A new approach to slice analysis via slice topology (Q2240775)

Section 1 is a quite complete introduction and provides a good overview of the background to the topic covered in this article. In Section 2, following a previous paper by three of the authors, they define what is called the slice topology \(\tau_s\), some of its properties are indicated and some examples are provided. It is proved, in particular, that slice topology has some special features near the real axis and this fact has important consequences when considering connectedness. In Section 3 the definition of slice regular functions is recalled. The novelty here is that the authors work with the slice topology and the functions are defined on slice-open sets in the set of quaternions \(\mathbb H\). Then there are some results whose proofs were given in a previous paper. The authors then discuss some examples that clarify how the slice topology approach provides a richer function theory and allows more general situations. The title of Section 4 is \textit{Slice Topology in Cones on Real Alternative Algebras}. In this section the authors follow the paper of the first, the third and the fourth author [``A representation formula for slice regular functions over slice-cones in several variables'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2011.13770}]. They introduce a class of slice regular functions on a finite-dimensional real alternative algebra \(A\) following the original idea of Gentili and Struppa. These functions are called ``weakly slice regular'' and they do not coincide with those ones studied by Ghiloni and Perotti (``strongly slice regular'') which are also regular functions with values in a real alternative algebra, finite dimensional and with a fixed anti-involution, using stem functions. In Subsection 4.1 one finds a discussion on the slice topology whose definition, originally given over the quaternions, can be extended to a suitable set \(Q_A\) that is called the quadratic cone in the real alternative algebra \(A\): \[ Q_A := \bigcup_{I \in \mathbb S_A} \mathbb C_I , \] where \( \mathbb S_A\) is defined by \( \mathbb S_A := \{ a \in A \, : \, a^2 = -1 \}\). In Subsection 4.2 the authors extend the classical definition of slice regularity given by Gentili and Struppa to the case of a left alternative algebra that satisfies what is written in the above paragraph. One finds in this subsection some main results about this class of functions. In Subsection 4.3 one finds an example for the special case in which \(A = \mathbb R_n\), the real Clifford algebra over \(n\) imaginary units. In Section 5 one finds various results given in [loc. cit.] in greater generality. There, the weakly slice regular functions are considered in the case of functions which are \(\mathbb R^{2n}\)-valued and defined on open sets in the topological space \((\mathcal W_C^d , \tau_s)\), where \(\mathcal W_C^d\) is a suitable weak slice cone in \([\mathrm{End} (\mathbb R^{2n})]^d\). In Section 6 the authors give an extension theorem for slice regular functions. This result provides a tool for extending slice regular functions to larger definition domains. They also prove a general path-representation formula. In Section 7 the authors consider domains of slice regularity for slice regular functions. These are the counterparts in this framework of the domains of holomorphy in several complex variables. Among the results they obtain is the following. For several variables, an axially symmetric slice-open set \(\Omega\) is a domain of slice regularity if and only if one of its slices \(\Omega_I\), \(I \in \mathcal C\) is a domain of holomorphy in \(\mathbb C_I^d\). The authors also define a generalization of \(\sigma\)-balls, called hyper-\(\sigma\)-polydiscs, and give a property of the domains of slice regularity. In the final section, Section 8, the authors define the important concept of slice derivative in the very general case of functions with values in the Euclidean space \(\mathbb R^{2n}\) and then they prove that there is a Taylor series for weak slice regular functions over slice-cones.