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In the long run, exponential growth of any kind will overtake linear growth of any kind (that is the basis of the Malthusian catastrophe) as well as any polynomial growth, that is, for all α: = There is a whole hierarchy of conceivable growth rates that are slower than exponential and faster than linear (in the long run).
Exponential functions occur very often in solutions of differential equations. The exponential functions can be defined as solutions of differential equations. Indeed, the exponential function is a solution of the simplest possible differential equation, namely ′ = .
Factorials grow faster than exponential functions, but much more slowly than double exponential functions. However, tetration and the Ackermann function grow faster. See Big O notation for a comparison of the rate of growth of various functions. The inverse of the double exponential function is the double logarithm log(log(x)).
The term sub-exponential time is used to express that the running time of some algorithm may grow faster than any polynomial but is still significantly smaller than an exponential. In this sense, problems that have sub-exponential time algorithms are somewhat more tractable than those that only have exponential algorithms.
The order of growth is then the least degree of any such polynomial function p. A nilpotent group G is a group with a lower central series terminating in the identity subgroup. Gromov's theorem states that a finitely generated group has polynomial growth if and only if it has a nilpotent subgroup that is of finite index.
Big O notation is a mathematical notation that describes the limiting behavior of a function when the argument tends towards a particular value or infinity. Big O is a member of a family of notations invented by German mathematicians Paul Bachmann, [1] Edmund Landau, [2] and others, collectively called Bachmann–Landau notation or asymptotic notation.
In mathematics, the exponential function can be characterized in many ways. This article presents some common characterizations, discusses why each makes sense, and proves that they are all equivalent. The exponential function occurs naturally in many branches of mathematics. Walter Rudin called it "the most important function in mathematics". [1]
A quantity undergoing exponential decay. Larger decay constants make the quantity vanish much more rapidly. This plot shows decay for decay constant (λ) of 25, 5, 1, 1/5, and 1/25 for x from 0 to 5. A quantity is subject to exponential decay if it decreases at a rate proportional to its current value.