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The Deceptively Asymmetric Unit Sphere

tangramvision.com

31–32 of 32 posts

Re: The Deceptively Asymmetric Unit Sphere

#31
Something that may be of interest to CS people and reveals the complexity of the unit sphere is the following problem:

Find an efficient (class of) algorithm(s) to select a large number N of uniformly distributed points on S^2, where "uniformly distributed" is given in a more flexible sense than the usual one. For instance, you may want to minimize the Weyl discrepancy between average and integral, or you may want to focus more on minimizing the number of ε-clusters of distances.

One of the most elegant approaches to this problem is the classic work of Lubotzky, Phillips and Sarnak: Hecke Operators and Distributing Points on the Sphere I and II. They translate the problem to one of generating good sequences of elements of SO(3), which they attack with a combination of harmonic analysis on the semisimple groups, homogeneous dynamics and number theory with Hecke operators as their central tool.

Re: The Deceptively Asymmetric Unit Sphere

#32
post #5

Another awesome mathematics article that loses me about 10-15% of the way in do to my own technical limitations. Any tips from HN on how to improve my ability to get thru, say, 45-50% of these types of articles?? Generally speaking, not specific to the math in OP article

spend 1-2 years learning consistently _any_ undergrad math. id recommend focusing on “mastering” multivariable calculus, dependencies included. but keep taking peaks of higher level stuff or just articles as these. doing this is important as the math can be contextualised in many ways and being exposed to those ways helps you internalise intuitions
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