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mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
, the open unit disk (or disc) around ''P'' (where ''P'' is a given point in the plane), is the set of points whose distance from ''P'' is less than 1: :D_1(P) = \.\, The closed unit disk around ''P'' is the set of points whose distance from ''P'' is less than or equal to one: :\bar D_1(P)=\.\, Unit disks are special cases of disks and
unit ball Unit may refer to: Arts and entertainment * UNIT, a fictional military organization in the science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' * Unit of action, a discrete piece of action (or beat) in a theatrical presentation Music * ''Unit'' (a ...
s; as such, they contain the interior of the
unit circle In mathematics, a unit circle is a circle of unit radius—that is, a radius of 1. Frequently, especially in trigonometry, the unit circle is the circle of radius 1 centered at the origin (0, 0) in the Cartesian coordinate system in the Eucli ...
and, in the case of the closed unit disk, the unit circle itself. Without further specifications, the term ''unit disk'' is used for the open unit disk about the
origin Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics and manga * Origin (comics), ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002 * The Origin (Buffy comic), ''The Origin'' (Bu ...
, D_1(0), with respect to the standard Euclidean metric. It is the interior of a
circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is cons ...
of radius 1, centered at the origin. This set can be identified with the set of all
complex number In mathematics, a complex number is an element of a number system that extends the real numbers with a specific element denoted , called the imaginary unit and satisfying the equation i^= -1; every complex number can be expressed in the fo ...
s of
absolute value In mathematics, the absolute value or modulus of a real number x, is the non-negative value without regard to its sign. Namely, , x, =x if is a positive number, and , x, =-x if x is negative (in which case negating x makes -x positive), ...
less than one. When viewed as a subset of the complex plane (C), the unit disk is often denoted \mathbb.


The open unit disk, the plane, and the upper half-plane

The function :f(z)=\frac is an example of a real
analytic Generally speaking, analytic (from el, ἀναλυτικός, ''analytikos'') refers to the "having the ability to analyze" or "division into elements or principles". Analytic or analytical can also have the following meanings: Chemistry * ...
and
bijective In mathematics, a bijection, also known as a bijective function, one-to-one correspondence, or invertible function, is a function between the elements of two sets, where each element of one set is paired with exactly one element of the other ...
function from the open unit disk to the plane; its inverse function is also analytic. Considered as a real 2-dimensional
analytic manifold In mathematics, an analytic manifold, also known as a C^\omega manifold, is a differentiable manifold with analytic transition maps. The term usually refers to real analytic manifolds, although complex manifolds are also analytic. In algebraic ge ...
, the open unit disk is therefore isomorphic to the whole plane. In particular, the open unit disk is
homeomorphic In the mathematical field of topology, a homeomorphism, topological isomorphism, or bicontinuous function is a bijective and continuous function between topological spaces that has a continuous inverse function. Homeomorphisms are the isomor ...
to the whole plane. There is however no conformal bijective map between the open unit disk and the plane. Considered as a
Riemann surface In mathematics, particularly in complex analysis, a Riemann surface is a connected one-dimensional complex manifold. These surfaces were first studied by and are named after Bernhard Riemann. Riemann surfaces can be thought of as deformed ver ...
, the open unit disk is therefore different from the
complex plane In mathematics, the complex plane is the plane formed by the complex numbers, with a Cartesian coordinate system such that the -axis, called the real axis, is formed by the real numbers, and the -axis, called the imaginary axis, is formed by the ...
. There are conformal bijective maps between the open unit disk and the open
upper half-plane In mathematics, the upper half-plane, \,\mathcal\,, is the set of points in the Cartesian plane with > 0. Complex plane Mathematicians sometimes identify the Cartesian plane with the complex plane, and then the upper half-plane corresponds to ...
. So considered as a Riemann surface, the open unit disk is isomorphic ("biholomorphic", or "conformally equivalent") to the upper half-plane, and the two are often used interchangeably. Much more generally, the
Riemann mapping theorem In complex analysis, the Riemann mapping theorem states that if ''U'' is a non-empty simply connected open subset of the complex number plane C which is not all of C, then there exists a biholomorphic mapping ''f'' (i.e. a bijective holomorphi ...
states that every
simply connected In topology, a topological space is called simply connected (or 1-connected, or 1-simply connected) if it is path-connected and every path between two points can be continuously transformed (intuitively for embedded spaces, staying within the spa ...
open subset In mathematics, open sets are a generalization of open intervals in the real line. In a metric space (a set along with a distance defined between any two points), open sets are the sets that, with every point , contain all points that are suff ...
of the complex plane that is different from the complex plane itself admits a conformal and bijective map to the open unit disk. One bijective conformal map from the open unit disk to the open upper half-plane is the
Möbius transformation In geometry and complex analysis, a Möbius transformation of the complex plane is a rational function of the form f(z) = \frac of one complex variable ''z''; here the coefficients ''a'', ''b'', ''c'', ''d'' are complex numbers satisfying ''ad' ...
:g(z)=i\frac   which is the inverse of the
Cayley transform In mathematics, the Cayley transform, named after Arthur Cayley, is any of a cluster of related things. As originally described by , the Cayley transform is a mapping between skew-symmetric matrices and special orthogonal matrices. The transform i ...
. Geometrically, one can imagine the real axis being bent and shrunk so that the upper half-plane becomes the disk's interior and the real axis forms the disk's circumference, save for one point at the top, the "point at infinity". A bijective conformal map from the open unit disk to the open upper half-plane can also be constructed as the composition of two
stereographic projection In mathematics, a stereographic projection is a perspective projection of the sphere, through a specific point on the sphere (the ''pole'' or ''center of projection''), onto a plane (the ''projection plane'') perpendicular to the diameter thro ...
s: first the unit disk is stereographically projected upward onto the unit upper half-sphere, taking the "south-pole" of the unit sphere as the projection center, and then this half-sphere is projected sideways onto a vertical half-plane touching the sphere, taking the point on the half-sphere opposite to the touching point as projection center. The unit disk and the upper half-plane are not interchangeable as domains for Hardy spaces. Contributing to this difference is the fact that the unit circle has finite (one-dimensional)
Lebesgue measure In measure theory, a branch of mathematics, the Lebesgue measure, named after French mathematician Henri Lebesgue, is the standard way of assigning a measure to subsets of ''n''-dimensional Euclidean space. For ''n'' = 1, 2, or 3, it coincides wi ...
while the real line does not.


