## Top new questions this week:

### Escape the zombie apocalypse

Consider zombies placed uniformly at random over $\mathbb{R}^2$ with asymptotic density $\mu$. You are placed at a random point and can move with speed $1$. Zombies move with speed $v\leq 1$ straight …

random-walk game-theory percolation

### Why do Lie algebras pop up, from a categorical point of view?

Groups pop up as automorphism groups in any category. Rings pop up as endomorphism rings in any additive category. Is there a similar way to attach a Lie algebra to an object in a category of a …

ct.category-theory lie-algebras

### Examples of famous 'workhorse' theorems

I use the term 'workhorse' to describe a theorem which is technically challenging to prove, perhaps very deep, but the statement is either uninteresting at first glance or too imposing to be …

soft-question big-list

### The lonely molecule

Suppose $n$ air molecules (infinitesimal points) are bouncing around in a unit $d$-dimensional cube, with perfectly elastic wall collisions. Let $k=n^{\frac{1}{d}}$. For example, in 3D, $d=3$, with …

nt.number-theory pr.probability mg.metric-geometry ds.dynamical-systems diophantine-equations

### Is there an algorithm to write down the 27 lines of a cubic surface?

Let $S$ be a smooth cubic surface defined by $f\in \mathbb Q[x,y,z,w]$. Is there an algorithm to write down the 27 lines on $S$? Or at least find a field extension of $\mathbb Q$ over which these …

ag.algebraic-geometry

### Why polarization of abelian varieties?

Maybe this question is not suitable for here, but I don't think I would receive a satisfactory answer in Math StackExchange. I could never understand the intuition behind polarization of abelian …

ag.algebraic-geometry abelian-varieties

### Fibrations and Cofibrations of spectra are "the same"

My question refers to a folklore statement that I have now seen a couple of times, but never really precise. One avatar is: "For spectra every cofibration is equivalent to a fibration" (e.g. in the …

at.algebraic-topology homotopy-theory model-categories stable-homotopy

## Greatest hits from previous weeks:

### What are the most misleading alternate definitions in taught mathematics?

I suppose this question can be interpreted in two ways. It is often the case that two or more equivalent (but not necessarily semantically equivalent) definitions of the same idea/object are used in …

soft-question examples teaching definitions

### why study Lie algebras?

I don't mean to be rude asking this question, I know that the theory of Lie groups and Lie algebras is a very deep one, very aesthetic and that has broad applications in various areas of mathematics …

dg.differential-geometry lie-groups lie-algebras differential-equations

### Homotopy equivalence vs weak homotopy equivalence in Gromov's h-principle

My question concerns Gromov's h-principle for open diffeomorphism-invariant partial differential relations on open manifolds; see e.g. Eliashberg/Mishachev: Introduction to the h-principle, §6.2.A and …

at.algebraic-topology dg.differential-geometry fa.functional-analysis sg.symplectic-geometry differential-topology

### Can $Ded(\kappa)$ be a supremum?

Definition If there is a dense linear order w/o endpoints of size $\lambda$ with a dense subset of size $\kappa$ then write $D(\kappa,\lambda)$. $Ded(\kappa)=\sup_\lambda \{D(\kappa,\lambda)\}$. It …

lo.logic set-theory order-theory
### Homogenous polynomially convex hull of $[0,1]^n$
I would like to calculate the set of $z\in \mathbb{C}^d$ such that there exists a constant $C >0$ such that for every homogeneous polynomial $p$ in $d$ variables |p(z)|\leq C\sup_{x\in [0,1]^d} …