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Etymology edit

Named after German mathematician Leopold Kronecker (1823–1891)

Noun edit

Kronecker delta (plural Kronecker deltas)

  1. (mathematics) A binary function, written as δ with two subscripts, which evaluates to 1 when its arguments are equal, and 0 otherwise.
    • 1998, Robert G. Deissler, Turbulent Fluid Motion, Taylor & Francis, page 24:
      The Kronecker delta   is an example of an isotropic tensor. That is, its components remain invariant with rotation of coordinate axes.
    • 2007, J. N. Reddy, An Introduction to Continuum Mechanics, Cambridge University Press, page 20,
      Further, the Kronecker delta and the permutation symbol are related by the identity, known as the  -  identity [see Problem 2.5(d)],
       .      (2.2.43)
      The permutation symbol and the Kronecker delta prove to be very useful in proving vector identities.
    • 2017, Sadri Hassani, Special Relativity: A Heuristic Approach, Elsevier, page 257:
      The most important property of the Kronecker delta occurs when it shares a common repeated index with another tensor:
      Note 10.1.3. When an index of a tensor   is contracted with one of the indices of the Kronecker delta, the result is an expression in which the Kronecker delta is removed and the contracted index of   is replaced by the other index of the Kronecker delta.
  2. (mathematics) A unary function, written as δ with a single index, which evaluates to 1 at zero, and 0 elsewhere.

Usage notes edit

  • The notation   and   are also sometimes used.
  • In linear algebra, the Kronecker delta can be regarded as a tensor of type (1,1).
  • The function can also be expressed using Iverson bracket notation, as  .
  • The single-argument function is equivalent to setting   in the binary function.

Synonyms edit

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Further reading edit