Fixed point (mathematics) in the context of Structural stability

In geometry, a point reflection (also called a point inversion or central inversion) is a geometric transformation of affine space in which every point is reflected across a designated inversion center, which remains fixed. In Euclidean or pseudo-Euclidean spaces, a point reflection is an isometry (preserves distance). In the Euclidean plane, a point reflection is the same as a half-turn rotation (180° or π radians), while in three-dimensional Euclidean space a point reflection is an improper rotation which preserves distances but reverses orientation. A point reflection is an involution: applying it twice is the identity transformation.

An object that is invariant under a point reflection is said to possess point symmetry (also called inversion symmetry or central symmetry). A point group including a point reflection among its symmetries is called centrosymmetric. Inversion symmetry is found in many crystal structures and molecules, and has a major effect upon their physical properties.

In mathematics, a reflection (also spelled reflexion) is a mapping from a Euclidean space to itself that is an isometry with a hyperplane as the set of fixed points; this set is called the axis (in dimension 2) or plane (in dimension 3) of reflection. The image of a figure by a reflection is its mirror image in the axis or plane of reflection. For example the mirror image of the small Latin letter p for a reflection with respect to a vertical axis (a vertical reflection) would look like q. Its image by reflection in a horizontal axis (a horizontal reflection) would look like b. A reflection is an involution: when applied twice in succession, every point returns to its original location, and every geometrical object is restored to its original state.

The term reflection is sometimes used for a larger class of mappings from a Euclidean space to itself, namely the non-identity isometries that are involutions. The set of fixed points (the "mirror") of such an isometry is an affine subspace, but is possibly smaller than a hyperplane. For instance a reflection through a point is an involutive isometry with just one fixed point; the image of the letter p under itwould look like a d. This operation is also known as a central inversion (Coxeter 1969, §7.2), and exhibits Euclidean space as a symmetric space. In a Euclidean vector space, the reflection in the point situated at the origin is the same as vector negation. Other examples include reflections in a line in three-dimensional space. Typically, however, unqualified use of the term "reflection" means reflection in a hyperplane.

In mathematics, a duality translates concepts, theorems or mathematical structures into other concepts, theorems or structures in a one-to-one fashion, often (but not always) by means of an involution operation: if the dual of A is B, then the dual of B is A. In other cases the dual of the dual – the double dual or bidual – is not necessarily identical to the original (also called primal). Such involutions sometimes have fixed points, so that the dual of A is A itself. For example, Desargues' theorem is self-dual in this sense under the standard duality in projective geometry.

In mathematical contexts, duality has numerous meanings. It has been described as "a very pervasive and important concept in (modern) mathematics" and "an important general theme that has manifestations in almost every area of mathematics".

In geometry, Euler's rotation theorem states that, in three-dimensional space, any displacement of a rigid body such that a point on the rigid body remains fixed, is equivalent to a single rotation about some axis that runs through the fixed point. It also means that the composition of two rotations is also a rotation. Therefore the set of rotations has a group structure, known as a rotation group.

The theorem is named after Leonhard Euler, who proved it in 1775 by means of spherical geometry. The axis of rotation is known as an Euler axis, typically represented by a unit vector ê. Its product by the rotation angle is known as an axis-angle vector. The extension of the theorem to kinematics yields the concept of instant axis of rotation, a line of fixed points.

In geometry, a point group is a mathematical group of symmetry operations (isometries in a Euclidean space) that have a fixed point in common. The coordinate origin of the Euclidean space is conventionally taken to be a fixed point, and every point group in dimension d is then a subgroup of the orthogonal group O(d). Point groups are used to describe the symmetries of geometric figures and physical objects such as molecules.

Each point group can be represented as sets of orthogonal matrices M that transform point x into point y according to y = Mx. Each element of a point group is either a rotation (determinant of M = 1), or it is a reflection or improper rotation (determinant of M = −1).

In mathematics, a fixed-point theorem is a result saying that a function F will have at least one fixed point (a point x for which F(x) = x), under some conditions on F that can be stated in general terms.

In mathematical analysis, the Kakutani fixed-point theorem is a fixed-point theorem for set-valued functions. It provides sufficient conditions for a set-valued function defined on a convex, compact subset of a Euclidean space to have a fixed point, i.e. a point which is mapped to a set containing it. The Kakutani fixed point theorem is a generalization of the Brouwer fixed point theorem. The Brouwer fixed point theorem is a fundamental result in topology which proves the existence of fixed points for continuous functions defined on compact, convex subsets of Euclidean spaces. Kakutani's theorem extends this to set-valued functions.

The theorem was developed by Shizuo Kakutani in 1941, and was used by John Nash in his description of Nash equilibria. It has subsequently found widespread application in game theory and economics.

In mathematics, particularly abstract algebra, an algebraic closure of a field K is an algebraic extension of K that is algebraically closed. It is one of many closures in mathematics.

Using Zorn's lemma or the weaker ultrafilter lemma, it can be shown that every field has an algebraic closure, and that the algebraic closure of a field K is unique up to an isomorphism that fixes every member of K. Because of this essential uniqueness, we often speak of the algebraic closure of K, rather than an algebraic closure of K.