Definitions - Complex Analysis and Calculus of Variations

Unit Term Symbol Definition

Complex Complex function A mapping that takes the point to the point . It is
Analysis composed of two real-valued functions of the two real
variables and
Continuity A complex function is continuous if nearby points in the -plane are
mapped to nearby points in the -plane. Consequence: contiguous regions of
the -plane are mapped to contiguous regions of the -plane
Single-valued/ multi- A complex function is single-valued if each point on the -plane is mapped
valued to a single point on the -plane. Contrary to this is multi-valued functions.
Branch point A point is a branch point of a multi-valued complex function if
the function is discontinuous as a small circuit of is traversed.
(usually done by traversing )
Branch cut A branch cut is a line either joining two branch points or joining a branch
point and infinity across which a multi-valued function is made
discontinuous.

The position of the branch cut is forced usually when we choose where the
argument of is discontinuous, but the result of calculations should not
depend on the choice of branch cut made.
Complex series An infinite sum of this form for some infinite series of complex numbers

Convergent/divergent A series is said to be convergent if the sequence of partial sums

series has some limit ( definition). If such limit does not
exist, the series is divergent.
Absolute convergence A series is absolutely convergent if the series is convergent.
Absolute convergence implies convergence.
Complex power series A series of this form where are a series of complex numbers and
is a constant.

Radius of convergence The maximum distance for which the power series converges for all
satisfying
Differentiability A function is said to be differentiable at the point if this limit
exists. (I.e., it is independent of the direction of approach of in the
complex plane. Note that in complex analysis there are an infinite number
of DoAs, as opposed to just two (left and right) in real analysis.
Holomorphic and A function which is complex-differentiable in a neighbourhood of each
analytic functions point in a domain in complex coordinate space.

Such functions are also called analytic functions, but the term
"holomorphic" is reserved for complex functions.
Harmonic functions Complex functions that satisfy Laplace's equation. Note that the two real-
valued functions and are called harmonic conjugates in this
case.
Complex integral An integral along a complex path can be defined as the limit of the
aforementioned sum, where are points along the curve and
are intervals between successive points.
Closed integrals/loop Integrals around close curves, for which by convention we integrate in the
integrals anti-clockwise direction. The value of this integral does not depend on its
start/end point.
Taylor series A series which uses a polynomial series to closely approximate an analytic
function about a point , valid within a certain radius of convergence

Laurent series A series which uses a polynomial series to closely approximate a function
about a singularity , valid within a certain annulus of convergence
. The terms are known as the principal part.
Isolated singularity A singularity if there exists an such that the singularity at is the
only one enclosed within
Essential singularity An isolated singularity with an infinite principal part in the Laurent
expansion valid in its immediate vicinity.
Order of pole An isolated singularity with a finite principal part in the Laurent expansion
valid in its immediate vicinity, and the term as its lowest order non-
zero coefficient.
Simple pole A pole of order 1
Residue The coefficient of the term (that is, ) in the Laurent series
valid in the immediate vicinity of the singularity.
Calculus of Functional A mapping from a vector space of allowable functions to the real numbers.
Variations In our context, this is the integral of our desired function.
Extremal function The function that minimises a functional while satisfying the boundary
conditions.
The set of continuous functions defined on the interval , with their
first -derivatives also continuous on this interval.

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Definitions - Group and Representation Theory

Term Symbol Definition

Group theory The study of symmetry. Symmetries in physical systems can strongly constrain these systems, a famous
fundamental conclusion being Noether's theorem.
Group A set of elements alongside a combination operator . A group satisfies axioms of: 1)
closure, 2) identity, 3) inverse, and 4) associativity.
Abelian group Groups with operations that comply with the additional restraint of commutativity.
Order (group) The number of elements in a group.
Cyclic group The cyclic group of order is the group of rotations of a regular -gon.
The group is abelian, and
Dihedral group The dihedral group of order is the group of rotations and reflections of a regular -gon.
The group is not abelian, and

