General
In quantum field theory, the operator product expansion (OPE) is a convergent expansion of the product of two fields at different points as a sum (possibly infinite) of local fields.
More precisely, if x and y are two different points, and A and B are operator-valued fields, then there is an open neighborhood of y, O such that for all x in O/{y}
where the sum is over finitely or countably many terms, Ci are operator-valued fields, ci are analytic functions over O/{y} and the sum is convergent in the operator topology within O/{y}.
OPEs are most often used in conformal field theory.
The notation is often used to denote that the difference G(x,y)-F(x,y) remains analytic at the points x=y. This is an equivalence relation.
Read more about this topic: Operator Product Expansion
Famous quotes containing the word general:
“All the critics who could not make their reputations by discovering you are hoping to make them by predicting hopefully your approaching impotence, failure and general drying up of natural juices. Not a one will wish you luck or hope that you will keep on writing unless you have political affiliations in which case these will rally around and speak of you and Homer, Balzac, Zola and Link Steffens.”
—Ernest Hemingway (18991961)
“In the drawing room [of the Queens palace] hung a Venus and Cupid by Michaelangelo, in which, instead of a bit of drapery, the painter has placed Cupids foot between Venuss thighs. Queen Caroline asked General Guise, an old connoisseur, if it was not a very fine piece? He replied Madam, the painter was a fool, for he has placed the foot where the hand should be.”
—Horace Walpole (17171797)
“We have seen over and over that white male historians in general have tended to dismiss any history they didnt themselves write, on the grounds that it is unserious, unscholarly, a fad, too political, merely oral and thus unreliable.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)