20,549 research outputs found
Geometrization of metric boundary data for Einstein's equations
The principle part of Einstein equations in the harmonic gauge consists of a
constrained system of 10 curved space wave equations for the components of the
space-time metric. A well-posed initial boundary value problem based upon a new
formulation of constraint-preserving boundary conditions of the Sommerfeld type
has recently been established for such systems. In this paper these boundary
conditions are recast in a geometric form. This serves as a first step toward
their application to other metric formulations of Einstein's equations.Comment: Article to appear in Gen. Rel. Grav. volume in memory of Juergen
Ehler
Use of the geometric mean as a statistic for the scale of the coupled Gaussian distributions
The geometric mean is shown to be an appropriate statistic for the scale of a
heavy-tailed coupled Gaussian distribution or equivalently the Student's t
distribution. The coupled Gaussian is a member of a family of distributions
parameterized by the nonlinear statistical coupling which is the reciprocal of
the degree of freedom and is proportional to fluctuations in the inverse scale
of the Gaussian. Existing estimators of the scale of the coupled Gaussian have
relied on estimates of the full distribution, and they suffer from problems
related to outliers in heavy-tailed distributions. In this paper, the scale of
a coupled Gaussian is proven to be equal to the product of the generalized mean
and the square root of the coupling. From our numerical computations of the
scales of coupled Gaussians using the generalized mean of random samples, it is
indicated that only samples from a Cauchy distribution (with coupling parameter
one) form an unbiased estimate with diminishing variance for large samples.
Nevertheless, we also prove that the scale is a function of the geometric mean,
the coupling term and a harmonic number. Numerical experiments show that this
estimator is unbiased with diminishing variance for large samples for a broad
range of coupling values.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure
Characteristics, Bicharacteristics, and Geometric Singularities of Solutions of PDEs
Many physical systems are described by partial differential equations (PDEs).
Determinism then requires the Cauchy problem to be well-posed. Even when the
Cauchy problem is well-posed for generic Cauchy data, there may exist
characteristic Cauchy data. Characteristics of PDEs play an important role both
in Mathematics and in Physics. I will review the theory of characteristics and
bicharacteristics of PDEs, with a special emphasis on intrinsic aspects, i.e.,
those aspects which are invariant under general changes of coordinates. After a
basically analytic introduction, I will pass to a modern, geometric point of
view, presenting characteristics within the jet space approach to PDEs. In
particular, I will discuss the relationship between characteristics and
singularities of solutions and observe that: "wave-fronts are characteristic
surfaces and propagate along bicharacteristics". This remark may be understood
as a mathematical formulation of the wave/particle duality in optics and/or
quantum mechanics. The content of the paper reflects the three hour minicourse
that I gave at the XXII International Fall Workshop on Geometry and Physics,
September 2-5, 2013, Evora, Portugal.Comment: 26 pages, short elementary review submitted for publication on the
Proceedings of XXII IFWG
Fermat, Leibniz, Euler, and the gang: The true history of the concepts of limit and shadow
Fermat, Leibniz, Euler, and Cauchy all used one or another form of
approximate equality, or the idea of discarding "negligible" terms, so as to
obtain a correct analytic answer. Their inferential moves find suitable proxies
in the context of modern theories of infinitesimals, and specifically the
concept of shadow. We give an application to decreasing rearrangements of real
functions.Comment: 35 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Notices of the American
Mathematical Society 61 (2014), no.
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
Electromagnetism, local covariance, the Aharonov-Bohm effect and Gauss' law
We quantise the massless vector potential A of electromagnetism in the
presence of a classical electromagnetic (background) current, j, in a generally
covariant way on arbitrary globally hyperbolic spacetimes M. By carefully
following general principles and procedures we clarify a number of topological
issues. First we combine the interpretation of A as a connection on a principal
U(1)-bundle with the perspective of general covariance to deduce a physical
gauge equivalence relation, which is intimately related to the Aharonov-Bohm
effect. By Peierls' method we subsequently find a Poisson bracket on the space
of local, affine observables of the theory. This Poisson bracket is in general
degenerate, leading to a quantum theory with non-local behaviour. We show that
this non-local behaviour can be fully explained in terms of Gauss' law. Thus
our analysis establishes a relationship, via the Poisson bracket, between the
Aharonov-Bohm effect and Gauss' law (a relationship which seems to have gone
unnoticed so far). Furthermore, we find a formula for the space of electric
monopole charges in terms of the topology of the underlying spacetime. Because
it costs little extra effort, we emphasise the cohomological perspective and
derive our results for general p-form fields A (p < dim(M)), modulo exact
fields. In conclusion we note that the theory is not locally covariant, in the
sense of Brunetti-Fredenhagen-Verch. It is not possible to obtain such a theory
by dividing out the centre of the algebras, nor is it physically desirable to
do so. Instead we argue that electromagnetism forces us to weaken the axioms of
the framework of local covariance, because the failure of locality is
physically well-understood and should be accommodated.Comment: Minor corrections to Def. 4.3, acknowledgements and typos, in line
with published versio
From Geometry to Numerics: interdisciplinary aspects in mathematical and numerical relativity
This article reviews some aspects in the current relationship between
mathematical and numerical General Relativity. Focus is placed on the
description of isolated systems, with a particular emphasis on recent
developments in the study of black holes. Ideas concerning asymptotic flatness,
the initial value problem, the constraint equations, evolution formalisms,
geometric inequalities and quasi-local black hole horizons are discussed on the
light of the interaction between numerical and mathematical relativists.Comment: Topical review commissioned by Classical and Quantum Gravity.
Discussion inspired by the workshop "From Geometry to Numerics" (Paris, 20-24
November, 2006), part of the "General Relativity Trimester" at the Institut
Henri Poincare (Fall 2006). Comments and references added. Typos corrected.
Submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravit
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