Talk:Positive definiteness
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Stub or disambiguation page[edit]
There has been some dispute about whether this is a stub or a disambiguation page. No one has presented any reasons for considering this a disambiguation page thus far, however two users have stated that it is one in their edit summaries. My reasoning for considering this a stub is as I stated in a previous edit summary: This article is about a single mathematical property; the listed articles should develop into subsections. Disambiguation pages list various unrelated articles which happen to be referred to by the same title. This is not a disambiguation page because all the articles are related and neither can be referred to by the title of the page. "Positive definiteness" is a single concept which is common to all the different areas of mathematics listed on this page. Unless someone is able to base the argument that this is a disambiguation page in Wikipedia guidelines, this page should be relabelled a stub. Neelix (talk) 20:02, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
- I think you're correct: although it looks like a disambiguation page, it isn't one. It is a stub, and, in particular, it may be a set index, although I'm not sure about this one. GregorB (talk) 20:18, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
- I'm not well-versed enough in this area of mathematics to comment; but, in general, a title is not "ambiguous" if it simply denotes a single general topic that can be divided into subtopics. Conversely, if it can denote several distinct general topics, then it should be a disambiguation page. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 20:37, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
- Difficult to say. As for the detailed concepts now referenced, the general concept of a positive definite bilinear form is a single general topic;
- For a positive-definite matrix, the bilinear form is positive-definite.
- For a positive definite kernel, it may be the case the the definition is the same as that a bilinear form on a formal product is positive-definite, but that operator may not be finite.
- For positive-definite function, the first definition is unrelated, and the second relates to an infinite matrix being positive semi-definite.
- For positive definite function on a group, it appears that the definition involves, again, a positive semi-definite bilinear form on (using the simple direct product), but the reason for the definition is unclear.
- So, I'd have to say that it's a single topic, but many of the articles (including the primary one) would need to be rewritten. — Arthur Rubin (talk) 02:22, 15 February 2010 (UTC)
- Difficult to say. As for the detailed concepts now referenced, the general concept of a positive definite bilinear form is a single general topic;
- I'm not well-versed enough in this area of mathematics to comment; but, in general, a title is not "ambiguous" if it simply denotes a single general topic that can be divided into subtopics. Conversely, if it can denote several distinct general topics, then it should be a disambiguation page. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 20:37, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
I marked this as a disambiguation page originally because its current form is indistinguishable from one. Moreover, positive definite redirects here, so this is a natural location for a disambiguation page on that topic. To call this page a "stub" is somewhat generous, since it does not contain any complete sentence [1]. In any case, that's my opinion. I'm not watchlisting this page because I really don't care about it one way or another. — Carl (CBM · talk) 03:46, 15 February 2010 (UTC)