Harmonic (mathematics)

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Jump to: navigation, search This article is about several concepts in mathematics that are called harmonic. For other uses of the word, see harmonic (disambiguation). In mathematics, a number of concepts employ the word harmonic. The similarity of this terminology to that of music is not accidental: the equations of motion of vibrating strings, drums and columns of air are given by formulas involving Laplacians; the solutions to which are given by eigenvalues corresponding to their modes of vibration. Thus, the term "harmonic" is applied when one is considering functions with sinusoidal variations, or solutions of Laplace's equation and related concept

Harmonic analysis
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Harmonic analysis is the branch of mathematics that studies the representation of functions or signals as the superposition of basic waves. It investigates and generalizes the notions of Fourier series and Fourier transforms. The basic waves are called "harmonics" (in physics), hence the name "harmonic analysis," but the name "harmonic" in this context is generalized beyond its original meaning of integer frequency multiples. In the past two centuries, it has become a vast subject with applications in areas as diverse as signal processing, quantum mechanics, and neuroscience. The classical Fourier transform on Rn is still an area of ongoing research, particularly concerning Fourier transformation on more general objects such as tempered distributions. For instance, if we impose some requirements on a distribution f, we can attempt to translate these requirements in terms of the Fourier transform of f. The Paley-Wiener theorem is an example of this. The Paley-Wiener theorem immediately implies that if f is a nonzero distribution of compact support (these include functions of compact support), then its Fourier transform is never compactly supported. This is a very elementary form of an uncertainty principle in a harmonic analysis setting. See also Convergence of Fourier series. Fourier series can be conveniently studied in the context of Hilbert spaces, which provides a connection between harmonic analysis and functional analysis.

[edit] Abstract harmonic analysis

One of the more modern branches of harmonic analysis, having its roots in the mid-twentieth century, is analysis on topological groups. The core motivating idea are the various Fourier transforms, which can be generalized to a transform of functions defined on Hausdorff locally compact topological groups. The theory for abelian locally compact groups is called Pontryagin duality; it is considered to be in a satisfactory state,[citation needed] as far as explaining the main features of harmonic analysis goes. Harmonic analysis studies the properties of that duality and Fourier transform; and attempts to extend those features to different settings, for instance to the case of non-abelian Lie groups. For general nonabelian locally compact groups, harmonic analysis is closely related to the theory of unitary group representations. For compact groups, the Peter-Weyl theorem explains how one may get harmonics by choosing one irreducible representation out of each equivalence class of representations. This choice of harmonics enjoys some of the useful properties of the classical Fourier transform in terms of carrying convolutions to pointwise products, or otherwise showing a certain understanding of the underlying group structure. See also: Non-commutative harmonic analysis.

If the group is neither abelian nor compact, no general satisfactory theory is currently known. By "satisfactory" one would mean at least the equivalent of Plancherel theorem. However, many specific cases have been analyzed, for example SLn. In this case, representations in infinite dimension play a crucial role.

Harmonic division
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Jump to: navigation, search In geometry, harmonic division of a line segment AB means identifying two points C and D such that AB is divided internally and externally in the same ratio

In the example shown below, the ratio is two. Specifically, the distance AC is one inch, the distance CB is half an inch, the distance AD is three inches, and the distance BD is 1.5 inches.

Harmonic division of AB by points C and D Harmonic division of a line segment is reciprocal; if points C and D divide the line segment AB harmonically, the points A and B also divide the line segment CD harmonically. In that case, the ratio is given by

which equals one-third in the example above. (Note that the two ratios are not equal!) Harmonic division of a line segment is a special case of Apollonius' definition of the circle. It is also related to the cross-ratio.

harmonic function, mathematical function of two variables having the property that its value at any point is equal to the average of its values along any circle around that point, provided the function is defined within the circle. An infinite number of points are involved in this average, so that it must be found by means of an integral, which represents an infinite sum. In physical situations, harmonic functions describe those conditions of equilibrium such as the temperature or electrical charge distribution over a region in which the value at each point remains constant. Harmonic functions can also be defined as functions that satisfy Laplaces equation, a condition that can be shown to be equivalent to the first definition. The surface defined by a harmonic function has zero convexity, and these functions thus have the important property that they have no maximum or minimum values inside the region in which they are defined. Harmonic functions are also analytic, which means that they possess all derivatives (are perfectly smooth) and can be represented as polynomials with an infinite number of terms, called power series. Spherical harmonic functions arise when the spherical coordinate system is used. (In this system, a point in space is located by three coordinates, one representing the distance from the origin and two others representing the angles of elevation and azimuth, as in astronomy.) Spherical harmonic functions are commonly used to describe three-dimensional fields, such as gravitational, magnetic, and electrical fields, and those arising from certain types of fluid motion.

