a> service</i></sub></p></div>
    </summary>

    <updated>2010-02-06T18:23:41-06:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>John Baez</title>
      <link href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/this.week.html" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-06T23:48:11+00:00</updated>
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    <title>Inheritance</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>It's been brought to my attention that there hasn't been any cute-baby video posted here for a while, so let me rectify that with a couple of clips. First, SteelyKid discovers that it's kind of difficult to fill Daddy's shoes:</p>

<p/>

<p>For both our sakes, I hope those never fit her.</p>

<p>A clear indication of inheritance at work is the way she talks with her hands, as seen in this second clip:</p>
 <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/inheritance.php">Read the rest of this post...</a> | <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/inheritance.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~4/IdIU8TrK6nw" height="1" width="1"/></div>
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    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/inheritance.php</id>
         
    <category term="Steelykid!"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-06T18:36:20-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-06T18:36:20-05:00</updated>
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      <title>Uncertain Principles</title>
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  <entry xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:geo="http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/wp-atom.php">
		
    <author>
			
      <name>Terence Tao</name>
						
      <uri>http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tao</uri>
					
    </author>
		
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Ultralimit analysis, and quantitative algebraic geometry</div>
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    <link href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
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    <updated>2010-02-06T23:05:54+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-01-31T03:07:25+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="expository" scheme="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="math.AG" scheme="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="math.LO" scheme="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="algebraic sets" scheme="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/"/>
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    <category term="nonstandard analysis" scheme="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="ultrafilters" scheme="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="ultralimit analysis" scheme="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I have blogged a number of times in the past about the relationship between finitary (or “hard”, or “quantitative”) analysis, and infinitary (or “soft”, or “qualitative”) analysis. One way to connect the two types of analysis is via compactness arguments (and more specifically, contradiction and compactness arguments); such arguments can convert qualitative properties (such [...]<img src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=terrytao.wordpress.com&amp;blog=817149&amp;post=3392&amp;subd=terrytao&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" border="0" alt=""/></div>
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    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><br/><p>
 I <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/soft-analysis-hard-analysis-and-the-finite-convergence-principle/">have blogged</a> <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/06/25/ultrafilters-nonstandard-analysis-and-epsilon-management/">a number</a> <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/the-correspondence-principle-and-finitary-ergodic-theory/">of times</a> <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/approximate-bases-sunflowers-and-nonstandard-analysis/">in the past</a> about the relationship between finitary (or “hard”, or “quantitative”) analysis, and infinitary (or “soft”, or “qualitative”) analysis. One way to connect the two types of analysis is via <em>compactness arguments</em> (and more specifically, <em>contradiction and compactness</em> arguments); such arguments can convert qualitative properties (such as continuity) to quantitative properties (such as bounded), basically because of the fundamental fact that continuous functions on a compact space are bounded (or the closely related fact that sequentially continuous functions on a sequentially compact space are bounded).
</p>
<p>
A key stage in any such compactness argument is the following: one has a sequence <img class="latex" title="{X_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X_n}"/> of “quantitative” or “finitary” objects or spaces, and one has to somehow end up with a “qualitative” or “infinitary” limit object <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> or limit space. One common way to achieve this is to embed everything inside some universal space and then use some weak compactness property of that space, such as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banach%E2%80%93Alaoglu_theorem">Banach-Alaoglu theorem</a> (or its sequential counterpart). This is for instance the idea behind the <em>Furstenberg correspondence principle</em> relating ergodic theory to combinatorics; see for instance <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/the-correspondence-principle-and-finitary-ergodic-theory/">this post of mine</a> on this topic.
</p>
<p>
However, there is a slightly different approach, which I will call <em>ultralimit analysis</em>, which proceeds via the machinery of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrafilter">ultrafilters</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraproduct">ultraproducts</a>; typically, the limit objects <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> one constructs are now the ultraproducts (or ultralimits) of the original objects <img class="latex" title="{X_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X_\alpha}"/>. There are two main facts that make ultralimit analysis powerful. The first is that one can take ultralimits of <em>arbitrary</em> sequences of objects, as opposed to more traditional tools such as metric completions, which only allow one to take limits of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauchy_sequence">Cauchy sequences</a> of objects. The second fact is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los's_theorem#.C5.81o.C5.9B.27s_theorem">Los’s theorem</a>, which tells us that <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> is an <em>elementary limit</em> of the <img class="latex" title="{X_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X_\alpha}"/> (i.e. every sentence in first-order logic which is true for the <img class="latex" title="{X_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X_\alpha}"/> for <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> large enough, is true for <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/>). This existence of elementary limits is a manifestation of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compactness_theorem">compactness theorem</a> in logic; see <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/the-completeness-and-compactness-theorems-of-first-order-logic/">this earlier blog post</a> for more discussion. So we see that compactness methods and ultrafilter methods are closely intertwined. (See also <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/245b-notes-10-compactness-in-topological-spaces/">my earlier class notes</a> for a related connection between ultrafilters and compactness.)
</p>
<p>
Ultralimit analysis is very closely related to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonstandard_analysis">nonstandard analysis</a>. I already discussed some aspects of this relationship in <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/06/25/ultrafilters-nonstandard-analysis-and-epsilon-management/">an earlier post</a>, and will expand upon it at the bottom of this post. Roughly speaking, the relationship between ultralimit analysis and nonstandard analysis is analogous to the relationship between measure theory and probability theory.
</p>
<p>
To illustrate how ultralimit analysis is actually used in practice, I will show later in this post how to take a qualitative infinitary theory – in this case, basic algebraic geometry – and apply ultralimit analysis to then deduce a quantitative version of this theory, in which the complexity of the various algebraic sets and varieties that appear as outputs are controlled uniformly by the complexity of the inputs. The point of this exercise is to show how ultralimit analysis allows for a relatively painless conversion back and forth between the quantitative and qualitative worlds, though in some cases the quantitative translation of a qualitative result (or vice versa) may be somewhat unexpected. In an upcoming paper of myself, Ben Green, and Emmanuel Breuillard (announced in the previous blog post), we will rely on ultralimit analysis to reduce the messiness of various quantitative arguments by replacing them with a qualitative setting in which the theory becomes significantly cleaner.
</p>
<p>
For sake of completeness, I also redo some earlier instances of the correspondence principle via ultralimit analysis, namely the deduction of the quantitative Gromov theorem from the qualitative one, and of Szemerédi’s theorem from the Furstenberg recurrence theorem, to illustrate how close the two techniques are to each other.
</p>
<p>
<span id="more-3392"/>
</p>
<p/>
<p align="center"><b> —  1. Ultralimit analysis  — </b></p>
<p>
In order to perform ultralimit analysis, we need to prepare the scene by deciding on three things in advance: </p>
<ul>
<li> The <em>standard universe</em> <img class="latex" title="{{\mathcal U}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathcal+U%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathcal U}}"/> of standard objects and spaces. </li>
<li> A distinction between <em>ordinary objects</em>, and <em>spaces</em>. </li>
<li> A choice of <em>non-principal ultrafilter</em> <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty \in \beta {\mathbb N} \backslash {\mathbb N}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty+%5Cin+%5Cbeta+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D+%5Cbackslash+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty \in \beta {\mathbb N} \backslash {\mathbb N}}"/>.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
We now discuss each of these three preparatory ingredients in turn.
</p>
<p>
We assume that we have a <em>standard universe</em> or <em>superstructure</em> <img class="latex" title="{{\mathcal U}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathcal+U%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathcal U}}"/> which contains all the “standard” sets, objects, and structures that we ordinarily care about, such as the natural numbers, the real numbers, the power set of real numbers, the power set of the power set of real numbers, and so forth. For technical reasons, we have to limit the size of this universe by requiring that it be a set, rather than a class; thus (by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_paradox">Russell’s paradox</a>), not all sets will be standard (e.g. <img class="latex" title="{{\mathcal U}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathcal+U%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathcal U}}"/> itself will not be a standard set). However, in many areas of mathematics (particularly those of a “finitary” or at most “countable” flavour, or those based on finite-dimensional spaces such as <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb R}^d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%5Ed%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb R}^d}"/>), the type of objects considered in a field of mathematics can often be contained inside a single set <img class="latex" title="{{\mathcal U}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathcal+U%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathcal U}}"/>. For instance, the class of all groups is too large to be a set. But in practice, one is only interested in, say, groups with an at most countable number of generators, and if one then enumerates these generators and considers their relations, one can identify each such group (up to isomorphism) to one in some fixed set of model groups. One can then take <img class="latex" title="{{\mathcal U}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathcal+U%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathcal U}}"/> to be the collection of these groups, and the various objects one can form from these groups (e.g. power sets, maps from one group to another, etc.). Thus, in practice, the requirement that we limit the scope of objects to care about is not a significant limitation. (If one does not want to limit one’s scope in this fashion, one can proceed instead using the machinery of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grothendieck_universe">Grothendieck universes</a>.)
</p>
<p>
It is important to note that while we primarily <em>care</em> about objects inside the standard universe <img class="latex" title="{{\mathcal U}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathcal+U%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathcal U}}"/>, we allow ourselves to <em>use</em> objects outside the standard universe (but still inside the ambient set theory) whenever it is convenient to do so. The situation is analogous to that of using complex analysis to solve real analysis problems; one may only care about statements that have to do with real numbers, but sometimes it is convenient to introduce complex numbers within the <em>proofs</em> of such statements. (More generally, the trick of passing to some <em>completion</em> <img class="latex" title="{\overline{{\mathcal U}}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Coverline%7B%7B%5Cmathcal+U%7D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\overline{{\mathcal U}}}"/> of one’s original structure <img class="latex" title="{{\mathcal U}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathcal+U%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathcal U}}"/> in order to more easily perform certain mathematical arguments is a common theme throughout modern mathematics.)
</p>
<p>
We will also assume that there is a distinction between two types of objects in this universe: <em>spaces</em>, which are sets that can contain other objects, and <em>ordinary objects</em>, which are all the objects that are not spaces. Thus, for instance, a group element would typically be considered an ordinary object, whereas a group itself would be a space that group elements can live in. It is also convenient to view functions <img class="latex" title="{f: X \rightarrow Y}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bf:+X+%5Crightarrow+Y%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{f: X \rightarrow Y}"/> between two spaces as itself a type of ordinary object (namely, an element of a space <img class="latex" title="{\hbox{Hom}(X,Y)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Chbox%7BHom%7D(X,Y)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\hbox{Hom}(X,Y)}"/> of maps from <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> to <img class="latex" title="{Y}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BY%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{Y}"/>). The precise concept of what constitutes a space, and what constitutes an ordinary object, is somewhat hard to formalise, but the basic rule of thumb to decide whether an object <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> should be a space or not is to ask whether mathematical phrases such as <img class="latex" title="{x \in X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx+%5Cin+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x \in X}"/>, <img class="latex" title="{f: X \rightarrow Y}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bf:+X+%5Crightarrow+Y%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{f: X \rightarrow Y}"/>, or <img class="latex" title="{A \subset X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+%5Csubset+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A \subset X}"/> are likely to make useful sense. If so, then <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> is a space; otherwise, <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> is an ordinary object.
</p>
<p>
Examples of spaces include sets, groups, rings, fields, graphs, vector spaces, topological spaces, metric spaces, function spaces, measure spaces, dynamical systems, and operator algebras. Examples of ordinary objects include points, numbers, functions, matrices, strings, and equations.
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Remark 1</b>  Note that in some cases, a single object may seem to be both an ordinary object and a space, but one can often separate the two roles that this object is playing by making a sufficiently fine distinction. For instance, in Euclidean geometry, a line <img class="latex" title="{\ell}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cell%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\ell}"/> in is both an ordinary object (it is one of the primitive concepts in that geometry), but it can also be viewed as a space of points. In such cases, it becomes useful to distinguish between the <em>abstract line</em> <img class="latex" title="{\ell}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cell%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\ell}"/>, which is the primitive object, and its <em>realisation</em> <img class="latex" title="{\ell[{\mathbb R}]}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cell%5B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%5D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\ell[{\mathbb R}]}"/> as a space of points in the Euclidean plane. This type of distinction is quite common in algebraic geometry, thus, for instance, the imaginary circle <img class="latex" title="{C := \{ (x,y): x^2 + y^2 = -1 \}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC+:=+%5C%7B+(x,y):+x%5E2+++y%5E2+=+-1+%5C%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C := \{ (x,y): x^2 + y^2 = -1 \}}"/> has an empty realisation <img class="latex" title="{C[{\mathbb R}] = \emptyset}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC%5B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%5D+=+%5Cemptyset%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C[{\mathbb R}] = \emptyset}"/> in the real plane <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb R}^2}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%5E2%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb R}^2}"/>, but has a non-trivial realisation <img class="latex" title="{C[{\mathbb C}]}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC%5B%7B%5Cmathbb+C%7D%5D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C[{\mathbb C}]}"/> in the complex plane <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb C}^2}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+C%7D%5E2%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb C}^2}"/> (or over finite fields), and so we do not consider <img class="latex" title="{C}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C}"/> (as an abstract algebraic variety) to be empty. Similarly, given a function <img class="latex" title="{f}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bf%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{f}"/>, we distinguish between the function <img class="latex" title="{f}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bf%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{f}"/> itself (as an abstract object) and the graph <img class="latex" title="{f[X] := \{ (x,f(x)): x \in X \}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bf%5BX%5D+:=+%5C%7B+(x,f(x)):+x+%5Cin+X+%5C%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{f[X] := \{ (x,f(x)): x \in X \}}"/> of that function over some given domain <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/>. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
We also fix a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrafilter">nonprincipal ultrafilter</a> <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/> on the natural numbers. Recall that this is a collection of subsets of <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb N}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb N}}"/> with the following properties: </p>
<ul>
<li> No finite set lies in <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>. </li>
<li> If <img class="latex" title="{A \subset {\mathbb N}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+%5Csubset+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A \subset {\mathbb N}}"/> is in <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>, then any subset of <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb N}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb N}}"/> containing <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> is in <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>. </li>
<li> If <img class="latex" title="{A, B}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA,+B%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A, B}"/> lie in <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>, then <img class="latex" title="{A \cap B}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+%5Ccap+B%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A \cap B}"/> also lies in <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>. </li>
<li> If <img class="latex" title="{A \subset {\mathbb N}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+%5Csubset+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A \subset {\mathbb N}}"/>, then exactly one of <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> and <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb N} \backslash A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D+%5Cbackslash+A%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb N} \backslash A}"/> lies in <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>.
</li>
</ul>
<p> Given a property <img class="latex" title="{P(\alpha)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BP(%5Calpha)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{P(\alpha)}"/> which may be true or false for each natural number <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/>, we say that <img class="latex" title="{P}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BP%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{P}"/> is true for <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> <em>sufficiently close to</em> <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/> if the set <img class="latex" title="{\{ \alpha \in {\mathbb N}: P(\alpha) \hbox{ holds}\}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5C%7B+%5Calpha+%5Cin+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D:+P(%5Calpha)+%5Chbox%7B+holds%7D%5C%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\{ \alpha \in {\mathbb N}: P(\alpha) \hbox{ holds}\}}"/> lies in <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>. The existence of a non-principal ultrafilter <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/> is guaranteed by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrafilter_lemma#The_ultrafilter_lemma">ultrafilter lemma</a>, which can be proven using the axiom of choice.
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Remark 2</b>  One can view <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/> as a point in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone%E2%80%93%C4%8Cech_compactification">Stone-Čech compactification</a>, in which case “for <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>” acquires the familiar topological meaning “for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> in a neighbourhood of <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>“. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
We can use this ultrafilter to take limits of standard objects and spaces. Indeed, given any two sequences <img class="latex" title="{(x_\alpha)_{\alpha \in {\mathbb N}}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(x_%5Calpha)_%7B%5Calpha+%5Cin+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(x_\alpha)_{\alpha \in {\mathbb N}}}"/>, <img class="latex" title="{(y_\alpha)_{\alpha \in {\mathbb N}}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(y_%5Calpha)_%7B%5Calpha+%5Cin+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(y_\alpha)_{\alpha \in {\mathbb N}}}"/> of standard ordinary objects, we say that such sequences are <em>equivalent</em> if we have <img class="latex" title="{x_\alpha = y_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx_%5Calpha+=+y_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x_\alpha = y_\alpha}"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>. We then define the <em>ultralimit</em> <img class="latex" title="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+x_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha}"/> of a sequence <img class="latex" title="{(x_\alpha)_{\alpha \in {\mathbb N}}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(x_%5Calpha)_%7B%5Calpha+%5Cin+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(x_\alpha)_{\alpha \in {\mathbb N}}}"/> to be the equivalence class of <img class="latex" title="{(x_\alpha)_{\alpha \in {\mathbb N}}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(x_%5Calpha)_%7B%5Calpha+%5Cin+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(x_\alpha)_{\alpha \in {\mathbb N}}}"/> (in the space <img class="latex" title="{{\mathcal U}^{\mathbb N}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathcal+U%7D%5E%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathcal U}^{\mathbb N}}"/> of all sequences in the universe). In other words, we have </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} y_\alpha" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+x_%5Calpha+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+y_%5Calpha&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} y_\alpha"/></p>
<p> if and only if <img class="latex" title="{x_\alpha = y_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx_%5Calpha+=+y_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x_\alpha = y_\alpha}"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>.</p>
<p>
The ultralimit <img class="latex" title="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+x_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha}"/> lies outside the standard universe <img class="latex" title="{{\mathcal U}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathcal+U%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathcal U}}"/>, but is still constructible as an object in the ambient set theory (because <img class="latex" title="{{\mathcal U}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathcal+U%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathcal U}}"/> was assumed to be a set). Note that we do not need <img class="latex" title="{x_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x_\alpha}"/> to be well-defined for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> for the limit <img class="latex" title="{(x_\alpha)_{\alpha \in {\mathbb N}}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(x_%5Calpha)_%7B%5Calpha+%5Cin+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(x_\alpha)_{\alpha \in {\mathbb N}}}"/> to make sense; it is enough that <img class="latex" title="{x_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x_\alpha}"/> is well-defined for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>.
</p>
<p>
If <img class="latex" title="{x = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+x_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha}"/>, we refer to the sequence <img class="latex" title="{x_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x_\alpha}"/> of ordinary objects as a <em>model</em> for the limit <img class="latex" title="{x}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x}"/>. Thus, any two models for the same limit object <img class="latex" title="{x}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x}"/> will agree in a sufficiently small neighbourhood of <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>.
</p>
<p>
Similarly, given a sequence of standard spaces <img class="latex" title="{(X_\alpha)_{\alpha \in {\mathbb N}}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(X_%5Calpha)_%7B%5Calpha+%5Cin+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(X_\alpha)_{\alpha \in {\mathbb N}}}"/>, one can form the <em>ultralimit</em> (or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraproduct">ultraproduct</a>) <img class="latex" title="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} X_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+X_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} X_\alpha}"/>, defined as the collection of all ultralimits <img class="latex" title="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+x_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha}"/> of sequences <img class="latex" title="{x_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x_\alpha}"/>, where <img class="latex" title="{x_\alpha \in X_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx_%5Calpha+%5Cin+X_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x_\alpha \in X_\alpha}"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha \in {\mathbb N}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha+%5Cin+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha \in {\mathbb N}}"/> (or for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>). Again, this space will lie outside the standard universe, but is still a set. (This will not conflict with the notion of ultralimits for ordinary objects, so long as one always takes care to keep spaces and ordinary objects separate.) If <img class="latex" title="{X = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} X_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+X_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} X_\alpha}"/>, we refer to the sequence <img class="latex" title="{X_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X_\alpha}"/> of spaces as a <em>model</em> for <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/>.
</p>
<p>
As a special case of an ultralimit, given a single space <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/>, its ultralimit <img class="latex" title="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} X}"/> is known as the <em>ultrapower</em> of <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> and will be denoted <img class="latex" title="{{}^* X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* X}"/>.
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Remark 3</b>  One can view <img class="latex" title="{{}^* X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* X}"/> as a type of <em>completion</em> of <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/>, much as the reals are the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_metric_space#Completion">metric completion</a> of the rationals. Indeed, just as the reals encompass all limits <img class="latex" title="{\lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} x_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clim_%7Bn+%5Crightarrow+%5Cinfty%7D+x_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} x_n}"/> of Cauchy sequences <img class="latex" title="{x_1,x_2,\ldots}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx_1,x_2,%5Cldots%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x_1,x_2,\ldots}"/> in the rationals, up to equivalence, the ultrapower <img class="latex" title="{{}^* X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* X}"/> encompass all limits of <em>arbitrary</em> sequences in <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/>, up to agreement sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>. The ability to take limits of arbitrary sequences, and not merely Cauchy sequences or convergent sequences, is the underlying source of power of ultralimit analysis. (This ability ultimately arises from the universal nature of the Stone-Čech compactification <img class="latex" title="{\beta {\mathbb N}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cbeta+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\beta {\mathbb N}}"/>, as well as the discrete nature of <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb N}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb N}}"/>, which makes all sequences <img class="latex" title="{n \mapsto x_n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Cmapsto+x_n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \mapsto x_n}"/> continuous.) </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
Of course, we embed the rationals into the reals by identifying each rational <img class="latex" title="{x}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x}"/> with its limit <img class="latex" title="{\lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} x}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clim_%7Bn+%5Crightarrow+%5Cinfty%7D+x%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} x}"/>. In a similar spirit, we identify every standard ordinary object <img class="latex" title="{x}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x}"/> with its ultralimit <img class="latex" title="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+x%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x}"/>. In particular, a standard space <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> is now identified with a subspace of <img class="latex" title="{{}^* X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* X}"/>. When <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> is finite, it is easy to see that this embedding of <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> to <img class="latex" title="{{}^* X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* X}"/> is surjective; but for infinite <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/>, the ultrapower is significantly larger than <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> itself.
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Remark 4</b>  One could collect the ultralimits of all the ordinary objects and spaces in the standard universe <img class="latex" title="{{\mathcal U}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathcal+U%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathcal U}}"/> and form a new structure, the <em>nonstandard universe</em> <img class="latex" title="{\overline{{\mathcal U}}_{\alpha_\infty}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Coverline%7B%7B%5Cmathcal+U%7D%7D_%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\overline{{\mathcal U}}_{\alpha_\infty}}"/>, which one can view as a <em>completion</em> of the standard universe, in much the same way that the reals are a completion of the rationals. However, we will not have to explicitly deal with this nonstandard universe and will not discuss it again in this post. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
In nonstandard analysis, an ultralimit of standard ordinary object in a given class is referred to as (or more precisely, <em>models</em>) a <em>nonstandard</em> object in that class. To emphasise the slightly different philosophy of ultralimit analysis, however, I would like to call these objects <em>limit objects</em> in that class instead. Thus, for instance: </p>
<ul>
<li> An ultralimit <img class="latex" title="{n = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} n_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+n_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} n_\alpha}"/> of standard natural numbers is a <em>limit natural number</em> (or a nonstandard natural number, or an element of <img class="latex" title="{{}^* {\mathbb N}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* {\mathbb N}}"/>); </li>
<li> An ultralimit <img class="latex" title="{x = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+x_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha}"/> of standard real numbers is a <em>limit real number</em> (or a nonstandard real number, or a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperreal_number">hyperreal</a>, or an element of <img class="latex" title="{{}^* {\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* {\mathbb R}}"/>); </li>
<li> An ultralimit <img class="latex" title="{\phi = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \phi_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cphi+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+%5Cphi_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\phi = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \phi_\alpha}"/> of standard functions <img class="latex" title="{\phi_\alpha: X_\alpha \rightarrow Y_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cphi_%5Calpha:+X_%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+Y_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\phi_\alpha: X_\alpha \rightarrow Y_\alpha}"/> between two sets <img class="latex" title="{X_\alpha,Y_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX_%5Calpha,Y_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X_\alpha,Y_\alpha}"/> is a <em>limit function</em> (also known as an internal function, or a nonstandard function); </li>
<li> An ultralimit <img class="latex" title="{\phi = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \phi_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cphi+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+%5Cphi_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\phi = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \phi_\alpha}"/> of standard continuous functions <img class="latex" title="{\phi_\alpha: X_\alpha \rightarrow Y_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cphi_%5Calpha:+X_%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+Y_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\phi_\alpha: X_\alpha \rightarrow Y_\alpha}"/> between two topological spaces <img class="latex" title="{X_\alpha,Y_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX_%5Calpha,Y_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X_\alpha,Y_\alpha}"/> is a <em>limit continuous function</em> (or internal continuous function, or nonstandard continuous function); </li>
<li> etc.
</li>
</ul>
<p> Clearly, all standard ordinary objects are limit objects of the same class, but not conversely.
</p>
<p>
Similarly, ultralimits of spaces in a given class will be referred to <em>limit spaces</em> in that class (in nonstandard analysis, they would be called nonstandard spaces or internal spaces instead). For instance: </p>
<ul>
<li> An ultralimit <img class="latex" title="{X = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} X_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+X_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} X_\alpha}"/> of standard sets is a limit set (or internal set, or nonstandard set); </li>
