Questions tagged [examples]
For questions requesting examples of a certain structure or phenomenon
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Algebraically closed fields of positive characteristic
I'm taking introductory algebraic geometry this term, so a lot of the theorems we see in class start with "Let k be an algebraically closed field." One of the things that's annoyed me is that as far ...
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Why does the power series expressing e^x have the form of a constant raised to x ? [closed]
This question is probably very basic, but I've been away from school for a while and the answer eludes me.
I was tempted to prove that d/dx(e^x) = (e^x) for old times sake and that was easy enough. I ...
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Canonical examples of algebraic structures
Please list some examples of common examples of algebraic structures. I was thinking answers of the following form.
"When I read about a [insert structure here], I immediately think of [example]."
...
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Does any method of summing divergent series work on the harmonic series?
It's sort of folklore (as exemplified by this old post at The Everything Seminar) that none of the common techniques for summing divergent series work to give a meaningful value to the harmonic series,...
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"A theory of generalized Donaldson-Thomas invariants" by Joyce & Song
Is anyone else working through this paper: A theory of generalized Donaldson-Thomas invariants, by Dominic Joyce, Yinan Song? I am trying to verifying example 6.2 (m=2 for simplicity) using only the ...
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Examples where Kolmogorov's zero-one law gives probability 0 or 1 but hard to determine which?
Inspired by this question, I was curious about a comment in this article:
In many situations, it can be easy to
apply Kolmogorov's zero-one law to
show that some event has probability 0
or 1, ...
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Proof of no rational point on Selmer's Curve $3x^3+4y^3+5z^3=0$
The projective curve $3x^3+4y^3+5z^3=0$ is often cited as an example (given by Selmer) of a failure of the Hasse Principle: the equation has solutions in any completion of the rationals $\mathbb Q$, ...
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Some intuition behind the five lemma?
Slightly simplified, the five lemma states that if we have a commutative diagram (in, say, an abelian category)
$$\require{AMScd}
\begin{CD}
A_1 @>>> A_2 @>>> A_3 @>>> A_4 @...
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What is the first interesting theorem in (insert subject here)? [closed]
In most students' introduction to rigorous proof-based mathematics, many of the initial exercises and theorems are just a test of a student's understanding of how to work with the axioms and unpack ...
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Which commutative rigs arise from a distributive category?
A rig is an algebraic object with multiplication and addition, such that multiplication distributes over addition and addition is commutative. However, instead of requiring that the set forms an ...
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What are the most important instances of the "yoga of generic points"?
In algebraic geometry, an irreducible scheme has a point called "the generic point." The justification for this terminology is that under reasonable finiteness hypotheses, a property that is true at ...
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What are some reasonable-sounding statements that are independent of ZFC?
Every now and then, somebody will tell me about a question. When I start thinking about it, they say, "actually, it's undecidable in ZFC."
For example, suppose $A$ is an abelian group such ...
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What representative examples of modules should I keep in mind?
So here's my problem: I have no intuition for how a "generic" module over a commutative ring should behave. (I think I should never have been told "modules are like vector spaces.") The only ...
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Best online mathematics videos?
I know of two good mathematics videos available online, namely:
Sphere inside out (part I and part II)
Moebius transformation revealed
Do you know of any other good math videos? Share.
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Examples and intuition for arithmetic schemes
How should a beginner learn about arithmetic schemes (interpret this as you wish, or as a regular scheme, proper and flat over Spec(Z))? What are the most important examples of such schemes? Good ...
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What are examples of good toy models in mathematics?
This post is community wiki.
A comment on another question reminded me of this old post of Terence Tao's about toy models. I really like the idea of using toy models of a difficult object to ...
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Given a sequence defined on the positive integers, how should it be extended to be defined at zero?
This question is inspired by a lecture Bjorn Poonen gave at MIT last year. I have ideas of my own, but I'm interested in what other people have to say, so I'll make this community wiki and post my ...
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Graded local rings versus local rings
A lot of times I see theorems stated for local rings, but usually they are also true for "graded local rings", i.e., graded rings with a unique homogeneous maximal ideal (like the polynomial ring). ...
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Is very ampleness of a divisor on a curve determined entirely by degree and genus?
Edit: Apparently the answer is "no", so what is an example of two curves of genus g, and a divisor of degree d on each, such that one is very ample and the other is not?
Question as originally stated:...