Hodge theory
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In mathematics, Hodge theory, named after W. V. D. Hodge, is one aspect of the study of the algebraic topology of a smooth manifold M. More specifically, it works out the consequences for the cohomology groups of M, with real coefficients, of the partial differential equation theory of generalised Laplacian operators associated to a Riemannian metric on M. It was developed by W. V. D. Hodge in the 1930s as an extension of de Rham cohomology, and has major applications on three levels:

Riemannian manifolds Khler manifolds algebraic geometry of complex projective varieties, and even more broadly, motives.

In the initial development, M was taken to be a closed manifold (that is, compact and without boundary). On all three levels the theory was very influential on subsequent work, being taken up by Kunihiko Kodaira (in Japan and later, partly under the influence of Hermann Weyl, at Princeton) and many others subsequently.

Contents

1 Applications and examples o 1.1 De Rham cohomology o 1.2 Hodge theory of elliptic complexes 2 Hodge structures 3 See also 4 References

[edit] Applications and examples

[edit] De Rham cohomology

The original formulation of Hodge theory, due to W. V. D. Hodge, was for the de Rham complex. If M is a compact orientable manifold equipped with a smooth metric g, and k(M) is the sheaf of smooth differential forms of degree k on M, then the de Rham complex is the sequence of differential operators

where dk denotes the exterior derivative on k(M). The de Rham cohomology is then the sequence of vector spaces defined by

One can define the formal adjoint of the exterior derivative d, denoted , called codifferential, as follows. For all k(M) and k+1(M), we require that

where is the metric induced on (M). The Laplacian form is then defined by = d + d. This allows one to define spaces of harmonic forms

Since

, there is a canonical mapping

. The first part of Hodge's original theorem states that is an isomorphism of vector spaces. In other words, for each de Rham cohomology class on M, there is a unique harmonic representative.

One major consequence of this is that the de Rham cohomology groups on a compact manifold are finite-dimensional. This follows since the operators are elliptic, and the kernel of an elliptic operator on a compact manifold is always a finite-dimensional vector space.
[edit] Hodge theory of elliptic complexes

In general, Hodge theory applies to any elliptic complex over a compact manifold. Let be vector bundles, equipped with metrics, on a compact manifold M with a volume form dV. Suppose that

are differential operators acting on sections of these vector bundles, and that the induced sequence

is an elliptic complex. It is convenient to introduce the direct sum . Let , and let L be the * * adjoint of L. Define the elliptic operator = LL + L L. As in the de Rham case, this yields the vector space of harmonic sections
*

So let be the orthogonal projection, and let G be the Green's operator for . The Hodge theorem then asserts the following:
1. H and G are well-defined. 2. Id = H + G = H + G 3. LG = GL, L G = GL 4. The cohomology of the complex is canonically isomorphic to the space of harmonic sections, , in the sense that each cohomology class has a unique harmonic representative.
* *

[edit] Hodge structures

Main article: Hodge structure

An abstract definition of (real) Hodge structure is now given: for a real vector space W, a Hodge structure of integer weight k on W is a direct sum decomposition of the complexification p,q of W, into graded pieces W where k = p + q, and the complex q,p conjugation of interchanges this subspace with W . The basic statement in algebraic geometry is then that the singular cohomology groups with real coefficients of a non-singular complex k projective variety V carry such a Hodge structure, with H (V) p,q having the required decomposition into complex subspaces H . The consequence for the Betti numbers is that, taking dimensions

where the sum runs over all pairs p,q with p + q = k and where

The sequence of Betti numbers becomes a Hodge diamond of Hodge numbers spread out into two dimensions. This grading comes initially from the theory of harmonic forms, that are privileged representatives in a de Rham cohomology class picked out by the Hodge Laplacian (generalising harmonic functions, which must be locally constant on compact manifolds by their maximum principle). In later work (Dolbeault) it was shown that the Hodge decomposition above can also be found by means of the q p p sheaf cohomology groups H (V, ) in which is the sheaf of holomorphic p-forms. This gives a more directly algebraic interpretation, without Laplacians, for this case. In the case of singularities or noncompact varieties, the Hodge structure has to be modified to a mixed Hodge structure, where the double-graded direct sum decomposition is replaced by a pair of filtrations. This case is much used, for example in monodromy questions

Harmonic function
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about harmonic functions in mathematics. For harmonic function in music, see diatonic functionality.