<li> An ultralimit <img class="latex" title="{G = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} G_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+G_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} G_\alpha}"/> of standard groups is a limit group (or internal group, or nonstandard group); </li>
<li> An ultralimit <img class="latex" title="{(X,{\mathcal B},\mu) = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} (X_\alpha,{\mathcal B}_\alpha,\mu_\alpha)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(X,%7B%5Cmathcal+B%7D,%5Cmu)+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+(X_%5Calpha,%7B%5Cmathcal+B%7D_%5Calpha,%5Cmu_%5Calpha)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(X,{\mathcal B},\mu) = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} (X_\alpha,{\mathcal B}_\alpha,\mu_\alpha)}"/> of standard measure spaces is a limit measure space (or internal measure space, or nonstandard measure space); </li>
<li> etc.
</li>
</ul>
<p> Note that finite standard spaces will also be limit spaces of the same class, but infinite standard spaces will not. For instance, <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb Z}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+Z%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb Z}}"/> is a standard group, but is not a limit group, basically because it does not contain limit integers such as <img class="latex" title="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \alpha}"/>. However, <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb Z}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+Z%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb Z}}"/> is contained in the limit group <img class="latex" title="{{}^* {\mathbb Z}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+%7B%5Cmathbb+Z%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* {\mathbb Z}}"/>. The relationship between standard spaces and limit spaces is analogous to that between incomplete spaces and complete spaces in various fields of mathematics (e.g. in metric space theory or field theory).
</p>
<p>
Any operation or result involving finitely many standard objects, spaces, and first-order quantifiers carries over to their nonstandard or limit counterparts (the formal statement of this is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los's_theorem#.C5.81o.C5.9B.27s_theorem">Los’s theorem</a>). For instance, the addition operation on standard natural numbers gives an addition operation on limit natural numbers, defined by the formula </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} n_\alpha + \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} m_\alpha := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} (n_\alpha + m_\alpha)." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+n_%5Calpha+++%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+m_%5Calpha+:=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+(n_%5Calpha+++m_%5Calpha).&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} n_\alpha + \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} m_\alpha := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} (n_\alpha + m_\alpha)."/></p>
<p> It is easy to see that this is a well-defined operation on the limit natural numbers <img class="latex" title="{{}^* {\mathbb N}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* {\mathbb N}}"/>, and that the usual properties of addition (e.g. the associative and commutative laws) carry over to this limit (much as how the associativity and commutativity of addition on the rationals automatically implies the same laws of arithmetic for the reals). Similarly, we can define the other arithmetic and order relations on limit numbers: for instance we have
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} n_\alpha \geq \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} m_\alpha " src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+n_%5Calpha+%5Cgeq+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+m_%5Calpha+&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} n_\alpha \geq \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} m_\alpha "/></p>
<p> if and only if <img class="latex" title="{n_\alpha \geq m_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn_%5Calpha+%5Cgeq+m_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n_\alpha \geq m_\alpha}"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_0}"/>, and similarly define <img class="latex" title="{\leq, &gt;, &lt;}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cleq,+%3E,+%3C%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\leq, &gt;, &lt;}"/>, etc. Note from the definition of an ultrafilter that we still have the usual order trichotomy: given any two limit numbers <img class="latex" title="{n, m}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn,+m%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n, m}"/>, exactly one of <img class="latex" title="{n &lt; m}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%3C+m%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n &lt; m}"/>, <img class="latex" title="{n=m}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn=m%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n=m}"/>, and <img class="latex" title="{n&gt;m}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%3Em%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n&gt;m}"/> is true.</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Example 1</b>  The limit natural number <img class="latex" title="{\omega := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Comega+:=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\omega := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \alpha}"/> is larger than all standard natural numbers, but <img class="latex" title="{\omega^2 = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \alpha^2}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Comega%5E2+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+%5Calpha%5E2%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\omega^2 = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \alpha^2}"/> is even larger still. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
The following two exercises should give some intuition of how Los’s theorem is proved, and what it could be useful for:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 1</b>  Show that the following two formulations of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldbach's_conjecture">Goldbach’s conjecture</a> are equivalent: </p>
<ul>
<li> Every even natural number greater than two is the sum of two primes. </li>
<li> Every even limit natural number greater than two is the sum of two prime limit natural numbers.
</li>
</ul>
<p> Here, we define a limit natural number <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/> to be <em>even</em> if we have <img class="latex" title="{n=2m}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn=2m%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n=2m}"/> for some limit natural number <img class="latex" title="{m}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bm%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{m}"/>, and a limit natural number <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/> to be <em>prime</em> if it is greater than <img class="latex" title="{1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{1}"/> but cannot be written as the product of two limit natural numbers greater than <img class="latex" title="{1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{1}"/>. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 2</b> <a name="algclos"/> Let <img class="latex" title="{k_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k_\alpha}"/> be a sequence of algebraically closed fields. Show that the ultralimit <img class="latex" title="{k := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} k_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk+:=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+k_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} k_\alpha}"/> is also an algebraically closed field. In other words, every limit algebraically closed field is an algebraically closed field. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
Given an ultralimit <img class="latex" title="{\phi := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \phi_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cphi+:=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+%5Cphi_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\phi := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \phi_\alpha}"/> of functions <img class="latex" title="{\phi_\alpha: X_\alpha \rightarrow Y_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cphi_%5Calpha:+X_%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+Y_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\phi_\alpha: X_\alpha \rightarrow Y_\alpha}"/>, we can view <img class="latex" title="{\phi}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cphi%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\phi}"/> as a function from the limit space <img class="latex" title="{X := \prod_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} X_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX+:=+%5Cprod_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+X_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X := \prod_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} X_\alpha}"/> to the limit space <img class="latex" title="{Y := \prod_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} Y_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BY+:=+%5Cprod_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+Y_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{Y := \prod_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} Y_\alpha}"/> by the formula </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \phi( \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha ) := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \phi_\alpha(x_\alpha)." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cphi(+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+x_%5Calpha+)+:=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+%5Cphi_%5Calpha(x_%5Calpha).&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \phi( \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha ) := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \phi_\alpha(x_\alpha)."/></p>
<p> Again, it is easy to check that this is well-defined. Thus every limit function from a limit space <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> to a limit space <img class="latex" title="{Y}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BY%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{Y}"/> is a function from <img class="latex" title="{X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X}"/> to <img class="latex" title="{Y}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BY%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{Y}"/>, but the converse is not true in general.</p>
<p>
One can easily show that limit sets behave well with respect to finitely many boolean operations; for instance, the intersection of two limit sets <img class="latex" title="{X = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} X_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+X_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} X_\alpha}"/> and <img class="latex" title="{Y = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} Y_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BY+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+Y_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{Y = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} Y_\alpha}"/> is another limit set, namely <img class="latex" title="{X \cap Y = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} X_\alpha \cap Y_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX+%5Ccap+Y+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+X_%5Calpha+%5Ccap+Y_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{X \cap Y = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} X_\alpha \cap Y_\alpha}"/>. However, we caution that the same is not necessarily true for infinite boolean operations; the countable union or intersection of limit sets need not be a limit set. (For instance, each individual standard integer in <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb Z}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+Z%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb Z}}"/> is a limit set, but their union <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb Z}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+Z%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb Z}}"/> is not.) Indeed, there is an analogy between the limit subsets of a limit set, and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clopen_set">clopen</a> subsets of a topological space (or the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructible_set_(topology)">constructible sets</a> in an algebraic variety).
</p>
<p>
By the same type of arguments used to show Exercise <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#algclos">2</a>, one can check that every limit group is a group (albeit one that usually lies outside the standard universe <img class="latex" title="{{\mathcal U}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathcal+U%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathcal U}}"/>), every limit ring is a ring, every limit field is a field, etc.
</p>
<p>
The situation with vector spaces is a little more interesting. The ultraproduct <img class="latex" title="{V = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} V_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+V_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} V_\alpha}"/> of a collection of standard vector spaces <img class="latex" title="{V_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V_\alpha}"/> over <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb R}}"/> is a vector space over the larger field <img class="latex" title="{{}^* {\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* {\mathbb R}}"/>, because the various scalar multiplication operations <img class="latex" title="{\cdot_\alpha: {\mathbb R} \times V_\alpha \rightarrow V_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Ccdot_%5Calpha:+%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+%5Ctimes+V_%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+V_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\cdot_\alpha: {\mathbb R} \times V_\alpha \rightarrow V_\alpha}"/> over the standard reals become a scalar multiplication operation <img class="latex" title="{\cdot: {}^* {\mathbb R} \times V \rightarrow V}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Ccdot:+%7B%7D%5E*+%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D+%5Ctimes+V+%5Crightarrow+V%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\cdot: {}^* {\mathbb R} \times V \rightarrow V}"/> over the limit reals. Of course, as the standard reals <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb R}}"/> are a subfield of the limit reals <img class="latex" title="{{}^* {\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* {\mathbb R}}"/>, <img class="latex" title="{V}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V}"/> is also a vector space over the standard reals <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb R}}"/>; but when viewed this way, the properties of the <img class="latex" title="{V_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V_\alpha}"/> are not automatically inherited by <img class="latex" title="{V}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V}"/>. For instance, if each of the <img class="latex" title="{V_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V_\alpha}"/> are <img class="latex" title="{d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d}"/>-dimensional over <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb R}}"/> for some fixed finite <img class="latex" title="{d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d}"/>, then <img class="latex" title="{V}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V}"/> is <img class="latex" title="{d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d}"/>-dimensional over the <em>limit</em> reals <img class="latex" title="{{}^* {\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* {\mathbb R}}"/>, but is infinite dimensional over the reals <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb R}}"/>.
</p>
<p>
Now let <img class="latex" title="{A = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+A_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha}"/> be a limit finite set, i.e. a limit of finite sets <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/>. Every finite set is a limit finite set, but not conversely; for instance, <img class="latex" title="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \{1,\ldots,\alpha\}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+%5C%7B1,%5Cldots,%5Calpha%5C%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \{1,\ldots,\alpha\}}"/> is a limit finite set which has infinite cardinality. On the other hand, because every finite set <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/> has a cardinality <img class="latex" title="{|A_\alpha| \in {\mathbb N}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7CA_%5Calpha%7C+%5Cin+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|A_\alpha| \in {\mathbb N}}"/> which is a standard natural number, we can assign to every limit finite set <img class="latex" title="{A = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+A_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha}"/> a <em>limit cardinality</em> <img class="latex" title="{|A| \in {}^* {\mathbb N}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7CA%7C+%5Cin+%7B%7D%5E*+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|A| \in {}^* {\mathbb N}}"/> which is a limit natural number, by the formula </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  |\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha| := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} |A_\alpha|." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7C%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+A_%5Calpha%7C+:=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+%7CA_%5Calpha%7C.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  |\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha| := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} |A_\alpha|."/></p>
<p> This limit cardinality inherits all of the first-order properties of ordinary cardinality. For instance, we have the inclusion-exclusion formula
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  |A \cup B| + |A \cap B| = |A| + |B|" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7CA+%5Ccup+B%7C+++%7CA+%5Ccap+B%7C+=+%7CA%7C+++%7CB%7C&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  |A \cup B| + |A \cap B| = |A| + |B|"/></p>
<p> for any two limit finite sets; this follows from the inclusion-exclusion formula for standard finite sets by an easy limiting argument.</p>
<p>
It is not hard to show that <img class="latex" title="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+A_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha}"/> is finite if and only if the <img class="latex" title="{|A_\alpha|}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7CA_%5Calpha%7C%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|A_\alpha|}"/> are bounded for <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>. Thus, we see that one feature of passage to ultralimits is that it converts the term “bounded” to “finite”, while the term “finite” becomes “limit finite”. This makes ultralimit analysis useful for deducing facts about bounded quantities from facts about finite quantities. We give some examples of this in the next section.
</p>
<p>
In a similar vein, an ultralimit <img class="latex" title="{(X,d) = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} (X_\alpha,d_\alpha)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(X,d)+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+(X_%5Calpha,d_%5Calpha)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(X,d) = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} (X_\alpha,d_\alpha)}"/> of standard metric spaces <img class="latex" title="{(X_\alpha,d_\alpha)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(X_%5Calpha,d_%5Calpha)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(X_\alpha,d_\alpha)}"/> yields a <em>limit</em> metric space, thus for instance <img class="latex" title="{d: X \times X \rightarrow {}^* {\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd:+X+%5Ctimes+X+%5Crightarrow+%7B%7D%5E*+%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d: X \times X \rightarrow {}^* {\mathbb R}}"/> is now a metric taking values in the <em>limit</em> reals. Now, if the spaces <img class="latex" title="{(X_\alpha,d_\alpha)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(X_%5Calpha,d_%5Calpha)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(X_\alpha,d_\alpha)}"/> were uniformly bounded, then the limit space <img class="latex" title="{(X,d)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(X,d)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(X,d)}"/> would be bounded by some (standard) real diameter. From the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolzano%E2%80%93Weierstrass_theorem">Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem</a> we see that every bounded limit real number <img class="latex" title="{x}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x}"/> has a unique <em>standard part</em> <img class="latex" title="{\hbox{st}(x)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Chbox%7Bst%7D(x)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\hbox{st}(x)}"/> which differs from <img class="latex" title="{x}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x}"/> by an <em>infinitesimal</em>, i.e. a limit real number of the form <img class="latex" title="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+x_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} x_\alpha}"/> where <img class="latex" title="{x_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bx_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{x_\alpha}"/> converges to zero in the classical sense. As a consequence, the standard part <img class="latex" title="{\hbox{st}(d)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Chbox%7Bst%7D(d)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\hbox{st}(d)}"/> of the limit metric function <img class="latex" title="{d: X \times X \rightarrow {}^* {\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd:+X+%5Ctimes+X+%5Crightarrow+%7B%7D%5E*+%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d: X \times X \rightarrow {}^* {\mathbb R}}"/> is a genuine metric function <img class="latex" title="{\hbox{st}(d): X \times X \rightarrow {\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Chbox%7Bst%7D(d):+X+%5Ctimes+X+%5Crightarrow+%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\hbox{st}(d): X \times X \rightarrow {\mathbb R}}"/>. The resulting metric space <img class="latex" title="{(X, \hbox{st}(d))}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(X,+%5Chbox%7Bst%7D(d))%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(X, \hbox{st}(d))}"/> is often referred to as an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultralimit">ultralimit</a> of the original metric spaces <img class="latex" title="{(X_\alpha,d_\alpha)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(X_%5Calpha,d_%5Calpha)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(X_\alpha,d_\alpha)}"/>, although strictly speaking this conflicts slightly with the notation here, because we consider <img class="latex" title="{(X,d)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(X,d)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(X,d)}"/> to be the ultralimit instead.
</p>
<p/>
<p align="center"><b> —  2. Application: quantitative algebraic geometry  — </b></p>
<p>
As a sample application of the above machinery, we shall use ultrafilter analysis to quickly deduce some quantitative (but not explicitly effective) algebraic geometry results from their more well-known qualitative counterparts. Significantly stronger results than the ones given here can be provided by the field of <em>effective algebraic geometry</em>, but that theory is somewhat more complicated than the classical qualitative theory, and the point I want to stress here is that one can obtain a “cheap” version of this effective algebraic geometry from the qualitative theory by a straightforward ultrafilter argument. I do not know of a comparably easy way to get such ineffective quantitative results without the use of ultrafilters or closely related tools (e.g. nonstandard analysis or elementary limits).
</p>
<p>
We first recall a basic definition:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Definition 1 (Algebraic set)</b>  An (affine) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic_set">algebraic set</a> over an algebraically closed field <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/> is a subset of <img class="latex" title="{k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^n}"/>, where <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/> is a positive integer, of the form <a name="xkn">
</a></p><p align="center"><a name="xkn"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \{ x \in k^n: P_1(x) = \ldots = P_m(x) = 0 \} \ \ \ \ \ (1)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5C%7B+x+%5Cin+k%5En:+P_1(x)+=+%5Cldots+=+P_m(x)+=+0+%5C%7D+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+%5C+(1)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \{ x \in k^n: P_1(x) = \ldots = P_m(x) = 0 \} \ \ \ \ \ (1)"/></a></p><a name="xkn">
</a><p><a name="xkn"/> where <img class="latex" title="{P_1,\ldots,P_m: k^n \rightarrow k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BP_1,%5Cldots,P_m:+k%5En+%5Crightarrow+k%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{P_1,\ldots,P_m: k^n \rightarrow k}"/> are a finite collection of polynomials. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
Now we turn to the quantitative theory, in which we try to control the <em>complexity</em> of various objects. Let us say that an algebraic set in <img class="latex" title="{k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^n}"/> has <em>complexity at most</em> <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/> if <img class="latex" title="{n \leq M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Cleq+M%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \leq M}"/>, and one can express the set in the form <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#xkn">(1)</a> where <img class="latex" title="{m \leq M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bm+%5Cleq+M%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{m \leq M}"/>, and each of the polynomials <img class="latex" title="{P_1,\ldots,P_m}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BP_1,%5Cldots,P_m%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{P_1,\ldots,P_m}"/> has degree at most <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/>. We can then ask the question of to what extent one can make the above qualitative algebraic statements quantitative. For instance, it is known that a dimension <img class="latex" title="{0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{0}"/> algebraic set is finite; but can we bound <em>how</em> finite it is in terms of the complexity <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/> of that set? We are particularly interested in obtaining bounds here which are uniform in the underlying field <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/>.
</p>
<p>
One way to do so is to open up an algebraic geometry textbook and carefully go through the <em>proofs</em> of all the relevant qualitative facts, and carefully track the dependence on the complexity. For instance, one could bound the cardinality of a dimension <img class="latex" title="{0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{0}"/> algebraic set using <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9zout's_theorem">Bézout’s theorem</a>. But here, we will use ultralimit analysis to obtain such quantitative analogues “for free” from their qualitative counterparts. The catch, though, is that the bounds we obtain are <em>ineffective</em>; they use the qualitative facts as a “black box”, and one would have to go through the proof of these facts in order to extract anything better.
</p>
<p>
To begin the application of ultrafilter analysis, we use the following simple lemma.
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Lemma 2 (Ultralimits of bounded complexity algebraic sets are algebraic)</b> <a name="algs"/> Let <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/> be a dimension. Suppose we have a sequence of algebraic sets <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha \subset k_\alpha^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha+%5Csubset+k_%5Calpha%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha \subset k_\alpha^n}"/> over algebraically closed fields <img class="latex" title="{k_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k_\alpha}"/>, whose complexity is bounded by a quantity <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/> which is uniform in <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/>. Then if we set <img class="latex" title="{k := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} k_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk+:=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+k_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} k_\alpha}"/> and <img class="latex" title="{A :=\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+:=%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+A_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A :=\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha}"/>, then <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/> is an algebraically closed field and <img class="latex" title="{A \subset k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+%5Csubset+k%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A \subset k^n}"/> is an algebraic set (also of complexity at most <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/>).</p>
<p>
Conversely, every algebraic set in <img class="latex" title="{k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^n}"/> is the ultralimit of algebraic sets in <img class="latex" title="{k_\alpha^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk_%5Calpha%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k_\alpha^n}"/> of bounded complexity. </p>
</blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
<em>Proof:</em>  The fact that <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/> is algebraically closed comes from Exercise <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#algclos">2</a>. Now we look at the algebraic sets <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/>. By adding dummy polynomials if necessary, we can write </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  A_\alpha = \{ x \in k_\alpha^n: P_{\alpha,1}(x) = \ldots = P_{\alpha,M}(x) = 0 \}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++A_%5Calpha+=+%5C%7B+x+%5Cin+k_%5Calpha%5En:+P_%7B%5Calpha,1%7D(x)+=+%5Cldots+=+P_%7B%5Calpha,M%7D(x)+=+0+%5C%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  A_\alpha = \{ x \in k_\alpha^n: P_{\alpha,1}(x) = \ldots = P_{\alpha,M}(x) = 0 \}"/></p>
<p> where the <img class="latex" title="{P_{\alpha,1},\ldots,P_{\alpha,M}: k_\alpha^n \rightarrow k_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BP_%7B%5Calpha,1%7D,%5Cldots,P_%7B%5Calpha,M%7D:+k_%5Calpha%5En+%5Crightarrow+k_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{P_{\alpha,1},\ldots,P_{\alpha,M}: k_\alpha^n \rightarrow k_\alpha}"/> of degree at most <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/>.</p>
<p>
We can then take ultralimits of the <img class="latex" title="{P_{\alpha,i}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BP_%7B%5Calpha,i%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{P_{\alpha,i}}"/> to create polynomials <img class="latex" title="{P_{1},\ldots,P_{M}: k^n \rightarrow k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BP_%7B1%7D,%5Cldots,P_%7BM%7D:+k%5En+%5Crightarrow+k%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{P_{1},\ldots,P_{M}: k^n \rightarrow k}"/> of degree at most <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/>. One easily verifies on taking ultralimits that </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  A = \{ x \in k^n: P_{1}(x) = \ldots = P_{M}(x) = 0 \}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++A+=+%5C%7B+x+%5Cin+k%5En:+P_%7B1%7D(x)+=+%5Cldots+=+P_%7BM%7D(x)+=+0+%5C%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  A = \{ x \in k^n: P_{1}(x) = \ldots = P_{M}(x) = 0 \}"/></p>
<p> and the first claim follows. The converse claim is proven similarly. <img class="latex" title="\Box" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5CBox&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\Box"/></p>
<p>
Ultralimits preserve a number of key algebraic concepts (basically because such concepts are definable in first-order logic). We first illustrate this with the algebraic geometry concept of <em>dimension</em>. It is known that every non-empty algebraic set <img class="latex" title="{V}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V}"/> in <img class="latex" title="{k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^n}"/> has a <em>dimension</em> <img class="latex" title="{\dim(V)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cdim(V)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\dim(V)}"/>, which is an integer between <img class="latex" title="{0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{0}"/> and <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/>, with the convention that the empty set has dimension <img class="latex" title="{-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{-1}"/>. There are many ways to define this dimension, but one way is to proceed by induction on the dimension <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/> as follows. A non-empty algebraic subset of <img class="latex" title="{k^0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5E0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^0}"/> has dimension <img class="latex" title="{0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{0}"/>. Now if <img class="latex" title="{n \geq 1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Cgeq+1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \geq 1}"/>, we say that an algebraic set <img class="latex" title="{V}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V}"/> has dimension <img class="latex" title="{d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d}"/> for some <img class="latex" title="{0 \leq d \leq n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B0+%5Cleq+d+%5Cleq+n%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{0 \leq d \leq n}"/> if the following statements hold: </p>
<ul>
<li> For all but finitely many <img class="latex" title="{t \in k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt+%5Cin+k%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{t \in k}"/>, the slice <img class="latex" title="{V_t := \{ x \in k^{n-1}: (x,t) \in V \}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV_t+:=+%5C%7B+x+%5Cin+k%5E%7Bn-1%7D:+(x,t)+%5Cin+V+%5C%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V_t := \{ x \in k^{n-1}: (x,t) \in V \}}"/> either all have dimension <img class="latex" title="{d-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d-1}"/>, or are all empty. </li>
<li> For the remaining <img class="latex" title="{t \in k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt+%5Cin+k%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{t \in k}"/>, the slice <img class="latex" title="{V_t}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV_t%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V_t}"/> has dimension at most <img class="latex" title="{d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d}"/>. If the generic slices <img class="latex" title="{V_t}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV_t%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V_t}"/> were all empty, then one of the exceptional <img class="latex" title="{V_t}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV_t%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V_t}"/> has to have dimension exactly <img class="latex" title="{d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d}"/>.
</li>
</ul>
<p> Informally, <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> has dimension <img class="latex" title="{d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d}"/> iff a generic slice of <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> has dimension <img class="latex" title="{d-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d-1}"/>.
</p>
<p>
It is a non-trivial fact to show that every algebraic set in <img class="latex" title="{k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^n}"/> does indeed have a well-defined dimension between <img class="latex" title="{-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{-1}"/> and <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/>.
</p>
<p>
Now we see how dimension behaves under ultralimits.
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Lemma 3 (Continuity of dimension)</b> <a name="dimcont"/> Suppose that <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha \subset k_\alpha^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha+%5Csubset+k_%5Calpha%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha \subset k_\alpha^n}"/> are algebraic sets over various algebraically closed fields <img class="latex" title="{k_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k_\alpha}"/> of uniformly bounded complexity, and let <img class="latex" title="{A := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+:=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+A_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha}"/> be the limiting algebraic set given by Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#algs">2</a>. Then <img class="latex" title="{\dim(A) = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \dim(A_\alpha)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cdim(A)+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+%5Cdim(A_%5Calpha)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\dim(A) = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} \dim(A_\alpha)}"/>. In other words, we have <img class="latex" title="{\dim(A) = \dim(A_\alpha)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cdim(A)+=+%5Cdim(A_%5Calpha)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\dim(A) = \dim(A_\alpha)}"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
<em>Proof:</em>  One could obtain this directly from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los's_theorem#.C5.81o.C5.9B.27s_theorem">Los’s theorem</a>, but it is instructive to do this from first principles.
