User talk:Mathsci/Archive 5

E-mail, article verification
I'm fine with your personal desire to maintain anonymity in your editing Wikipedia, and have no curiosity about who you are. I also see that our exchange was the result of your frustration with something that probably requires some real editorial insight--I just didn't agree with your method of going about it, but feel that you resolved the situation (of your frustation) in a useful way in the end, which means you are free to look for other ways to resolve the real issue. I also get extremely irritated at some of the editing that goes on on Wikipedia, particularly when motives behind the edits are other than creation of good encyclopedia articles, and have been on your end of the situation most often.

I will look at the article on Betti numbers as I get the time--from a first glance it looks like the introduction to the concept is better than the other articles you named. My time is very limited right now, so don't expect quick responses, but I am happy to comment on various mathematical articles. In general Wikipedia has some good math articles, but sometimes they fail greatly to introduce mathematical concepts in a general manner. Thanks for trying to be a responsible editor--that counts for more than most anything else, imo. KP Botany 03:30, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Many thanks, it's great to have an expert on board. How many mathematical wikipedia articles have you edited so far? I'd really like to know your views on mentioning the equivalent definition of Betti numbers in terms of cohomology groups? And what about the L2 Betti numbers of Atiyah, Cheeger, Gromov, Gaboriau and Lueck? Do you think this is a tad premature; or do you feel that the existence of several Seminaire Bourbaki presentations on this subject justifies a mention? These presentations are often in french which could present a problem to wikipedia editors trying to verify that their content is correct! Also do you think it might be an idea trying to make a link with the articles on classifying spaces and group cohomology? --Mathsci 03:54, 16 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm not an expert on math, I've never claimed to be, and I don't generally edit mathematical articles, although I edit some in P-chem, the mathematical side, and in optics, again, the mathematical side. Wikipedia is not a technical publication, either.  However, I did do some research for an algebraist for a couple of years, and used to read in math, so if you're trying to scare me with big words and obscure names, let's not play games.  I'll be glad to go over any articles you write in Wikipedia, and edit for acccessibility, readability, and clarity, for the benefit of Wikipedia readers, not to prove anything to you or me--I don't have anything to prove, as I'm a successful artist.  If you need professional peer review, I could provide you with a list of journals to send your articles off to, and we both know that isn't what Wikipedia does.  I do actually have a copy of Luck's paper on L2 invariants, though.  KP Botany 04:10, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Good, then we're clearly talking business. What do you think of the way Lueck uses Von Neumann algebras and algebras of affiliated operators to define L2 Betti numbers? --Mathsci 04:35, 16 July 2007 (UTC)


 * What do I think of it? I think Luck bores me to death.  What do you think of it?  KP Botany 04:38, 16 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I sent you an e-mail. Let's give this a rest. KP Botany 05:00, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Thank you. I replied giving full details of my identity. --Mathsci 07:07, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia mathematics articles
I have been a little startled that several WP editors appear to believe that there should be no specialized articles on mathematics, because according to them this is not the intention of WP. It has also been suggested that all wikipedia mathematics articles should be intelligible to a general readership, which I assume to mean non-mathematicians. An enormous number of wikipedia mathematics articles are written for an audience with some mathematical training. At this level the mathematical part of the wikipedia resembles more closely various existing printed encyclopedias of mathematics, written as reference texts for practising mathematicians. This revelation seems to come as an unwelcome surprise to some WP editors. They also seem surprised that it is often practising mathematicians who edit these articles.

Let me randomly choose algebraic geometry as a category. Here is a non-exhaustive list of articles in this category, almost all of which seem to be written at the advanced level of such a mathematical encyclopedia.