A harmonic function defined on an annulus.

In mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of stochastic processes, a harmonic function is a twice continuously differentiable function f : U R (where U is an open subset of Rn) which satisfies Laplace's equation, i.e.

everywhere on U. This is usually written as

or

Contents

1 Examples 2 Remarks 3 Connections with complex function theory 4 Properties of harmonic functions o 4.1 Regularity theorem for harmonic functions o 4.2 Maximum principle o 4.3 The mean value property o 4.4 Harnack's inequality o 4.5 Removal of singularities o 4.6 Liouville's theorem 5 Generalizations o 5.1 Weakly harmonic function o 5.2 Harmonic functions on manifolds o 5.3 Subharmonic functions o 5.4 Harmonic forms o 5.5 Harmonic maps between manifolds 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Examples
Examples of harmonic functions of two variables are:

The real and imaginary part of any holomorphic function The function

defined on (e.g. the electric potential due to a line charge, and the gravity potential due to a long cylindrical mass)

The function

Examples of harmonic functions of three variables are given in the table 2 2 2 2 below with r = x + y + z :
Function Singularity Unit point charge at origin

x-directed dipole at origin Line of unit charge density on entire z-axis Line of unit charge density on negative z-axis Line of x-directed dipoles on entire z axis

Line of x-directed dipoles on negative z axis Harmonic functions are determined by their singularities. The singular points of the harmonic functions above are expressed as "charges" and "charge densities" using the terminology of electrostatics, and so the corresponding harmonic function will be proportional to the electrostatic potential due to these charge distributions. Each function above will yield another harmonic function when multiplied by a constant, rotated, and/or has a constant added. The inversion of each function will yield another harmonic function which has singularities which are the images of the original singularities in a spherical "mirror". Also, the sum of any two harmonic functions will yield another harmonic function.

Finally, examples of harmonic functions of n variables are:

The constant, linear and affine functions on all of (for example, the electric potential between the plates of a capacitor, and the gravity potential of a slab) The function for n > 2. on

[edit] Remarks
The set of harmonic functions on a given open set U can be seen as the kernel of the Laplace operator and is therefore a vector space over R: sums, differences and scalar multiples of harmonic functions are again harmonic. If f is a harmonic function on U, then all partial derivatives of f are also harmonic functions on U. The Laplace operator and the partial derivative operator will commute on this class of functions. In several ways, the harmonic functions are real analogues to holomorphic functions. All harmonic functions are analytic, i.e. they

can be locally expressed as power series. This is a general fact about elliptic operators, of which the Laplacian is a major example. The uniform limit of a convergent sequence of harmonic functions is still harmonic. This is true because any continuous function satisfying the mean value property is harmonic. Consider the sequence on ( , 0) R defined by . This sequence is harmonic and converges uniformly to the zero function; however note that the partial derivatives are not uniformly convergent to the zero function (the derivative of the zero function). This example shows the importance of relying on the mean value property and continuity to argue that the limit is harmonic.

[edit] Connections with complex function theory

The real and imaginary part of any holomorphic function yield harmonic functions on R2 (these are said to be a pair of harmonic conjugate functions). Conversely, any harmonic function u on an open set is locally the real part of a holomorphic function. This is immediately seen observing that, writing z = x + iy, the complex function g(z): = ux iuy is holomorphic in , because it satisfies the Cauchy-Riemann equations. Therefore, g has locally a primitive f, and u is the real part of f up to a constant, as ux is the real part of . Although the above correspondence with holomorphic functions only holds for functions of two real variables, still harmonic functions in n variables enjoy a number of properties typical of holomorphic functions. They are (real) analytic; they have a maximum principle and a mean-value principle; a theorem of removal of singularities as well as a Liouville theorem one holds for them in analogy to the corresponding theorems in complex functions theory.

[edit] Properties of harmonic functions

Some important properties of harmonic functions can be deduced from Laplace's equation.
[edit] Regularity theorem for harmonic functions

Harmonic functions are infinitely differentiable. In fact, harmonic functions are real analytic.

