In mathematics, a function on a normed vector space is said to vanish at infinity if
For example, the function
defined on the real line vanishes at infinity.
More generally, a function
whenever the point
In other words, for each positive number
For a given locally compact space
(where
Both of these notions correspond to the intuitive notion of adding a point at infinity and requiring the values of the function to get arbitrarily close to zero as we approach it. This definition can be formalized in many cases by adding a point at infinity.
Rapidly decreasing
Refining the concept, one can look more closely to the rate of vanishing of functions at infinity. One of the basic intuitions of mathematical analysis is that the Fourier transform interchanges smoothness conditions with rate conditions on vanishing at infinity. The rapidly decreasing test functions of tempered distribution theory are smooth functions that are
o(|x|−N)for all N, as |x| → ∞, and such that all their partial derivatives satisfy that condition, too. This condition is set up so as to be self-dual under Fourier transform, so that the corresponding distribution theory of tempered distributions will have the same good property.