What do these two symbols mean?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the meanings of two mathematical symbols: one resembling an "X" inscribed in a circle and the other an addition sign inscribed in a circle. The context appears to involve equations related to tensors and potentially linear algebra.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant inquires about the meanings of two unfamiliar symbols encountered in equations.
  • Another participant suggests that the symbols may represent operations in a field, identifying the "X in a circle" as multiplication and the addition sign as addition, while noting that meanings can depend on context.
  • A participant mentions that the symbols might relate to tensors, although they express uncertainty about their understanding of tensors.
  • Another participant confirms that the "X in a circle" refers to the tensor product and provides a link for further reading.
  • This same participant identifies the addition sign as representing the direct sum of two modules, relating it to vector spaces and providing a reference for clarification.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express varying levels of certainty regarding the meanings of the symbols, with some proposing interpretations while others acknowledge their own limitations in understanding. No consensus is reached on the definitive meanings of the symbols.

Contextual Notes

The discussion highlights the potential dependence of symbol meanings on context, particularly in advanced mathematical topics like tensors and modules.

isefGUY
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I was looking into a set of equations, and came across two different symbols that I'm not familiar with what do they mean? One looks like an "X" inscribed in a circle and the other was an addition sign in scribed in a circle. Again, what do they mean?
 
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Where did you come across these symbols? Although the meaning of many symbols are universal, some may depend on the context.

What you're referring to seems like the operations of a field, for example - http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Field.html. If it is so, the 'x in a circle' is called multiplication and the + is known as addition, although these need not always represent the multiplication and addition that we use in our daily lives.
 
I don't remmber the exact site, but it seems like it was talking about tensors.
 
It could be tensor products. But I'm not well-versed in tensors, so I'll leave this up to someone who know tensors well.
 
isefGUY said:
I was looking into a set of equations, and came across two different symbols that I'm not familiar with what do they mean? One looks like an "X" inscribed in a circle

As neutrino has suggested, this is indeed the tensor product. It's fairly simple to write down for matrices, and they do so here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor_product

and the other was an addition sign in scribed in a circle. Again, what do they mean?

This is the direct sum of two modules. This may be in your linear algebra book, but it would be known as the direct sum of two vector spaces. This is just a special case of the direct sum of modules, as a vector space over a field F is just an F-module.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_sum
 

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