[edit] Maximum principle

Harmonic functions satisfy the following maximum principle: if K is any compact subset of U, then f, restricted to K, attains its maximum and minimum on the boundary of K. If U is connected, this means that f cannot have local maxima or minima, other than the exceptional case where f is constant. Similar properties can be shown for subharmonic functions.
[edit] The mean value property

If B(x,r) is a ball with center x and radius r which is completely contained in the open set , then the value u(x) of a harmonic function at the center of the ball is given by the average value of u on the surface of the ball; this average value is also equal to the average value of u in the interior of the ball. In other words

where n is the volume of the unit ball in n dimensions and is the n-1 dimensional surface measure . Conversely, all locally integrable functions satisfying the (volume) mean-value property are infinitely differentiable and harmonic functions as well. In terms of convolutions, if

denotes the characteristic function of the ball with radius r about the origin, normalized so that , the function u is harmonic on if and only if

u(x) = u * r(x),
as soon as

Sketch of the proof. The proof of the mean-value property of the harmonic functions and its converse follows immediately observing that the non-homogeneous equation, for any 0 < s < r

w = r s
admits an easy explicit solution wr,s of class C with compact support in B(0,r). Thus, if u is harmonic in ,
1,1

0 = u * wr,s = u * wr,s = u * r u * s
holds in the set r of all points with .

Since u is continuous in , u * s converges to u as showing the mean value property for u in . Conversely, if u is any function satisfying the mean-value property in , that is,

u * r = u * s
holds in r for all 0 < s < r then, iterating m times the convolution with r one has:

(mr) because the m-fold iterated convolution of r is of class C with support Since r and m are arbitrary,u is too. Moreover
so that u is C
m1

m1

u * wr,s = u * wr,s = u * r u * s = 0,
for all 0 < s < r, so that u = 0 in by the fundamental theorem of the calculus of variations, proving the equivalence between harmonicity and mean-value property. This statement of the mean value property can be generalized as follows: If h is any spherically symmetric function supported in B(x,r) such that h = 1, then u(x) = h * u(x). In other words, we can take the weighted average of u about a point and recover u(x). In particular, by taking h to be a C function, we can recover the value of u at any point even if we only know how u acts as a distribution. See Weyl's lemma.

[edit] Harnack's inequality

Let u be a non-negative harmonic function in a bounded domain . Then for every connected set

Harnack's inequality

holds for some constant C that depends only on V and .

[edit] Removal of singularities

The following principle of removal of singularities holds for harmonic functions. If f is a harmonic function defined on a dotted open subset of Rn, which is less singular at x0 than the fundamental solution, that is

then f extends to a harmonic function on (compare Riemann's theorem for functions of a complex variable).
[edit] Liouville's theorem

If f is a harmonic function defined on all of Rn which is bounded above or bounded below, then f is constant (compare Liouville's theorem for functions of a complex variable). Edward Nelson gave a particularly short proof [1] of this theorem, using the mean value property mentioned above: Given two points, choose two balls with the given points as centers and of equal radius. If the radius is large enough, the two balls will coincide except for an arbitrarily small proportion of their volume. Since f is bounded, the averages of it over the two balls are arbitrarily close, and so f assumes the same value at any two points.

[edit] Generalizations
[edit] Weakly harmonic function

A function (or, more generally, a distribution) is weakly harmonic if it satisfies Laplace's equation

in a weak sense (or, equivalently, in the sense of distributions). A weakly harmonic function coincides almost everywhere with a strongly harmonic function, and is in particular smooth. A weakly harmonic distribution is precisely the distribution associated to a strongly harmonic function, and so also is smooth. This is Weyl's lemma. There are other weak formulations of Laplace's equation that are often useful. One of which is Dirichlet's principle, representing harmonic functions in the Sobolev space H1() as the minimizers of the Dirichlet energy integral

with respect to local variations, that is, all functions such that holds for all or equivalently, for all

[edit] Harmonic functions on manifolds

Harmonic functions can be defined on an arbitrary Riemannian manifold, using the Laplace-Beltrami operator . In this context, a function is called harmonic if

Many of the properties of harmonic functions on domains in Euclidean space carry over to this more general setting,

including the mean value theorem (over geodesic balls), the maximum principle, and the Harnack inequality. With the exception of the mean value theorem, these are easy consequences of the corresponding results for general linear elliptic partial differential equations of the second order.
[edit] Subharmonic functions

