 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (October 2011) |
In the field of mathematics known as convex analysis, the characteristic function of a set is a convex function that indicates the membership (or non-membership) of a given element in that set. It is similar to the usual indicator function, and one can freely convert between the two, but the characteristic function as defined below is better-suited to the methods of convex analysis.