</p>
<p>
We induct on dimension <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/>. The case <img class="latex" title="{n=0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn=0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n=0}"/> is trivial, so suppose that <img class="latex" title="{n \geq 1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn+%5Cgeq+1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n \geq 1}"/> and the claim has already been shown for <img class="latex" title="{n-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n-1}"/>. Write <img class="latex" title="{d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d}"/> for the dimension of <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/>. If <img class="latex" title="{d=-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd=-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d=-1}"/>, then <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> is empty and so <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/> must be empty for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>, so suppose that <img class="latex" title="{d \geq 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd+%5Cgeq+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d \geq 0}"/>. By the construction of dimension, the slice <img class="latex" title="{A_t}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_t%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_t}"/> all have dimension <img class="latex" title="{d-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d-1}"/> (or are all empty) for all but finitely many values <img class="latex" title="{t_1,\ldots,t_r}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt_1,%5Cldots,t_r%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{t_1,\ldots,t_r}"/> of <img class="latex" title="{t \in k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt+%5Cin+k%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{t \in k}"/>. Let us assume that these generic slices <img class="latex" title="{A_t}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_t%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_t}"/> all have dimension <img class="latex" title="{d-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d-1}"/>; the other case is treated similarly and is left to the reader. As <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/> is the ultralimit of the <img class="latex" title="{k_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k_\alpha}"/>, we can write <img class="latex" title="{t_i = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} t_{\alpha,i}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt_i+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+t_%7B%5Calpha,i%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{t_i = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} t_{\alpha,i}}"/> for each <img class="latex" title="{1 \leq i \leq r}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B1+%5Cleq+i+%5Cleq+r%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{1 \leq i \leq r}"/>. We claim that for <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>, the slices <img class="latex" title="{(A_\alpha)_{t_{\alpha}}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(A_%5Calpha)_%7Bt_%7B%5Calpha%7D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(A_\alpha)_{t_{\alpha}}}"/> have dimension <img class="latex" title="{d-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d-1}"/> whenever <img class="latex" title="{t_{\alpha} \neq t_{\alpha,1},\ldots,t_{\alpha,r}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt_%7B%5Calpha%7D+%5Cneq+t_%7B%5Calpha,1%7D,%5Cldots,t_%7B%5Calpha,r%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{t_{\alpha} \neq t_{\alpha,1},\ldots,t_{\alpha,r}}"/>. Indeed, suppose that this were not the case. Carefully negating the quantifiers (and using the ultrafilter property), we see that for <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>, we can find <img class="latex" title="{t_{\alpha} \neq t_{\alpha,1},\ldots,t_{\alpha,r}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt_%7B%5Calpha%7D+%5Cneq+t_%7B%5Calpha,1%7D,%5Cldots,t_%7B%5Calpha,r%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{t_{\alpha} \neq t_{\alpha,1},\ldots,t_{\alpha,r}}"/> such that <img class="latex" title="{(A_\alpha)_{t_{\alpha}}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(A_%5Calpha)_%7Bt_%7B%5Calpha%7D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(A_\alpha)_{t_{\alpha}}}"/> has dimension different from <img class="latex" title="{d-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d-1}"/>. Taking ultralimits and writing <img class="latex" title="{t := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} t_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt+:=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+t_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{t := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} t_\alpha}"/>, we see from the induction hypothesis that <img class="latex" title="{A_t}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_t%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_t}"/> has dimension different from <img class="latex" title="{d-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d-1}"/>, contradiction.
</p>
<p>
We have shown that for <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>, all but finitely many slices of <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/> have dimension <img class="latex" title="{d-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d-1}"/>, and thus by the definition of dimension, <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/> has dimension <img class="latex" title="{d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d}"/>, and the claim follows. <img class="latex" title="\Box" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5CBox&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\Box"/></p>
<p>
We can use this to deduce quantitative algebraic geometry results from qualitative analogues. For instance, from the definition of dimension we have
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Lemma 4 (Qualitative Bezout-type theorem)</b> <a name="qualbez"/> Every dimension <img class="latex" title="{0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{0}"/> algebraic variety is finite. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
Using ultrafilter analysis, we immediately obtain the following quantitative analogue:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Lemma 5 (Quantitative Bezout-type theorem)</b>  Let <img class="latex" title="{A \subset k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+%5Csubset+k%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A \subset k^n}"/> be an algebraic set of dimension <img class="latex" title="{0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{0}"/> and complexity at most <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/> over a field <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/>. Then the cardinality <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> is bounded by a quantity <img class="latex" title="{C_M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC_M%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C_M}"/> depending only on <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/> (in particular, it is independent of <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/>). </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
<em>Proof:</em>  By passing to the algebraic closure, we may assume that <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/> is algebraically closed.
</p>
<p>
Suppose this were not the case. Carefully negating the quantifiers (and using the axiom of choice), we may find a sequence <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha \subset k_\alpha^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha+%5Csubset+k_%5Calpha%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha \subset k_\alpha^n}"/> of dimension <img class="latex" title="{0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{0}"/> algebraic sets and uniformly bounded complexity over algebraically closed fields <img class="latex" title="{k_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k_\alpha}"/>, such that <img class="latex" title="{|A_\alpha| \rightarrow \infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7CA_%5Calpha%7C+%5Crightarrow+%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|A_\alpha| \rightarrow \infty}"/> as <img class="latex" title="{\alpha \rightarrow \infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha \rightarrow \infty}"/>. We pass to an ultralimit to obtain a limit algebraic set <img class="latex" title="{A := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+:=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+A_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha}"/>, which by Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#dimcont">3</a> has dimension <img class="latex" title="{0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{0}"/>, and is thus finite by Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#qualbez">4</a>. But then this forces <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/> to be bounded for <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/> (indeed we have <img class="latex" title="{|A_\alpha| = |A|}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7CA_%5Calpha%7C+=+%7CA%7C%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|A_\alpha| = |A|}"/> in such a neighbourhood), contradiction. <img class="latex" title="\Box" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5CBox&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\Box"/></p>
<blockquote><p><b>Remark 5</b>  Note that this proof gives absolutely no bound on <img class="latex" title="{C_M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC_M%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C_M}"/> in terms of <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/>! One can get such a bound by using more effective tools, such as the actual Bezout theorem, but this requires more actual knowledge of how the qualitative algebraic results are proved. If one only knows the qualitative results as a black box, then the ineffective quantitative result is the best one can do. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
Now we give another illustration of the method. The following fundamental result in algebraic geometry is known:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Lemma 6 (Qualitative Noetherian condition)</b> <a name="noether"/> There does not exist an infinite decreasing sequence of algebraic sets in a affine space <img class="latex" title="{k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^n}"/>, in which each set is a proper subset of the previous one. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
Using ultralimit analysis, one can convert this qualitative result into an ostensibly stronger quantitative version:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Lemma 7 (Quantitative Noetherian condition)</b> <a name="quant-noether"/> Let <img class="latex" title="{F: {\mathbb N} \rightarrow {\mathbb N}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BF:+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D+%5Crightarrow+%7B%5Cmathbb+N%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{F: {\mathbb N} \rightarrow {\mathbb N}}"/> be a function. Let <img class="latex" title="{A_1 \supsetneq A_2 \supsetneq \ldots \supsetneq A_R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_1+%5Csupsetneq+A_2+%5Csupsetneq+%5Cldots+%5Csupsetneq+A_R%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_1 \supsetneq A_2 \supsetneq \ldots \supsetneq A_R}"/> be a sequence of properly nested algebraic sets in <img class="latex" title="{k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^n}"/> for some algebraically closed field <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/>, such that each <img class="latex" title="{A_i}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_i%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_i}"/> has complexity at most <img class="latex" title="{F(i)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BF(i)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{F(i)}"/>. Then <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/> is bounded by <img class="latex" title="{C_F}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC_F%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C_F}"/> for some <img class="latex" title="{C_F}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC_F%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C_F}"/> depending only on <img class="latex" title="{F}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BF%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{F}"/> (in particular, it is independent of <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/>). </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<blockquote><p><b>Remark 6</b>  Specialising to the case when <img class="latex" title="{F}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BF%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{F}"/> is a constant <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/>, we see that there is an upper bound on proper nested sequences of algebraic sets of bounded complexity; but the statement is more powerful than this because we allow <img class="latex" title="{F}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BF%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{F}"/> to be non-constant. Note that one can easily use this strong form of the quantitative Noetherian condition to recover Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#noether">6</a> (why?), but if one only knew Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#quant-noether">7</a> in the constant case <img class="latex" title="{F=M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BF=M%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{F=M}"/> then this does not obviously recover Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#noether">6</a>. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
<em>Proof:</em>  Note that <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/> is bounded by <img class="latex" title="{F(1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BF(1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{F(1)}"/>, so it will suffice to prove this claim for a fixed <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/>.
</p>
<p>
Fix <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/>. Suppose the claim failed. Carefully negating all the quantifiers (and using the axiom of choice), we see that there exists an <img class="latex" title="{F}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BF%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{F}"/>, a sequence <img class="latex" title="{k_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k_\alpha}"/> of algebraically closed fields, a sequence <img class="latex" title="{R_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R_\alpha}"/> going to infinity, and sequences </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  A_{\alpha,1} \supsetneq \ldots \supsetneq A_{\alpha,R_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++A_%7B%5Calpha,1%7D+%5Csupsetneq+%5Cldots+%5Csupsetneq+A_%7B%5Calpha,R_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  A_{\alpha,1} \supsetneq \ldots \supsetneq A_{\alpha,R_\alpha}"/></p>
<p> of properly nested algebraic sets in <img class="latex" title="{k_\alpha^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk_%5Calpha%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k_\alpha^n}"/>, with each <img class="latex" title="{A_{\alpha,i}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%7B%5Calpha,i%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_{\alpha,i}}"/> having complexity at most <img class="latex" title="{F(i)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BF(i)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{F(i)}"/>.</p>
<p>
We take an ultralimit of everything that depends on <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/>, creating an algebraically closed field <img class="latex" title="{k = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} k_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk+=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+k_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k = \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} k_\alpha}"/>, and an infinite sequence </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  A_1 \supsetneq A_2 \supsetneq \ldots" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++A_1+%5Csupsetneq+A_2+%5Csupsetneq+%5Cldots&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  A_1 \supsetneq A_2 \supsetneq \ldots"/></p>
<p> of properly nested algebraic sets in <img class="latex" title="{k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^n}"/>. (In fact, we could continue this sequence into a limit sequence up to the unbounded limit number <img class="latex" title="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} R_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+R_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} R_\alpha}"/>, but we will not need this <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overspill">overspill</a> here.) But this contradicts Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#noether">6</a>. <img class="latex" title="\Box" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5CBox&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\Box"/></p>
<p>
Again, this argument gives absolutely no clue as to how <img class="latex" title="{C_F}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC_F%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C_F}"/> is going to depend on <img class="latex" title="{F}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BF%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{F}"/>. (Indeed, I would be curious to know what this dependence is exactly.)
</p>
<p>
Let us give one last illustration of the ultralimit analysis method, which contains an additional subtlety. Define an <em>algebraic variety</em> to be an algebraic set which is <em>irreducible</em>, which means that it cannot be expressed as the union of two proper subalgebraic sets. This notation is stable under ultralimits:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Lemma 8 (Continuity of irreducibility)</b> <a name="cont-irred"/> Suppose that <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha \subset k_\alpha^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha+%5Csubset+k_%5Calpha%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha \subset k_\alpha^n}"/> are algebraic sets over various algebraically closed fields <img class="latex" title="{k_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k_\alpha}"/> of uniformly bounded complexity, and let <img class="latex" title="{A := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+:=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+A_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A_\alpha}"/> be the limiting algebraic set given by Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#algs">2</a>. Then <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> is an algebraic variety if and only if <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/> is an algebraic variety for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
However, this lemma is somewhat harder to prove than previous ones, because the notion of irreducibility is not quite a first order statement. The following exercises show the limit of what one can do without using some serious algebraic geometry:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 3</b> <a name="cont1"/> Let the notation and assumptions be as in Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#cont-irred">8</a>. Show that if <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> is <em>not</em> an algebraic variety, then <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/> is a not algebraic variety for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>. </p></blockquote>
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<blockquote><p><b>Exercise 4</b> <a name="cont2"/> Let the notation and assumptions be as in Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#cont-irred">8</a>. Call an algebraic set <em><img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/>-irreducible</em> if it cannot be expressed as the union of two proper algebraic sets of complexity at most <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/>. Show that if <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> <em>is</em> an algebraic variety, then for every <img class="latex" title="{M \geq 1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM+%5Cgeq+1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M \geq 1}"/>, <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/> is <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/>-irreducible for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>. </p></blockquote>
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These exercises are not quite strong enough to give Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#cont-irred">8</a>, because <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/>-irreducibility is a weaker concept than irreducibility. However, one can do better by applying some further facts in algebraic geometry. Given an algebraic set <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> of dimension <img class="latex" title="{d \geq 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd+%5Cgeq+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d \geq 0}"/> in an affine space <img class="latex" title="{k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^n}"/>, one can assign a <em>degree</em> <img class="latex" title="{\deg(A)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cdeg(A)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\deg(A)}"/>, which is a positive integer such that <img class="latex" title="{|A \cap V| = \deg(A)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7CA+%5Ccap+V%7C+=+%5Cdeg(A)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|A \cap V| = \deg(A)}"/> for <em>generic</em> <img class="latex" title="{n-d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn-d%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n-d}"/>-dimensional affine subspaces of <img class="latex" title="{k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^n}"/>, which means that <img class="latex" title="{V}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V}"/> belongs to the <em>affine Grassmannian</em> <img class="latex" title="{Gr}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BGr%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{Gr}"/> of <img class="latex" title="{n-d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn-d%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n-d}"/>-dimensional affine subspaces of <img class="latex" title="{k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^n}"/>, after removing an algebraic subset of <img class="latex" title="{Gr}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BGr%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{Gr}"/> of dimension strictly less than that of <img class="latex" title="{Gr}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BGr%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{Gr}"/>. It is a standard fact of algebraic geometry that every algebraic set can be assigned a degree. Somewhat less trivially, the degree controls the complexity:
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<blockquote><p><b>Theorem 9 (Degree controls complexity)</b> <a name="klei"/> Let <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> be an algebraic variety of <img class="latex" title="{k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^n}"/> of degree <img class="latex" title="{D}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BD%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{D}"/>. Then <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> has complexity at most <img class="latex" title="{C_{n,D}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC_%7Bn,D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C_{n,D}}"/> for some constants <img class="latex" title="{n, D}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn,+D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n, D}"/> depending only on <img class="latex" title="{n, D}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn,+D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n, D}"/>. </p></blockquote>
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<em>Proof:</em>  (We thank Jordan Ellenberg and Ania Otwinowska for this argument.) It suffices to show that <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> can be cut out by polynomials of degree <img class="latex" title="{D}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BD%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{D}"/>, since the space of polynomials of degree <img class="latex" title="{D}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BD%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{D}"/> that vanish on <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> is a vector space of dimension bounded only by <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/> and <img class="latex" title="{D}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BD%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{D}"/>.
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Let <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> have dimension <img class="latex" title="{d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d}"/>. We pick a generic affine subspace <img class="latex" title="{V}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V}"/> of <img class="latex" title="{k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^n}"/> of dimension <img class="latex" title="{n-d-2}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn-d-2%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n-d-2}"/>, and consider the cone <img class="latex" title="{C(V,A)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC(V,A)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C(V,A)}"/> formed by taking all the union of all the lines joining a point in <img class="latex" title="{V}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V}"/> to a point in <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/>. This is an algebraic image of <img class="latex" title="{V \times A \times {\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV+%5Ctimes+A+%5Ctimes+%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V \times A \times {\mathbb R}}"/> and is thus generically an algebraic set of dimension <img class="latex" title="{n-1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn-1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n-1}"/>, i.e. a hypersurface. Furthermore, as <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> has degree <img class="latex" title="{D}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BD%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{D}"/>, it is not hard to see that <img class="latex" title="{C(V,A)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC(V,A)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C(V,A)}"/> has degree <img class="latex" title="{D}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BD%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{D}"/> as well. Since a hypersurface is necessarily cut out by a single polynomial, this polynomial must have degree <img class="latex" title="{D}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BD%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{D}"/>.
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To finish the claim, it suffices to show that the intersection of the <img class="latex" title="{C(V,A)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC(V,A)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C(V,A)}"/> as <img class="latex" title="{V}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V}"/> varies is exactly <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/>. Clearly, this intersection contains <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/>. Now let <img class="latex" title="{p}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bp%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{p}"/> be any point not in <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/>. The cone of <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> over <img class="latex" title="{p}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bp%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{p}"/> can be viewed as an algebraic subset of the projective space <img class="latex" title="{P^{n-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BP%5E%7Bn-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{P^{n-1}}"/> of dimension <img class="latex" title="{d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d}"/>; meanwhile, the cone of a generic subspace <img class="latex" title="{V}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V}"/> of dimension <img class="latex" title="{n-d-2}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn-d-2%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n-d-2}"/> is a generic subspace of <img class="latex" title="{P^{n-1}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BP%5E%7Bn-1%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{P^{n-1}}"/> of the same dimension. Thus, for generic <img class="latex" title="{V}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V}"/>, these two cones do not intersect, and thus <img class="latex" title="{p}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bp%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{p}"/> lies outside <img class="latex" title="{C(V,A)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC(V,A)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C(V,A)}"/>, and the claim follows. <img class="latex" title="\Box" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5CBox&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\Box"/></p>
<blockquote><p><b>Remark 7</b>  There is a stronger theorem that asserts that if the degree of a <em>scheme</em> in <img class="latex" title="{k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^n}"/> is bounded, then the complexity of that scheme is bounded as well. The main difference between a variety and a scheme here is that for a scheme, we not only specify the set of points cut out by the scheme, but also the ideal of functions that we want to think of as vanishing on that set. This theorem is significantly more difficult than the above result; it is <a href="http://www.msri.org/publications/books/sga/sga/6/6t_659.html">Corollary 6.11</a> of Kleiman’s SGA6 article. </p></blockquote>
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<p>
Given this theorem, we can now prove Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#cont-irred">8</a>.
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<em>Proof:</em>  In view of Exercise <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#cont1">3</a>, it suffices to show that if <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> is irreducible, then the <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/> are irreducible for <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_0}"/>.
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<p>
The algebraic set <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> has some dimension <img class="latex" title="{d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d}"/> and degree <img class="latex" title="{D}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BD%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{D}"/>, thus <img class="latex" title="{|A \cap V| = D}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7CA+%5Ccap+V%7C+=+D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|A \cap V| = D}"/> for generic affine <img class="latex" title="{n-d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn-d%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n-d}"/>-dimensional subspaces <img class="latex" title="{V}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V}"/> of <img class="latex" title="{k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k^n}"/>. Undoing the limit using Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#algs">2</a> and Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#dimcont">3</a> (adapted to the Grassmannian <img class="latex" title="{Gr}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BGr%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{Gr}"/> rather than to affine space), we see that for <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_0}"/>, <img class="latex" title="{|A_\alpha \cap V_\alpha| = D}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7CA_%5Calpha+%5Ccap+V_%5Calpha%7C+=+D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|A_\alpha \cap V_\alpha| = D}"/> for generic affine <img class="latex" title="{n-d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn-d%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n-d}"/>-dimensional subspaces <img class="latex" title="{V_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BV_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{V_\alpha}"/> of <img class="latex" title="{k_\alpha^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk_%5Calpha%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k_\alpha^n}"/>. In other words, <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/> has degree <img class="latex" title="{D}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BD%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{D}"/>, and thus by Theorem <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#klei">9</a>, any algebraic variety of <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/> of the same dimension <img class="latex" title="{d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d}"/> as <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/> will have complexity bounded by <img class="latex" title="{C_{n,D}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC_%7Bn,D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C_{n,D}}"/> uniformly in <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/>. Let <img class="latex" title="{B_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B_\alpha}"/> be a <img class="latex" title="{d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d}"/>-dimensional algebraic subvariety of <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/>, and let <img class="latex" title="{B}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B}"/> be the ultralimit of the <img class="latex" title="{B_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B_\alpha}"/>. Then by Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#algs">2</a>, Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#dimcont">3</a> and the uniform complexity bound, <img class="latex" title="{B}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B}"/> is a <img class="latex" title="{d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{d}"/>-dimensional algebraic subset of <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/>, and thus must equal all of <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> by irreducibility of <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/>. But this implies that <img class="latex" title="{B_\alpha=A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB_%5Calpha=A_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B_\alpha=A_\alpha}"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_0}"/>, and the claim follows. <img class="latex" title="\Box" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5CBox&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\Box"/></p>
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We give a sample application of this result. From the Noetherian condition we easily obtain
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<blockquote><p><b>Lemma 10 (Qualitative decomposition into varieties)</b>  Every algebraic set can be expressed as a union of finitely many algebraic varieties. </p></blockquote>
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<p>
Using ultralimit analysis, we can make this quantitative:
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<blockquote><p><b>Lemma 11 (Quantitative decomposition into varieties)</b>  Let <img class="latex" title="{A \subset k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+%5Csubset+k%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A \subset k^n}"/> be an algebraic set of complexity at most <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/> over an algebraically closed field <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/>. Then <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> can be expressed as the union of at most <img class="latex" title="{C_M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC_M%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C_M}"/> algebraic varieties of complexity at most <img class="latex" title="{C_M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC_M%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C_M}"/>, where <img class="latex" title="{C_M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC_M%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C_M}"/> depends only on <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/>. </p></blockquote>
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<p>
<em>Proof:</em>  As <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/> is bounded by <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/>, it suffices to prove the claim for a fixed <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/>.
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Fix <img class="latex" title="{n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{n}"/> and <img class="latex" title="{M}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M}"/>. Suppose the claim failed. Carefully negating all the quantifiers (and using the axiom of choice), we see that there exists a sequence <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha\subset k_\alpha^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%5Csubset+k_%5Calpha%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha\subset k_\alpha^n}"/> of uniformly bounded complexity, such that <img class="latex" title="{A_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_\alpha}"/> cannot be expressed as the union of at most <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> algebraic varieties of complexity at most <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/>. Now we pass to an ultralimit, obtaining a limit algebraic set <img class="latex" title="{A \subset k^n}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+%5Csubset+k%5En%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A \subset k^n}"/>. As discussed earlier, <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> is an algebraic set over an algebraically closed field and is thus expressible as the union of a finite number of algebraic varieties <img class="latex" title="{A_1,\ldots,A_m}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_1,%5Cldots,A_m%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_1,\ldots,A_m}"/>. By Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#algs">2</a> and Lemma <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#cont-irred">8</a>, each <img class="latex" title="{A_i}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_i%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_i}"/> is an ultralimit of algebraic varieties <img class="latex" title="{A_{\alpha,i}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA_%7B%5Calpha,i%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A_{\alpha,i}}"/> of bounded complexity. The claim follows. <img class="latex" title="\Box" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5CBox&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\Box"/></p>
