Fundamental Equation for Eigenalgebras

Introduction

The study of Eigenalgebras is a subject which has come into prominence recently, especially owing to their diverse applications ranging from lattice structure theory to crystallograpy, and even PDE. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of references on these amazing structures; there are extremely few at the introductory level. Many mathematicians have a vauge concept of what an Eigenalgebra is, but have neither time or reason to learn about these awesome objects. It is my aim in this document to provide a brief overview of Eigenalgebras and their applications; by the end, the reader should not only have a good idea of what Eigenalgebras are, but also their diverse applications.

What is an Eigenalgebra?

Many of us remember working with log tables as kids: spending countless hours mystied at how they turned a relatively complex operation, multiplication, into good old addition. Eigenalgebras do roughly the same thing, only the setting here is a normed division algebra. Denition: Given a linear operator L on the space of normed normed division algebras (hereafter denoted A), we say B A is an eigenalgebra if: L(B) = B 2 Take a second to understand the denition: the rest of the argument relies 1

on it. Dont worry, Ill wait right here. Back? Good. The following lemma should be apparent: Lemma: for each B A, L induces a map LB : A A satisfying LB (B) = B 2 . Moreover L and LB commute. Diagramatically: A A L L
B

A A Denition: We call this diagram the ABBA lattice. The following theorem is left as an exercise to the reader: Fundamental theorem of Eigenalgebras: L and LB commute. Do not be confused, this is not the same statement as in the lemma. It applies to fundamentally dierent maps.

Applications to PDE

Now that the reader has a sound intuition for eigenalgebras and the mind boggling structure associated with them, we will explore their application to PDE. Solution to heat equation using eigenalgebras T = 2 T t T (x, z, 0) = 0 T | =0 z z=0 Using a judicious choice of L along with the Fundmental theorem for Eigenalgebras, and applying the L transform to both sides, one produces the astounding solution T (x, y, t) = 0. The reader should work out the details. 2

The ease with which this solution was gotten more than justies the introduction of eigenalgebras. I leave the following PDE to the reader: 3 u 3 + u = (z) t u| = (x) U u(t, 0) = f (x) Hint: Use what you know about the fourier transform, and the properties of L.

Conclusion

It is my sincerest hope that the reader now fully understands what Eigenalgebras are, and the strong intution for them developed in this paper. Looking back, log tables should now appear to be but a simple example of the beautiful symmetries apparent in eigenalgebras. In the future, I hope to expand this document by providing more thoroughly worked applications of eigenalgebras.