# All Questions

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### A short proof for $\dim(R[T])=\dim(R)+1$?

If $R$ is a commutative ring, it is easy to prove $\dim(R[T]) \geq \dim(R)+1$. For noetherian $R$, we have equality. Every proof I'm aware of uses quite a bit of commutative algebra and non-trivial ...
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### Does the open mapping theorem imply the Baire category theorem?

A nice observation by C.E. Blair1, 2, 3 shows that the Baire category theorem for complete metric spaces is equivalent to the axiom of (countable) dependent choice. On the other hand, the three ...
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### The Ring Game on $K[x,y,z]$

I recently read about the Ring Game on Mathoverflow, and have been trying to determine winning strategies for each player on various rings. The game has two players and begins with a commutative ...
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### What properties of busy beaver numbers are computable?

The busy beaver function $\text{BB}(n)$ describes the maximum number of steps that an $n$-state Turing machine can execute before it halts (assuming it halts at all). It is not a computable function ...
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### Grothendieck 's question - any update?

I was reading Barry Mazur's biography and come across this part: Grothendieck was exceptionally patient with me, for when we first met I knew next to nothing about algebra. In one of his first ...
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### Does there exist a bijection of $\mathbb{R}^n$ with itself such that the forward map is connected but the inverse is not?

Let $(X,\tau), (Y,\sigma)$ be two topological spaces. We say that a map $f: \mathcal{P}(X)\to \mathcal{P}(Y)$ between their power sets is connected if for every $S\subset X$ connected, $f(S)\subset Y$ ...
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### Is there a homology theory that counts connected components of a space?

It is well-known that the generators of the zeroth singular homology group $H_0(X)$ of a space $X$ correspond to the path components of $X$. I have recently learned that for Čech homology the ...
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### Differential forms on fuzzy manifolds

This post will take a bit to set up properly, but it is an easy read (and most likely easy to answer); in any event, please bear with me. Question In the usual setting of open subsets of ...
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### Is this similarity to the Fourier transform of the von Mangoldt function real?

Mathematica knows that the logarithm of $n$ is: $$\log(n) = \lim\limits_{s \rightarrow 1} \zeta(s)\left(1 - \frac{1}{n^{(s - 1)}}\right)$$ The von Mangoldt function should then be: ...
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### Continuous projections in $\ell_1$ with norm $>1$

I was trying to find papers and articles about non-contractive continuous projections in $\ell_1(S)$ where $S$ is an arbitrary set. If it is not studied yet, I would like to know results for the case ...
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### Gross-Zagier formulae outside of number theory

(Edit: I have asked this question on MO.) The Gross-Zagier formula and various variations of it form the starting point in most of the existing results towards the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer ...
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### Geometric interpretation of the Riemann-Roch for curves

Let $X$ be a smooth projective curve of genus $g\geq2$ over an algebraically closed field $k$ and denote by $K$ a canonical divisor. I have some clues about the geometrical interpretation of the ...
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### Limit of sequence of growing matrices

Let $$H=\left(\begin{array}{cccc} 0 & 1/2 & 0 & 1/2 \\ 1/2 & 0 & 1/2 & 0 \\ 1/2 & 0 & 0 & 1/2\\ 0 & 1/2 & 1/2 & 0 \end{array}\right),$$ ...
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### Application of Hilbert's basis theorem in representation theory

In Smalo: Degenerations of Representations of Associative Algebras, Milan J. Math., 2008 there is an application of Hilbert's basis theorem that I don't understand: Two orders are defined on the set ...
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### In $n>5$, topology = algebra

During the study of the surgery theory I faced following sentence: Surgery theory works best for $n > 5$, when "topology = algebra". I don't know what is the meaning of topology=algebra. ...
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### What is the Picard group of $z^3=y(y^2-x^2)(x-1)$?

I'm actually doing much more with this affine surface than just looking for the Picard group. I have already proved many things about this surface, and have many more things to look at it, but the ...
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### Computing the Chern-Simons invariant of SO(3)

I am an undergraduate learning about gauge theory and I have been tasked with working through the two examples given on pages 65 and 66 of "Characteristic forms and geometric invariants" by Chern and ...
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### Solving Special Function Equations Using Lie Symmetries

The lie group + representation theory approach to special functions & how they solve the ode's arising in physics is absolutely amazing. I've given an example of it's power below on Bessel's ...
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### Does this sequence have any mathematical significance?

Take the sequence 001 and repeatedly append its second half to itself, using the larger half if the length is odd. This gives you ...
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### Irrationality of $\sqrt{2\sqrt{3\sqrt{4\cdots}}}$

In this question it is stated that Somos' quadratic recurrence constant $$\alpha=\sqrt{2\sqrt{3\sqrt{4\sqrt{\cdots}}}}$$ is an irrational number. This fact seems by no means trivial to me. The ...
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### Find all functions $f$ such that if $a+b$ is a square, then $f(a)+f(b)$ is a square

Question: For any $a,b\in \mathbb{N}^{+}$, if $a+b$ is a square number, then $f(a)+f(b)$ is also a square number. Find all such functions. My try: It is clear that the function $$f(x)=x$$ ...
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### This one weird thing that bugs me about summation and the like

Most of us know $$\sum_{n=a}^b c_n=c_a+c_{a+1}...+c_{b-1}+c_b$$ Some of us know $$\prod_{n=a}^b c_n=c_a \cdot c_{a+1}...c_{b-1} \cdot c_{b}$$ A few of us know ...
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### Is Erdős' lemma on intersection graphs a special case of Yoneda's lemma?