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What's a groupoid? What's a good example of a groupoid? [closed]
Or more specifically, why do people get so excited about them? And what's your favorite easy example of one, which illustrates why I should care (and is not a group)?
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Example where you *need* non-DVRs in the valuative criteria
The valuative criterion for separatedness (resp. properness) says that a morphism of schemes (resp. a quasi-compact morphism of schemes) f:X→Y is separated (resp. proper) if and only if it ...
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Operator Valued Weights
One of the basic tools in subfactors is the conditional expectation. If $N\subset M$ is a $II_1$-subfactor (or an inclusion of finite factors), then there is a unique trace-preserving conditional ...
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Examples of rational families of abelian varieties.
I'd like to know examples of non-trivial families of abelian varieties over rational bases (e.g. open subschemes of the projective line P^1).
One can generate many examples as Jacobians of rational ...
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Hochschild/cyclic homology of von Neumann algebras: useless?
Hochschild homology gives invariants of (unital) $k$-algebras for $k$ a unital, commutative ring. If we let our algebra $A$ be the group ring $k[G]$ for $G$ a finite group, we get group homology. ...
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Is the long line paracompact?
A manifold is usually defined as a second-countable hausdorff topological space which is locally homeomorphic to Rn. My understanding is that the reason "second-countable" is part of the definition is ...
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Is there an example of a variety over the complex numbers with no embedding into a smooth variety?
Is there an example of a variety over the complex numbers with no embedding into a smooth variety?
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Is there an example of a formally smooth morphism which is not smooth?
A morphism of schemes is formally smooth and locally of finite presentation iff it is smooth.
What happens if we drop the finitely presented hypothesis? Of course, locally of finite presentation is ...
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Does the "continuous locus" of a function have any nice properties?
Suppose $f:\mathbf{R}\to\mathbf{R}$ is a function. Let $S=\{x\in \mathbf{R}|f\text{ is continuous at }x\}$. Does $S$ have any nice properties?
Here are some observations about what $S$ could be:
$S$ ...
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Can one check formal smoothness using only one-variable Artin rings?
Let $f:X\rightarrow Y$ be a morphism of schemes over a field $k$. Can one check that $f$ is formally smooth using only Artin rings of the form $k^{\prime}\left[t\right]/t^{n}$, where $k^{\prime}$ is ...
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Is there an example of a scheme X whose reduction X_red is affine but X is not affine?
For Noetherian schemes this follows from Serre's criterion for affineness by a filtration argument.
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What's an example of a function whose Taylor series converges to the wrong thing?
Can anyone provide an example of a real-valued function f with a convergent Taylor series that converges to a function that is not equal to f (not even locally)?
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Complete theory with exactly n countable models?
For $n$ an integer greater than $2$, Can one always get a complete theory over a finite language with exactly $n$ models (up to isomorphism)?
There’s a theorem that says that $2$ is impossible.
My ...
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Can a coequalizer of schemes fail to be surjective?
Suppose $g,h:Z\to X$ are two morphisms of schemes. Then we say that $f:X\to Y$ is the coequalizer of $g$ and $h$ if the following condition holds: any morphism $t:X\to T$ such that $t\circ g=t\circ h$ ...
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Weil divisors on non Noetherian schemes
Let X be an integral scheme that is separated (say over an affine scheme). Define a Weil divisor as a finite integral combination of height 1 points of X, where the height of a point of X is the ...
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If $\Omega_{X/Y}$ is locally free of rank $\mathrm{dim}\left(X\right)-\mathrm{dim}\left(Y\right)$, is $X\rightarrow Y$ smooth?
Suppose I have a morphism $f:X\rightarrow Y$ such that the relative sheaf of differentials $\Omega_{X/Y}$ is locally free. Does it follow that $f$ is smooth?
The answer is no, but for a silly reason. ...
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Non-quasi separated morphisms
What are some examples of morphisms of schemes which are not quasi separated?
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Is there an example of an algebraic stack whose closed points have affine stabilizers but whose diagonal is not affine?
Burt Totaro has a result that for a certain class of algebraic stacks, having affine diagonal is equivalent to the stabilizers at closed points begin affine. Is there an example of this equivalence ...
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Finite extension of fields with no primitive element
What is an example of a finite field extension which is not generated by a single element?
Background: A finite field extension E of F is generated by a primitive element if and only if there are a ...
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