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<p align="center"><b> —  3. Application: Quantitative Gromov theorem  — </b></p>
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As a further illustration, I’ll redo an application of the correspondence principle from a <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/the-correspondence-principle-and-finitary-ergodic-theory/">previous post of mine</a>. The starting point is the following famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gromov's_theorem_on_groups_of_polynomial_growth">theorem of Gromov</a>:
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<blockquote><p><b>Theorem 12 (Qualitative Gromov theorem)</b> <a name="gromov"/> Every finitely generated group of polynomial growth is virtually nilpotent. </p></blockquote>
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<p>
Let us now make the observation (already observed in Gromov’s original paper) that this theorem implies (and is in fact equivalent to) a quantitative version:
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<blockquote><p><b>Theorem 13 (Quantitative Gromov theorem)</b> <a name="gromov-quant"/> For every <img class="latex" title="{C, d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC,+d%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C, d}"/> there exists <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/> such that if <img class="latex" title="{G}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G}"/> is generated by a finite set <img class="latex" title="{S}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S}"/> with the growth condition <img class="latex" title="{|B_S(r)| \leq Cr^d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7CB_S(r)%7C+%5Cleq+Cr%5Ed%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|B_S(r)| \leq Cr^d}"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{1 \leq r \leq R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B1+%5Cleq+r+%5Cleq+R%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{1 \leq r \leq R}"/>, then <img class="latex" title="{G}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G}"/> is virtually nilpotent, and furthermore it has a nilpotent subgroup of step and index at most <img class="latex" title="{M_{C,d}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_%7BC,d%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_{C,d}}"/> for some <img class="latex" title="{M_{C,d}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_%7BC,d%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_{C,d}}"/> depending only on <img class="latex" title="{C,d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC,d%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C,d}"/>. Here <img class="latex" title="{B_S(r)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB_S(r)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B_S(r)}"/> is the ball of radius <img class="latex" title="{r}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Br%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{r}"/> generated by the set <img class="latex" title="{S}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S}"/>. </p></blockquote>
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<p>
<em>Proof:</em>  We use ultralimit analysis. Suppose this theorem failed. Carefully negating the quantifiers, we find that there exists <img class="latex" title="{C, d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BC,+d%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{C, d}"/>, as well as a sequence <img class="latex" title="{G_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G_\alpha}"/> of groups generated by a finite set <img class="latex" title="{S_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S_\alpha}"/> such that <img class="latex" title="{|B_{S_\alpha}(r)| \leq C r^d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7CB_%7BS_%5Calpha%7D(r)%7C+%5Cleq+C+r%5Ed%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|B_{S_\alpha}(r)| \leq C r^d}"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{1 \leq r \leq \alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B1+%5Cleq+r+%5Cleq+%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{1 \leq r \leq \alpha}"/>, and such that <img class="latex" title="{G_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G_\alpha}"/> does not contain any nilpotent subgroup of step and index at most <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/>.
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<p>
Now we take ultralimits, setting <img class="latex" title="{G := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} G_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG+:=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+G_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} G_\alpha}"/> and <img class="latex" title="{S := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} S_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS+:=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+S_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} S_\alpha}"/>. As the <img class="latex" title="{S_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S_\alpha}"/> have cardinality uniformly bounded (by <img class="latex" title="{Cr^1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BCr%5E1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{Cr^1}"/>), <img class="latex" title="{S}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S}"/> is finite. The set <img class="latex" title="{S}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S}"/> need not generate <img class="latex" title="{G}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G}"/>, but it certainly generates some subgroup <img class="latex" title="{\langle S \rangle}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clangle+S+%5Crangle%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\langle S \rangle}"/> of this group. Since <img class="latex" title="{|B_{S_\alpha}(r)| \leq C r^d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7CB_%7BS_%5Calpha%7D(r)%7C+%5Cleq+C+r%5Ed%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|B_{S_\alpha}(r)| \leq C r^d}"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> and all <img class="latex" title="{1 \leq r \leq \alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B1+%5Cleq+r+%5Cleq+%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{1 \leq r \leq \alpha}"/>, we see on taking ultralimits that <img class="latex" title="{|B_S(r)| \leq Cr^d}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7CB_S(r)%7C+%5Cleq+Cr%5Ed%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{|B_S(r)| \leq Cr^d}"/> for all <img class="latex" title="{r}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Br%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{r}"/>. Thus <img class="latex" title="{\langle S \rangle}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clangle+S+%5Crangle%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\langle S \rangle}"/> is of polynomial growth, and is thus virtually nilpotent.
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<p>
Now we need to undo the ultralimit, but this requires a certain amount of preparation. We know that <img class="latex" title="{\langle S \rangle}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clangle+S+%5Crangle%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\langle S \rangle}"/> contains a finite index nilpotent subgroup <img class="latex" title="{G'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G'}"/>. As <img class="latex" title="{\langle S \rangle}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clangle+S+%5Crangle%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\langle S \rangle}"/> is finitely generated, the finite index subgroup <img class="latex" title="{G'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G'}"/> is also. (Proof: for <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/> large enough, <img class="latex" title="{B_S(R)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB_S(R)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B_S(R)}"/> will intersect every coset of <img class="latex" title="{G'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G'}"/>. As a consequence, one can describe the action of <img class="latex" title="{\langle S\rangle}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clangle+S%5Crangle%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\langle S\rangle}"/> on the finite set <img class="latex" title="{\langle S \rangle/G'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clangle+S+%5Crangle/G'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\langle S \rangle/G'}"/> using only knowledge of <img class="latex" title="{B_S(2R+1) \cap G'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB_S(2R+1)+%5Ccap+G'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B_S(2R+1) \cap G'}"/>. In particular, <img class="latex" title="{B_S(2R+1) \cap G'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB_S(2R+1)+%5Ccap+G'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B_S(2R+1) \cap G'}"/> generates a finite index subgroup. Increasing <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/>, the index of this subgroup is non-increasing, and thus must eventually stabilise. At that point, we generate all of <img class="latex" title="{G'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G'}"/>.) Let <img class="latex" title="{S'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S'}"/> be a set of generators for <img class="latex" title="{G'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G'}"/>. Since <img class="latex" title="{G'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G'}"/> is nilpotent of some step <img class="latex" title="{s}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s}"/>, all commutators of <img class="latex" title="{S'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S'}"/> of length at least <img class="latex" title="{s+1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs+1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s+1}"/> vanish.
</p>
<p>
Writing <img class="latex" title="{S'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S'}"/> as an ultralimit of <img class="latex" title="{S'_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS'_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S'_\alpha}"/>, we see that the <img class="latex" title="{S'_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS'_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S'_\alpha}"/> are finite subsets of <img class="latex" title="{G_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G_\alpha}"/> which generate some subgroup <img class="latex" title="{G'_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG'_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G'_\alpha}"/>. Since all commutators of <img class="latex" title="{S'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S'}"/> of length at least <img class="latex" title="{s+1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs+1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{s+1}"/> vanish, the same is true for <img class="latex" title="{S'_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS'_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S'_\alpha}"/> for <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> close enough to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>, and so <img class="latex" title="{G'_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG'_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G'_\alpha}"/> is nilpotent for such <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> with step bounded uniformly in <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/>.
</p>
<p>
Finally, if we let <img class="latex" title="{R}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{R}"/> be large enough that <img class="latex" title="{B_S(R)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB_S(R)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B_S(R)}"/> intersects every coset of <img class="latex" title="{G'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G'}"/>, then we can cover <img class="latex" title="{B_S(R+1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB_S(R+1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B_S(R+1)}"/> by a product of <img class="latex" title="{B_S(R)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB_S(R)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B_S(R)}"/> and some elements of <img class="latex" title="{G'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G'}"/> (which are of course finite products of elements in <img class="latex" title="{S'}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BS'%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{S'}"/> and their inverses). Undoing the ultralimit, we see that for <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/> sufficiently close to <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/>, we can cover <img class="latex" title="{B_{S_\alpha}(R+1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB_%7BS_%5Calpha%7D(R+1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B_{S_\alpha}(R+1)}"/> by the product of <img class="latex" title="{B_{S_\alpha}(R)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB_%7BS_%5Calpha%7D(R)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B_{S_\alpha}(R)}"/> and some elements of <img class="latex" title="{G'_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG'_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G'_\alpha}"/>. Iterating this we see that we can cover all of <img class="latex" title="{G_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G_\alpha}"/> by <img class="latex" title="{B_{S_\alpha}(R)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB_%7BS_%5Calpha%7D(R)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B_{S_\alpha}(R)}"/> times <img class="latex" title="{G'_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG'_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G'_\alpha}"/>, and so <img class="latex" title="{G'_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG'_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G'_\alpha}"/> has finite index bounded uniformly in <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/>. But this contradicts the construction of <img class="latex" title="{G_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BG_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{G_\alpha}"/>. <img class="latex" title="\Box" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5CBox&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\Box"/></p>
<blockquote><p><b>Remark 8</b>  As usual, the argument gives no effective bound on <img class="latex" title="{M_{C,d}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BM_%7BC,d%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{M_{C,d}}"/>. Obtaining such an effective bound is in fact rather non-trivial; see <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/a-finitary-version-of-gromovs-polynomial-growth-theorem/">this paper of Yehuda Shalom and myself</a> for further discussion. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p align="center"><b> —  4. Application: Furstenberg correspondence principle  — </b></p>
<p>
Let me now redo another application of the correspondence principle via ultralimit analysis. We will begin with the following <a href="http://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=498471">famous result of Furstenberg</a>:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Theorem 14 (Furstenberg recurrence theorem)</b> <a name="furst"/> Let <img class="latex" title="{(X, {\mathcal B}, \mu, T)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B(X,+%7B%5Cmathcal+B%7D,+%5Cmu,+T)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{(X, {\mathcal B}, \mu, T)}"/> be a measure-preserving system, and let <img class="latex" title="{A \subset X}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+%5Csubset+X%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A \subset X}"/> have positive measure. Let <img class="latex" title="{k \geq 1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk+%5Cgeq+1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k \geq 1}"/>. Then there exists <img class="latex" title="{r &gt; 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Br+%3E+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{r &gt; 0}"/> such that <img class="latex" title="{A \cap T^r A \cap \ldots \cap T^{(k-1)r} A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA+%5Ccap+T%5Er+A+%5Ccap+%5Cldots+%5Ccap+T%5E%7B(k-1)r%7D+A%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A \cap T^r A \cap \ldots \cap T^{(k-1)r} A}"/> is non-empty. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
We then use this theorem and ultralimit analysis to derive the following well-known <a href="http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Szemer%C3%A9di's_Theorem">result of Szemerédi</a>:
</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Theorem 15 (Szemerédi’s theorem)</b>  Every set of integers of positive upper density contains arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions. </p></blockquote>
<p/>
<p>
<em>Proof:</em>  Suppose this were not the case. Then there exists <img class="latex" title="{k \geq 1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk+%5Cgeq+1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k \geq 1}"/> and a set <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> of positive upper density with no progressions of length <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/>. Unpacking the definition of positive upper density, this means that there exists <img class="latex" title="{\delta &gt; 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cdelta+%3E+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\delta &gt; 0}"/> and a sequence <img class="latex" title="{N_\alpha \rightarrow \infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BN_%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{N_\alpha \rightarrow \infty}"/> such that </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  |A \cap [-N_\alpha, N_\alpha]| \geq \delta |[-N_\alpha, N_\alpha]|" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7CA+%5Ccap+%5B-N_%5Calpha,+N_%5Calpha%5D%7C+%5Cgeq+%5Cdelta+%7C%5B-N_%5Calpha,+N_%5Calpha%5D%7C&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  |A \cap [-N_\alpha, N_\alpha]| \geq \delta |[-N_\alpha, N_\alpha]|"/></p>
<p> for all <img class="latex" title="{\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha}"/>. We pass to an ultralimit, introducing the limit natural number <img class="latex" title="{N := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} N_\alpha}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BN+:=+%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+N_%5Calpha%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{N := \lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} N_\alpha}"/> and using the ultrapower <img class="latex" title="{{}^* A =\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+A+=%5Clim_%7B%5Calpha+%5Crightarrow+%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D+A%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* A =\lim_{\alpha \rightarrow \alpha_\infty} A}"/> (note that <img class="latex" title="{A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{A}"/> is a space, not an ordinary object). Then we have
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  |{}^*A \cap [-N, N]| \geq \delta |[-N, N]|" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%7C%7B%7D%5E*A+%5Ccap+%5B-N,+N%5D%7C+%5Cgeq+%5Cdelta+%7C%5B-N,+N%5D%7C&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  |{}^*A \cap [-N, N]| \geq \delta |[-N, N]|"/></p>
<p> where the cardinalities are in the limit sense. Note also that <img class="latex" title="{{}^*A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*A%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^*A}"/> has no progressins of length <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/>.</p>
<p>
Consider the space of all boolean combinations of shifts <img class="latex" title="{{}^* A + r}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+A+++r%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* A + r}"/> of <img class="latex" title="{{}^* A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+A%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* A}"/>, where <img class="latex" title="{r}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Br%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{r}"/> ranges over (standard) integers, thus for instance </p>
<p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  ({}^* A + 3) \cap ({}^* A + 5) \backslash ({}^* A - 7)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++(%7B%7D%5E*+A+++3)+%5Ccap+(%7B%7D%5E*+A+++5)+%5Cbackslash+(%7B%7D%5E*+A+-+7)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  ({}^* A + 3) \cap ({}^* A + 5) \backslash ({}^* A - 7)"/></p>
<p> would be such a set. We call such sets <em>definable sets</em>. We give each such definable set <img class="latex" title="{B}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B}"/> a limit measure
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \mu(B) := |B \cap [-N,N]| / [-N,N]." src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cmu(B)+:=+%7CB+%5Ccap+%5B-N,N%5D%7C+/+%5B-N,N%5D.&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \mu(B) := |B \cap [-N,N]| / [-N,N]."/></p>
<p> This measure takes values in the limit interval <img class="latex" title="{{}^*[0,1]}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*%5B0,1%5D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^*[0,1]}"/> and is clearly a finitely additive probability measure. It is also nearly translation invariant in the sense that
</p><p align="center"><img class="latex" title="\displaystyle  \mu(B+k) = \mu(B) + o(1)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Cmu(B+k)+=+%5Cmu(B)+++o(1)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\displaystyle  \mu(B+k) = \mu(B) + o(1)"/></p>
<p> for any standard integer <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/>, where <img class="latex" title="{o(1)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bo(1)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{o(1)}"/> is an <em>infinitesimal</em> (i.e. a limit real number which is smaller in magnitude than any positive standard real number). In particular, the standard part <img class="latex" title="{st(\mu)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bst(%5Cmu)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{st(\mu)}"/> of <img class="latex" title="{\mu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\mu}"/> is a finitely additive <em>standard</em> probability measure. Note from construction that <img class="latex" title="{st(\mu)(A) \geq \delta}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bst(%5Cmu)(A)+%5Cgeq+%5Cdelta%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{st(\mu)(A) \geq \delta}"/>.</p>
<p>
Now we convert this finitely additive measure into a countably additive one. Let <img class="latex" title="{2^{\mathbb Z}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B2%5E%7B%5Cmathbb+Z%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{2^{\mathbb Z}}"/> be the set of all subsets <img class="latex" title="{B}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BB%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{B}"/> of the integers. This is a compact metrisable space, which we endow with the Borel <img class="latex" title="{\sigma}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Csigma%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\sigma}"/>-algebra <img class="latex" title="{{\mathcal B}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathcal+B%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathcal B}}"/> and the standard shift <img class="latex" title="{T: B \mapsto B+1}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BT:+B+%5Cmapsto+B+1%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{T: B \mapsto B+1}"/>. The Borel <img class="latex" title="{\sigma}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Csigma%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\sigma}"/>-algebra is generated by the clopen sets in this space, which are boolean combinations of <img class="latex" title="{T^r E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BT%5Er+E%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{T^r E}"/>, where <img class="latex" title="{E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BE%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{E}"/> is the basic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylinder_set">cylinder set</a> <img class="latex" title="{E := \{ B \in 2^{\mathbb Z}: 0 \in B \}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BE+:=+%5C%7B+B+%5Cin+2%5E%7B%5Cmathbb+Z%7D:+0+%5Cin+B+%5C%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{E := \{ B \in 2^{\mathbb Z}: 0 \in B \}}"/>. Each clopen set can be assigned a definable set in <img class="latex" title="{{}^* {\mathbb Z}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+%7B%5Cmathbb+Z%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* {\mathbb Z}}"/> by mapping <img class="latex" title="{T^r E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BT%5Er+E%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{T^r E}"/> to <img class="latex" title="{{}^* A + r}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+A+++r%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* A + r}"/> and then extending by boolean combinations. The finitely additive probability measure <img class="latex" title="{st(\mu)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bst(%5Cmu)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{st(\mu)}"/> on definable sets then pulls back to a finitely additive probability measure <img class="latex" title="{\nu}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cnu%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\nu}"/> on clopen sets in <img class="latex" title="{2^{\mathbb Z}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B2%5E%7B%5Cmathbb+Z%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{2^{\mathbb Z}}"/>. Applying the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carath%C3%A9odory's_extension_theorem">Carathéodory extension theorem</a> (taking advantage of the compactness of <img class="latex" title="{2^{\mathbb Z}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B2%5E%7B%5Cmathbb+Z%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{2^{\mathbb Z}}"/>), we can extend this finitely additive measure to a countably additive Borel probability measure.
</p>
<p>
By construction, <img class="latex" title="{\nu(E) \geq \delta &gt; 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cnu(E)+%5Cgeq+%5Cdelta+%3E+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\nu(E) \geq \delta &gt; 0}"/>. Applying Theorem <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-ultralimit-argument-and-quantitative-algebraic-geometry/#furst">14</a>, we can find <img class="latex" title="{r &gt; 0}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Br+%3E+0%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{r &gt; 0}"/> such that <img class="latex" title="{E \cap T^r E \cap \ldots \cap T^{(k-1)r} E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BE+%5Ccap+T%5Er+E+%5Ccap+%5Cldots+%5Ccap+T%5E%7B(k-1)r%7D+E%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{E \cap T^r E \cap \ldots \cap T^{(k-1)r} E}"/> is non-empty. This implies that <img class="latex" title="{{}^* A \cap ({}^* A + r) \cap \ldots \cap ({}^* A + (k-1)r)}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+A+%5Ccap+(%7B%7D%5E*+A+++r)+%5Ccap+%5Cldots+%5Ccap+(%7B%7D%5E*+A+++(k-1)r)%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* A \cap ({}^* A + r) \cap \ldots \cap ({}^* A + (k-1)r)}"/> is non-empty, and so <img class="latex" title="{{}^* A}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%7D%5E*+A%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{}^* A}"/> contains an arithmetic progression of length <img class="latex" title="{k}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bk%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{k}"/>, a contradiction. <img class="latex" title="\Box" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5CBox&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\Box"/></p>
<p>
Note that the above argument is nearly identical to the usual proof of the correspondence principle, which uses <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prokhorov's_theorem">Prokhorov’s theorem</a> instead of ultrafilters.
</p>
<p/>
<p align="center"><b> —  5. Relationship with nonstandard analysis  — </b></p>
<p>
Ultralimit analysis is extremely close to, but subtly different from, nonstandard analysis, because of a shift of emphasis and philosophy. The relationship can be illustrated by the following table of analogies:
</p>
<p/><table align="center">
<tbody><tr>
<td align="left"> Digits </td>
<td align="left"> Strings of digits </td>
<td align="left"> Numbers </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> Symbols </td>
<td align="left"> Strings of symbols </td>
<td align="left"> Sentences </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> Set theory </td>
<td align="left"> Finite von Neumann ordinals </td>
<td align="left"> Peano arithmetic </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> Rational numbers <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb Q}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+Q%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb Q}}"/> </td>
<td align="left"> <img class="latex" title="{\overline{{\mathbb Q}}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Coverline%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+Q%7D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\overline{{\mathbb Q}}}"/> </td>
<td align="left"> Real numbers <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb R}}"/></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> Real analysis </td>
<td align="left"> Analysis on <img class="latex" title="{\overline{{\mathbb R}}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Coverline%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\overline{{\mathbb R}}}"/> </td>
<td align="left"> Complex analysis </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb R}}"/> </td>
<td align="left"> <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb R}^2}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%5E2%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb R}^2}"/> </td>
<td align="left"> Euclidean plane geometry</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb R}}"/> </td>
<td align="left"> Coordinate chart atlases </td>
<td align="left"> Manifolds </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> <img class="latex" title="{{\mathbb R}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{{\mathbb R}}"/> </td>
<td align="left"> Matrices </td>
<td align="left"> Linear transformations </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> Algebra </td>
<td align="left"> Sheaves of rings </td>
<td align="left"> Schemes </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> Deterministic theory </td>
<td align="left"> Measure theory </td>
<td align="left"> Probability theory </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> Probability theory </td>
<td align="left"> Von Neumann algebras </td>
<td align="left"> Noncommutative probability theory </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> Classical mechanics </td>
<td align="left"> Hilbert space mechanics </td>
<td align="left"> Quantum mechanics </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> Finitary analysis </td>
<td align="left"> Asymptotic analysis </td>
<td align="left"> Infinitary analysis </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> Combinatorics </td>
<td align="left"> Correspondence principle </td>
<td align="left"> Ergodic theory </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> Quantitative analysis </td>
<td align="left"> Compactness arguments </td>
<td align="left"> Qualitative analysis </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> Standard analysis </td>
<td align="left"> Ultralimit analysis </td>
<td align="left"> Nonstandard analysis </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> </td>
<td align="left"> </td>
<td align="left"> </td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>
(Here <img class="latex" title="{\overline{{\mathbb R}}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Coverline%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+R%7D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\overline{{\mathbb R}}}"/> is the algebraic completion of the reals, but <img class="latex" title="{\overline{{\mathbb Q}}}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Coverline%7B%7B%5Cmathbb+Q%7D%7D%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\overline{{\mathbb Q}}}"/> is the metric completion of the rationals.)
</p>
<p>
In the first column one has a “base” theory or concept, which implicitly carries with it a certain ontology and way of thinking, regarding what objects one really cares to study, and what objects really “exist” in some mathematical sense. In the second column one has a fancier theory than the base theory (typically a “limiting case”, a “generalisation”, or a “completion” of the base theory), but one which still shares a close relationship with the base theory, in particular largely retaining the ontological and conceptual mindset of that theory. In the third column one has a new theory, which is <em>modeled</em> by the theories in the middle column, but which is not tied to that model, or to the implicit ontology and viewpoint carried by that model. For instance, one <em>can</em> think of a complex number as an element of the algebraic completion of the reals, but one does not <em>have</em> to, and indeed in many parts of complex analysis or complex geometry one wants to ignore the role of the reals as much as possible. Similarly for other rows of the above table. See for instance these <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/254a-notes-0-a-review-of-probability-theory/">lecture notes of mine</a> for further discussion of the distinction between measure theory and probability theory.
</p>
<p>
[The relationship between the second and third columns of the above table is also known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map%E2%80%93territory_relation">map-territory relation</a>.]
</p>
<p>
Returning to ultralimit analysis, this is a type of analysis which still shares close ties with its base theory, standard analysis, in that all the objects one considers are either standard objects, or ultralimits of such objects (and similarly for all the spaces one considers). But more importantly, one continues to <em>think of</em> nonstandard objects as being ultralimits of standard objects, rather than having an existence which is largely independent of the concept of base theory of standard analysis. This perspective is reversed in nonstandard analysis: one views the nonstandard universe as existing in its own right, and the fact that the standard universe can be embedded inside it is a secondary feature (albeit one which is absolutely essential if one is to use nonstandard analysis in any nontrivial manner to say something new about standard analysis). In nonstandard analysis, ultrafilters are viewed as one tool in which one can construct the nonstandard universe from the standard one, but their role in the subject is otherwise minimised. In contrast, the ultrafilter <img class="latex" title="{\alpha_\infty}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha_%5Cinfty%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="{\alpha_\infty}"/> plays a prominent role in ultralimit analysis.
</p>
<p>
In my opinion, none of the three columns here are inherently “better” than the other two; but they do work together quite well. In particular, the middle column serves as a very useful bridge to carry results back and forth between the worlds of the left and right columns.
</p><p/>
Filed under: <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/category/expository/">expository</a>, <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/category/mathematics/mathag/">math.AG</a>, <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/category/mathematics/mathlo/">math.LO</a> Tagged: <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/tag/algebraic-sets/">algebraic sets</a>, <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/tag/algebraic-varieties/">algebraic varieties</a>, <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/tag/bezouts-theorem/">Bezout's theorem</a>, <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/tag/nonstandard-analysis/">nonstandard analysis</a>, <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/tag/ultrafilters/">ultrafilters</a>, <a href="http://terrytao.wordpress.com/tag/ultralimit-analysis/">ultralimit analysis</a> <a href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/terrytao.wordpress.com/3392/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/terrytao.wordpress.com/3392/" border="0" alt=""/></a> <a href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/godelicious/terrytao.wordpress.com/3392/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/delicious/terrytao.wordpress.com/3392/" border="0" alt=""/></a> <a href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gostumble/terrytao.wordpress.com/3392/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/stumble/terrytao.wordpress.com/3392/" border="0" alt=""/></a> <a href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/godigg/terrytao.wordpress.com/3392/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/digg/terrytao.wordpress.com/3392/" border="0" alt=""/></a> <a href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/goreddit/terrytao.wordpress.com/3392/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/reddit/terrytao.wordpress.com/3392/" border="0" alt=""/></a> <img src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=terrytao.wordpress.com&amp;blog=817149&amp;post=3392&amp;subd=terrytao&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" border="0" alt=""/></div>
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		<thr:total>10</thr:total>
	
