A map between two spaces induces this map between the top exterior power of those spaces, and

up to a constant
multiplicative factor, this map is the unique alternating multilinear form on V to the n. The special in the groups
SO N and SU N refers to the fact that the elements of those groups have a value of one for this function. The sign of
this value for a linear transformation determines whether that transformation is orientation preserving. Cramers rule
calculates the solutions to linear equations as quotients of this function. This value equals the product of all the
eigenvalues, if it is zero for a matrix, that matrix has no inverse. For 10 points, name this value associated with
square matrices which, in two dimensions, equals A D minus B C?
ANSWER: determinant
Needs a clue before special but I couldnt come up with a good one

The variance of this quantity for fluid particles is related to the energy dissipation and the kinematic viscosity by
independent predictions of Heisenberg and Yaglom. The non-linearity of the Navier-Stokes equations comes from
using the chain rule when calculating this quantity for a fluid parcel. In a simple harmonic oscillator, the maximum
value for this quantity is the amplitude multiplied by omega squared, and power is proportional to charge squared
times this quantity squared according to Larmors formula. Velocity squared divided by radius gives this value for a
body revolving along a circle of radius r. The amount of this due to gravity is 10 meters per second squared and its
the second timer derivative of position. For ten points, force is mass times what quantity?
ANSWER: acceleration
sucks, but sometimes you gotta use what you get
Every finite group with this property is solvable, which is equivalent to the statement that non-cyclic finite simple
groups never have this property according to the Feit-Thompson theorem. If a subgroup of the symmetric group on
n elements has this property, then it is also a subgroup of the alternating group on n elements. A graph that has no
vertices with this property has at least one Eulerian circuit. From Lagranges theorem, groups with this property do
not have subgroups of index 2. A polynomial that has this property must have at least one zero and will have a graph
for which the positive and negative infinity ends go in opposite directions. For 10 points, what is this property of
either a vertex or monomial that has its degree indivisible by 2?
ANSWER: odd order or (odd degree)
so Im going back and forth about whether to actually name Feit and Thompson. Will people be able to name match
that?

A classic paper by Wald claims that this quantity is the Noether charge associated with diffeomorphism invariance.
One formula for this quantity has a term proportional to the natural logarithm of volume times mass and internal
energy both raised to the three halves power; and an additive factor of five halves N k. That gives this quantity for
monatomic ideal gases, and its proportional to the area of the event horizon for black holes. The differential of
internal energy equals P dV plus mu dN plus temperature times the differential of this quantity. This quantity is zero
for a perfect crystal at absolute zero according to the third law of thermodynamics and it doesnt change in a
reversible process. For 10 points, name this quantity which always increases according to the second law of
thermodynamics.
ANSWER: entropy (accept specific things like Wald entropy, Bekenstein entropy, Black hole entropy

By Donskers theorem, a Wiener process is the scaling limit of these processes. For 10 points each:
[10] Name these mathematical processes that model the probabilistic movement of an entity by discrete steps at
discrete points in time. Brownian motion is a continuous analogue of one of these processes.
ANSWER: random walk
[10] An unbiased random walk is one of these processes, a sequence of random variables for which the future
expectation value is always the current value. These processes are also Markov processes if their entire distribution
function only depends only on the current state.
ANSWER: martingale
[10] For a random walk where its position increases by 1 with probability p at each time interval, the distance away
at time t will have this distribution that models the number of successes from a series of t independent Bernoulli
trials.
ANSWER: binomial distribution
When a system is in this state, one photons perturb excited electrons, which then release more photons as they relax
back to the ground state. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this state within the gain medium of a laser in which a greater number of atoms are in an excited state
than in the ground state.
ANSWER: population inversion
[10] A saturable absorber is used in the passive type of this technique, where the phases of the various waves that
oscillate within the laser are fixed to periodically interfere constructively, allowing the laser to emit short, periodic
pulses of light.
ANSWER: mode-locking
[10] This type of laser has a cavity with an LED sandwiched between two mirrors. This type of laser is so named
because it acts as one of this type of lasers doubly-eponymous resonators, also called an etalon.
ANSWER: Fabry-Perot laser

This mathematician discovered a method of expanding algebraic functions as a Laurent series with non-integer
powers, which is now called Puiseux series. Hes the first namesake of a class of formulas that approximate definite
integrals by integrating interpolating polynomials and of which Simpsons rule and the trapezoid rule are special
cases. His interpolation scheme involves calculating divided differences and is the most convenient when one wants
to add more interpolation points. One algorithm due to this mathematician forms each guess from the previous guess
minus the function over its derivative. That is this mathematicians namesake method for finding the zeroes of a
function. For 10 points, name this English mathematician who developed calculus.
ANSWER: Isaac Newton
-- Id never heard of newton-puiseux until writing this, but it seems realish. Id still like a better clue since it doesnt
quite jive with the point of the question
Skolemization converts first order sentences to a form described by this word by removing existential quantifiers.
Real numbers are described by this word if their infinite sequences have an even distribution every digit, and every
pair of digits, and so on. Hausdorff spaces of this type satisfy the T4 axiom that every disjoint closed set has an open
neighborhood. For a two dimensional manifold, this vector at a point is orthogonal to the tangent space at that point.
Simple groups have none of this type of subgroups which have the same right and left cosets. Each vector in an
orthogonal matrix has this property which means that it has a length of one. For 10 points, name this word that
describes a distribution which is also called Gaussian.
ANSWER: Normal
This turned out boring and kind of weak.