Cayley table A grid that shows the outcome of every composite operation, under the convention that entries
/multiplication table correspond to (row * column).
Multiplication tables of an abelian group are symmetric about the leading diagonal.
Permutation group, The set of all possible permutations of symbols, plus an operation equivalent to composition
symmetry group (applying the right permutation and then the left).
Cycle notation can be used to succinctly describe each permutation
-cycle A permutation with distinct positive integers.
Disjoint cycles A collection of cycles is disjoint if no two of the cycles have a symbol in common.
Isomorphic Also "identical under isomorphism". Two groups are isomorphic if they have identical multiplication
tables, up to the relabelling of group elements.
Homomorphism A mapping is a homomorphism if for all . I.e., the multiplication
properties of the members of group have a direct correspondence with the multiplication properties of
their images in group
Isomorphism A bijective homomorphism. The domain and codomain of an isomorphism are said to be isomorphic.
Subgroup A subset of a group which forms a group under the same group operation.
Order (element) For an element , a finite group, the order is the smallest power for which
Cyclic subgroup The cyclic subgroup generated by an element of order is the subgroup
Cyclic group, A group is cyclic if for some , . This is called a generator of .
generator
Left coset For , the left coset of in generated by is the subset of defined as written.
Representation The study of the optimal way in which an abstract group can be described in terms of matrix groups, as
theory well as what we can learn from these resulting matrix groups.
Representation ; A group of square matrices which is homeomorphic to a finite group is called an -dimensional
representation of .
Faithful/unfaithful If representation is isomorphic to , it is called a faithful representation. If not, it is unfaithful.
representations
Equivalent/similar Two representations and of a finite group are equivalent/similar if there exists a
representations similiarity transformation such that
Direct sum (of A matrix with its "addends" placed on the main diagonal, and zeros elsewhere.
matrices)
Block-diagonal A matrix is block diagonal if it can be expressed as a direct sum
(matrix)
Block-diagonal A representation is block diagonal if its elements are all block diagonal with the same block sizes.
(representation)
Reducible A representation is reducible if an equivalent representation exists in which every matrix appears in
representations block form. That is, representable in a form of non-zero matrices down the main diagonal and zero
elsewhere.
Trace (of a matrix) The sum of the diagonal entries in a matrix. It is also the sum of the matrix's eigenvalues, and

Character The character of a representation is the function which maps each element of the represented group to
the trace of its corresponding matrix representation.
Conjugacy class The conjugacy class of an element is defined as such. Two elements are conjugate if one is in the
conjugacy class of the other.
Conjugacy class An element from each conjugacy class of a group used to represent that conjugacy class.
representative
Character table A table which holds all the information necessary to understand the irreducible REPs of a finite group

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Complex Analysis (I)

Generalised polar form: Cauchy's Integral Formula:

If:
- A complex function is analytic in a simply connected region
Exponential function: of the complex plane, then
Infinitely many points on the -plane are mapped to the same point on the - For any closed curve lying entirely inside , and
-plane. - Point inside

Logarithm function:
A multi-valued function with infinitely many branches
Extension to a finite number of singularities:

Trigonometric functions:

Cauchy's Integral Formula for Derivatives:

Hyperbolic functions:
If: (same conditions as CIF)
- A complex function is analytic in a simply connected region
of the complex plane, then
- For any closed curve lying entirely inside , and
D'Alembert's Ratio Test:
- Point inside
If , the series converges.
If , the series diverges.
Cases where the limit evaluates to zero is indeterminate.

Cauchy-Riemann Equations: Taylor's theorem:

A necessary condition of complex differentiability is fulfillment of the If:
Cauchy-Riemann equations: - A single-valued function is analytic everywhere in a closed
disk of the complex plane then can be expanded
as:

Analytic functions:
1) Polynomial and exponential functions are analytic everywhere,
2) Sums, products and compositions of analytic functions are analytic,
and
3) Quotients of analytic functions are analytic except when the divisor And the series will converge uniformly within the region
is equal to zero.
Uniform convergence - mode of convergence of functions stronger than
Complex integration: pointwise convergence, defined using a sequence of functions
1) Parametrize the path (find a complex valued function such such that given any positive ,
that the path is defined as )
2) Evaluate as: Laurent's theorem:
If:
- A function is analytic in some annular region

It may be expanded in a power series, uniformly convergent on

, as

Fundamental Theorem of Calculus:

If:
- is analytic everywhere in an open region
- that encloses a piecewise-smooth curve , Where
- and an (antiderivative) function , satisfying , can be
found that is also analytic everywhere in , then

And is any simple closed contour enclosing the inner boundary of the
annular region
Where and are the start and end points of .
Residue formula:
Cauchy's Theorem (Cauchy's Integral Theorem): To find the residue at a pole of order :
If:
- A complex function is analytic in a simply connected region
of the complex plane,
- Then for any closed curve lying entirely inside ,
Cauchy's Residue Theorem:
If:
- A function is analytic and single-valued everywhere in a
region containing a closed contour , except at a finite number
Corollary:
of isolated singularities inside then
- Contours can be deformed across regions where is analytic
without changing the value of the integral.

Can be seen as an extension to Cauchy's integral formula for multiple

poles and of greater orders.

