dovs()
function in
the stokes
packagefunction (K)
{
if (is.zero(K) || is.scalar(K)) {
return(0)
}
else {
return(max(index(K)))
}
}
To cite the stokes
package in publications, please use
Hankin (2022). Function
dovs()
returns the dimensionality of the underlying vector
space of a k-form. Recall that a
k-form is an alternating linear map
from Vk to R, where V=Rn (Spivak 1965). Function dovs()
returns n [compare
arity()
, which returns k]. As seen above, the function is very
simple, essentially being max(index(K))
, but its use is not
entirely straightforward in the context of stokes
idiom.
Consider the following:
## An alternating linear map from V^2 to R with V=R^4:
## val
## 2 4 = 9
## 1 4 = 8
## 2 3 = 1
## 1 3 = -3
## 3 4 = -2
## 1 2 = 2
Now object a
is notionally a map from (R4)2 to R:
## [,1] [,2]
## [1,] 1 5
## [2,] 2 6
## [3,] 3 7
## [4,] 4 8
## [1] -148
However, a
can equally be considered to be a map from
(R5)2 to
R:
## [,1] [,2]
## [1,] 1 5
## [2,] 2 6
## [3,] 3 7
## [4,] 4 8
## [5,] 1454 -9564
## [1] -148
If we view a [or indeed
f()
] in this way, that is a:(R5)2⟶R,
we observe that row 5 is ignored: e5=(0,0,0,0,1)T maps to zero
in the sense that f(e5,v)=f(v,e5)=0,
for any v∈R5.
## [,1] [,2]
## [1,] 0 0.3800352
## [2,] 0 0.7774452
## [3,] 0 0.9347052
## [4,] 0 0.2121425
## [5,] 1 0.6516738
## [1] 0
(above we see that rows 1-4 of M
are ignored because of
the zero in column 1; row 5 is ignored because the index of
a
does not include the number 5). Because a
is
alternating, we could have put e5
in the second column with the same result. Alternatively we see that the
k-form a
, evaluated
with e5 as one of its arguments,
returns zero because the index matrix of a
does not include
the number 5. Most of the time, this kind of consideration does not
matter. However, consider this:
## An alternating linear map from V^1 to R with V=R^1:
## val
## 1 = 1
Now, we know that dx
is supposed to be a map
from (R3)1 to
R; but:
## [1] 1
So according to stokes
, dx:(R1)1⟶R.
This does not really matter numerically, until we consider the Hodge
star operator. We know that ⋆dx=dy∧dz,
but
## [1] 1
Above we see the package giving, correctly, that the Hodge star of
dx is the
zero-dimensional volume element (otherwise known as “1”). To get the
answer appropriate if dx is considered as a map
from (R3)1 to
R [that is, dx:(R3)1⟶R],
we need to specify dovs
explicitly:
## An alternating linear map from V^2 to R with V=R^3:
## val
## 2 3 = 1
Actually this looks a lot better with a more appropriate print method:
## An alternating linear map from V^2 to R with V=R^3:
## + dy^dz