    <source>
      <title type="text">What's new</title>
      <subtitle type="text">Updates on my research and expository papers, discussion of open problems, and other maths-related topics.  By Terence Tao</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-08T22:27:49+00:00</updated>
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  <entry xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.arsmathematica.net/wp-atom.php">
		
    <author>
			
      <name>Walt</name>
						
      <uri>http://arsmath.net/</uri>
					
    </author>
		
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">What is a Horn Clause?</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://www.arsmathematica.net/archives/2010/02/06/what-is-a-horn-clause/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://www.arsmathematica.net/?p=882</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-06T21:37:59+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-06T21:37:59+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="Uncategorized" scheme="http://www.arsmathematica.net/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Now to the actual definition of Horn clause.  First, some standard logical terminology.  A term is simply an expression built out of variables and function symbols.  For example, x y-1 z is a term in the language of groups.  An atomic formula is a formula that consists of relation symbols (including [...]</div>
    </summary>
		
    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://www.arsmathematica.net/archives/2010/02/06/what-is-a-horn-clause/"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Now to the actual definition of Horn clause.  First, some standard logical terminology.  A <i>term</i> is simply an expression built out of variables and function symbols.  For example, <i>x y<sup>-1</sup> z</i> is a term in the language of groups.  An <i>atomic formula</i> is a formula that consists of relation symbols (including equality) applied to terms.  So <i>xy = yx</i> is an example of an atomic formula in the language of groups.  What makes an atomic formula atomic is that it’s not built out of smaller logical formulas.</p>
<p>A <i>Horn clause</i> is built out of atomic formulas in a particular way.  Let <i>A_1, … A_n</i> and <i>B</i><br/>
be atomic formulas.  Then a Horn clause is a logical formula of the form</p>
<blockquote><p>
<i>A_1</i> and … and <i>A_n</i> implies <i>B</i>.
</p></blockquote>
<p>As a degenerate special case, the left-hand side of the implication can be empty, which is the same as asserting formula <i>B</i> holds unconditionally.</p></div>
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    <source>
      <title type="text">Ars Mathematica</title>
      <subtitle type="text">Dedicated to the mathematical arts.</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-06T21:37:59+00:00</updated>
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  <entry xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://asymptotia.com/wp-atom.php">
		
    <author>
			
      <name>Clifford</name>
						
      <uri>http://asymptotia.com/</uri>
					
    </author>
		
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Categorically Not! - Grand Challenges!</div>
    </title>
		
    <link href="http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/06/categorically-not-grand-challenges/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
		
    <id>http://asymptotia.com/?p=6147</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-06T19:28:20+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-06T19:28:20+00:00</published>
		
    <category term="Los Angeles" scheme="http://asymptotia.com/"/>
    <category term="art" scheme="http://asymptotia.com/"/>
    <category term="film" scheme="http://asymptotia.com/"/>
    <category term="movies" scheme="http://asymptotia.com/"/>
    <category term="science" scheme="http://asymptotia.com/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">So yes, the Categorically Not! series was a bit thin on the ground in the last several months. I think KC was a bit busy travelling to tell people about her <a href="http://asymptotia.com/2009/08/21/summer-reading-kc-on-science-friday/">Frank Oppenheimer book</a>.  

Well, it is back on the calendar, and I probably should have mentioned it earlier, but the next one is tomorrow, so I thought I'd remind you. Remember that the series of events is held at the Santa Monica Art Studios<a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;time=&amp;date=&amp;ttype=&amp;q=santa+monica+airport++3026+Airport+Avenue,+ca+90405&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=34.015779,-118.454289&amp;spn=0.019138,0.031586&amp;z=15&amp;iwloc=A&amp;om=1">,</a> (with occasional exceptions). It's a series - started and run by science writer K. C. Cole  - of fun and informative conversations deliberately ignoring the traditional boundaries between art, science, humanities, and other subjects. I strongly encourage you to come to them if you're in the area. <a href="http://categoricallynot.com/">Here</a> is the website that describes past ones, and upcoming ones. See also the links at the end of the post for some announcements and  descriptions (and even video) of previous events. 

The theme this month is <em>Grand Challenges!</em>. Here's the description from K. C. Cole:  [...]</div>
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  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title>Why Does E=mc2? by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>I want to like this book more than I do.</p>

<p>As a general matter, this is exactly the sort of science book we need more of. As you can probably guess from the title, <cite>Why Does E=mc<sup>2</sup>?</cite> sets out to explain Einstein's theory of relativity, and does an excellent job of it. It presents a clear and concise explanation of the theory for a non-scientific audience, using no math beyond the Pythagorean Theorem.</p>

<p>I picked this up partly as research of a sort-- if there is ever a <a href="http://dogphysics.com/"><cite>How to Teach Physics to Your Dog 2: Canine Boogaloo</cite></a>, the most obvious topic for it would be relativity, which I mention a few times, but don't discuss in any detail. I was thinking about how that would work, and picked this up to see how they went about explaining things. I don't think I've encountered a better explanation of the physics, which they explain entirely with a geometric picture of spacetime, that makes a great deal more sense than most of the mathematical approaches I've encountered in my professional education.</p>

<p>And yet...</p>
 <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/why_does_emc2_by_brian_cox_and.php">Read the rest of this post...</a> | <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/why_does_emc2_by_brian_cox_and.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/uncertainprinciples/~4/hyNoTvkDxOk" height="1" width="1"/></div>
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    <published>2010-02-06T10:35:44-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-06T10:35:44-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Uncertain Principles</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Physics, Politics, Pop Culture</subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-09T11:55:23-05:00</updated>
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    <author>
			
      <name>David Speyer</name>
						
      <uri>http://www-math.mit.edu/~speyer</uri>
					
    </author>
		
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">When fine just ain’t enough</div>
    </title>
		
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    <id>http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/?p=2821</id>
		
    <updated>2010-02-06T14:38:23+00:00</updated>
		
    <published>2010-02-02T16:51:32+00:00</published>
		
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    <category term="complex analysis" scheme="http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="homological algebra" scheme="http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/"/>
    <category term="things I don't understand" scheme="http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/"/>		
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">If you use sheaves to study differential geometry, one of the basic lemmas you’ll want is the following: Let  be a smooth manifold and let  be a sheaf of modules over . (For example,  might be the sheaf of sections of a vector bundle.) Then all higher sheaf cohomology of  vanishes.
The [...]<img src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=sbseminar.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1217555&amp;post=2821&amp;subd=sbseminar&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" border="0" alt=""/></div>
    </summary>
		