Hyperbolic plane

The open unit disk forms the set of points for the
Poincaré disk model In geometry, the Poincaré disk model, also called the conformal disk model, is a model of 2-dimensional hyperbolic geometry in which all points are inside the unit disk, and straight lines are either circular arcs contained within the disk ...
of the hyperbolic plane.
Circular arc Circular may refer to: * The shape of a circle * ''Circular'' (album), a 2006 album by Spanish singer Vega * Circular letter (disambiguation) ** Flyer (pamphlet), a form of advertisement * Circular reasoning, a type of logical fallacy * Circular ...
s perpendicular to the unit circle form the "lines" in this model. The unit circle is the
Cayley absolute Cayley may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Cayley (surname) * Cayley Illingworth (1759–1823), Anglican Archdeacon of Stow * Cayley Mercer (born 1994), Canadian women's ice hockey player Places * Cayley, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet * Mount Cayley, ...
that determines a
metric Metric or metrical may refer to: * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics In mathe ...
on the disk through use of
cross-ratio In geometry, the cross-ratio, also called the double ratio and anharmonic ratio, is a number associated with a list of four collinear points, particularly points on a projective line. Given four points ''A'', ''B'', ''C'' and ''D'' on a line, t ...
in the style of the
Cayley–Klein metric In mathematics, a Cayley–Klein metric is a metric on the complement of a fixed quadric in a projective space which is defined using a cross-ratio. The construction originated with Arthur Cayley's essay "On the theory of distance"Cayley (1859), ...
. In the language of differential geometry, the circular arcs perpendicular to the unit circle are
geodesic In geometry, a geodesic () is a curve representing in some sense the shortest path ( arc) between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold. The term also has meaning in any differentiable manifold with a connecti ...
s that show the shortest distance between points in the model. The model includes
motion In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and m ...
s which are expressed by the special unitary group SU(1,1). The disk model can be transformed to the
Poincaré half-plane model In non-Euclidean geometry, the Poincaré half-plane model is the upper half-plane, denoted below as H = \, together with a metric, the Poincaré metric, that makes it a model of two-dimensional hyperbolic geometry. Equivalently the Poincar� ...
by the mapping ''g'' given above. Both the Poincaré disk and the Poincaré half-plane are ''conformal'' models of the hyperbolic plane, which is to say that angles between intersecting curves are preserved by motions of their isometry groups. Another model of hyperbolic space is also built on the open unit disk: the Beltrami-Klein model. It is ''not conformal'', but has the property that the geodesics are straight lines.


Unit disks with respect to other metrics

One also considers unit disks with respect to other
metric Metric or metrical may refer to: * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics In mathe ...
s. For instance, with the
taxicab metric A taxicab geometry or a Manhattan geometry is a geometry whose usual distance function or metric of Euclidean geometry is replaced by a new metric in which the distance between two points is the sum of the absolute differences of their Cartesian co ...
and the Chebyshev metric disks look like squares (even though the underlying topologies are the same as the Euclidean one). The area of the Euclidean unit disk is π and its
perimeter A perimeter is a closed path that encompasses, surrounds, or outlines either a two dimensional shape or a one-dimensional length. The perimeter of a circle or an ellipse is called its circumference. Calculating the perimeter has several pr ...
is 2π. In contrast, the perimeter (relative to the taxicab metric) of the unit disk in the taxicab geometry is 8. In 1932, Stanisław Gołąb proved that in metrics arising from a norm, the perimeter of the unit disk can take any value in between 6 and 8, and that these extremal values are obtained if and only if the unit disk is a regular
hexagon In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A '' regular hexagon'' has ...
or a
parallelogram In Euclidean geometry, a parallelogram is a simple (non- self-intersecting) quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides. The opposite or facing sides of a parallelogram are of equal length and the opposite angles of a parallelogram are of eq ...
, respectively.


See also

*
Unit disk graph In geometric graph theory, a unit disk graph is the intersection graph of a family of unit disks in the Euclidean plane. That is, it is a graph with one vertex for each disk in the family, and with an edge between two vertices whenever the corre ...
*
Unit sphere In mathematics, a unit sphere is simply a sphere of radius one around a given center. More generally, it is the set of points of distance 1 from a fixed central point, where different norms can be used as general notions of "distance". A unit ...
*
Bieberbach conjecture In complex analysis, de Branges's theorem, or the Bieberbach conjecture, is a theorem that gives a necessary condition on a holomorphic function in order for it to map the open unit disk of the complex plane injectively to the complex plane. It was ...


References

* S. Golab, "Quelques problèmes métriques de la géometrie de Minkowski", Trav. de l'Acad. Mines Cracovie 6 (1932), 179.


External links

* {{mathworld , urlname = UnitDisk , title = Unit disk
On the Perimeter and Area of the Unit Disc
by J.C. Álvarez Pavia and A.C. Thompson Circles 1 (number)