In group theory, given a group , a quasimorphism (or quasi-morphism) is a function which is additive up to bounded error, i.e. there exists a constant such that for all . The least positive value of for which this inequality is satisfied is called the defect of , written as . For a group , quasimorphisms form a subspace of the function space .
A quasimorphism is homogeneous if for all . It turns out the study of quasimorphisms can be reduced to the study of homogeneous quasimorphisms, as every quasimorphism is a bounded distance away from a unique homogeneous quasimorphism , given by :
A homogeneous quasimorphism has the following properties:
One can also define quasimorphisms similarly in the case of a function . In this case, the above discussion about homogeneous quasimorphisms does not hold anymore, as the limit does not exist in in general.
For example, for , the map is a quasimorphism. There is a construction of the real numbers as a quotient of quasimorphisms by an appropriate equivalence relation, see Construction of the reals numbers from integers (Eudoxus reals).