Under which name is the following proposition filed actually: Every poset $P$ embeds fully and faithfully in the powerset of $P$, ordered by subset inclusion. Let me call it Dedekind's lemma. ...
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### Generating function solution to previous question $a_{n}=a_{\lfloor n/2\rfloor}+a_{\lfloor n/3 \rfloor}+a_{\lfloor n/6\rfloor}$

In attempting to answer this question, I reduced it to a seemingly simple generating functions question, but after days of work was unable to construct a proof. Since I do not have experience trying ...
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### Geometric & Intuitive Meaning of $SL(2,R)$, $SU(2)$, etc… & Representation Theory of Special Functions

Many special functions of mathematical physics can be understood from the point of view of the representation theory of lie groups. An example of the power of this viewpoint is given in my question ...
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### A very nice divisibility problem

A very hard problem, here it is: Prove that, if $2^{2^j} a + 1$ divides $c^{2^j}+1$ for fixed integers $a,c$ and all nonnegative integers $j$, then $a=1$ and $c=2^l$ for some odd positive integer ...
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### Is $f_n=\frac{(x+1)^n-(x^n+1)}{x}$ irreducible over $\mathbf{Z}$ for arbitrary $n$?

In this document on page $3$ I found an interesting polynomial: $$f_n=\frac{(x+1)^n-(x^n+1)}{x}$$ Question is whether this polynomial is irreducible over $\mathbf{Q}$ for arbitrary $n \geq 1$ ? In ...
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### Definitive source about Dirichlet finally proving the Unit Theorem in the Sistine Chapel

There is a remark one can find in various books or survey articles (e.g., page 49 of Helmut Koch's "Number Theory: Algebraic Numbers and Algebraic Functions") saying Dirichlet figured out a proof of ...
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### Tate conjecture for Fermat varieties

I've been looking at Tate's Algebraic Cycles and Poles of Zeta Functions (hard to find online... Google books outline here) and have a question about his work on (conjecturing!) the Tate conjecture ...
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### Projective profinite groups

I'm reading the first chapter of Serre's Galois Cohomology. On p. 58, He gives two examples of projective profinite groups: the profinite completion of free (discrete) groups; the cartesian product ...
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### Pullback and Pushforward Isomorphism of Sheaves

Suppose we have two schemes $X, Y$ and a map $f: X\to Y$. Then we know that $\operatorname{Hom}_X(f^*\mathcal{G}, \mathcal{F})\simeq \operatorname{Hom}_Y(\mathcal{G}, f_*\mathcal{F})$, where ...
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### Can a number be equal to the sum of the squares of its prime divisors?

If $$n=p_1^{a_1}\cdots p_k^{a_k},$$ then define $$f(n):=p_1^2+\cdots+p_k^2$$ So, $f(n)$ is the sum of the squares of the prime divisors of $n$. For which natural numbers $n\ge 2$ do we have ...
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### How many points of intersection between an ellipse and an $L_p$-circle?

Consider an ellipse $E$ in the plane, centered at the origin. (In my case, the minor axis points into the nonnegative quadrant.) Let S be an "$L_p$-circle": $S = \{(x,y) : |x|^p + |y|^p = 1\}$, ...
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### Classification of local Artin (commutative) rings which are finite over an algebraically closed field.

A result in deformation theory states that if every morphism $Y=\operatorname{Spec}(A)\rightarrow X$ where $A$ is a local Artin ring finite over $k$ can be extended to every $Y'\supset Y$ where $Y'$ ...
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### $f(x)=\sum_{t}{x \choose t}{n-x \choose k-t}$ - even or odd?

The following function popped in my research: $$f(x)=\sum_{\array{0\le t\le k \\ t\equiv_p a}}{x \choose t}{n-x \choose k-t}$$ Where: n,k are natural numbers and $k\le n$. t is taken over all ...
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### Can Three Equilateral Triangles with Sidelength $s$ Cover A Unit Square?

A previous question on the site asked for a short proof of the fact that three equilateral triangles with unit side length cannot be arranged to cover a square with unit side lengths. Given the truth ...
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### Geometric way to view the truncated braid groups?

This is perhaps a vague question, but hopefully there exists literature on the subject. The question is motivated by an answer I gave to this question. I also asked a related question on MO, although ...
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### When are nonintersecting finite degree field extensions linearly disjoint?

Let $F$ be a field, and let $K,L$ be finite degree field extensions of $F$ inside a common algebraic closure. Consider the following two properties: (i) $K$ and $L$ are linearly disjoint over $F$: ...
I am looking for a deeper understanding, particularly the optimum strategy and the maximum score as a function of grid size, of the following (single-player) game played with an $n$ by $m$ grid: ($6 ... 0answers 813 views ### Is this$really$a categorical approach to$integration$? Here's an article by Reinhard Börger I found recently whose title and content, prima facie, seem quite exciting to me, given my misadventures lately (like this and this); it's called, "A Categorical ... 0answers 398 views ### If$\beta=0.{a_1}^{k}{a_2}^{k}{a_3}^{k}\cdots\in\mathbb Q$, then$\alpha=0.a_1a_2a_3\cdots\in\mathbb Q$? Question : For every even$k\ge 4$, is the following$(\star)$true?$\begin{align}\text{If\beta=0.{a_1}^{k}{a_2}^{k}{a_3}^{k}\cdots\in\mathbb Q$, then$\alpha=0.a_1a_2a_3\cdots\in\mathbb ...
I have some idle questions about what's known about finite-dimensional division algebras over $\mathbb{Q}$ (thought of as "noncommutative number fields"). To keep the discussion focused, let's ...