Dijkstra's algorithmDijkstra's algorithm (ˈdaɪkstrəz ) is an algorithm for finding the shortest paths between nodes in a weighted graph, which may represent, for example, road networks. It was conceived by computer scientist Edsger W. Dijkstra in 1956 and published three years later. The algorithm exists in many variants. Dijkstra's original algorithm found the shortest path between two given nodes, but a more common variant fixes a single node as the "source" node and finds shortest paths from the source to all other nodes in the graph, producing a shortest-path tree.
Inner product spaceIn mathematics, an inner product space (or, rarely, a Hausdorff pre-Hilbert space) is a real vector space or a complex vector space with an operation called an inner product. The inner product of two vectors in the space is a scalar, often denoted with angle brackets such as in . Inner products allow formal definitions of intuitive geometric notions, such as lengths, angles, and orthogonality (zero inner product) of vectors. Inner product spaces generalize Euclidean vector spaces, in which the inner product is the dot product or scalar product of Cartesian coordinates.
Noncommutative geometryNoncommutative geometry (NCG) is a branch of mathematics concerned with a geometric approach to noncommutative algebras, and with the construction of spaces that are locally presented by noncommutative algebras of functions (possibly in some generalized sense). A noncommutative algebra is an associative algebra in which the multiplication is not commutative, that is, for which does not always equal ; or more generally an algebraic structure in which one of the principal binary operations is not commutative; one also allows additional structures, e.
Nuclear spaceIn mathematics, nuclear spaces are topological vector spaces that can be viewed as a generalization of finite dimensional Euclidean spaces and share many of their desirable properties. Nuclear spaces are however quite different from Hilbert spaces, another generalization of finite dimensional Euclidean spaces. They were introduced by Alexander Grothendieck. The topology on nuclear spaces can be defined by a family of seminorms whose unit balls decrease rapidly in size.
Positive operator (Hilbert space)In mathematics (specifically linear algebra, operator theory, and functional analysis) as well as physics, a linear operator acting on an inner product space is called positive-semidefinite (or non-negative) if, for every , and , where is the domain of . Positive-semidefinite operators are denoted as . The operator is said to be positive-definite, and written , if for all . In physics (specifically quantum mechanics), such operators represent quantum states, via the density matrix formalism.
Convex polygonIn geometry, a convex polygon is a polygon that is the boundary of a convex set. This means that the line segment between two points of the polygon is contained in the union of the interior and the boundary of the polygon. In particular, it is a simple polygon (not self-intersecting). Equivalently, a polygon is convex if every line that does not contain any edge intersects the polygon in at most two points. A strictly convex polygon is a convex polygon such that no line contains two of its edges.
Convex curveIn geometry, a convex curve is a plane curve that has a supporting line through each of its points. There are many other equivalent definitions of these curves, going back to Archimedes. Examples of convex curves include the convex polygons, the boundaries of convex sets, and the graphs of convex functions. Important subclasses of convex curves include the closed convex curves (the boundaries of bounded convex sets), the smooth curves that are convex, and the strictly convex curves, which have the additional property that each supporting line passes through a unique point of the curve.
Automatic differentiationIn mathematics and computer algebra, automatic differentiation (auto-differentiation, autodiff, or AD), also called algorithmic differentiation, computational differentiation, is a set of techniques to evaluate the partial derivative of a function specified by a computer program. Automatic differentiation exploits the fact that every computer calculation, no matter how complicated, executes a sequence of elementary arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, etc.
Long line (topology)In topology, the long line (or Alexandroff line) is a topological space somewhat similar to the real line, but in a certain way "longer". It behaves locally just like the real line, but has different large-scale properties (e.g., it is neither Lindelöf nor separable). Therefore, it serves as an important counterexample in topology. Intuitively, the usual real-number line consists of a countable number of line segments laid end-to-end, whereas the long line is constructed from an uncountable number of such segments.
Donaldson's theoremIn mathematics, and especially differential topology and gauge theory, Donaldson's theorem states that a definite intersection form of a compact, oriented, smooth manifold of dimension 4 is diagonalisable. If the intersection form is positive (negative) definite, it can be diagonalized to the identity matrix (negative identity matrix) over the . The original version of the theorem required the manifold to be simply connected, but it was later improved to apply to 4-manifolds with any fundamental group.
