Concept
Eigenvector
A direction a linear map leaves pointing the same way, changing only its length.
Named by 2 essays across 2 fields — each of them below, with the objects they name alongside it.
The directions a map leaves alone
Almost every arrow comes out of a transformation pointing somewhere else. A few come out pointing exactly where they went in, only longer or shorter. Those few decide nearly everything the map does.
The rule that forgets where it came from
A walk between a few states, with the next step decided by the current one and nothing else. Run it long enough and the starting point stops mattering — but only when two conditions hold, and both of them have a picture in which they fail.
Named alongside it
The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.
MatrixBasisCharacteristic polynomialConvergenceDeterminantDiagonalisationEigenvalueFixed pointInvariantInvariant directionLimitMarkov chain