    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/when-fine-just-aint-enough/"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><br/><p>If you use sheaves to study differential geometry, one of the basic lemmas you’ll want is the following: Let <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/> be a smooth manifold and let <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}"/> be a sheaf of modules over <img class="latex" title="C^{\infty}(X)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=C%5E%7B%5Cinfty%7D(X)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="C^{\infty}(X)"/>. (For example, <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}"/> might be the sheaf of sections of a vector bundle.) Then all higher sheaf cohomology of <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}"/> vanishes.</p>
<p>The proof of this theorem is basically homological algebra plus the existence of partitions of unity. This gives rise to a slogan “when you have partitions of unity, sheaf cohomology vanishes.” One way to make this definition precise is through the technology of fine sheaves.</p>
<p>As Wikipedia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine_sheaf#Fine_sheaves">says</a> today, “[f]ine sheaves are usually only used over paracompact Hausdorff spaces”. That means they are not used when working with the Zariski topology on schemes, for example. When I started digging into this, I realized there were good reasons: The technology of fine sheaves (and the closely related technology of soft sheaves) does not include the scheme theory cases which we would want it to. </p>
<p>However, there are theorems of the form “when you have partitions of unity, sheaf cohomology vanishes” on schemes and on complex manifolds. I put up a <a href="http://mathoverflow.net/questions/11567/what-is-the-right-version-of-partitions-of-unity-implies-vanishing-sheaf-cohomol">question</a> at MathOverflow asking whether there were better formulations that included these examples, but I probably didn’t formulate it well. I think spelling out all my issues would be too discursive for MathOverflow, so I’m bringing it over here.</p>
<p><span id="more-2821"/></p>
<h2>What does it mean to vanish?</h2>
<p>Let me start with a technical point that caused me a great deal of confusion. Let <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/> be a topological space, <img class="latex" title="U" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=U&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="U"/> an open subset of <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/>, and <img class="latex" title="x" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=x&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="x"/> be a point in <img class="latex" title="U" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=U&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="U"/>. Let <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}"/> be a sheaf of abelian groups on <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/> and <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> a section in <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}(U)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D(U)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}(U)"/>. In what sense could we say that <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> vanishes at <img class="latex" title="x" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=x&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="x"/>?</p>
<p>In this generality, there is only one reasonable definition: That the image of <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> in the stalk <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}_x" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D_x&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}_x"/> is zero. Unpacking the definition of the stalk, this means that there is an open set <img class="latex" title="V" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=V&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="V"/>, with <img class="latex" title="x \in V \subset U" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=x+%5Cin+V+%5Csubset+U&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="x \in V \subset U"/>, such that <img class="latex" title="f|_V=0" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f%7C_V=0&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f|_V=0"/>. </p>
<p>Now, think about the case where <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}"/> is a sheaf of functions on <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/>, with restriction meaning honest-to-God-restriction of functions. The above definition is not what we mean when we say <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> vanishes at <img class="latex" title="x" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=x&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="x"/>! Rather, it is the concept we would express as “<img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> vanishes on a neighborhood of <img class="latex" title="x" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=x&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="x"/>.”</p>
<p>In order to get a concept which generalizes the ordinary meaning of vanishing at a point, we need to restrict to the case where <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/> is a locally ringed space, and <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}"/> a sheaf of <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{O}_X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D_X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{O}_X"/>-modules. In that case, <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}_x" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D_x&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}_x"/> is a module over the local ring <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{O}_x" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D_x&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{O}_x"/>. And the image of <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> in <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}_x \otimes_{\mathcal{O}_x} k(x)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D_x+%5Cotimes_%7B%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D_x%7D+k(x)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}_x \otimes_{\mathcal{O}_x} k(x)"/> is the best analogue to “the value of <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> at <img class="latex" title="x" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=x&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="x"/>“, where <img class="latex" title="k(x)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=k(x)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="k(x)"/> is the residue field of <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{O}_x" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D_x&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{O}_x"/>. </p>
<p>Therefore, in this blog post, I make the following definitions:</p>
<p>With the above notation, I say that <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> <strong>vanishes on a neighborhood of <img class="latex" title="x" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=x&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="x"/></strong> if the image of <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> in <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}_x" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D_x&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}_x"/> is zero or, equivalently, if there is an open set <img class="latex" title="V \ni x" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=V+%5Cni+x&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="V \ni x"/> such that <img class="latex" title="f|_V=0" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f%7C_V=0&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f|_V=0"/>.</p>
<p>I say that <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> <strong>vanishes at <img class="latex" title="x" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=x&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="x"/></strong> if the image of <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> in <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}_x \otimes_{\mathcal{O}_x} k(x)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D_x+%5Cotimes_%7B%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D_x%7D+k(x)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}_x \otimes_{\mathcal{O}_x} k(x)"/> is zero.</p>
<p>Let <img class="latex" title="K" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=K&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="K"/> be a closed subset of <img class="latex" title="U" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=U&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="U"/>. We have the following, analogous definitions: </p>
<p>The function <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> <strong>vanishes on a neighborhood of <img class="latex" title="K" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=K&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="K"/></strong> if either of the equivalent definitions holds: (1) There is an open set <img class="latex" title="V" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=V&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="V"/> containing <img class="latex" title="K" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=K&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="K"/>, such that <img class="latex" title="f|_U" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f%7C_U&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f|_U"/> is zero or (2) For every <img class="latex" title="x \in K" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=x+%5Cin+K&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="x \in K"/>, the function <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> vanishes in a neighborhood of <img class="latex" title="x" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=x&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="x"/>. </p>
<p>The function <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> <strong>vanishes on <img class="latex" title="K" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=K&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="K"/></strong> if, for every <img class="latex" title="x \in K" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=x+%5Cin+K&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="x \in K"/>, the function <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> vanishes in at <img class="latex" title="x" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=x&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="x"/>. </p>
<p>If more books had adopted this terminology, I would have spent far less time confused about exactly what they meant when they claimed some space had partitions of unity.</p>
<h2>Partitions of unity implies vanishing sheaf cohomology, the standard version</h2>
<p>With these definitions out of the way, we can show that the existence of partitions of unity implies vanishing sheaf cohomology.</p>
<p><strong>Theorem 1</strong>: Let <img class="latex" title="(X, \mathcal{O})" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=(X,+%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="(X, \mathcal{O})"/> be a locally ringed space, and assume that <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/> is paracompact. (Every cover has a locally finite <strike>subcover</strike> refinement.) Suppose that, for every open cover <img class="latex" title="U_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=U_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="U_i"/> of <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/>, there are global functions <img class="latex" title="f_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i"/> so that <img class="latex" title="f_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i"/> vanishes in a neighborhood of <img class="latex" title="X \setminus U_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X+%5Csetminus+U_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X \setminus U_i"/> and <img class="latex" title="\sum f_i=1" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Csum+f_i=1&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\sum f_i=1"/>. Let <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}"/> be any sheaf of <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{O}_X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D_X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{O}_X"/> modules. Then <img class="latex" title="H^i(X, \mathcal{E})=0" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=H%5Ei(X,+%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D)=0&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="H^i(X, \mathcal{E})=0"/> for all <img class="latex" title="i &gt;0" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=i+%3E0&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="i &gt;0"/>.</p>
<p><strong>Proof Sketch</strong>: Our proof is by induction on <img class="latex" title="i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="i"/>. Let <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{I}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{I}"/> be an injective sheaf with an injection <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E} \to \mathcal{I}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D+%5Cto+%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E} \to \mathcal{I}"/>; and let <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{K}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BK%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{K}"/> be the cokernel of <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E} \to \mathcal{I}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D+%5Cto+%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E} \to \mathcal{I}"/>. For <img class="latex" title="i \geq 2" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=i+%5Cgeq+2&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="i \geq 2"/>, the long exact sequence gives <img class="latex" title="H^{i}(\mathcal{E}) = H^{i-1}(\mathcal{K})" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=H%5E%7Bi%7D(%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D)+=+H%5E%7Bi-1%7D(%5Cmathcal%7BK%7D)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="H^{i}(\mathcal{E}) = H^{i-1}(\mathcal{K})"/>, the right hand side of which is zero by induction. So we simply must establise the base case, that <img class="latex" title="H^1(\mathcal{E})=0" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=H%5E1(%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D)=0&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="H^1(\mathcal{E})=0"/>.</p>
<p>We know that <img class="latex" title="H^0(\mathcal{I}) \to H^0(\mathcal{K}) \to H^1(\mathcal{E}) \to 0" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=H%5E0(%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D)+%5Cto+H%5E0(%5Cmathcal%7BK%7D)+%5Cto+H%5E1(%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D)+%5Cto+0&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="H^0(\mathcal{I}) \to H^0(\mathcal{K}) \to H^1(\mathcal{E}) \to 0"/> is exact, so it is enough to show <img class="latex" title="H^0(\mathcal{I}) \to H^0(\mathcal{K})" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=H%5E0(%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D)+%5Cto+H%5E0(%5Cmathcal%7BK%7D)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="H^0(\mathcal{I}) \to H^0(\mathcal{K})"/> is surjective. Let <img class="latex" title="k" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=k&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="k"/> be a global section of <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{K}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BK%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{K}"/>. Since <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{I} \to \mathcal{K}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D+%5Cto+%5Cmathcal%7BK%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{I} \to \mathcal{K}"/> is surjective, there is an open cover <img class="latex" title="U_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=U_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="U_i"/> of <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/>, and functions <img class="latex" title="h_i \in \mathcal{I}(U_i)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=h_i+%5Cin+%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D(U_i)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="h_i \in \mathcal{I}(U_i)"/> such that <img class="latex" title="h_i \mapsto k|_{U_i}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=h_i+%5Cmapsto+k%7C_%7BU_i%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="h_i \mapsto k|_{U_i}"/>. </p>
<p>Take <img class="latex" title="f_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i"/> as in the hypothesis. For each index <img class="latex" title="i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="i"/>, let <img class="latex" title="V_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=V_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="V_i"/> be an open set containing <img class="latex" title="X \setminus U_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X+%5Csetminus+U_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X \setminus U_i"/> such that <img class="latex" title="f_i|_{V_i}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i%7C_%7BV_i%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i|_{V_i}"/> vanishes. Let <img class="latex" title="m_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=m_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="m_i"/> be the section of <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{I}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{I}"/> which is <img class="latex" title="f_i h_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i+h_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i h_i"/> on <img class="latex" title="U_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=U_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="U_i"/> and is <img class="latex" title="0" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=0&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="0"/> on <img class="latex" title="V_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=V_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="V_i"/>. Such a section exists by the gluing axiom, applied to the open cover <img class="latex" title="\{ U_i, V_i \}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5C%7B+U_i,+V_i+%5C%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\{ U_i, V_i \}"/>. Let <img class="latex" title="m = \sum m_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=m+=+%5Csum+m_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="m = \sum m_i"/>. (By paracompactness, we may assume that the cover <img class="latex" title="\{ U_i \}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5C%7B+U_i+%5C%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\{ U_i \}"/> is locally finite, so the sum makes sense.) We claim that <img class="latex" title="m \mapsto k" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=m+%5Cmapsto+k&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="m \mapsto k"/>. </p>
<p>It is enough to check this claim on stalks. Near any point <img class="latex" title="u" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=u&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="u"/>, we have <img class="latex" title="m = \sum m_i = \sum_{U_i \ni u} m_i|_{U_i} = \sum_{U_i \ni u} f_i h_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=m+=+%5Csum+m_i+=+%5Csum_%7BU_i+%5Cni+u%7D+m_i%7C_%7BU_i%7D+=+%5Csum_%7BU_i+%5Cni+u%7D+f_i+h_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="m = \sum m_i = \sum_{U_i \ni u} m_i|_{U_i} = \sum_{U_i \ni u} f_i h_i"/>. By construction, this maps to <img class="latex" title=" \sum_{U_i \ni u} f_i k = \left( \sum f_i \right) k = k" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=+%5Csum_%7BU_i+%5Cni+u%7D+f_i+k+=+%5Cleft(+%5Csum+f_i+%5Cright)+k+=+k&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt=" \sum_{U_i \ni u} f_i k = \left( \sum f_i \right) k = k"/>. <strong>QED</strong></p>
<p>I would feel guilty if I never defined a fine sheaf in this post. The idea of fine sheaves is that, rather than starting with the sheaf of rings <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{O}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{O}"/>, we can start with the sheaf <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}"/> and define <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{O}:= \mathcal{H}om(\mathcal{E}, \mathcal{E})" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D:=+%5Cmathcal%7BH%7Dom(%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D,+%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{O}:= \mathcal{H}om(\mathcal{E}, \mathcal{E})"/>. The sheaf <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}"/> is called <strong>fine</strong> if <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{O}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{O}"/>, defined in this manner, has partitions of unity in the above sense. Of course, <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{O}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{O}"/> may not be commutative and the stalks of <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{O}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{O}"/> may not be local, but it turns out that we can still prove Theorem 1 in this setting: A fine sheaf on a paracompact space has no cohomology. Unfortunately, in the examples I discuss below, the extra elements of <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{H}om(\mathcal{E}, \mathcal{E})" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BH%7Dom(%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D,+%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{H}om(\mathcal{E}, \mathcal{E})"/> still don’t create partitions of unity. </p>
<h2>The Regularity Trick</h2>
<p>The above proof asks for <img class="latex" title="f_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i"/> to vanish on a neighborhood of <img class="latex" title="X \setminus U_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X+%5Csetminus+U_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X \setminus U_i"/>. When <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/> is nice enough, we can ask that <img class="latex" title="f_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i"/> just vanish on  <img class="latex" title="X \setminus U_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X+%5Csetminus+U_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X \setminus U_i"/>. </p>
<p><strong>Theorem 2</strong> Let <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/> be a paracompact regular topological space and <img class="latex" title="(X, \mathcal{O})" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=(X,+%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="(X, \mathcal{O})"/> be a locally ringed space. Suppose that, for any open cover <img class="latex" title="V_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=V_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="V_i"/>, there are global functions <img class="latex" title="f_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i"/> such that <img class="latex" title="f_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i"/> vanishes on <img class="latex" title="X \setminus V_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X+%5Csetminus+V_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X \setminus V_i"/> and <img class="latex" title="\sum f_i=1" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Csum+f_i=1&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\sum f_i=1"/>. Then, for any open cover <img class="latex" title="U_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=U_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="U_i"/>, there are global functions <img class="latex" title="f_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i"/> so that <img class="latex" title="f_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i"/> vanishes in a neighborhood of <img class="latex" title="X \setminus U_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X+%5Csetminus+U_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X \setminus U_i"/> and <img class="latex" title="\sum f_i=1" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Csum+f_i=1&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\sum f_i=1"/>.</p>
<p><strong>Proof sketch:</strong> Take your open cover <img class="latex" title="U_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=U_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="U_i"/>. For every point <img class="latex" title="u" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=u&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="u"/> in <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/>, let <img class="latex" title="U_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=U_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="U_i"/> contain <img class="latex" title="u" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=u&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="u"/>. Choose disjoint open sets <img class="latex" title="V_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=V_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="V_i"/> and <img class="latex" title="W_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=W_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="W_i"/> such that <img class="latex" title="u \in V_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=u+%5Cin+V_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="u \in V_i"/> and <img class="latex" title="X \setminus U_i \subset W_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X+%5Csetminus+U_i+%5Csubset+W_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X \setminus U_i \subset W_i"/>. Find functions <img class="latex" title="f_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i"/> such that <img class="latex" title="\sum f_i=1" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Csum+f_i=1&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\sum f_i=1"/> and <img class="latex" title="f_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i"/> vanishes on <img class="latex" title="X \setminus V_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X+%5Csetminus+V_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X \setminus V_i"/>. Then <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/> will vanish on <img class="latex" title="W_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=W_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="W_i"/> and hence on a neighborhood of <img class="latex" title="X \setminus U_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X+%5Csetminus+U_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X \setminus U_i"/>. <strong>QED</strong></p>
<p>Because of the above argument, mathematicians who work on metrizable spaces don’t worry very much about the distinction between vanishing on a closed set and in the neighborhood of a closed set. But the Zariski topology is not metrizable…</p>
<h2>The Zariski world: Cause for caution!</h2>
<p>Let us begin, right away, by pointing out that there are affine schemes and sheaves of modules on them which have nontrivial cohomology.</p>
<p>Let <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/> be the scheme <img class="latex" title="\mathrm{Spec} k[x]" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathrm%7BSpec%7D+k%5Bx%5D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathrm{Spec} k[x]"/>. Let <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}"/> be the following sheaf: If <img class="latex" title="0 \in U" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=0+%5Cin+U&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="0 \in U"/> then <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}(U)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D(U)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}(U)"/> is the local ring <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{O}_0" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D_0&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{O}_0"/>,  otherwise <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}(U)=0" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D(U)=0&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}(U)=0"/>. The obvious map <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{O}_X \to \mathcal{E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D_X+%5Cto+%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{O}_X \to \mathcal{E}"/> is a surjection of sheaves (exercise!), yet the map on global sections is not surjective.  So, if <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{F}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BF%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{F}"/> is the kernel of <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{O}_X \to \mathcal{E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D_X+%5Cto+%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{O}_X \to \mathcal{E}"/>, then <img class="latex" title="H^1(X, \mathcal{F}) \neq 0" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=H%5E1(X,+%5Cmathcal%7BF%7D)+%5Cneq+0&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="H^1(X, \mathcal{F}) \neq 0"/>.</p>
<p>So any theorem about sheaf cohomology vanishing on affine spaces needs to be phrased carefully.</p>
<h2>The Zariski world: Cause for hope!</h2>
<p>Affine schemes, with the Zariski topology, do not have partitions of unity in the sense of Theorem 1. Indeed, there do not exist two polynomials on the affine line adding to <img class="latex" title="1" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=1&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="1"/>, the first of which is zero on a neighborhood of <img class="latex" title="0" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=0&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="0"/> and the other on a neighborhood of <img class="latex" title="1" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=1&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="1"/>. (Since any polynomial which is zero in a neighborhood of a point must be identically zero.) </p>
<p>Nonetheless, we have the following theorem, originally due to Serre:</p>
<p><strong>Theorem 3:</strong> (Hartshorne III.3.5, EGA III.1.3.1)  Coherent sheaves on an affine scheme have no cohomology.<a href="http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/when-fine-just-aint-enough/#footnote">*</a></p>
<p><strong>Proof Sketch:</strong> As before, we reduce to the case of showing that, if <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{I} \to \mathcal{F}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D+%5Cto+%5Cmathcal%7BF%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{I} \to \mathcal{F}"/> is a surjective map of coherent sheaves, then <img class="latex" title="H^0(\mathcal{I}) \to H^0(\mathcal{K})" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=H%5E0(%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D)+%5Cto+H%5E0(%5Cmathcal%7BK%7D)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="H^0(\mathcal{I}) \to H^0(\mathcal{K})"/> is surjective.</p>
<p>Let <img class="latex" title="k" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=k&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="k"/> be a global section of <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{K}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BK%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{K}"/>. Let <img class="latex" title="U_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=U_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="U_i"/> be a basic open cover of <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/>. The adjective basic means that <img class="latex" title="U_i = \{ x : f_i(x) \neq 0 \}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=U_i+=+%5C%7B+x+:+f_i(x)+%5Cneq+0+%5C%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="U_i = \{ x : f_i(x) \neq 0 \}"/> for some global function <img class="latex" title="f_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i"/>. Let <img class="latex" title="h_i \in \mathcal{I}(U_i)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=h_i+%5Cin+%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D(U_i)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="h_i \in \mathcal{I}(U_i)"/> be a preimage of <img class="latex" title="k" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=k&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="k"/>. There is some <img class="latex" title="n_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=n_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="n_i"/> such that <img class="latex" title="f_i^{n_i} h_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i%5E%7Bn_i%7D+h_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i^{n_i} h_i"/> extends to a section of <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{I}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{I}"/>. (Exercise! This is the point that the coherence hypothesis is used.)</p>
<p>Since the <img class="latex" title="U_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=U_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="U_i"/> are a cover; the functions <img class="latex" title="f_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i"/> have no common zero, and the functions <img class="latex" title="f_i^{n_i}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i%5E%7Bn_i%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i^{n_i}"/> also have none. So, by the Nullstellansatz, there are global functions <img class="latex" title="g_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=g_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="g_i"/> such that <img class="latex" title="\sum f_i^{n_i} g_i =1" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Csum+f_i%5E%7Bn_i%7D+g_i+=1&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\sum f_i^{n_i} g_i =1"/>. So we can find<br/>
global sections <img class="latex" title="m_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=m_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="m_i"/> extending <img class="latex" title="f_i^{n_i} g_i h_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f_i%5E%7Bn_i%7D+g_i+h_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f_i^{n_i} g_i h_i"/> and, as in the proof of Theorem 1, <img class="latex" title="\sum m_i" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Csum+m_i&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\sum m_i"/> is a preimage of <img class="latex" title="k" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=k&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="k"/>. <strong>QED</strong></p>
<p>This proof used two important facts. In order to avoid the language of basic opens, I’ll phrase them in terms of ideal sheaves; the reader might enjoy rephrasing the above proof in this language. </p>
<p><strong>Fact 1:</strong> Let <img class="latex" title="U" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=U&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="U"/> be an open set in <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/>, let <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}"/> be a coherent sheaf and <img class="latex" title="h" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=h&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="h"/> a section in <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{E}(U)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BE%7D(U)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{E}(U)"/>. Let <img class="latex" title="I \subset \mathcal{O}(X)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=I+%5Csubset+%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D(X)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="I \subset \mathcal{O}(X)"/> be the ideal of <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> such that <img class="latex" title="fh" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=fh&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="fh"/> extends to <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/>. Then <img class="latex" title="Z(I) \subset X \setminus U" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=Z(I)+%5Csubset+X+%5Csetminus+U&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="Z(I) \subset X \setminus U"/>.</p>
<p><strong>Fact 2:</strong> If <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{I}_1" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D_1&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{I}_1"/>, <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{I}_2" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D_2&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{I}_2"/>, …, <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{I}_r" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D_r&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{I}_r"/> is a collection of coherent ideal sheaves on <img class="latex" title="X" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X"/> such that <img class="latex" title="\bigcap Z(\mathcal{I}_j)=\emptyset" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cbigcap+Z(%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D_j)=%5Cemptyset&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\bigcap Z(\mathcal{I}_j)=\emptyset"/> then <img class="latex" title="\sum \mathcal{I}_j = \mathcal{O}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Csum+%5Cmathcal%7BI%7D_j+=+%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\sum \mathcal{I}_j = \mathcal{O}"/>.</p>
<p>Fact 2, to my mind, is a good generalization of the existence of partitions of unity. It is weaker than asking for partitions of unity in the sense of vanishing on neighborhoods of closed sets, but stronger than just asking for partitions of unity in the sense of vanishing on closed sets. I had hoped that the correct generalization of “partitions of unity implies sheaf cohomology vanishing” would be “Facts 1 and 2 imply vanishing of cohomology for coherent sheaves”. But, when I started reading about complex manifolds, I realized this was not the way to go.</p>
<h2>The Stein World: Cause for puzzlement!</h2>
<p>A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stein_manifold">Stein space</a> is a closed complex-submanifold of <img class="latex" title="\mathbb{C}^n" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathbb%7BC%7D%5En&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathbb{C}^n"/>.<br/>
They are the analogues of (smooth) affine schemes for complex analysis. We can talk about the sheaf <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{O}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{O}"/> of holomorphic functions on any Stein space.</p>
<p>Stein spaces have Fact 2; this is a consequence of  Rückert’s Nullstellansatz. I am willing to consider this a good generalization of the existence of partitions of unity. Of course, Stein Spaces don’t have partitions of unity in the sense of Theorem 1 for the same reason polynomials don’t: An analytic function that  vanishes on a neighborhood of a point must be identically <img class="latex" title="0" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=0&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="0"/>.</p>
<p>Stein spaces also have Theorem 3. This is called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartan's_theorems_A_and_B">Cartan’s Theorem B</a>. </p>
<p>But Stein spaces don’t have Fact 1! Consider <img class="latex" title="X = \mathbb{C}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=X+=+%5Cmathbb%7BC%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="X = \mathbb{C}"/>, let <img class="latex" title="U = \mathbb{C} \setminus \{ 0 \}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=U+=+%5Cmathbb%7BC%7D+%5Csetminus+%5C%7B+0+%5C%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="U = \mathbb{C} \setminus \{ 0 \}"/>. Consider the section <img class="latex" title="h=e^{1/z}" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=h=e%5E%7B1/z%7D&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="h=e^{1/z}"/> of <img class="latex" title="\mathcal{O}(U)" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cmathcal%7BO%7D(U)&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="\mathcal{O}(U)"/>. There is no holomorphic function <img class="latex" title="f" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=f&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="f"/> such that <img class="latex" title="fh" src="http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=fh&amp;bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;s=0" alt="fh"/> is holomorphic! So we can’t use Fact 2 to prove Theorem 3.</p>
<p>I assumed that there was some minor trick which was used to get around this. But I just read through the proof of Cartan’s Theorem B in Grauert and Remmert’s <a href="http://openlibrary.org/b/OL3686705M/Theory_of_Stein_spaces">Theory of Stein Spaces</a> and it looks nothing like the proofs of Theorems 1 and 3.</p>
<p>This is where I run out of ideas. But I know we have readers who think about sheaves and homological methods on a much deeper level than I do. So, what is the version of “Partitions of unity imply cohomology vanishing” which works for Stein Spaces? </p>
<p><a name="footnote">*</a> Two footnotes for experts: Yes, this also holds for quasi-coherent sheaves. I stated the weaker version because I want to make the analogy to Stein spaces, and I’m not sure if the corresponding result is true for quasi-coherent on Stein spaces. Second, I am implicitly assuming noetherianness, in order to make sure my sums are finite. But the theorem is true without this.</p>
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    <title>Upcoming Appearances: How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Live</title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><a href="http://dogphysics.com/"><img class="inset right" src="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/upload/2009/12/how_to_teach_physics_to_your_d/sm_cover_draft_atom.jpg" height="242" alt="sm_cover_draft_atom.jpg" width="150"/></a>A couple of things happening in the next week, for those who would like some <a href="http://dogphysics.com/"><cite>How to Teach Physics to Your Dog</cite></a>.</p>

<p>On the radio side, I am scheduled for an interview at 6:30 this Tuesday, Feb. 9, on <a href="http://www.ksoo.com/local-a-live-mainmenu-3/viewpoint-university-mainmenu-43/67-viewpoint-university-admissions-department.html">KSOO's Viewpoint University</a>. If you don't happen to be in the Sioux Falls, SD area, they do have a "Listen Live" button on their web page.</p>

<p>On the live-action side of things, I will be at <a href="http://www.nesfa.org/boskone/program-schedule.html">Boskone</a> next weekend, and am scheduled to sign books at 1pm Saturday, and to do a reading at 9:30 am Sunday. I realize that's sort of early in con world, so to make it worth your while to get up that early, I plan to read one previously unreleased dog conversation (from a chapter that got cut for length). It's even got a joke that is appropriate to the con's special guest.</p>

<p>I'm also on a couple of non-book-related panels, but I'll do a separate post about those.</p>

<p>On an unrelated note, the <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/ASPStories/Story.asp?StoryID=891853&amp;LinkFrom=RSS">Albany Times Union article</a> from a couple of weeks ago has been posted on the web, at least for the moment. Look quickly, I have no idea how long it will be freely available.</p>
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    <title type="text">one step behind</title>
    <content type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">A busy week filled with the likes of Mozart and Mahler, Lin, Lunin and Maldacena, a touch of hanzi, some couchsurfing, plenty of mathematica, pondering over entropy and density matrices, causality and Greens functions, a little genetics from <a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Biology/7-012Fall-2004/CourseHome/index.htm">MIT</a> (an incredible online course that I would recommend to anybody who wants to know the fundamentals of modern genetics and more besides - Eric Lander is an inspiring lecturer!), organising conferences, postdoctoral seminar groups and journal clubs, and a little more besides. Consequently as I continue with an admixture of the above today I shall leave you with a link to an article I wrote for a Taiwanese online magazine after a former couchsurfer asked if I could contribute something related to new results on planetary formation models. Given that I'm no expert on this subject I figured it best to discuss only the basics of the result and to focus on what generalities can be drawn about the scientific approach as a whole. The article can be found <a href="http://case.ntu.edu.tw/blog/?p=1900">here</a>. <br/><br/>P.S. A public acknowledgment of a linguistic weakness: I'm finally up to 1000 individual Chinese characters (that's taken me around a year's serious study with three previous years studying passivly). This so far adds up to around 2000-3000 composite words, but there are still a few similar characters that in simplified Chinese are so close I keep tripping up on these basics. Today I've been struggling with<a href="http://de.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?wdqb=*%E6%88%90*&amp;wdrst=0" class="char"> 成</a><a href="http://de.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?cdqchi=%E6%88%96" class="word"> 或  </a>and <a href="http://de.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?cdqchi=%E5%92%B8" class="word">咸</a>. (cheng (completed), huo (maybe), xian (salty)). These three along with 同,间,向,何,问,珂 are my current personal Chinese demons.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/16693931-5214878536076019716?l=jonstraveladventures.blogspot.com" height="1" alt="" width="1"/></div></div>
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      <name>Koji Hashimoto</name>
						
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    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Nishina center.</div>
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    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The theoretical physics laboratory of Riken, to which I belong to, is a part of Nishina accelerator center. The center has a huge accelerator which is specialized for “RIBF”, RI beam factory, with a world-”strongest” superconducting ring cyclotron. You can find movies on how isotopes are accelerated in the beam lines, at the webpage of [...]</div>
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    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/2010/02/06/nishina-center/"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The theoretical physics laboratory of Riken, to which I belong to, is a part of <a href="http://www.rarf.riken.go.jp/Eng/index.html">Nishina accelerator center</a>. The center has a huge accelerator which is specialized for “RIBF”, RI beam factory, with a world-”strongest” superconducting ring cyclotron. You can find movies on how isotopes are accelerated in the beam lines, at the <a href="http://www.rarf.riken.go.jp/newcontents/contents/gallery/flash/beam.html">webpage</a> of the Nishina center. My research is on superstring theory but I am currently applying string theory technique to nuclear physics, so this Nishina center is a perfect place for me to get in touch with real nuclear experiments. <img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-5707" src="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/SRCblack800-300x225.jpg" height="225" alt="SRCblack800" width="300"/></p>
<p>Last week, hosted by the director of Nishina center, we had a big party, with alcohol drinks and cakes. This was a get-together party, which the director aimed to have all of the center members to know each other. I eventually enjoyed this party since, as the director aimed, I have met one person who is a visiting experimentalist working in Italy. Her experiments sound very interesting to me, and in fact quite much related to my recent work on strange physics. We talked at the party, and we made a promise that we would get together sometime soon. However, to tell you the truth, I haven’t expected much on this promise, as this was at a party and we have met just for the first time, and I am just a string theorist who should look apparently “different” from nuclear experimentalists. However, on the next day, in the morning, she came to my room! — and we had a good discussion. It was amazing to me that, just at this get-together party, I happend to see an interesting person and could talk really on my project, although she came from the other side of the globe. I thank Nishina center, and the director En’yo.</p>
<p>I hope to report on the progress of my research, on the application of superstring theory to nuclear physics, here. As for my current project, my Mathematica says “I need more memory”…. well, I’ll try to write a new and beautiful code which may cost less memory, hopefully.</p></div>
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    <title>This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 293)</title>

