Correspondence (mathematics)
Encyclopedia
In mathematics and mathematical economics, correspondence is a term with several related but not identical meanings.
- In general mathematicsMathematicsMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, correspondence is an alternative term for a relationRelation (mathematics)In set theory and logic, a relation is a property that assigns truth values to k-tuples of individuals. Typically, the property describes a possible connection between the components of a k-tuple...
between two sets. Hence a correspondence of sets X and Y is any subsetSubsetIn mathematics, especially in set theory, a set A is a subset of a set B if A is "contained" inside B. A and B may coincide. The relationship of one set being a subset of another is called inclusion or sometimes containment...
of the Cartesian productCartesian productIn mathematics, a Cartesian product is a construction to build a new set out of a number of given sets. Each member of the Cartesian product corresponds to the selection of one element each in every one of those sets...
X×Y of the sets.
- In algebraic geometryAlgebraic geometryAlgebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics which combines techniques of abstract algebra, especially commutative algebra, with the language and the problems of geometry. It occupies a central place in modern mathematics and has multiple conceptual connections with such diverse fields as complex...
, a correspondence between algebraic varietiesAlgebraic varietyIn mathematics, an algebraic variety is the set of solutions of a system of polynomial equations. Algebraic varieties are one of the central objects of study in algebraic geometry...
V and W is in the same fashion a subset R of V×W, which is in addition required to be closed in the Zariski topologyZariski topologyIn algebraic geometry, the Zariski topology is a particular topology chosen for algebraic varieties that reflects the algebraic nature of their definition. It is due to Oscar Zariski and took a place of particular importance in the field around 1950...
. It therefore means any relation that is defined by algebraic equations. There are some important examples, even when V and W are algebraic curveAlgebraic curveIn algebraic geometry, an algebraic curve is an algebraic variety of dimension one. The theory of these curves in general was quite fully developed in the nineteenth century, after many particular examples had been considered, starting with circles and other conic sections.- Plane algebraic curves...
s: for example the Hecke operatorHecke operatorIn mathematics, in particular in the theory of modular forms, a Hecke operator, studied by , is a certain kind of "averaging" operator that plays a significant role in the structure of vector spaces of modular forms and more general automorphic representations....
s of modular formModular formIn mathematics, a modular form is a analytic function on the upper half-plane satisfying a certain kind of functional equation and growth condition. The theory of modular forms therefore belongs to complex analysis but the main importance of the theory has traditionally been in its connections...
theory may be considered as correspondences of modular curveModular curveIn number theory and algebraic geometry, a modular curve Y is a Riemann surface, or the corresponding algebraic curve, constructed as a quotient of the complex upper half-plane H by the action of a congruence subgroup Γ of the modular group of integral 2×2 matrices SL...
s.
- However, the definition of a correspondence in algebraic geometry is not completely standard. For instance, Fulton, in his book on Intersection theoryIntersection theoryIn mathematics, intersection theory is a branch of algebraic geometry, where subvarieties are intersected on an algebraic variety, and of algebraic topology, where intersections are computed within the cohomology ring. The theory for varieties is older, with roots in Bézout's theorem on curves and...
, uses the definition above. In literature, however, a correspondence from a variety X to a variety Y is often taken to be a subset Z of X×Y such that Z is finite and surjective over each component of X. Note the asymmetry in this latter definition; which talks about a correspondence from X to Y rather than a correspondence between X and Y. The typical example of the latter kind of correspondence is the graph of a function f:X→Y
- In category theoryCategory theoryCategory theory is an area of study in mathematics that examines in an abstract way the properties of particular mathematical concepts, by formalising them as collections of objects and arrows , where these collections satisfy certain basic conditions...
, a correspondence from
to 
is a functor 
. It is the "opposite" of a profunctorProfunctorIn category theory, a branch of mathematics, profunctors are a generalization of relations and also of bimodules. They are related to the notion of correspondences.- Definition :...
.
- One-to-one correspondence is an alternate name for a bijectionBijectionA bijection is a function giving an exact pairing of the elements of two sets. A bijection from the set X to the set Y has an inverse function from Y to X. If X and Y are finite sets, then the existence of a bijection means they have the same number of elements...
.
- In von Neumann algebra theory, a correspondence is a synonym for a von Neumann algebraVon Neumann algebraIn mathematics, a von Neumann algebra or W*-algebra is a *-algebra of bounded operators on a Hilbert space that is closed in the weak operator topology and contains the identity operator. They were originally introduced by John von Neumann, motivated by his study of single operators, group...
bimodule.
- In economicsEconomicsEconomics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, a correspondence between two sets A and B is a mapMap (mathematics)In most of mathematics and in some related technical fields, the term mapping, usually shortened to map, is either a synonym for function, or denotes a particular kind of function which is important in that branch, or denotes something conceptually similar to a function.In graph theory, a map is a...
f:A→P(B) from the elements of the set A to the power set of B. This is similar to a correspondence as defined in general mathematics (i.e., a relationRelation (mathematics)In set theory and logic, a relation is a property that assigns truth values to k-tuples of individuals. Typically, the property describes a possible connection between the components of a k-tuple...
,) except that the range is over sets instead of elements. However, there is usually the additional property that for all a in A, f(a) is not empty. In other words, each element in A maps to a non-empty subset of B; or in terms of a relation R as subset of A×B, R projects to A surjectively. A correspondence with this additional property is thought of as the generalization of a functionFunction (mathematics)In mathematics, a function associates one quantity, the argument of the function, also known as the input, with another quantity, the value of the function, also known as the output. A function assigns exactly one output to each input. The argument and the value may be real numbers, but they can...
, rather than as a special case of a relation, and is referred to in other contexts as a multivalued functionMultivalued functionIn mathematics, a multivalued function is a left-total relation; i.e. every input is associated with one or more outputs...
.
- An example of a correspondence in this sense is the best responseBest responseIn game theory, the best response is the strategy which produces the most favorable outcome for a player, taking other players' strategies as given...
correspondence in game theoryGame theoryGame theory is a mathematical method for analyzing calculated circumstances, such as in games, where a person’s success is based upon the choices of others...
, which gives the optimal action for a player as a function of the strategies of all other players. If there is always a unique best action given what the other players are doing, then this is a function. If for some opponent's strategy, there is a set of best responses that are equally good, then this is a correspondence.