Do cocycles “break” symmetry?












6












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In an article by A. Borovik, “Is mathematics special?”, he talks about the fact that carrying is a cocycle. He then says




[A student] discovered that carry is doing what cocycles frequently do: they are responsible for break of symmetry.




I have never thought about cocycles in this way. In what sense are cocycles often breaking symmetry? Are there any other examples of this?










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migrated from math.stackexchange.com Dec 20 '18 at 23:38


This question came from our site for people studying math at any level and professionals in related fields.


















  • $begingroup$
    Why was this question deemed more appropriate for MO than Math SE? This is not by any means a strictly research-level question, but rather one about some intuition, and the topic is not highly specialized (we've had questions on group cohomology here). I'm just curious what reasoning stood behind that decision.
    $endgroup$
    – Wojowu
    Dec 22 '18 at 13:37










  • $begingroup$
    @Wojowu I asked this on Stackexchange, but did not get an answer and was hoping to get one here.
    $endgroup$
    – berndibus
    Dec 22 '18 at 19:03
















6












$begingroup$


In an article by A. Borovik, “Is mathematics special?”, he talks about the fact that carrying is a cocycle. He then says




[A student] discovered that carry is doing what cocycles frequently do: they are responsible for break of symmetry.




I have never thought about cocycles in this way. In what sense are cocycles often breaking symmetry? Are there any other examples of this?










share|cite|improve this question











$endgroup$



migrated from math.stackexchange.com Dec 20 '18 at 23:38


This question came from our site for people studying math at any level and professionals in related fields.


















  • $begingroup$
    Why was this question deemed more appropriate for MO than Math SE? This is not by any means a strictly research-level question, but rather one about some intuition, and the topic is not highly specialized (we've had questions on group cohomology here). I'm just curious what reasoning stood behind that decision.
    $endgroup$
    – Wojowu
    Dec 22 '18 at 13:37










  • $begingroup$
    @Wojowu I asked this on Stackexchange, but did not get an answer and was hoping to get one here.
    $endgroup$
    – berndibus
    Dec 22 '18 at 19:03














6












6








6


4



$begingroup$


In an article by A. Borovik, “Is mathematics special?”, he talks about the fact that carrying is a cocycle. He then says




[A student] discovered that carry is doing what cocycles frequently do: they are responsible for break of symmetry.




I have never thought about cocycles in this way. In what sense are cocycles often breaking symmetry? Are there any other examples of this?










share|cite|improve this question











$endgroup$




In an article by A. Borovik, “Is mathematics special?”, he talks about the fact that carrying is a cocycle. He then says




[A student] discovered that carry is doing what cocycles frequently do: they are responsible for break of symmetry.




I have never thought about cocycles in this way. In what sense are cocycles often breaking symmetry? Are there any other examples of this?







mathematics-education symmetry group-cohomology






share|cite|improve this question















share|cite|improve this question













share|cite|improve this question




share|cite|improve this question








edited Dec 21 '18 at 0:53









EFinat-S

1,1491417




1,1491417










asked Dec 14 '18 at 10:21









berndibusberndibus

311




311




migrated from math.stackexchange.com Dec 20 '18 at 23:38


This question came from our site for people studying math at any level and professionals in related fields.









migrated from math.stackexchange.com Dec 20 '18 at 23:38


This question came from our site for people studying math at any level and professionals in related fields.














  • $begingroup$
    Why was this question deemed more appropriate for MO than Math SE? This is not by any means a strictly research-level question, but rather one about some intuition, and the topic is not highly specialized (we've had questions on group cohomology here). I'm just curious what reasoning stood behind that decision.
    $endgroup$
    – Wojowu
    Dec 22 '18 at 13:37










  • $begingroup$
    @Wojowu I asked this on Stackexchange, but did not get an answer and was hoping to get one here.
    $endgroup$
    – berndibus
    Dec 22 '18 at 19:03


















  • $begingroup$
    Why was this question deemed more appropriate for MO than Math SE? This is not by any means a strictly research-level question, but rather one about some intuition, and the topic is not highly specialized (we've had questions on group cohomology here). I'm just curious what reasoning stood behind that decision.
    $endgroup$
    – Wojowu
    Dec 22 '18 at 13:37










  • $begingroup$
    @Wojowu I asked this on Stackexchange, but did not get an answer and was hoping to get one here.
    $endgroup$
    – berndibus
    Dec 22 '18 at 19:03
















$begingroup$
Why was this question deemed more appropriate for MO than Math SE? This is not by any means a strictly research-level question, but rather one about some intuition, and the topic is not highly specialized (we've had questions on group cohomology here). I'm just curious what reasoning stood behind that decision.
$endgroup$
– Wojowu
Dec 22 '18 at 13:37




$begingroup$
Why was this question deemed more appropriate for MO than Math SE? This is not by any means a strictly research-level question, but rather one about some intuition, and the topic is not highly specialized (we've had questions on group cohomology here). I'm just curious what reasoning stood behind that decision.
$endgroup$
– Wojowu
Dec 22 '18 at 13:37












$begingroup$
@Wojowu I asked this on Stackexchange, but did not get an answer and was hoping to get one here.
$endgroup$
– berndibus
Dec 22 '18 at 19:03




$begingroup$
@Wojowu I asked this on Stackexchange, but did not get an answer and was hoping to get one here.
$endgroup$
– berndibus
Dec 22 '18 at 19:03










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