Circle group

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In mathematics, the circle group, denoted by ${\displaystyle \mathbb {T} }$ or ${\displaystyle \mathbb {S} ^{1}}$, is the multiplicative group of all complex numbers with absolute value 1, that is, the unit circle in the complex plane or simply the unit complex numbers^[1]

$${\displaystyle \mathbb {T} =\{z\in \mathbb {C} :|z|=1\}.}$$

The circle group forms a subgroup of ${\displaystyle \mathbb {C} ^{\times }}$, the multiplicative group of all nonzero complex numbers. Since ${\displaystyle \mathbb {C} ^{\times }}$ is abelian, it follows that ${\displaystyle \mathbb {T} }$ is as well.

A unit complex number in the circle group represents a rotation of the complex plane about the origin and can be parametrized by the angle measure ${\displaystyle \theta }$:

$${\displaystyle \theta \mapsto z=e^{i\theta }=\cos \theta +i\sin \theta .}$$

This is the exponential map for the circle group.

The circle group plays a central role in Pontryagin duality and in the theory of Lie groups.

The notation ${\displaystyle \mathbb {T} }$ for the circle group stems from the fact that, with the standard topology (see below), the circle group is a 1-torus. More generally, ${\displaystyle \mathbb {T} ^{n}}$ (the direct product of ${\displaystyle \mathbb {T} }$ with itself ${\displaystyle n}$ times) is geometrically an ${\displaystyle n}$-torus.

The circle group is isomorphic to the special orthogonal group ${\displaystyle \mathrm {SO} (2)}$.