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Complex Analysis (II)

Evaluating real trigonometric integrals:

For real trigonometric integrals of the form:

With as a real-valued function of two variables, we can substitute using:

We can make similar substitutions for and .

Evaluating integrals on the entire real line:

For real integrals of the form:

Consider a semi-circular contour centered at the origin, with the radius tending
towards infinity.

If we can demonstrate that:

for all

Then the second integral vanishes, leaving us with:

Where iterates over all isolated singularities in the upper-half plane

Fourier-Type integrals and Jordan's Lemma

Consider integrals of the form:

If we can demonstrate that

for all (no R factor here!)

Then the second integral (semi-circumference) vanishes, leaving us with

Where iterates over all isolated singularities in the upper-half plane

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Calculus of Variations

Euler-Lagrange Equation
(for CoV theorems below, boundary conditions are applied as given unless
otherwise specified)
A necessary condition for to be an extremal of the functional

Subject to is that the following equation is satisfied:

The Beltrami Identity

For functionals of the form:

(i.e., integrands with no explicit dependence), we can use the following

identity instead:

Other Special Cases:

For functionals of the form:

(i.e., integrand has no explicit or dependence), the extremal function is

constant.

For functionals of the form:

(i.e., integrand has no explicit or dependence), the extremal function is

linear.

Isoperimetric Problems:
These problems apply extra integral constraints onto the typical CoV
extremal problem:

Find the extremal of

With , , subject to

A necessary condition for to be an extremal of the functional

subject to the constraint is that is an extremal of:

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Group and Representation Theory

Axioms of Groups Abelian group conjugacy class theorem:

For each in an abelian group, its conjugacy class consits of only itself.
A group by definition follows the 4 axioms below:
1) Closure: , Proposition of characters in conjugacy classes:
2) Identity: Characters are constant on conjugacy classes. I.e.,
3) Inverse:
4) Associativity:
The number of conjugacy classes in a group is equal to the number of
Note that groups are not necessarily commutative ( is not irreducible REPs.
necessarily equal to ). Such groups are abelian.
The conjugacy classes and irreducible representations of :
Rearrangement Theorem
For a finite group , all elements of appear exactly once in each Conjugacy classes:
row and each column of a finite group. -
Corollary: inverses are unique. -
-
The Cancellation Law
Let be elements in a group . If , then Irreducible REPs:

Cycle notation for permutations Trivial:

Let , and be distinct positive integers.

is then the permutation such that: Sign:
- goes to , goes to , and
- Any number that isn't goes to itself.
Standard:
This permutation is called an -cycle, of length .

When composing permutations, work from right to left.

Consequences of the homomorphism definition:

In a homomorphism:
- the identity in is mapped to the identity in
- The inverse of is mapped to the inverse of

Proof of a subset of a group being a subgroup

The proof will only require demonstration of the closure and inverse
properties, as the other two naturally follow. Reduction of REPs using Characters
Let be a possibly reducible REP of a finite group .
Cyclic group theorem
A finite group is cyclic iff it contains an element with the same The number of copies of irreducible REP that appear in can be found
order as it. using (a corollary of Schur's lemma)

Coset result
For a subgroup all , . This can be shown by
proof of contradiction: all left-multiplications of must be unique
as otherwise left-multiplication of will lead to a contradiction. Where the summation is performed over the conjugacy classes of , using
conjugacy class representatives.
Other coset facts
1) All cosets have the same size. In particular, the formula above should produce 1 for all irreducible
2) Cosets are either equal or disjoint. representations.
3) The original group can be expressed as a disjoint union of its
cosets (after discarding repetitions). Example of Direct sum of matrices:

Lagrange's Theorem
For a finite group and a subgroup , divides .

Corollaries:
1) The order of any element in a finite group divides the order of
the group
Example of Character Table
2) A finite group of a prime order has only the trivial subgroups
and itself. Additionally, is cyclic and therefore there is, up
to isomorphism, only a single group of order (the cyclic (conjugacy class representatives)
group ) 1 2 3 (size of conjugacy classes)
1 1 1
Representations of 2 or 3 dimensions:
Note 2- and 3-dim representations of groups are reducible if and 1 1 -1 (character of each conjugacy class
only if the matrices have a common eigenvector under different representations)
2 -1 0
Facts regarding conjugacy classes:
1) As satisfies the inverse axiom,
2) Conjugacy classes are either identical or disjoint.
3) As with cosets, we can therefore represent the original group
as a disjoint union of its conjugacy classes.
The similarity between conjugacy class and coset behavior is due to
both constructions being related to equivalence relations.

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