A C2 function that satisfies is called subharmonic. This condition guarantees that the maximum principle will hold, although other properties of harmonic functions may fail. More generally, a function is subharmonic if and only if, in the interior of any ball in its domain, its graph lies below that of the harmonic function interpolating its boundary values on the ball.
[edit] Harmonic forms

One generalization of the study of harmonic functions is the study of harmonic forms on Riemannian manifolds, and it is related to the study of cohomology. Also, it is possible to define harmonic vector-valued functions, or harmonic maps of two Riemannian manifolds, which are critical points of a generalized Dirichlet energy functional (this includes harmonic functions as a special case, a result known as Dirichlet principle). These kind of harmonic maps appear in the theory of minimal surfaces. For example, a curve, that is, a map from an interval in R to a Riemannian manifold, is a harmonic map if and only if it is a geodesic.
[edit] Harmonic maps between manifolds Main article: Harmonic map

If M and N are two Riemannian manifolds, then a harmonic map u : M N is defined to be a stationary point of the Dirichlet energy

in which du : TM TN is the differential of u, and the norm is that induced by the metric on M and that on N on the tensor product bundle TMu1TN. Important special cases of harmonic maps between manifolds include minimal surfaces, which are precisely the harmonic immersions of a surface into three-dimensional Euclidean space. More generally, minimal submanifolds are harmonic immersions of one manifold in another. Harmonic coordinates are a harmonic diffeomorphism from a manifold to an open subset of a Euclidean space of the same dimension.

Subharmonic function
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In mathematics, subharmonic and superharmonic functions are important classes of functions used extensively in partial differential equations, complex analysis and potential theory. Intuitively, subharmonic functions are related to convex functions of one variable as follows. If the graph of a convex function and a line intersect at two points, then the graph of the convex function is below the line between those points. In the same way, if the values of a subharmonic function are no larger than the values of a harmonic function on the boundary of a ball, then the values of the subharmonic function are no larger than the values of the harmonic function also inside the ball. Superharmonic functions can be defined by the same description, only replacing "no larger" with "no smaller". Alternatively, a superharmonic function is just the negative of a subharmonic function, and for this reason any property of subharmonic functions can be easily transferred to superharmonic functions.

Contents

1 Formal definition 2 Properties 3 Subharmonic functions in the complex plane o 3.1 Harmonic majorants of subharmonic functions o 3.2 Subharmonic functions in the unit disc. Radial maximal function 4 Subharmonic functions on Riemannian manifolds 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References

[edit] Formal definition

Formally, the definition can be stated as follows. Let G be a subset of the Euclidean space and let

be an upper semi-continuous function. Then, is called subharmonic if for any closed ball of center x and radius r contained in G and every real-valued continuous function

h on
boundary

that is harmonic in B(x,r) and satisfies of B(x,r) we have for all

for all x on the

Note that by the above, the function which is identically is subharmonic, but some authors exclude this function by definition.

[edit] Properties

A function is harmonic if and only if it is both subharmonic and superharmonic. 2 If is C (twice continuously differentiable) on an open set G in , then is subharmonic if and only if one has on G where is the Laplacian.

The maximum of a subharmonic function cannot be achieved in the interior of its domain unless the function is constant, this is the so-called maximum principle. Subharmonic functions are upper semicontinuous, while superharmonic functions are lower semicontinuous.

[edit] Subharmonic functions in the complex plane

Subharmonic functions are of a particular importance in complex analysis, where they are intimately connected to holomorphic functions. One can show that a real-valued, continuous function of a complex variable (that is, of two real variables) defined on a set is subharmonic if and only if for any closed disc of center z and radius r one has

Intuitively, this means that a subharmonic function is at any point no greater than the average of the values in a circle around that point, a fact which can be used to derive the maximum principle. If f is a holomorphic function, then

is a subharmonic function if we define the value of (z) at the zeros of f to be . It follows that

is subharmonic for every > 0. This observation plays a role in the theory of Hardy spaces, especially for the study of Hp when 0 < p < 1. In the context of the complex plane, the connection to the convex functions can be realized as well by the fact that a subharmonic function f on a domain that is constant in the imaginary direction is convex in the real direction and vice versa.
[edit] Harmonic majorants of subharmonic functions

If u is subharmonic in a region of the complex plane, and h is harmonic on , then h is a harmonic majorant of u in if uh in . Such an inequality can be viewed as a growth condition on u.[1]