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    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><h4> John Baez </h4> <!-- END HEADER --> <p> This week I want to list a bunch of recent papers and books on n-categories. Then I'll tell you about a conference on the math of environmental sustainability and green technology. And then I'll continue my story about electrical circuits. But first... </p><p> This column started with some vague dreams about n-categories and physics. Thanks to a lot of smart youngsters - and a few smart oldsters - these dreams are now well on their way to becoming reality. They don't need my help anymore! I need to find some new dreams. So, "<a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week300.html">week300</a>" will be the last issue of This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics. </p><p> I still like learning things by explaining them. When I start work at the Centre for Quantum Technologies this summer, I'll want to tell you about that. And I've realized that our little planet needs my help a lot more than the abstract structure of the universe does! The deep secrets of math and physics are endlessly engrossing - but they can wait, and other things can't. So, I'm trying to learn more about ecology, economics, and technology. And I'd like to talk more about those. </p><p> So, I plan to start a new column. Not completely new, just a bit different from this. I'll call it This Week's Finds, and drop the "in Mathematical Physics". That should be sufficiently vague that I can talk about whatever I want. </p><p> I'll make some changes in format, too. For example, I won't keep writing each issue in ASCII and putting it on the usenet newsgroups. Sorry, but that's too much work. </p><p> I also want to start a new blog, since the n-Category Cafe is not the optimal place for talking about things like the melting of Arctic ice. But I don't know what to call this new blog - or where it should reside. Any suggestions? </p><p> I may still talk about fancy math and physics now and then. Or even a lot. We'll see. But if you want to learn about n-categories, you don't need me. There's a <i>lot</i> to read these days. I mentioned Carlos Simpson's book in "<a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week291.html">week291</a>" - that's one good place to start. Here's another introduction: </p><p> 1) John Baez and Peter May, Towards Higher Categories, Springer, 2009. Also available at <a href="http://ncatlab.org/johnbaez/show/Towards+Higher+Categories">http://ncatlab.org/johnbaez/show/Towards+Higher+Categories</a> </p><p> This has a bunch of papers in it, namely: </p><ul> <li> John Baez and Michael Shulman, Lectures on n-categories and cohomology. <p> </p></li> <li> Julia Bergner, A survey of (∞,1)-categories. <p> </p></li> <li> Simona Paoli, Internal categorical structures in homotopical algebra. <p> </p></li> <li> Stephen Lack, A 2-categories companion. <p> </p></li> <li> Lawrence Breen, Notes on 1- and 2-gerbes. <p> </p></li> <li> Ross Street, An Australian conspectus of higher categories. </li> </ul> <p> After browsing these, you should probably start studying (∞,1)-categories, which are ∞-categories where all the n-morphisms for n &gt; 1 are invertible. There are a few different approaches, but luckily they're nicely connected by some results described in Julia Bergner's paper. Two of the most important approaches are "Segal spaces" and "quasicategories". For the latter, start here: </p><p> 2) Andre Joyal, The Theory of Quasicategories and Its Applications, <a href="http://www.crm.cat/HigherCategories/hc2.pdf">http://www.crm.cat/HigherCategories/hc2.pdf</a> </p><p> and then go here: </p><p> 3) Jacob Lurie, Higher Topos Theory, Princeton U. Press, 2009. Also available at <a href="http://www.math.harvard.edu/~lurie/papers/highertopoi.pdf">http://www.math.harvard.edu/~lurie/papers/highertopoi.pdf</a> </p><p> This book is 925 pages long! Luckily, Lurie writes well. After setting up the machinery, he went on to use (∞,1)-categories to revolutionize algebraic geometry: </p><p> 4) Jacob Lurie, Derived algebraic geometry I: stable infinity-categories, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0608228">arXiv:math/0608228</a>. <br/> Derived algebraic geometry II: noncommutative algebra, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0702299">arXiv:math/0702299</a>. <br/> Derived algebraic geometry III: commutative algebra, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0703204">arXiv:math/0703204</a>. <br/> Derived algebraic geometry IV: deformation theory, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0709.3091">arXiv:0709.3091</a>. <br/> Derived algebraic geometry V: structured spaces, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.0459">arXiv:0905.0459</a>. <br/> Derived algebraic geometry VI: E<sub>k</sub> algebras, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.0018">arXiv:0911.0018</a>. </p><p> For related work, try these: </p><p> 5) David Ben-Zvi, John Francis and David Nadler, Integral transforms and Drinfeld centers in derived algebraic geometry available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0805.0157">arXiv:0805.0157</a>. </p><p> 6) David Ben-Zvi and David Nadler, The character theory of a complex group, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0904.1247">arXiv:0904.1247</a>. </p><p> Lurie is now using (∞,n)-categories to study topological quantum field theory. He's making precise and proving some old conjectures that James Dolan and I made: </p><p> 7) Jacob Lurie, On the classification of topological field theories, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.0465">arXiv:0905.0465</a>. </p><p> Jonathan Woolf is doing it in a somewhat different way, which I hope will be unified with Lurie's work eventually: </p><p> 8) Jonathan Woolf, Transversal homotopy theory, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.3322">arXiv:0910.3322</a>. </p><p> All this stuff is starting to transform math in amazing ways. And I hope physics, too - though so far, it's mainly helping us understand the physics we already have. </p><p> Meanwhile, I've been trying to figure out something else to do. Like a lot of academics who think about beautiful abstractions and soar happily from one conference to another, I'm always feeling a bit guilty, wondering what I could do to help "save the planet". Yes, we recycle and turn off the lights when we're not in the room. If we all do just a little bit... a little will get done. But surely mathematicians have the skills to do more! </p><p> But what? </p><p> I'm sure lots of you have had such thoughts. That's probably why Rachel Levy ran this conference last weekend: </p><p> 9) Conference on the Mathematics of Environmental Sustainability and Green Technology, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California, Friday-Saturday, January 29-30, 2010. Organized by Rachel Levy. </p><p> Here's a quick brain dump of what I learned. </p><p> First, Harry Atwater of Caltech gave a talk on photovoltaic solar power: </p><p> 10) Atwater Research Group, <a href="http://daedalus.caltech.edu/">http://daedalus.caltech.edu/</a> </p><p> The efficiency of silicon crystal solar cells peaked out at 24% in 2000. Fancy "multijunctions" get up to 40% and are still improving. But they use fancy materials like gallium arsenide, gallium indium phosphate, and so on. The world currently uses 13 terawatts of power. The US uses 3. But building just 1 terawatt of these fancy photovoltaics would use up more rare substances than we can get our hands on: </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <img src="http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/images/fig04.gif"/> </div> <p> </p><p> 11) Gordon B. Haxel, James B. Hedrick, and Greta J. Orris, Rare earth elements - critical resources for high technology, US Geological Survey Fact Sheet 087-02, available at <a href="http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/">http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/</a> </p><p> So, if we want solar power, we need to keep thinking about silicon and use as many tricks as possible to boost its efficiency. </p><p> There are some limits. In 1961, Shockley and Quiesser wrote a paper on the limiting efficiency of a solar cell. It's limited by thermodynamical reasons! Since anything that can absorb energy can also emit it, any solar cell also acts as a light-emitting diode, turning electric power back into light: </p><p> 12) W. Shockley and H. J. Queisser, Detailed balance limit of efficiency of p-n junction solar cells, J. Appl. Phys. 32 (1961) 510-519. </p><p> 13) Wikipedia, Schockley-Quiesser limit, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley%E2%80%93Queisser_limit">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley%E2%80%93Queisser_limit</a> </p><p> What are the tricks used to approach this theoretical efficiency? Multijunctions use layers of different materials to catch photons of different frequencies. The materials are expensive, so people use a lens to focus more sunlight on the photovoltaic cell. The same is true even for silicon - see the Umuwa Solar Power Station in Australia. But then the cells get hot and need to be cooled. </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <img src="http://static.worldarchitecturenews.com/news_images/1964_6_1000%20Solar%20Systems%20Unuwa%20S%20Australia.jpg" width="600"/> </div> <p> Roughening the surface of a solar cell promotes light trapping, by large factors! Light bounces around ergodically and has more chances to get absorbed and turned into useful power. There are theoretical limits on how well this trick works. But those limits were derived using ray optics, where we assume light moves in straight lines. So, we can beat those limits by leaving the regime where the ray-optics approximation holds good. In other words, make the surface complicated at length scales comparable to the wavelength at light. </p><p> For example: we can grow silicon wires from vapor! They can form densely packed structures that absorb more light: </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja074897c"> <img src="http://pubs.acs.org/appl/literatum/publisher/achs/journals/production/jacsat/2007/jacsat.2007.129.issue-41/ja074897c/images/medium/ja074897cn00001.gif"/> </a> </div> <p> </p><p> 14) B. M. Kayes, H. A. Atwater, and N. S. Lewis, Comparison of the device physics principles of planar and radial p-n junction nanorod solar cells, J. Appl. Phys. 97 (2005), 114302. </p><p> Also, with such structures the charge carriers don't need to travel so far to get from the n-type material to the p-type material. This also boosts efficiency. </p><p> There are other tricks, still just under development. Using quasiparticles called "surface plasmons" we can adjust the dispersion relations to create materials with really low group velocity. Slow light has more time to get absorbed! We can also create "meta-materials" whose refractive index is really wacky - like n = -5! </p><p> I should explain this a bit, in case you don't understand. Remember, the refractive index of a substance is the inverse of the speed of light in that substance - in units where the speed of light in vacuum equals 1. When light passes from material 1 to material 2, it takes the path of least time - at least in the ray-optics approximation. Using this you can show Snell's law: </p><p> sin(theta<sub>1</sub>)/sin(theta<sub>2</sub>) = n<sub>2</sub>/n<sub>1</sub> </p><p> where n<sub>i</sub> is the index of refraction in the ith material and theta<sub>i</sub> is the angle between the light's path and the line normal to the interface between materials: </p><div align="center"> <img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/Snells_law2.svg/200px-Snells_law2.svg.png"/> </div> <p> Air has an index of refraction close to 1. Glass has an index of refraction greater than 1. So, when light passes from light to glass, it "straightens out": its path becomes closer to perpendicular to the air-glass interface. When light passes from glass to air, the reverse happens: the light bends more. But the sine of an angle can never exceed 1 - so sometimes Snell's law has no solution. Then the light gets stuck! More precisely, it's forced to bounce back into the glass. This is called "total internal reflection", and the easiest way to see it is not with glass, but water. Dive into a swimming pool and look up from below. You'll only see the sky in a limited disk. Outside that, you'll see total internal reflection. </p><p> Okay, that's stuff everyone learns in optics. But <em>negative</em> indices of refraction are much weirder! The light entering such a material will bend <em>backwards</em>. </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <img src="http://www.macdiarmid.ac.nz/news/success/images/negative%20refraction.gif"/> </div> <p> </p><p> Materials with a negative index of refraction also exhibit a reversed version of the ordinary <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goos%E2%80%93H%C3%A4nchen_effect">Goos-Hänchen</a> effect. In the ordinary version, light "slips" a little before reflecting during total internal reflection. The "slip" is actually a slight displacement of the light's wave crests from their expected location - a "phase slip". But for a material of negative refractive index, the light slips <em>backwards</em>. This allows for resonant states where light gets trapped in thin films. Maybe this can be used to make better solar cells. </p><p> Next, Kenneth Golden gave a talk on sea ice, which covers 7-10% of the ocean's surface and is a great detector of global warming. He's a mathematician at the University of Utah who also does measurements in the Arctic and Antarctic. If you want to go to math grad school without becoming a nerd - if you want to brave 70-foot swells, dig trenches in the snow and see Emperor penguins - you want Golden as your advisor: </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/3.html"> <img src="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/homepage_photos/p3.jpg" width="500"/> </a> </div> <p> 15) Ken Golden's website, <a href="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/">http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/</a> </p><p> Salt gets incorporated into sea ice via millimeter-scale brine inclusions between ice platelets, forming a "dendritic platelet structure". Melting sea ice forms fresh water in melt ponds atop the ice, while the brine sinks down to form "bottom water" driving the global thermohaline conveyor belt. You've heard of the Gulf Stream, right? Well, that's just part of this story. </p><p> When it gets hotter, the Earth's poles get less white, so they absorb more light, making it hotter: this is "ice albedo feedback". Ice albedo feedback is <i>largely controlled by melt ponds</i>. So if you're interested in climate change, questions like the following become important: when do melt ponds get larger, and when do they drain out? </p><p> Sea ice is diminishing rapidly in the Arctic - much faster than all the existing climate models had predicted. There's a lot less sea ice in the Antarctic, mainly in the Wedell Sea, and there it seems to be growing, maybe due to increased precipitation. In the Arctic, winter sea ice diminished in area by about 10% from 1978 to 2008. But summer sea ice diminished by about 40%! It took a huge plunge in 2007, leading to a big increase in solar heat input due to the ice albedo effect. </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/seaice.html"> <img src="http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/figures/seaice2009fig2.jpg" width="500"/> </a> <br/> <font size="-1"> Time series of the percent difference in ice extent in March (the month of ice extent maximum) and September (the month of ice extent minimum) relative to the mean values for the period 1979-2000. Based on a least squares linear regression for the period 1979-2009, the rate of decrease for the March and September ice extents is -2.5% and -8.9% per decade, respectively. Figure from <a href="http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/seaice.html">Perovich <i>et al</i></a>. </font>  </div> <p> 16) Donald K. Perovich, Jacqueline A. Richter-Menge, Kathleen F. Jones, and Bonnie Light, Sunlight, water, and ice: Extreme Arctic sea ice melt during the summer of 2007, Geophysical Research Letters, 35 (2008), L11501. Also available at <a href="http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/sid/personnel/perovichweb/index1.htm">http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/sid/personnel/perovichweb/index1.htm</a> </p><p> There's a lot of interesting math involved in understanding the dynamics of sea ice. The ice thickness distribution equation was worked out by Thorndike et al in 1975. The heat equation for ice and snow was worked out by Maykut and Understeiner in 1971. Sea ice dynamics was studied by Kibler. </p><p> Ice floes have two fractal regimes, one from 1 to 20 meters, another from 100 to 1500 meters. Brine channels have a fractal character well modeled by "diffusion limited aggregation". Brine starts flowing when there's about 5% of brine in the ice - a kind of percolation problem familiar in statistical mechanics. Here's what it looks like when there's 5.7% brine: </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/7.html"> <img src="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/cover_photos/8zoom.jpg" width="500"/> </a> </div> <p> 17) Kenneth Golden, Brine inclusions in a crystal of lab-grown sea ice, <a href="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/7.html">http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/7.html</a> </p><p> Nobody knows why polycrystalline metals have a log-normal distribution of crystal sizes. Similar behavior, also unexplained, is seen in sea ice. </p><p> A "polynya" is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. Polynyas occupy just .001% of the overall area in Antarctic sea ice, but create 1% of the icea. Icy cold catabatic winds blow off the mainland, pushing away ice and creating patches of open water which then refreeze. </p><p> </p><div align="center"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynya"> <img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Antarctic_shelf_ice_hg.png/500px-Antarctic_shelf_ice_hg.png"/> </a> </div> <p> There was anomalous export of sea ice through Fran Strait in the 1990s, which may have been one of the preconditions for high ice albedo feedback. </p><p> 20-40% of sea ice is formed by surface flooding followed by refreezing. This was <i>not included</i> in the sea ice models that gave such inaccurate predictions. </p><p> The food chain is founded on diatoms. These form "extracellular polymeric substances"- goopy mucus-like stuff made of polysaccharides that protects them and serves as antifreeze. There's a lot of this stuff; the ice gets visibly stained by it. </p><p> For more, see: </p><p> 18) Kenneth M. Golden, Climate change and the mathematics of transport in sea ice, AMS Notices, May 2009. Also available at <a href="http://www.ams.org/notices/200905/">http://www.ams.org/notices/200905/</a> </p><p> 19) Mathematics Awareness Month, April 2009: Mathematics and Climate, <a href="http://www.mathaware.org/mam/09/">http://www.mathaware.org/mam/09/</a> </p><p> Next, Julie Lundquist, who just moved from Lawrence Livermore Labs to the University of Colorado, spoke about wind power: </p><p> 20) Julie Lunquist, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado, <a href="http://paos.colorado.edu/people/lundquist.php">http://paos.colorado.edu/people/lundquist.php</a> </p><p> With increased reliance on wind, the power grid will need to be redesigned to handle fluctuating power sources. In the US, currently, companies aren't paid for power they generate in excess of the amount they promised to make. So, accurate prediction is a hugely important game. Being off by 1% can cost millions of dollars! Europe has different laws, which encourage firms to maximize the amount of wind power they generate. </p><p> If you had your choice about where to build a wind turbine, you'd build it on the ocean or a very flat plain, where the air flows rather smoothly. Hilly terrain leads to annoying turbulence - but sometimes that's your only choice. Then you need to find the best spots, where the turbulence is least bad. Complete simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations is too computationally intensive, so people use fancier tricks. There's a lot of math and physics here. </p><p> For weather reports people use "mesoscale simulation" which cleverly treats smaller-scale features in an averaged way - but we need more fine-grained simulations to see how much wind a turbine will get. This is where "large eddy simulation" comes in. </p><p> A famous Brookhaven study suggested that the power spectrum of wind has peaks at 4 days, 1/2 day, and 1 minute. This perhaps justifies an approach where different time scales, and thus length scales, are treated separately and the results then combined somehow. The study is actually a bit controversial. But anyway, this is the approach people are taking, and it seems to work. </p><p> Night air is stable - but day air is often not, since the ground is hot, and hot air rises. So when a parcel of air moving along hits a hill, it can just shoot upwards, and not come back down! This means lots of turbulence. </p><p> Eddy diffusivity is modeled by Monin-Obukhov similarity theory: </p><p> 21) American Meteorological Society Glossary, Monin-Obukhov similarity theory, <a href="http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?id=monin-obukhov-similarity-theory1">http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?id=monin-obukhov-similarity-theory1</a> </p><p> The wind turbines at Altamont Pass in California kill more raptors than all other wind farms in the world combined! Old-fashioned wind turbines look like nice places to perch, spelling death to birds. Cracks in concrete attract rodents, which attract raptors, who get killed. The new ones are far better. </p><p> For more: </p><p> 22) National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Research needs for winds resource characterization, available as <a href="http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy08osti/43521.pdf">http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy08osti/43521.pdf</a> </p><p> Finally, there was a talk by Ron Lloyd of Fat Spaniel Technologies. This is a company that makes software for solar plants and other sustainable energy companies: </p><p> 23) Fat Spaniel Technologies, <a href="http://www.fatspaniel.com/products/">http://www.fatspaniel.com/products/</a> </p><p> His talk was less technical so I didn't take detailed notes. One big point I took away was this: we need better tools for modelling! This is especially true with the coming of the "smart grid". In its simplest form, this is a power grid that uses lots of data - for example, data about power generation and consumption - to regulate itself and increase efficiency. Surely there will be a lot of math here. Maybe even the topic I've been talking about lately: bond graphs! </p><p> But now I want to talk about some very simple aspects of electrical circuits. Last week I listed various kinds of circuits. Now let's go into a bit more detail - starting with the simplest kind: circuits made of just wires and linear resistors, where the currents and voltages are independent of time. </p><p> Mathematically, such a circuit is a graph equipped with some extra data. First, each edge has a number associated to it - the "resistance". For example: </p><pre> o----1----o----3----o | | | | | | 2 3 2 | | | | | | o----3----o----1----o </pre> Second, we have current flowing through this circuit. To describe this, we first arbitrarily pick an orientation on each edge: <pre> o----&gt;----o----&gt;----o | | | | | | V V V | | | | | | o----&lt;----o----&gt;----o </pre> Then we label each edge with a number saying how much "current" is flowing through that edge, in the direction of the arrow: <pre> 2 3 o----&gt;----o----&gt;----o | | | | | | 3V V1 V 3 | | | | | | o----&lt;----o----&gt;----o 2 -3 </pre> Electrical engineers call the current I. Mathematically it's good to think of I as a "1-chain": a linear combination of oriented edges of our graph, with the coefficients of the linear combination being the numbers shown above. <p> If we know the current, we can work out a number for each vertex of our graph, saying how much current is flowing out of that vertex, minus how much is flowing in: </p><pre> 2 1 o----&gt;----o----&gt;----o 0 | | | | | | V V V | | | | | | -5 o----&lt;----o----&gt;----o 0 -2 </pre> Mathematically we can think of this as a "0-chain": a formal linear combination of the vertices of our graph, with the numbers shown above as coefficients. We call this 0-chain the "boundary" of the 1-chain we started with. Since our current was called I, we call its boundary δI. <p> Kirchhoff's current law says that </p><p> δI = 0 </p><p> When this holds, let's say our circuit is a "closed". Physically this follows from the law of conservation of electrical charge, together with a reasonable assumption. Current is the flow of charge. If the total current flowing into a vertex wasn't equal to the amount flowing out, charge - positive or negative - would be building up there. But for a closed circuit, we assume it's not. </p><p> If a circuit is not closed, let's call it "open". These are interesting too. For example, we might have a circuit like this: </p><pre> x | | V | | o----&gt;----o | | | | V V | | | | x x </pre> where we have current flowing in the wire on top and flowing out the two wires at bottom. We allow δI to be nonzero at the ends of these wires - the 3 vertices labelled x. This circuit is an "open system" in the sense of "<a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week290.html">week290</a>", because it has these wires dangling out of it. It's not self-contained; we can use it as part of some bigger circuit. We should really formalize this more, but I won't now. Derek Wise did it more generally here: <p> 24) Derek Wise, Lattice p-form electromagnetism and chain field theory, available as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0510033">gr-qc/0510033</a>. </p><p> The idea here was to get a category where chain complexes are morphisms in a category. In our situation, composing morphisms amounts to gluing the output wires of one circuit into the input wires of another. This is an example of the general philosophy I'm trying to pursue, where open systems are treated as morphisms. </p><p> We've talked about 1-chains and 0-chains... but we can also back up and talk about 2-chains! Let's suppose our graph is connected - it is in our example - and let's fill it in with enough 2-dimensional "faces" to get something contractible. We can do this in a god-given way if our graph is drawn on the plane: just fill in all the holes! </p><pre> o---------o---------o |/////////|/////////| |/////////|/////////| |//FACE///|///FACE//| |/////////|/////////| |/////////|/////////| o---------o---------o </pre> In electrical engineering these faces are often called "meshes". <p> This give us a chain complex </p><pre> δ δ C<sub>0</sub> &lt;-------- C<sub>1</sub> &lt;-------- C<sub>2</sub> </pre> and a cochain complex: <pre> d d C<sup>0</sup> --------&gt; C<sup>1</sup> ---------&gt; C<sup>2</sup> </pre> As I've already said, it's good to think of the current I as a 1-chain, since then <p> δI = 0 </p><p> is Kirchoff's current law. Since our little space is contractible the above equation implies that </p><p> I = δJ </p><p> for some 2-chain J called the "mesh current". This assigns to each face or "mesh" the current flowing around that face. </p><p> An electrical circuit also comes with a third piece of data, which I haven't mentioned yet. Each oriented edge should be labelled by a number called the "voltage" across that edge. Electrical engineers call the voltage V. It's good to think of V as a 1-cochain, which assigns to each edge the voltage across that edge. </p><p> Why a 1-cochain instead of a 1-chain? Because then </p><p> dV = 0 </p><p> is the other basic law of electrical circuits - Kirchhoff's voltage law! This law says that the sum of these voltages around a mesh is zero. Since our little space is contractible the above equation implies that </p><p> V = dφ </p><p> for some 0-cochain φ called the "electrostatic potential". In electrostatics, this potential is a function on space. Here it assigns a number to each vertex of our graph. </p><p> Since the space of 1-cochains is the dual of the space of 1-chains, we can take the voltage V and the current I, glom them together, and get a number: </p><p> V(I) </p><p> This the "power": that is, the rate at which our network soaks up energy and dissipates it into heat. Note that this is just a fancy version of formula for power that I explained in "<a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week290.html">week290</a>" - power is effort times flow. </p><p> I've given you three basic pieces of data labelling our circuit: the resistance R, the current I, and the voltage V. But these aren't independent! Ohm's law says that the voltage across any edge is the current through that times the resistance of that edge. But this remember: voltage is a 1-cochain while current is a 1-chain. So "resistance" can be thought of as a map from 1-cochains to 1-chains: </p><p> R: C<sup>1</sup> → C<sub>1</sub> </p><p> This lets us write Ohm's law like this: </p><p> V = RI </p><p> This, in turn, means the power of our circuit is </p><p> V(I) = (RI)(I) </p><p> For physical reasons, this power is always nonnegative. In fact, let's assume it's positive unless I = 0. This is just another way of saying that resistance labelling each edge is positive. It can be very interesting to think about circuits with perfectly conducting wires. These would give edges whose resistance is zero. But that's a bit of an idealization, and right now I'd rather allow only *positive* resistances. </p><p> Why? Because then we can think of the above formula as the inner product of I with itself! In other words, then there's a unique inner product on 1-cochains with </p><p> (RI)(I) = &lt;I,I&gt; </p><p> In this situation </p><p> R: C<sup>1</sup> → C<sub>1</sub> </p><p> is the usual isomorphism that we get between a finite-dimensional inner product space and its dual. (For this statement to be true, we'd better assume our graph has finitely many vertices and edges.) </p><p> Now, if you've studied de Rham cohomlogy, all this should start reminding you of Hodge theory. And indeed, it's a baby version of that! So, we're getting a little bit of Hodge theory, but in a setting where our chain complexes are really morphisms in a category. Or more generally, n-morphisms in an n-category. </p><p> There's a lot more to say, but that's enough for now. </p><p> </p><hr/> <p> <em>So many young people are forced to specialize in one line or another that a young person can't afford to try and cover this waterfront - only an old fogy who can afford to make a fool of himself. If I don't, who will?</em> - John Wheeler </p><p> </p><hr/><p> <!-- BEGIN FOOTER --> © 2010 John Baez<br/> baez@math.removethis.ucr.andthis.edu <br/> </p><p> </p><table width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="10%"> <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week292.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/lastweek.png" border="none;"/></a> </td><td width="80%"> <center> <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/README.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/home.png" border="none;"/><br/> </a> <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/TWF.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/contents.png" border="none;"/> </a> </center> </td><td width="10%"> <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week294.html"> <img src="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/nextweek.png" border="none;"/> </a> </td></tr></tbody></table><!-- END FOOTER --><p><sub><i>-- Delivered by <a href="http://feed43.com/">Feed43</a> service</i></sub></p></div>
    </summary>

