Concept
Character group
Related concepts (4)
Dirichlet character
In analytic number theory and related branches of mathematics, a complex-valued arithmetic function is a Dirichlet character of modulus (where is a positive integer) if for all integers and : that is, is completely multiplicative. (gcd is the greatest common divisor) that is, is periodic with period . The simplest possible character, called the principal character, usually denoted , (see Notation below) exists for all moduli: The German mathematician Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet—for whom the character is named—introduced these functions in his 1837 paper on primes in arithmetic progressions.
Character (mathematics)
In mathematics, a character is (most commonly) a special kind of function from a group to a field (such as the complex numbers). There are at least two distinct, but overlapping meanings. Other uses of the word "character" are almost always qualified. multiplicative character A multiplicative character (or linear character, or simply character) on a group G is a group homomorphism from G to the multiplicative group of a field , usually the field of complex numbers.
Root of unity
In mathematics, a root of unity, occasionally called a de Moivre number, is any complex number that yields 1 when raised to some positive integer power n. Roots of unity are used in many branches of mathematics, and are especially important in number theory, the theory of group characters, and the discrete Fourier transform. Roots of unity can be defined in any field. If the characteristic of the field is zero, the roots are complex numbers that are also algebraic integers.
Pontryagin duality
In mathematics, Pontryagin duality is a duality between locally compact abelian groups that allows generalizing Fourier transform to all such groups, which include the circle group (the multiplicative group of complex numbers of modulus one), the finite abelian groups (with the discrete topology), and the additive group of the integers (also with the discrete topology), the real numbers, and every finite dimensional vector space over the reals or a p-adic field.