Talk:Positive definiteness

Stub or disambiguation page
There has been some dispute about whether this is a stub or a disambiguation page. No one has presented any reasons for considering this a disambiguation page thus far, however two users have stated that it is one in their edit summaries. My reasoning for considering this a stub is as I stated in a previous edit summary: This article is about a single mathematical property; the listed articles should develop into subsections. Disambiguation pages list various unrelated articles which happen to be referred to by the same title. This is not a disambiguation page because all the articles are related and neither can be referred to by the title of the page. "Positive definiteness" is a single concept which is common to all the different areas of mathematics listed on this page. Unless someone is able to base the argument that this is a disambiguation page in Wikipedia guidelines, this page should be relabelled a stub. Neelix (talk) 20:02, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I think you're correct: although it looks like a disambiguation page, it isn't one. It is a stub, and, in particular, it may be a set index, although I'm not sure about this one. GregorB (talk) 20:18, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm not well-versed enough in this area of mathematics to comment; but, in general, a title is not "ambiguous" if it simply denotes a single general topic that can be divided into subtopics. Conversely, if it can denote several distinct general topics, then it should be a disambiguation page. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 20:37, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Difficult to say. As for the detailed concepts now referenced, the general concept of a positive definite bilinear form is a single general topic;
 * For a positive-definite matrix, the bilinear form $$x^{\mathrm T} M y$$ is positive-definite.
 * For a positive definite kernel, it may be the case the the definition is the same as that a bilinear form on a formal product $$\prod_{n \in \mathbb Z} H_n$$ is positive-definite, but that operator may not be finite.
 * For positive-definite function, the first definition is unrelated, and the second relates to an infinite matrix being positive semi-definite.
 * For positive definite function on a group, it appears that the definition involves, again, a positive semi-definite bilinear form on $$H^G$$ (using the simple direct product), but the reason for the definition is unclear.
 * So, I'd have to say that it's a single topic, but many of the articles (including the primary one) would need to be rewritten. — Arthur Rubin  (talk) 02:22, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

I marked this as a disambiguation page originally because its current form is indistinguishable from one. Moreover, positive definite redirects here, so this is a natural location for a disambiguation page on that topic. To call this page a "stub" is somewhat generous, since it does not contain any complete sentence. In any case, that's my opinion. I'm not watchlisting this page because I really don't care about it one way or another. &mdash; Carl (CBM · talk) 03:46, 15 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Presently, this article functions as disambiguation so that is how it should be categorized. If you add some unique content describing "positive definiteness" as such, then you may be able to persuade people to change their minds. JRSpriggs (talk) 08:13, 15 February 2010 (UTC)