Anomaly

An anomaly is any occurrence or object that is strange, unusual, or unique.

In the following particular contexts it may refer to:

Astronomy

* Eccentric anomaly, intermediate value used to compute the position of a celestial object as a function of time
* Flyby anomaly, unexpected energy increase during Earth flybys of satellites
* Mean anomaly, measure of time in the study of orbital dynamics
* Pioneer anomaly, observed deviation of the trajectories of various unmanned spacecraft
* South Atlantic Anomaly, region where Earth's inner van Allen radiation belt makes its closest approach to the planet's surface
* True anomaly, angle between the direction of periapsis and the current position of an object on its orbit

Geophysics

* Bouguer anomaly, anomaly in gravimetry
* Free-air anomaly, gravity anomaly that has been computed for latitude and corrected for elevation of the station
* Gravity anomaly, difference between the observed gravity and a value predicted from a model
* Iridium anomaly, very rare element in the Earth's crust
* Magnetic anomaly, local variation in the Earth's magnetic field
** Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, territory rich in iron ores located within Kursk Oblast, Belgorod Oblast, and Oryol Oblast
** Temagami Magnetic Anomaly, large buried geologic structure in the Temagami region of Ontario, Canada

Biology

* Congenital vertebral anomaly, any of several malformations of the spine in animals and infants
* Collie eye anomaly, congenital, inherited, bilateral eye disease of dogs involving the retina, choroid, and sclera
* Coronary artery anomaly, congenital abnormality in the coronary anatomy of the heart
* Ebstein's anomaly, congenital heart defect in which the opening of the tricuspid valve is displaced towards the right ventricle of the heart
* Uhl anomaly, very rare congenital heart disease with a partial or total loss of the myocardial muscle in the right ventricle

Quantum physics

* Anomaly (physics), failure of a symmetry of a theory's classical action
* Conformal anomaly, quantum phenomenon that breaks the conformal symmetry of the classical theory
* Chiral anomaly, anomalous nonconservation of a chiral current
* Gauge anomaly, effect of quantum mechanics that invalidates the gauge symmetry of a quantum field theory
* Global anomaly, anomaly in quantum physics
* Gravitational anomaly, effect of quantum mechanics that invalidates the general covariance of a theory of general relativity
* Mixed anomaly, effect of quantum mechanics
* Parity anomaly, anomaly associated with parity

cience fiction

* Fortean anomaly, as in the work of Charles Fort
* Spatial anomaly, broad term in "Star Trek" and other science fiction for any sort of extraordinary disruption in the space-time continuum
* Anomaly, shortcut to hyperspace travel in Robert Heinlein's 1950s novels, today called a wormhole
* Anomaly (comics), DC Comics villain
* , an episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise"
* Anomaly (Primeval), time portal in TV series "Primeval"
* Anomalies, small areas in the game "" which have various effects on the game environment
* Anomaly, a bridge to another world in the book series "His Dark Materials", by Philip Pullman
* Phobos Anomaly, a level in "Doom", Episode 1 Level 8
* Deimos Anomaly, a level in "Doom", Episode 2 Level 1

Music

* "Anomalies" (album), 2005 album by Cephalic Carnage
* "Anna Molly" (word play on "anomaly"), song by Incubus from 2006 album "Light Grenades"
* "Anomaly", song by Delta-S from 2007 album "Voyage to Isis"

Other

* Ararat anomaly, object on Mount Ararat claimed to be Noah's Ark
* Konishi anomaly, violation of the conservation of the Noether current associated with certain transformations
* Market anomaly, price distortion on a financial market
* Anomaly in software, anything that differs from expectations, whether the expectations resulted from documentation, experiences or otherwise

ee also

* Irregular