[edit] Subharmonic functions in the unit disc. Radial maximal function

Let be subharmonic, continuous and non-negative in an open subset of the complex plane containing the closed unit disc D(0, 1). The radial maximal function for the function (restricted to the unit disc) is defined on the unit circle by

If Pr denotes the Poisson kernel, it follows from the subharmonicity that

It can be shown that the last integral is less than the value at e i of the HardyLittlewood maximal function of the restriction of to the unit circle T,

so that 0 M . It is known that the HardyLittlewood operator is bounded on Lp(T) when 1 < p < . It follows that for some universal constant C,

If f is a function holomorphic in and 0 < p < , then the preceding inequality applies to = |f | p/2. It can be deduced from these facts that any function F in the classical Hardy space Hp satisfies

With more work, it can be shown that F has radial limits F(e i) almost everywhere on the unit circle, and (by the dominated convergence theorem) that Fr, defined by Fr(e i) = F(r e i) tends to F in Lp(T).

[edit] Subharmonic functions on Riemannian manifolds

Subharmonic functions can be defined on an arbitrary Riemannian manifold. Definition: Let M be a Riemannian manifold, and an upper semicontinuous function. Assume that for any open subset , and any harmonic function f1 on U, such that on the boundary of U, the inequality holds on all U. Then f is called subharmonic. This definition is equivalent to one given above. Also, for twice differentiable functions, subharmonicity is equivalent to the inequality , where is the usual Laplacian

Harmonic map
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about harmonic maps between Riemannian manifolds. For harmonic functions, see harmonic function.

A (smooth) map :MN between Riemannian manifolds M and N is called harmonic if it is a critical point of the Dirichlet energy functional

This functional E will be defined precisely belowone way of understanding it is to imagine that M is made of rubber and N made of marble (their shapes given by their respective metrics), and that the map :MN prescribes how one "applies" the rubber onto the marble: E() then represents the total amount of elastic potential energy resulting from tension in the rubber. In these terms, is a harmonic map if the rubber, when "released" but still constrained to stay everywhere in contact with the marble, already finds itself in a position of equilibrium and therefore does not "snap" into a different shape. Harmonic maps are the 'least expanding' maps in orthogonal directions.

Existence of harmonic maps from a complete Riemannian manifold to a complete Riemannian manifold of non-positive sectional curvature was proved by Eells & Sampson (1964).

Contents

1 Mathematical definition 2 Examples 3 Problems and applications 4 Harmonic maps between metric spaces 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Mathematical definition

Given Riemannian manifolds (M,g), (N,h) and as above, the energy density of at a point x in M is defined as

where the is the squared norm of the differential of , with respect to the induced metric on the bundle T*M1TN. The total energy of is given by integrating the density over M

where dvg denotes the measure on M induced by its metric. This generalizes the classical Dirichlet energy. The energy density can be written more explicitly as

Using the Einstein summation convention, in local coordinates the right hand side of this equality reads

If M is compact, then is called a harmonic map if it is a critical point of the energy functional E. This definition is extended to the case where M is not compact by requiring the restriction of to every compact domain to be harmonic, or, more typically, requiring that be a critical point of the energy functional in the Sobolev space H1,2(M,N). Equivalently, the map is harmonic if it satisfies the Euler-Lagrange equations associated to the functional E. These equations read

where is the connection on the vector bundle T*M1(TN) induced by the Levi-Civita connections on M and N. The quantity () is a section of the bundle 1(TN) known as the tension field of . In terms of the physical analogy, it corresponds to the direction in which the "rubber" manifold M will tend to move in N in seeking the energyminimizing configuration.

[edit] Examples

Identity and constant maps are harmonic. Assume that the source manifold M is the real line R (or the circle S1), i.e. that is a curve (or a closed curve) on N. Then is a harmonic map if and only if it is a geodesic. (In this case, the rubber-and-marble analogy described above reduces to the usual elastic band analogy for geodesics.) Assume that the target manifold N is Euclidean space Rn (with its standard metric). Then is a harmonic map if and only if it is a harmonic function in the usual sense (i.e. a solution of the Laplace equation). This follows from the Dirichlet principle. If is a diffeomorphism onto an open set in Rn, then it gives a harmonic coordinate system. Every minimal surface in Euclidean space is a harmonic immersion. More generally, a minimal submanifold M of N is a harmonic immersion of N in M. Every totally geodesic map is harmonic (in this case, d*h itself vanishes, not just its trace). Every holomorphic map between Khler manifolds is harmonic.

