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Re: Define an antisymmetric function

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  • Subject: [mg107408] Re: [mg107396] Define an antisymmetric function
  • From: "David Park" <djmpark at comcast.net>
  • Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:39:40 -0500 (EST)
  • References: <3273383.1265889996178.JavaMail.root@n11>

G[a, b] := f[a, b]
G[a, c] := g[a, c]
G[b, c] := h[b, c]
G[x_, y_] /; \[Not] OrderedQ[{x, y}] := -G[y, x] 

{G[a, b], G[b, a], G[c, b], G[a, f[b]], G[f[b], a]} 
{f[a, b], -f[a, b], -h[b, c], G[a, f[b]], -G[a, f[b]]}


David Park
djmpark at comcast.net
http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark/  


From: Torsten Schoenfeld [mailto:kaffeetisch at gmx.de] 

I'd like to define an antisymmetric function by giving its value on a 
set of known objects.  I'm having trouble enforcing antisymmetry.  Say I 
want to define G[_, _] on the objects {a, b, c}:

   G[a, b] := f[a, b]
   G[a, c] := g[a, c]
   G[b, c] := h[b, c]

If I now enforce antisymmetry simply by

   G[x_, y_] := -G[y, x]

then it mostly works (e.g., G[b, a] evaluates to -f[a, b]).  But if I 
apply G to something that is not in {a, b, c}, then I run into an 
infinite loop: G[a, f[b]] yields "$RecursionLimit::reclim: Recursion 
depth of 256 exceeded."

Ideally, I would like applications to unknown input to stay unevaluated 
(e.g., G[a, f[b]] just yields G[a, f[b]]).  How can I achieve that while 
also enforcing antisymmetry?




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