Re: Grouping similar indices together in an expression
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg65248] Re: Grouping similar indices together in an expression
- From: Peter Pein <petsie at dordos.net>
- Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 06:13:38 -0500 (EST)
- References: <dvosko$j5k$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
David Sanders schrieb:
> Hi,
>
> I am a newbie in Mathematica, and am trying to do the following.
>
> I have terms which look like
> a[i] a[j] b[i] b[j]
>
> I need to apply a function F, for which I need to group the different
> indices (by which I mean i, j) together as follows:
>
> F(a[i] a[j] b[i] b[j]) = F(a[i] b[i]) F(a[j] b[j])
>
> I do not in general know how many different indices there might be in a
> term. E.g. I might have
> a[i] a[j] a[k] b[j]
>
> Could somebody please give me a hint as to how to do this?
>
> Thanks,
> David.
>
Hi David,
the function
combineCommonIndices[lst_,f_:Plus,g_:Times]:=Module[{hds=Union[Head/@lst]},
g@@f@@@(Through[hds[#]]&/@
(Intersection@@(Pick[First/@lst,lst,Blank[#]]&/@ hds)))]
works at least for these examples:
examples =
{{a[i],a[j],b[i],b[j]},
{a[i],a[j],a[k],b[j]},
{a[i],a[j],a[k],b[g],b[h],b[i],b[j]}};
combineCommonIndices[#, F] & /@ examples
-->
{F[a[i],b[i]] F[a[j],b[j]],
F[a[j],b[j]],
F[a[i],b[i]] F[a[j],b[j]]}
and even the slightly confusing example
lst=Union@@Outer[#1[#2]&,#,#]&[{a,b,c}]
--> {a[a],a[b],a[c],b[a],b[b],b[c],c[a],c[b],c[c]}
combineCommonIndices[lst,F,List]
--> {F[a[a],b[a],c[a]], F[a[b],b[b],c[b]], F[a[c],b[c],c[c]]}
gives the expectes result.
Greetings,
Peter
P.S.: If you've got a term t = a[i] a[j] b[i] b[j], then use
combineCommonIndices[List @@ t, F] or modify this function
according to your needs.