 * Kazhdan–Lusztig polynomial
 * Adelic algebraic group
 * Algebraic torus
 * Approximation in algebraic groups
 * Arithmetic group
 * (B, N) pair
 * Borel subgroup
 * Bruhat decomposition
 * Cartan subgroup
 * Differential Galois theory
 * Formal group
 * Geometric invariant theory
 * Group of Lie type
 * Group scheme
 * Hyperspecial subgroup
 * Langlands decomposition
 * Linear algebraic group
 * Radical of an algebraic group
 * Root datum
 * Severi-Brauer variety
 * Tannakian category
 * Unipotent
 * Weil conjecture on Tamagawa numbers
 * Witt vector
 * Cuspidal representation
 * Grosshans subgroup
 * Haboush's theorem
 * Lie–Kolchin theorem
 * Observable subgroup
 * Rational representation
 * Reductive group
 * Steinberg representation
 * Abelian variety
 * Abelian integral
 * Abelian variety of CM-type
 * Albanese variety
 * Arithmetic of abelian varieties
 * Complex multiplication
 * Complex torus
 * Dual abelian variety
 * Eisenstein ideal
 * Equations defining abelian varieties
 * Jacobian variety
 * Mordell–Weil theorem
 * Mukai-Fourier transform
 * Picard group
 * Prym variety
 * Riemann form
 * Schottky problem
 * Tate module
 * Torelli theorem
 * Congruent number
 * Elliptic curve primality proving
 * Equianharmonic
 * Heegner point
 * Lemniscatic elliptic function
 * Mordell–Weil theorem
 * Nagell–Lutz theorem
 * Period mapping
 * Poncelet's porism
 * Theta function
 * Jacobi theta functions - notational variations
 * Jacobi triple product
 * Metaplectic group
 * Mock theta function
 * Q-theta function
 * Ramanujan theta function
 * Schottky problem
 * Theta characteristic
 * Theta representation
 * Theta-divisor
 * Sato-Tate conjecture
 * Schoof's algorithm
 * Semistable elliptic curve
 * Weil pairing
 * Flag manifold
 * Grassmannian
 * Principal homogeneous space
 * Algebraic variety
 * Abstract variety
 * Branched covering
 * Canonical bundle
 * Complete algebraic variety
 * Complex projective space
 * Degree of an algebraic variety
 * Diagonal form
 * Dimension of an algebraic variety
 * Function field of an algebraic variety
 * Geometric genus
 * Hilbert's Nullstellensatz
 * Horrocks-Mumford bundle
 * Irreducible component
 * Local zeta-function
 * Noether normalization lemma
 * Norm variety
 * Numerically effective
 * Quasiprojective variety
 * Rational function
 * Rational variety
 * Regular function
 * Segre embedding
 * Seshadri constant
 * Severi-Brauer variety
 * Singular point of an algebraic variety
 * Theorem of the cube
 * Transcendence degree
 * Weil restriction
 * Zariski surface
 * Zariski topology
 * Bézout's theorem
 * Chow ring
 * Enumerative geometry
 * Fulton-Hansen connectedness theorem
 * Hodge index theorem
 * Intersection homology
 * Intersection number
 * Intersection theory
 * Serre's multiplicity conjectures
 * Invariant theory
 * Bracket algebra
 * Geometric invariant theory
 * Gröbner basis
 * Haboush's theorem
 * Hall polynomial
 * Hilbert's basis theorem
 * Hilbert's fourteenth problem
 * Hilbert's syzygy theorem
 * Invariant polynomial
 * Invariants of tensors
 * Moduli space
 * Molien series
 * Artin approximation theorem
 * Deligne-Mumford moduli space of curves
 * Formal moduli
 * Geometric invariant theory
 * Hilbert scheme
 * Modular equation
 * Modular function
 * Moduli scheme
 * Moduli space
 * Stable map
 * Teichmüller space
 * Torelli theorem
 * Modular form
 * Classical modular curve
 * Atkin-Lehner theory
 * Automorphic factor
 * Congruence subgroup
 * Cusp form
 * Dedekind eta function
 * Dedekind sum
 * Eisenstein ideal
 * Eisenstein series
 * Elliptic function
 * Elliptic unit
 * Epsilon theorem
 * Equianharmonic
 * Fundamental pair of periods
 * Hecke operator
 * Hypergeometric differential equation
 * J-invariant
 * Kronecker limit formula
 * Lemniscatic elliptic function
 * Modular curve
 * Modular group
 * Modularity theorem
 * Overconvergent modular form
 * Petersson inner product
 * Picard-Fuchs equation
 * Ramanujan-Petersson conjecture
 * Real analytic Eisenstein series
 * Schwarzian derivative
 * Serre conjecture (number theory)
 * Siegel modular form
 * Theta function
 * Upper half-plane
 * Weierstrass's elliptic functions
 * Azumaya algebra
 * Chevalley scheme
 * Function field (scheme theory)
 * Geometric invariant theory
 * Glossary of scheme theory
 * Grothendieck's Galois theory
 * Grothendieck's Séminaire de géométrie algébrique
 * Grothendieck's relative point of view
 * Group scheme
 * Hilbert scheme
 * Ideal sheaf
 * Noetherian topological space
 * Normal scheme
 * Picard group
 * Proj construction
 * Ringed space
 * Scheme (mathematics)
 * Spectrum of a ring
 * Weil restriction
 * Zariski topology
 * Éléments de géométrie algébrique
 * Étale fundamental group
 * Newton's identities
 * Polynomial ring
 * Radical polynomial
 * Schur polynomial
 * Symbolic method
 * Symmetric function
 * Algebraic surface
 * Castelnuovo-de Franchis theorem
 * Complex projective plane
 * Cubic surface
 * Del Pezzo surface
 * Elliptic surface
 * Enneper surface
 * Enriques surface
 * Enriques-Kodaira classification
 * Fermat cubic
 * Hirzebruch-Riemann-Roch theorem
 * Hodge index theorem
 * K3 surface
 * Nagata-Biran conjecture
 * Noether's theorem on rationality for surfaces
 * Rational surface
 * Special divisor
 * Steiner surface
 * Supersingular K3 surface
 * Surface of general type
 * Thom conjecture
 * Veronese surface
 * Zariski surface

Mathsci 13:59, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

WP:ANI
It seems that there was a thread involving you here. The result of this thread was the indefinite blocking of User:Danko Georgiev MD. Cheers--Cronholm144 16:05, 19 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Thank you very much for this information. I have warned Alan Weinstein that he might be receiving some strange emails. --Mathsci 16:59, 19 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Hah, well at least here at wikipedia we won't have to listen to the RANTS any longer.--Cronholm144 17:03, 19 July 2007 (UTC)