Notation

The typesetting conventions used across the blog.

Functions

Functions are denoted by lowercase italic letters: f, g, h, x, y, z. Independent variables will be dropped when brevity demands it.

Vectors

Lowercase letters with an arrow above — v→, u→, x→.

IAoFF

Short for "In Anticipation of Friendly Fire." I will leave out details when I feel like they aren't serving a useful purpose. I'm aware of the details, I just don't want to write them down.

Matrices

Capital sans-serif letters — 𝖠, 𝖬, 𝖯. Inverses and transposes inherit the convention: 𝖬−1, 𝖯⊤.

Sets

In general, sets will be denoted by capital bold letters: 𝐀. When referring to element of a set we use the corresponding lowercase letter e.g., a∈𝐀.

Certain named sets will use blackboard bold:

  • the natural numbers: ℕ,
  • the integers: ℤ,
  • the rational numbers: ℚ,
  • the real numbers: ℝ,
  • the complex numbers: ℂ.

Operators

Calligraphic capital letters for operators that act on functions or function spaces — Laplacians, integral kernels, differential operators. For example: ℒ, 𝒟, 𝒯. Read as "L-beautiful".

Function spaces

Capital script letters for function spaces — H for a Hilbert space, C for a class of smooth functions, etc.