Basic randomness of nature and ether-drift experiments

We re-consider the idea that quantum fluctuations might reflect the existence of an ‘objective randomness’, i.e. a basic property of the vacuum state which is independent of any experimental accuracy of the observations or limited knowledge of initial conditions. Besides being responsible for the observed quantum behavior, this might introduce a weak, residual form of ‘noise’ which is intrinsic to natural phenomena and could be important for the emergence of complexity at higher physical levels. By adopting Stochastic Electro Dynamics as a heuristic model, we are driven to a picture of the vacuum as a form of highly turbulent ether, which is deep-rooted into the basic foundational aspects of both quantum physics and relativity, and to search for experimental tests of this scenario. An analysis of the most precise ether-drift experiments, operating both at room temperature and in the cryogenic regime, shows that, at present, there is some ambiguity in the interpretation of the data. In fact the average amplitude of the signal has precisely the magnitude expected, in a ‘Lorentzian’ form of relativity, from an underlying stochastic ether and, as such, might not be a spurious instrumental effect. This puzzle, however, should be solved in a next future with the use of new cryogenically cooled optical resonators whose stability should improve by about two orders of magnitude. In these new experimental conditions, the persistence of the present amplitude would represent a clean evidence for the type of random vacuum we are envisaging.     

Connectedness of number theoretical tilings (dual tilings generated by Pisot units of degree 3 and 4)

We study the connectedness of Pisot dual tilings. It is shown that each tile generated by a Pisot unit of degree 3 is arcwise connected. However surprisingly, we found families of disconnected Pisot dual tiles of degree 4 which have infinitely many connected components. Also we give a simple necessary and sufficient condition for the connectedness of the Pisot dual tiles of degree 4. As a byproduct, we give a complete classification of the β expansion of 1 for quartic Pisot units. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A dominant subset of V-shaped sequences for a class of single machine sequencing problems

In this note we define a subset of V-shaped sequences, ‘V-shaped about T’, which generalize ‘V-shaped about d’ sequences. We derive a condition under which this subset contains an optimal sequence for a class of single machine sequencing problems. Cost functions from the literature are used to illustrate our results.     

Atomic surfaces, tilings and coincidence I. irreducible case

An irreducible Pisot substitution defines a graph-directed iterated function system. The invariant sets of this iterated function system are called the atomic surfaces. In this paper, a new tiling of atomic surfaces, which contains Thurston’sβ-tiling as a subclass, is constructed. Related tiling and dynamical properties are studied. Based on the coincidence condition defined by Dekking [Dek], we introduce thesuper-coincidence condition. It is shown that the super-coincidence condition governs the tiling and dynamical properties of atomic surfaces. We conjecture that every Pisot substitution satisfies the super-coincidence condition. The second author is supported by a JSPS Postdoc Fellowship.     

Littlewood Pisot numbers

A Pisot number is a real algebraic integer, all of whose conjugates lie strictly inside the open unit disk; a Salem number is a real algebraic integer, all of whose conjugate roots are inside the closed unit disk, with at least one of them of modulus exactly 1. Pisot numbers have been studied extensively, and an algorithm to generate them is well known. Our main result characterises all Pisot numbers whose minimal polynomial is a Littlewood polynomial, one with {+1,-1}-coefficients, and shows that they form an increasing sequence with limit 2. It is known that every Pisot number is a limit point, from both sides, of sequences of Salem numbers. We show that this remains true, from at least one side, for the restricted sets of Pisot and Salem numbers that are generated by Littlewood polynomials. Finally, we prove that every reciprocal Littlewood polynomial of odd degree n?3 has at least three unimodular roots.     

Global attractivity and permanence of a delayed SVEIR epidemic model with pulse vaccination and saturation incidence

In this study, we formulate and analyze a new SVEIR epidemic disease model with time delay and saturation incidence, and analyze the dynamic behavior of the model under pulse vaccination. Using the discrete dynamical system determined by the stroboscopic map, we obtain an ‘infection-free’ periodic solution, further, show that the ‘infection-free’ periodic solution is globally attractive for some parameters of the model under appropriate conditions. The permanence of the model is investigated analytically. By computer simulation it is concluded that a large vaccination rate or a short pulse of vaccination or a long latent period are each a sufficient condition for the extinction of the disease.     

