In mathematics, Mahler's theorem, introduced by Kurt Mahler (1958), expresses any continuous p-adic function as an infinite series of certain special polynomials. It is the p-adic counterpart to the Stone-Weierstrass theorem for continuous real-valued functions on a closed interval.

Statement

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Let   be the forward difference operator. Then for any p-adic function  , Mahler's theorem states that   is continuous if and only if its Newton series converges everywhere to  , so that for all   we have

 

where

 

is the  th binomial coefficient polynomial. Here, the  th forward difference is computed by the binomial transform, so that Moreover, we have that   is continuous if and only if the coefficients   in   as  .

It is remarkable that as weak an assumption as continuity is enough in the p-adic setting to establish convergence of Newton series. By contrast, Newton series on the field of complex numbers are far more tightly constrained, and require Carlson's theorem to hold.

References

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  • Mahler, K. (1958), "An interpolation series for continuous functions of a p-adic variable", Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik, 1958 (199): 23–34, doi:10.1515/crll.1958.199.23, ISSN 0075-4102, MR 0095821, S2CID 199546556