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In mathematics, discrepancy theory describes the deviation of a situation from the state one would like it to be in. It is also called the theory of irregularities of distribution. This refers to the theme of classical discrepancy theory, namely distributing points in some space such that they are evenly distributed with respect to some (mostly geometrically defined) subsets. The discrepancy (irregularity) measures how far a given distribution deviates from an ideal one.
Discrepancy theory can be described as the study of inevitable irregularities of distributions, in measure-theoretic and combinatorial settings. Just as Ramsey theory elucidates the impossibility of total disorder, discrepancy theory studies the deviations from total uniformity.
A significant event in the history of discrepancy theory was the 1916 paper of Weyl on the uniform distribution of sequences in the unit interval.[1]
- ^ Weyl, Hermann (1 September 1916). "Über die Gleichverteilung von Zahlen mod. Eins" [About the equal distribution of numbers]. Mathematische Annalen (in German). 77 (3): 313–352. doi:10.1007/BF01475864. ISSN 1432-1807. S2CID 123470919.