Global attractivity and permanence of a SVEIR epidemic model with pulse vaccination and time delay

In this study, we propose a new SVEIR epidemic disease model with time delay, and analyze the dynamic behavior of the model under pulse vaccination. Pulse vaccination is an effective strategy for the elimination of infectious disease. Using the discrete dynamical system determined by the stroboscopic map, we obtain an ‘infection-free’ periodic solution. We also show that the ‘infection-free’ periodic solution is globally attractive when some parameters of the model under appropriate conditions. The permanence of the model is investigated analytically. Our results indicate that a large vaccination rate or a short pulse of vaccination or a long latent period is a sufficient condition for the extinction of the disease.     

The limited Rademacher functions and Bernoulli convolutions associated with Pisot numbers

In this paper, we give a systematical study of the local structures and fractal indices of the limited Rademacher functions and Bernoulli convolutions associated with Pisot numbers. For a given Pisot number in the interval (1,2), we construct a finite family of non-negative matrices (maybe non-square), such that the corresponding fractal indices can be re-expressed as some limits in terms of products of these non-negative matrices. We are especially interested in the case that the associated Pisot number is a simple Pisot number, i.e., the unique positive root of the polynomial x^k-x^k-1-…-x-1 (k=2,3,…). In this case, the corresponding products of matrices can be decomposed into the products of scalars, based on which the precise formulas of fractal indices, as well as the multifractal formalism, are obtained.     

Norms extremal with respect to the Mahler measure

In this paper, we introduce and study several norms which are constructed in order to satisfy an extremal property with respect to the Mahler measure. These norms are a natural generalization of the metric Mahler measure introduced by Dubickas and Smyth. We show that bounding these norms on a certain subspace implies Lehmer?s conjecture and in at least one case that the converse is true as well. We evaluate these norms on a class of algebraic numbers that include Pisot and Salem numbers, and for surds. We prove that the infimum in the construction is achieved in a certain finite dimensional space for all algebraic numbers in one case, and for surds in general, a finiteness result analogous to that of Samuels and Jankauskas for the t-metric Mahler measures.     

Diophantine approximation and badly approximable sets

Let (X,d) be a metric space and (Ω,d) a compact subspace of X which supports a non-atomic finite measure m. We consider ‘natural’ classes of badly approximable subsets of Ω. Loosely speaking, these consist of points in Ω which ‘stay clear’ of some given set of points in X. The classical set Bad of ‘badly approximable’ numbers in the theory of Diophantine approximation falls within our framework as do the sets Bad(i,j) of simultaneously badly approximable numbers. Under various natural conditions we prove that the badly approximable subsets of Ω have full Hausdorff dimension. Applications of our general framework include those from number theory (classical, complex, p-adic and formal power series) and dynamical systems (iterated function schemes, rational maps and Kleinian groups).     

On nonatomicity for non-additive functions

The notion of nonatomicity for set functions plays a key role in classical measure theory and its applications. For classical measures taking values in finite dimensional Banach spaces, it guarantees the connectedness of range. Even just replacing σ-additivity with finite additivity for measures requires some stronger nonatomicity property for the same conclusion to hold. In the present paper, we deal with non-additive functions – called ‘s-outer’ and ‘quasi-triangular’ – defined on rings and taking values in Hausdorff topological spaces. No algebraic structure is required on their target spaces. In this context, we make use of a notion of strong nonatomicity involving just the behavior of functions on ultrafilters of their underlying Boolean domains. This notion is proved to be equivalent to that proposed in earlier contributions concerning Lyapunov-types theorems in additive and non-additive frameworks. Thus, in particular, our analysis allows to generalize, improve and unify several known results on this topic.     

On the distance from a rational power to the nearest integer

We prove that for any non-zero real number ξ the sequence of fractional parts {ξ(3/2)ⁿ}, n=1,2,3,…, contains at least one limit point in the interval [0.238117…,0.761882…] of length 0.523764…. More generally, it is shown that every sequence of distances to the nearest integer ||ξ(p/q)ⁿ||, n=1,2,3,…, where p/q>1 is a rational number, has both ‘large’ and ‘small’ limit points. All obtained constants are explicitly expressed in terms of p and q. They are also expressible in terms of the Thue-Morse sequence and, for irrational ξ, are best possible for every pair p>1, q=1. Furthermore, we strengthen a classical result of Pisot and Vijayaraghavan by giving similar effective results for any sequence ||ξαⁿ||, n=1,2,3,…, where α>1 is an algebraic number and where ξ≠0 is an arbitrary real number satisfying ξ∉Q(α) in case α is a Pisot or a Salem number.     

