A Grothendieck topos of generalized functions I: basic theory

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Giordano, Paolo, Kunzinger, Michael, Vernaeve, Hans
Format: Preprint
Published: 2021
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_version_ 1866917762755985408
author Giordano, Paolo
Kunzinger, Michael
Vernaeve, Hans
author_facet Giordano, Paolo
Kunzinger, Michael
Vernaeve, Hans
contents The main aim of the present work is to arrive at a mathematical theory close to the historically original conception of generalized functions, i.e. set theoretical functions defined on, and with values in, a suitable ring of scalars and sharing a number of fundamental properties with smooth functions, in particular with respect to composition and nonlinear operations. This is how they are still used in informal calculations in Physics. We introduce a category of generalized functions as smooth set-theoretical maps on (multidimensional) points of a ring of scalars containing infinitesimals and infinities. This category extends Schwartz distributions. The calculus of these generalized functions is closely related to classical analysis, with point values, composition, non-linear operations and the generalization of several classical theorems of calculus. Finally, we extend this category of generalized functions into a Grothendieck topos of sheaves over a concrete site. This topos hence provides a suitable framework for the study of spaces and functions with singularities. In this first paper, we present the basic theory; subsequent ones will be devoted to the resulting theory of ODE and PDE.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2101_04492
institution arXiv
publishDate 2021
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Grothendieck topos of generalized functions I: basic theory
Giordano, Paolo
Kunzinger, Michael
Vernaeve, Hans
Functional Analysis
46-XX, 46Fxx, 30Gxx, 46Txx, 46F30, 26E30, 58A03
The main aim of the present work is to arrive at a mathematical theory close to the historically original conception of generalized functions, i.e. set theoretical functions defined on, and with values in, a suitable ring of scalars and sharing a number of fundamental properties with smooth functions, in particular with respect to composition and nonlinear operations. This is how they are still used in informal calculations in Physics. We introduce a category of generalized functions as smooth set-theoretical maps on (multidimensional) points of a ring of scalars containing infinitesimals and infinities. This category extends Schwartz distributions. The calculus of these generalized functions is closely related to classical analysis, with point values, composition, non-linear operations and the generalization of several classical theorems of calculus. Finally, we extend this category of generalized functions into a Grothendieck topos of sheaves over a concrete site. This topos hence provides a suitable framework for the study of spaces and functions with singularities. In this first paper, we present the basic theory; subsequent ones will be devoted to the resulting theory of ODE and PDE.
title A Grothendieck topos of generalized functions I: basic theory
topic Functional Analysis
46-XX, 46Fxx, 30Gxx, 46Txx, 46F30, 26E30, 58A03
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.04492