mean operation

In algebraic topology, a mean or mean operation on a topological space X is a continuous, commutative, idempotent binary operation on X. If the operation is also associative, it defines a semilattice. A classic problem is to determine which spaces admit a mean. For example, Euclidean spaces admit a mean -- the usual average of two vectors -- but spheres of positive dimension do not, including the circle.

Further reading

  • {{citation

| last = Aumann | first = G.

| journal = Mathematische Annalen

| pages = 210–215

| title = Über Räume mit Mittelbildungen.

| url = http://eudml.org/doc/160126

| volume = 119

| issue = 2

| year = 1943

| doi=10.1007/bf01563741 | doi-access = free}}.

  • {{citation

| last = Sobolewski | first = Mirosław

| doi = 10.1090/s0002-9939-08-09414-8

| issue = 10

| journal = Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society

| pages = 3701–3707

| title = Means on chainable continua

| volume = 136

| year = 2008| doi-access = free

}}.

  • {{citation

| last = T. Banakh | first = W. Kubis, R. Bonnet

| issue = 1

| journal = Topological Algebra and Its Applications

| title = Means on scattered compacta

| url = http://eudml.org/doc/266591

| volume = 2

| year = 2014| doi = 10.2478/taa-2014-0002 | doi-access = free

| arxiv = 1309.2401

}}.

  • {{citation

| last = Charatonik | first = Janusz J.

| title = Selected problems in continuum theory

| url = http://topology.nipissingu.ca/tp/reprints/v27/tp27107.pdf

| issue = 1

| journal = Topology Proceedings

| mr = 2048922

| pages = 51–78

| department = Proceedings of the Spring Topology and Dynamical Systems Conference

| volume = 27

| year = 2003}}.

Category:Binary operations

Category:Means

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