    <updated>2010-02-06T06:23:44-06:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>John Baez</title>
      <link href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/this.week.html" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics</subtitle>
      <updated>2010-02-06T17:48:41+00:00</updated>
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  </entry>

  <entry xml:lang="en">
    
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 293)</div>
    </title>
    
    <link href="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2010/02/this_weeks_finds_in_mathematic_54.html" rel="alternate" type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
    
    <updated>2010-02-06T08:28:38+00:00</updated>
    
    <published>2010-02-06T07:43:46+00:00</published>
    
    <id>tag:golem.ph.utexas.edu,2010:%2Fcategory%2F3.2166</id>
    
    <summary type="text">In week293, catch up on recent papers and books about $n$-categories.  Hear about last weekend's Conference on the Mathematics of Environmental Sustainability and Green Technology at Harvey Mudd College.  And learn how to think of networks of resistors as chain complexes which are also morphisms in a category.</summary>
    
    <author>
      
      <name>john</name>
      
      <uri>http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/</uri>
      
      <email>baez@math.ucr.edu</email>
    
    </author>
    
    <category term="Earth Sciences"/>
    
    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2010/02/this_weeks_finds_in_mathematic_54.html">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<div><a href="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/mathml.html"><img class="mathlogo" title="MathML-enabled post (click for details)." src="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/images/MathML.png" alt="MathML-enabled post (click for more details)."/></a></div>
<p>In <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week293.html">week293</a> of This Week’s Finds, catch up on recent papers and books about <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>n</mi></math>-categories.  Hear about last weekend’s Conference on the Mathematics of Environmental Sustainability and Green Technology at Harvey Mudd College.  And learn how to think of networks of resistors as chain complexes which are also morphisms in a category.
</p>
<div><a href="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/mathml.html"><img class="mathlogo" title="MathML-enabled post (click for details)." src="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/images/MathML.png" alt="MathML-enabled post (click for more details)."/></a></div>
<p>If you do a math Ph.D. with <a href="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/">Kenneth Golden</a> as your advisor, you can do your thesis work here:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/1.html">
<img src="http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden/cover_photos/emperors_walking.jpg" alt="" width="600"/>
</a></p>
      </div>
    
    </content>
  
    <source>
      <title>The n-Category Café</title>
      <link href="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/" rel="alternate" type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
      <link href="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/atom10.xml" rel="self"/>
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      <updated>2010-02-06T08:28:38+00:00</updated>
      <subtitle>A group blog on math, physics and philosophy</subtitle>
      <id>tag:golem.ph.utexas.edu,2006:nCategoryCafe/3</id>
      <generator uri="http://www.movabletype.org/" version="3.36">Movable Type</generator>
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      <rights>Copyright (c) 2010, The n-Category Collective</rights>
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  </entry>

  <entry xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/">
    <id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10448119.post-5430965551719990657</id>
    <published>2010-01-25T22:30:00-05:00</published>
    <updated>2010-02-05T23:56:37-05:00</updated>
    <category term="exoplanet" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="sdss" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="spectroscopy" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="talking" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="bayes" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="writing" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="supernova" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <title type="text">fast data analysis</title>
    <content type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>In the afternoon, I discussed with Itay Yavin and Kyle Cranmer fast methods for fitting exoplanet orbits to stellar radial velocity data using Fourier or periodogram approaches.  We were inspired by Bretthorst's book on Bayesian spectral analysis.  In the morning, I discussed with Blanton and Demitri Muna (NYU) the detection in real time of supernovae (or other anomalies) in the SDSS-III BOSS spectroscopic data stream.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/10448119-5430965551719990657?l=hoggresearch.blogspot.com" height="1" alt="" width="1"/></div></div>
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    <author>
      <name>Hogg</name>
      <uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/18398397408280534592</uri>
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      <updated>2010-02-08T23:34:57-05:00</updated>
      <title type="text">Hogg's Research</title>
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  <entry xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">
         
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Agent Fresco</div>
    </title>
          
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Newish super trendy band out of Iceland.</p>

<p>Jazzy math music with touch of heavy rock. <br/>
Or so I was told.</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2010/02/agent_fresco.php">Read the rest of this post...</a> | <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2010/02/agent_fresco.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DynamicsOfCats/~4/aJvT-1d-MQ4" height="1" width="1"/></div>
    </summary>
         
    <link href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DynamicsOfCats/~3/aJvT-1d-MQ4/agent_fresco.php" rel="alternate"/>
         
    <id>http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2010/02/agent_fresco.php</id>
         
    <category term="Iceland"/>
         
         
    <published>2010-02-05T23:32:21-05:00</published>
      
    <updated>2010-02-05T23:32:21-05:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>Dynamics of Cats</title>
      <link href="http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/" rel="alternate"/>
      <subtitle>Speculations on astronomy, astrophysics, news I find interesting, theoretical issues, science and science policy.  
I will digress into computational physics, science fiction and general issues and basically whatever I feel like whenever. 
And, of course, cats. </subtitle>
      <rights>Copyright 2010</rights>
      <updated>2010-02-08T00:14:36-05:00</updated>
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      <id>http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/</id>
    </source>
  </entry>

  <entry xml:lang="en">
    
    <title type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Sheaves Do Not Belong to Algebraic Geometry</div>
    </title>
    
    <link href="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2010/02/sheaves_do_not_belong_to_algeb.html" rel="alternate" type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
    
    <updated>2010-02-06T01:23:46+00:00</updated>
    
    <published>2010-02-05T21:50:49+00:00</published>
    
    <id>tag:golem.ph.utexas.edu,2010:%2Fcategory%2F3.2165</id>
    
    <summary type="text">They come out of thin categorical air.</summary>
    
    <author>
      
      <name>leinster</name>
      
      <uri>http://www.maths.gla.ac.uk/~tl/</uri>
      
      <email>T.Leinster@maths.gla.ac.uk</email>
    
    </author>
    
    <category term="Algebraic Geometry"/>
    
    <content type="xhtml" xml:base="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2010/02/sheaves_do_not_belong_to_algeb.html">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<div><a href="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/mathml.html"><img class="mathlogo" title="MathML-enabled post (click for details)." src="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/images/MathML.png" alt="MathML-enabled post (click for more details)."/></a></div>
<p>…and here’s a proof.  </p>

<p>They are, of course, very <i>useful</i> in algebraic geometry (as is the
equals sign).  Also, human beings discovered them while developing algebraic
geometry, which is why many of them still make the association.</p>

<p>But as we’ll see, sheaves are an inevitable consequence of general
ideas that have nothing to do with algebraic geometry.
In fact, sheaves (and various related notions) arise automatically
from two completely general categorical constructions, together with
one almost imperceptibly small topological observation.</p>
<div><a href="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/mathml.html"><img class="mathlogo" title="MathML-enabled post (click for details)." src="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/images/MathML.png" alt="MathML-enabled post (click for more details)."/></a></div>
<p>Before I give you the proof, let me make clear that it isn’t due
to me.  I don’t know who it <i>is</i> due to — I’ve never
seen it in print — but I suspect it was known before I
was even born.  (<i>Update</i>: see <a href="http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2010/02/sheaves_do_not_belong_to_algeb.html#c031563">Joachim Kock’s comment</a> for a reference.)  People who I’ve told this argument to seem to like it,
so I wrote it up in a little <a href="http://www.maths.gla.ac.uk/~tl/sheaves.pdf">note</a> 
a few years ago; then a recent conversation reminded me of it, so I
thought I’d air it here.</p>

<p><b>First categorical construction</b>  Let <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>A</mi></mstyle></math> be a
small category, <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>E</mi></mstyle></math> a category with small colimits, and 
<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>J</mi><mo>:</mo><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>A</mi></mstyle><mo>→</mo><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>E</mi></mstyle></math> any functor.  Then there is an induced
adjunction 
<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="block"><msup><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>Set</mi></mstyle> <mrow><msup><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>A</mi></mstyle> <mi>op</mi></msup></mrow></msup><mrow><mtable columnalign="right left right left right left right left right left" columnspacing="0em"><mtr><mtd><mover><mover><mrow><mi>Hom</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>J</mi><mo>,</mo><mo rspace="0em" lspace="verythinmathspace">−</mo><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></mrow><mo>⟵</mo></mover><mstyle displaystyle="true"><mover><mo>⟶</mo><mrow><mstyle displaystyle="true"><mo rspace="0em" lspace="verythinmathspace">−</mo></mstyle><mo>⊗</mo><mi>J</mi></mrow></mover></mstyle></mover></mtd></mtr></mtable></mrow><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>E</mi></mstyle><mo>.</mo></math>
The right adjoint <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>Hom</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>J</mi><mo>,</mo><mo rspace="0em" lspace="verythinmathspace">−</mo><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math> is defined by
<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="block"><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>Hom</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>J</mi><mo>,</mo><mi>E</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>A</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>=</mo><mi>Hom</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>J</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>A</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>,</mo><mi>E</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math>
(<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>E</mi><mo>∈</mo><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>E</mi></mstyle></math>, <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>A</mi><mo>∈</mo><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>A</mi></mstyle></math>).  The left adjoint <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mo rspace="0em" lspace="verythinmathspace">−</mo><mo>⊗</mo><mi>J</mi></math> is defined by the adjointness, and can be described as a certain coend or colimit.</p>

<p>Example: if <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>J</mi><mo>:</mo><mi>Δ</mi><mo>→</mo><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>Top</mi></mstyle></math> is the standard simplex
functor then <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>Hom</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>J</mi><mo>,</mo><mo rspace="0em" lspace="verythinmathspace">−</mo><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math> is the singular simplicial set functor and
<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mo rspace="0em" lspace="verythinmathspace">−</mo><mo>⊗</mo><mi>J</mi></math> is geometric realization.</p>

<p><b>Second categorical construction</b>  Any adjunction restricts
canonically to an equivalence between full subcategories.  </p>

<p>Precisely, let
<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="block"><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>C</mi></mstyle><mrow><mtable columnalign="right left right left right left right left right left" columnspacing="0em"><mtr><mtd><mover><mover><mi>G</mi><mo>⟵</mo></mover><mstyle displaystyle="true"><mover><mstyle displaystyle="true"><mo>⟶</mo></mstyle><mi>F</mi></mover></mstyle></mover></mtd></mtr></mtable></mrow><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>D</mi></mstyle></math>
be an adjunction (<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>F</mi></math> left adjoint to <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>G</mi></math>), with unit <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>η</mi><mo>:</mo><mn>1</mn><mo>→</mo><mi>G</mi><mi>F</mi></math>
and counit <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>ε</mi><mo>:</mo><mi>F</mi><mi>G</mi><mo>→</mo><mn>1</mn></math>.  Let <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mover><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>C</mi></mstyle><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover></math> be the full
subcategory of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>C</mi></mstyle></math> consisting of those objects <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>C</mi></math> for which <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>η</mi> <mi>C</mi></msub><mo>:</mo><mi>C</mi><mo>→</mo><mi>G</mi><mi>F</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>C</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math> is an isomorphism, and
dually <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mover><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>D</mi></mstyle><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover></math>.  Then the adjunction <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>F</mi><mo>,</mo><mi>G</mi><mo>,</mo><mi>η</mi><mo>,</mo><mi>ε</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math>
restricts to an equivalence between <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mover><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>C</mi></mstyle><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover></math> and <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mover><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>D</mi></mstyle><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover></math>.</p>

<p><b>Almost imperceptibly small topological observation</b>  Any
open subset of a topological space can be regarded as a space in
its own right, and when one open set is contained in another, there is
an induced inclusion of spaces.</p>

<p>Precisely, let <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>S</mi></math> be a topological space.  Write <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>O</mi></mstyle><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>S</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math>
for the poset of open subsets of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>S</mi></math>, regarded as a category (in which
each hom-set has at most one element).  Write <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>Top</mi></mstyle><mo stretchy="false">/</mo><mi>S</mi></math> for the
category of spaces over <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>S</mi></math>: objects are continuous maps into <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>S</mi></math>, and
maps are commutative triangles.  Then there is a canonical functor
<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="block"><mi>J</mi><mo>:</mo><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>O</mi></mstyle><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>S</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>→</mo><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>Top</mi></mstyle><mo stretchy="false">/</mo><mi>S</mi><mo>,</mo></math>
sending an open set <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>U</mi></math> to the inclusion <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>U</mi><mo>↪</mo><mi>S</mi></math>.</p>

<p><b>Punchline</b>  Fix a topological space <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>S</mi></math>.  The category
<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>Top</mi></mstyle><mo stretchy="false">/</mo><mi>S</mi></math> has small colimits, since <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>Top</mi></mstyle></math> does.</p>

<p>Applying the first categorical construction to the functor <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>J</mi></math> just defined produces an adjunction
<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="block"><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>presheaves</mi><mi>on</mi><mi>S</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>=</mo><msup><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>Set</mi></mstyle> <mrow><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>O</mi></mstyle><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>S</mi><msup><mo stretchy="false">)</mo> <mi>op</mi></msup></mrow></msup><mrow><mtable columnalign="right left right left right left right left right left" columnspacing="0em"><mtr><mtd><mover><mo>⟵</mo><mstyle displaystyle="true"><mo>⟶</mo></mstyle></mover></mtd></mtr></mtable></mrow><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>Top</mi></mstyle><mo stretchy="false">/</mo><mi>S</mi><mo>=</mo><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>spaces</mi><mi>over</mi><mi>S</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>.</mo></math>
The two functors here are the ones you’d guess.</p>

<p>Applying the second construction now gives an equivalence of
categories
<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="block"><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>sheaves</mi><mi>on</mi><mi>S</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>=</mo><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>Sh</mi></mstyle><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>S</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mrow><mtable columnalign="right left right left right left right left right left" columnspacing="0em"><mtr><mtd><mover><mo>⟵</mo><mstyle displaystyle="true"><mo>⟶</mo></mstyle></mover></mtd></mtr></mtable></mrow><mstyle mathvariant="bold"><mi>Et</mi></mstyle><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>S</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>=</mo><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>é</mi><mi>tale</mi><mi>spaces</mi><mi>over</mi><mi>S</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>.</mo></math>
This can be interpreted as the definition of sheaf, étale
space, etc., or as a theorem, according to taste.</p>

<p>Going right and then left in the adjunction gives the associated
sheaf, or sheafification, of a presheaf.  Going left and then right
gives the ‘étalification’ of a space over <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>S</mi></math>.</p>
      </div>
    
    </content>
  
    <source>
      <title>The n-Category Café</title>
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      <updated>2010-02-06T08:28:38+00:00</updated>
      <subtitle>A group blog on math, physics and philosophy</subtitle>
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  <entry xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xml:base="http://www.scientificblogging.com">
 
    <title>2000 Years Ago Cicero Knew It, Do You ?</title>
 
    <link href="http://www.scientificblogging.com/quantum_diaries_survivor/blog/2000_years_ago_cicero_knew_it_do_you" rel="alternate"/>
 
    <summary type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">"<em>Quidquid oritur, qualecumque est, causam habet a natura. Cum autem res nova et admirabilis fieri videtur, causam invetigato, si poteris, ratione confisus. Si nullam causam reperis, illud tamen certum habeto, nihil fieri potuisse sine causa naturali. Repelle igitur terrorem quem<br/>
res nova tibi attulit et semper verbis sapientium confidere aude:<br/>
sapiens enim facta, quae prodigiosa videntur , numquam fortuito<br/>
evenisse dicet, quod nihil fieri sine causa potest, nec quicquam fit<br/>
quod fieri non potest: nulla igitur portenta sunt. Nam si portentum<br/>
putare debemus id quod raro fit, sapientem esse portentum est: facilius<br/>
esse enim mulam parere arbitror quam sapientem esse."<br/></em><strong><br/>Marcus Tullius Cicero<br/></strong><em><br/></em>Quick and dirty translation: <br/><br/><br/>
<p><a href="http://www.scientificblogging.com/quantum_diaries_survivor/blog/2000_years_ago_cicero_knew_it_do_you" target="_blank">read more</a></p></div>
    </summary>
 
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    <category term="Physics" scheme="http://www.scientificblogging.com/physics"/>
 
    <published>2010-02-05T22:46:42+00:00</published>
 
    <author>
      <name>dorigo</name>
    </author>
 
    <id>urn:feed-entry-id:64326 at http://www.scientificblogging.com</id>

    <updated>2010-02-05T22:46:42+00:00</updated>
    <source>
      <title>dorigo's blog</title>
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    <id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10448119.post-4896941520847332128</id>
    <published>2010-02-03T23:59:00-05:00</published>
    <updated>2010-02-05T16:14:20-05:00</updated>
    <category term="statistics" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="exoplanet" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
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    <title type="text">meta-up</title>
    <content type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Fengji Hou (my new student, will be <q>Hou</q> from now on in this diary), his co-advisor Jonathan Goodman (NYU Courant), and I discussed Fengji's start on exoplanet radial velocity fitting using advanced sampling tools.  We spent a long time talking about code, but once we were done, Goodman and I spent some time talking about medium-term projects that would be non-trivial and interesting.  We discussed the idea that if you are a Bayesian (not always advisable), you don't really want to detect planets <i>per se</i>, you want to pass forward probabilistic information about their existence and properties, and then perform your analysis on those probabilistic outputs.  In this world, you might be able to discover and say things about classes of planets that are not detected clearly in <i>any</i> individual stellar radial velocity time series.  Approaches like this could greatly increase the number of <q>known</q> expolanets for some kinds of statistical studies.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/10448119-4896941520847332128?l=hoggresearch.blogspot.com" height="1" alt="" width="1"/></div></div>
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      <updated>2010-02-08T23:34:57-05:00</updated>
      <title type="text">Hogg's Research</title>
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    <id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10448119.post-7092135733527009614</id>
    <published>2010-02-04T23:59:00-05:00</published>
    <updated>2010-02-05T16:10:06-05:00</updated>
    <category term="exoplanet" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
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    <title type="text">unit tests failed</title>
    <content type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Argh.  Lang came into town and we added another JPL-ephemeris-based unit test to our code and it <i>failed</i>.  It is a coordinate system problem we weren't able to diagnose before we ran out of day.  But we started playing with the Canon Digital Rebels that Sam bought to put on the telescopes we have on the roof of 715 Broadway.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/10448119-7092135733527009614?l=hoggresearch.blogspot.com" height="1" alt="" width="1"/></div></div>
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      <title type="text">Hogg's Research</title>
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    <id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10448119.post-8888851667455789470</id>
    <published>2010-02-05T15:59:00-05:00</published>
    <updated>2010-02-05T16:07:59-05:00</updated>
    <category term="seminar" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="galaxy" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="star" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="WMAP" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
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    <category term="chemistry" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="supernova" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <category term="dark sector" scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#"/>
    <title type="text">stars, pulsars, dark matter</title>
    <content type="xhtml"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>I can't say I did much research today but I saw two beautiful talks, and going to talks <i>does</i> count as research.</p>

<p>At lunch time Dmitry Malyshev (NYU) gave a beautiful talk on millisecond-pulsar and dark-matter contributions to the observed haze at the Galactic Center from <i>Fermi</i> and <i>WMAP</i>.  He showed specific pulsar-plus-DM models that explain the spectral properties of the haze beautifully, many of which are natural for both pulsars and the DM.  In some, he had to make the electron–positron emission from pulsars very high, but it really is an unknown.  He mentioned that 47 Tuc (globular cluster) is a key observable <i>Fermi</i> source for distinguishing these ideas.  Malyshev was very cautious and made no strong claims, but my excitement about the possibility that dark matter annihilation <i>is</i> being observed grew during the presentation.</p>

<p>In the afternoon, Nathan Smith (Berkeley) gave an outstanding talk about extremely massive stars as observed in our own Galaxy and nearby galaxies, including their dramatic explosions and mass-loss episodes.  These are incredibly rich in their kinematic and chemical properties and have implications for chemical abundance propagation, star formation, supernova prediction, and the evolution of the young universe.  He made a comment at the end about <q>extrapolating theories we don't understand into regimes where we have no data</q> which made the astronomers laugh and the particle theorists ask <q><i>And?</i></q>.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/10448119-8888851667455789470?l=hoggresearch.blogspot.com" height="1" alt="" width="1"/></div></div>
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