Beta-expansions for infinite families of Pisot and Salem numbers

This paper continues the study of beta-expansions of 1 where β is a Pisot or Salem number. Special attention is given to regular Pisot numbers, and the Salem numbers that approach these Pisot numbers.     

State-dependent Foster–Lyapunov criteria for subgeometric convergence of Markov chains

We consider a form of state-dependent drift condition for a general Markov chain, whereby the chain subsampled at some deterministic time satisfies a geometric Foster–Lyapunov condition. We present sufficient criteria for such a drift condition to exist, and use these to partially answer a question posed in Connor and Kendall (2007) [2] concerning the existence of so-called ‘tame’ Markov chains. Furthermore, we show that our ‘subsampled drift condition’ implies the existence of finite moments for the return time to a small set.     

There are Only Eleven Special Pisot Numbers

A special Pisot number is a Pisot number such that /(–1)is also a Pisot number. Lagarias, Porta and Stolarsky found11 special Pisot numbers. Here it is proved that there are nomore. Also, the one known Salem number with the property that/(–1) is a Pisot number is shown to be the only such number.1991 Mathematics Subject Classification 11R06.     

The characteristic polynomial of a multiarrangement

Given a multiarrangement of hyperplanes we define a series by sums of the Hilbert series of the derivation modules of the multiarrangement. This series turns out to be a polynomial. Using this polynomial we define the characteristic polynomial of a multiarrangement which generalizes the characteristic polynomial of an arrangement. The characteristic polynomial of an arrangement is a combinatorial invariant, but this generalized characteristic polynomial is not. However, when the multiarrangement is free, we are able to prove the factorization theorem for the characteristic polynomial. The main result is a formula that relates ‘global’ data to ‘local’ data of a multiarrangement given by the coefficients of the respective characteristic polynomials. This result gives a new necessary condition for a multiarrangement to be free. Consequently it provides a simple method to show that a given multiarrangement is not free.     

The weak theory of monads

We construct a ‘weak’ version EMw(K) of Lack and Street's 2-category of monads in a 2-category K, by replacing their compatibility constraint of 1-cells with the units of monads by an additional condition on the 2-cells. A relation between monads in EMw(K) and composite pre-monads in K is discussed. If K admits Eilenberg-Moore constructions for monads, we define two symmetrical notions of ‘weak liftings’ for monads in K. If moreover idempotent 2-cells in K split, we describe both kinds of weak lifting via an appropriate pseudo-functor EMw(K)→K. Weak entwining structures and partial entwining structures are shown to realize weak liftings of a comonad for a monad in these respective senses. Weak bialgebras are characterized as algebras and coalgebras, such that the corresponding monads weakly lift for the corresponding comonads and also the comonads weakly lift for the monads.     

The outflow ranking method for weighted directed graphs

A ranking method assigns to every weighted directed graph a (weak) ordering of the nodes. In this paper we axiomatize the ranking method that ranks the nodes according to their outflow using four independent axioms. Besides the well-known axioms of anonymity and positive responsiveness we introduce outflow monotonicity – meaning that in pairwise comparison between two nodes, a node is not doing worse in case its own outflow does not decrease and the other node’s outflow does not increase – and order preservation – meaning that adding two weighted digraphs such that the pairwise ranking between two nodes is the same in both weighted digraphs, then this is also their pairwise ranking in the ‘sum’ weighted digraph. The outflow ranking method generalizes the ranking by outdegree for directed graphs, and therefore also generalizes the ranking by Copeland score for tournaments.     

Markov shift in non-commutative probability

We consider a class of quantum dissipative semigroup on a von-Neumann algebra which admits a normal invariant state. We investigate asymptotic behavior of the dissipative dynamics and their relation to that of the canonical Markov shift. In case the normal invariant state is also faithful, we also extend the notion of ‘quantum detailed balance’ introduced by Frigerio-Gorini and prove that forward weak Markov process and backward weak Markov process are equivalent by an anti-unitary operator.