Biology and ecology Decomposition is the process through which organic matter is broken down into simpler molecules. Decomposition, decompose may also refer to: Chemistry Chemical decomposition or analysis, in chemistry, is the fragmentation of a chemical compound into elements or smaller compounds Thermal decomposition, a chemical decomposition caused by heat Mathematics Doob decomposition of an integrable, discrete-time stochastic process Doob–Meyer decomposition of a continuous-time sub- or supermartingale Hahn decomposition of a measure space Hahn–Jordan decomposition of a signed measure Helmholtz decomposition, decomposition of a vector field Indecomposability (disambiguation) Indecomposable continuum Lebesgue's decomposition theorem, decomposition of a measure Lie group decomposition, used to analyse the structure of Lie groups and associated objects Manifold decomposition, decomposition of manifolds JSJ decomposition, or toral decomposition, a decomposition of 3-manifolds Matrix decomposition, decomposition of matrices Primary decomposition, decomposition of ideals into primary ideals Vector decomposition, decomposition of vectors Permutation decomposition, decomposition of a permutation into disjoint cycles Physics Spinodal decomposition, phase separation mechanism Other uses Decomposition (computer science), or factoring; the process of breaking a complex problem down into easily understood and achievable parts Semantic decomposition, used in natural language processing Decompositions: Volume Number One, the second studio album by American screamo band Circle Takes the Square Zersetzung, or decomposition, a debilitative psychological warfare technique utilised by the Stasi intelligence agency in East Germany See also Component (disambiguation) Composition (disambiguation) Decay (disambiguation) Decomposition method (disambiguation) Food spoilage