[edit] Problems and applications

If, after applying the rubber M onto the marble N via some map , one "releases" it, it will try to "snap" into a position of least tension. This "physical" observation leads to the following mathematical problem: given a homotopy class of maps from M to N, does it contain a representative that is a harmonic map? Existence results on harmonic maps between manifolds has consequences for their curvature.

Once existence is known, how can a harmonic map be constructed explicitly? (One fruitful method uses twistor theory.) In theoretical physics, harmonic maps are also known as sigma models. One of the original ideas in grid generation methods for computational fluid dynamics and computational physics was to use either conformal or harmonic mapping to generate regular grids.

[edit] Harmonic maps between metric spaces

The energy integral can be formulated in a weaker setting for functions u : M N between two metric spaces (Jost 1995). The energy integrand is instead a function of the form

in which x is a family of measures attached to each point of M

Laplace's equation
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In mathematics, Laplace's equation is a second-order partial differential equation named after Pierre-Simon Laplace who first studied its properties. This is often written as:

where = is the Laplace operator and is a scalar function. In general, = is the LaplaceBeltrami or Laplacede Rham operator. Laplace's equation and Poisson's equation are the simplest examples of elliptic partial differential equations. Solutions of Laplace's equation are called harmonic functions. The general theory of solutions to Laplace's equation is known as potential theory. The solutions of Laplace's equation are all harmonic functions and are important in many fields of science, notably the fields of electromagnetism, astronomy, and fluid dynamics, because they can be used to accurately describe the behavior of electric, gravitational, and fluid potentials. In the study of heat conduction, the Laplace equation is the steady-state heat equation.

Contents

1 Definition 2 Boundary conditions 3 Laplace equation in two dimensions o 3.1 Analytic functions o 3.2 Fluid flow o 3.3 Electrostatics 4 Laplace equation in three dimensions o 4.1 Fundamental solution o 4.2 Green's function o 4.3 Electrostatics 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Definition
In three dimensions, the problem is to find twice-differentiable real-valued functions , of real variables x, y, and z, such that In Cartesian coordinates

In cylindrical coordinates,

In spherical coordinates,

This is often written as

or, especially in more general contexts,

where = is the Laplace operator or "Laplacian"

where = div is the divergence, and = grad is the gradient. If the right-hand side is specified as a given function, f(x, y, z), i.e., if the whole equation is written as

then it is called "Poisson's equation". The Laplace equation is also a special case of the Helmholtz equation. Laplace's equation and Poisson's equation are the simplest examples of elliptic partial differential equations.

[edit] Boundary conditions

Laplace's Equation on an annulus (r=2 and R=4) with Dirichlet Boundary Conditions: u(r=2)=0 and u(r=4)=4sin(5*)

The Dirichlet problem for Laplace's equation consists of finding a solution on some domain D such that on the boundary of D is equal to some given function. Since the Laplace operator appears in the heat equation, one physical interpretation of this problem is as follows: fix the temperature on the boundary of the

domain according to the given specification of the boundary condition. Allow heat to flow until a stationary state is reached in which the temperature at each point on the domain doesn't change anymore. The temperature distribution in the interior will then be given by the solution to the corresponding Dirichlet problem. The Neumann boundary conditions for Laplace's equation specify not the function itself on the boundary of D, but its normal derivative. Physically, this corresponds to the construction of a potential for a vector field whose effect is known at the boundary of D alone. Solutions of Laplace's equation are called harmonic functions; they are all analytic within the domain where the equation is satisfied. If any two functions are solutions to Laplace's equation (or any linear homogeneous differential equation), their sum (or any linear combination) is also a solution. This property, called the principle of superposition, is very useful, e.g., solutions to complex problems can be constructed by summing simple solutions.

[edit] Laplace equation in two dimensions

The Laplace equation in two independent variables has the form

[edit] Analytic functions

The real and imaginary parts of a complex analytic function both satisfy the Laplace equation. That is, if z = x + iy, and if

then the necessary condition that f(z) be analytic is that the Cauchy-Riemann equations be satisfied:

where ux is the first partial derivative of u with respect to x. It follows that

Therefore u satisfies the Laplace equation. A similar calculation shows that v also satisfies the Laplace equation. Conversely, given a harmonic function, it is the real part of an analytic function, f(z) (at least locally). If a trial form is

then the Cauchy-Riemann equations will be satisfied if we set

This relation does not determine , but only its increments:

