Approaching Cauchy’s Theorem

We hope to initiate a discussion about various methods for introducing Cauchy’s Theorem. Although Cauchy’s Theorem is the fundamental theorem upon which complex analysis is based, there is no “standard approach.” The appropriate choice depends upon the prerequisites for the course and the level of rigor intended. Common methods include Green’s Theorem, Goursat’s Lemma, Leibniz’ Rule, and homotopy theory, each of which has its positives and negatives

Cauchy's infinitesimals, his sum theorem, and foundational paradigms

Cauchy's sum theorem is a prototype of what is today a basic result on the convergence of a series of functions in undergraduate analysis. We seek to interpret Cauchy's proof, and discuss the related epistemological questions involved in comparing distinct interpretive paradigms. Cauchy's proof is often interpreted in the modern framework of a Weierstrassian paradigm. We analyze Cauchy's proof closely and show that it finds closer proxies in a different modern framework. Keywords: Cauchy's infinitesimal; sum theorem; quantifier alternation; uniform convergence; foundational paradigms.Comment: 42 pages; to appear in Foundations of Scienc

An elementary proof of Euler formula using Cauchy's method

The use of Cauchy's method to prove Euler's well-known formula is an object of many controversies. The purpose of this paper is to prove that Cauchy's method applies for convex polyhedra and not only for them, but also for surfaces such as the torus, the projective plane, the Klein bottle and the pinched torus

Cauchy's almost forgotten Lagrangian formulation of the Euler equation for 3D incompressible flow

Two prized papers, one by Augustin Cauchy in 1815, presented to the French Academy and the other by Hermann Hankel in 1861, presented to G\"ottingen University, contain major discoveries on vorticity dynamics whose impact is now quickly increasing. Cauchy found a Lagrangian formulation of 3D ideal incompressible flow in terms of three invariants that generalize to three dimensions the now well-known law of conservation of vorticity along fluid particle trajectories for two-dimensional flow. This has very recently been used to prove analyticity in time of fluid particle trajectories for 3D incompressible Euler flow and can be extended to compressible flow, in particular to cosmological dark matter. Hankel showed that Cauchy's formulation gives a very simple Lagrangian derivation of the Helmholtz vorticity-flux invariants and, in the middle of the proof, derived an intermediate result which is the conservation of the circulation of the velocity around a closed contour moving with the fluid. This circulation theorem was to be rediscovered independently by William Thomson (Kelvin) in 1869. Cauchy's invariants were only occasionally cited in the 19th century --- besides Hankel, foremost by George Stokes and Maurice L\'evy --- and even less so in the 20th until they were rediscovered via Emmy Noether's theorem in the late 1960, but reattributed to Cauchy only at the end of the 20th century by Russian scientists.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures, EPJ H (history), in pres

Ten Misconceptions from the History of Analysis and Their Debunking

The widespread idea that infinitesimals were "eliminated" by the "great triumvirate" of Cantor, Dedekind, and Weierstrass is refuted by an uninterrupted chain of work on infinitesimal-enriched number systems. The elimination claim is an oversimplification created by triumvirate followers, who tend to view the history of analysis as a pre-ordained march toward the radiant future of Weierstrassian epsilontics. In the present text, we document distortions of the history of analysis stemming from the triumvirate ideology of ontological minimalism, which identified the continuum with a single number system. Such anachronistic distortions characterize the received interpretation of Stevin, Leibniz, d'Alembert, Cauchy, and others.Comment: 46 pages, 4 figures; Foundations of Science (2012). arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1108.2885 and arXiv:1110.545

Discrete complex analysis on planar quad-graphs

We develop a linear theory of discrete complex analysis on general quad-graphs, continuing and extending previous work of Duffin, Mercat, Kenyon, Chelkak and Smirnov on discrete complex analysis on rhombic quad-graphs. Our approach based on the medial graph yields more instructive proofs of discrete analogs of several classical theorems and even new results. We provide discrete counterparts of fundamental concepts in complex analysis such as holomorphic functions, derivatives, the Laplacian, and exterior calculus. Also, we discuss discrete versions of important basic theorems such as Green's identities and Cauchy's integral formulae. For the first time, we discretize Green's first identity and Cauchy's integral formula for the derivative of a holomorphic function. In this paper, we focus on planar quad-graphs, but we would like to mention that many notions and theorems can be adapted to discrete Riemann surfaces in a straightforward way. In the case of planar parallelogram-graphs with bounded interior angles and bounded ratio of side lengths, we construct a discrete Green's function and discrete Cauchy's kernels with asymptotics comparable to the smooth case. Further restricting to the integer lattice of a two-dimensional skew coordinate system yields appropriate discrete Cauchy's integral formulae for higher order derivatives.Comment: 49 pages, 8 figure