The Laplace equation for implies that the integrability condition for is satisfied:

and thus may be defined by a line integral. The integrability condition and Stokes' theorem implies that the value of the line integral connecting two points is independent of the path. The resulting pair of solutions of the Laplace equation are called conjugate harmonic functions. This construction is only valid locally, or provided that the path does not loop around a singularity. For example, if r and are polar coordinates and

then a corresponding analytic function is

However, the angle is single-valued only in a region that does not enclose the origin. The close connection between the Laplace equation and analytic functions implies that any solution of the Laplace equation has derivatives of all orders, and can be expanded in a power series, at least inside a circle that does not enclose a singularity. This is in sharp contrast to solutions of the wave equation, which generally have less regularity. There is an intimate connection between power series and Fourier series. If we expand a function f in a power series inside a circle of radius R, this means that

with suitably defined coefficients whose real and imaginary parts are given by

Therefore

which is a Fourier series for f. These trigonometric functions can themselves be expanded, using multiple angle formulae.
[edit] Fluid flow

Let the quantities u and v be the horizontal and vertical components of the velocity field of a steady incompressible, irrotational flow in two dimensions. The condition that the flow be incompressible is that

and the condition that the flow be irrotational is that

If we define the differential of a function by

then the incompressibility condition is the integrability condition for this differential: the resulting function is called he stream function because it is constant along flow lines. The first derivatives of are given by

and the irrotationality condition implies that satisfies the Laplace equation. The harmonic function that is conjugate to is called the velocity potential. The Cauchy-Riemann equations imply that

Thus every analytic function corresponds to a steady incompressible, irrotational fluid flow in the plane. The real part is the velocity potential, and the imaginary part is the stream function.

Harmonic mean

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In mathematics, the harmonic mean (sometimes called the subcontrary mean) is one of several kinds of average. Typically, it is appropriate for situations when the average of rates is desired. The harmonic mean H of the positive real numbers x1, x2, ..., xn > 0 is defined to be

From the third formula in the above equation it is more apparent that the harmonic mean is related to the arithmetic mean and geometric mean. Equivalently, the harmonic mean is the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals. As a simple example, the harmonic mean of 1, 2, and 4 is

Weighted harmonic mean

If a set of weights w1, ..., wn is associated to the dataset x1, ..., xn, the weighted harmonic mean is defined by

The harmonic mean as defined is the special case where all of the weights are equal to 1, and is equivalent to any weighted harmonic mean where all weights are equal

Harmonic series (mathematics)

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In mathematics, the harmonic series is the divergent infinite series:

Its name derives from the concept of overtones, or harmonics in music: the wavelengths of the overtones of a vibrating string are 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc., of the string's fundamental wavelength. Every term of the series after the first is the harmonic mean of the neighboring terms; the term harmonic mean likewise derives from music.

Harmonic number
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search The term harmonic number has multiple meanings. For other meanings, see harmonic number (disambiguation).

The harmonic number Hn,1 with (blue line).

(red line) with its asymptotic limit + ln[x]

In mathematics, the n-th harmonic number is the sum of the reciprocals of the first n natural numbers:

This also equals n times the inverse of the harmonic mean of these natural numbers. Harmonic numbers were studied in antiquity and are important in various branches of number theory. They are sometimes loosely termed harmonic series, are closely related to the Riemann zeta function, and appear in various expressions for various special functions. When the value of a large quantity of items has a Zipf's law distribution, the total value of the n most-valuable items is the n-th harmonic number. This leads to a variety of surprising conclusions in the Long Tail and the theory of network value.

Preliminary Applications of Harmonic Functions

Chapter 11 Applications of Harmonic Functions 11.1 Preliminaries Overview A wide variety of problems in engineering and physics involve harmonic functions, which are the real or imaginary part of an analytic function. The standard applications are two dimensional steady state temperatures, electrostatics, fluid flow and complex potentials. The techniques of conformal mapping and integral representation can be used to construct a harmonic function with prescribed boundary values. Noteworthy methods include Poisson's integral formulae; the Joukowski transformation; and Schwarz-Christoffel transformation. Modern computer software is capable of implemeting these complex analysis methods. In most applications involving harmonic functions, a harmonic function that takes on prescribed values along certain contours must be found. In presenting the material in this

chapter, we assume that you are familiar with the material covered in Sections 2.5, 3.3, 5.1, and 5.2. If you aren't, please review it before proceeding