Weak and Strong Connectivity Regimes for a General Time Elapsed Neuron Network Model

For large fully connected neuron networks, we study the dynamics of homogenous assemblies of interacting neurons described by time elapsed models. Under general assumptions on the firing rate which include the ones made in previous works (Pakdaman et al. in Nonlinearity 23(1):55–75, 2010; SIAM J Appl Math 73(3):1260–1279, 2013, Mischler and Weng in Acta Appl Math, 2015), we establish accurate estimate on the long time behavior of the solutions in the weak and the strong connectivity regime both in the case with and without delay. Our results improve (Pakdaman et al. 2010, 2013) where a less accurate estimate was established and Mischler and Weng (2015) where only smooth firing rates were considered. Our approach combines several arguments introduced in the above previous works as well as a slightly refined version of the Weyl’s and spectral mapping theorems presented in Voigt (Monatsh Math 90(2):153–161, 1980) and Mischler and Scher (Ann Inst H Poincaré Anal Non Linéaire 33(3):849–898, 2016).     

A Nonlinear Transfer Operator Theorem

In recent papers, Kenyon et al. (Ergod Theory Dyn Syst 32:1567–1584 2012), and Fan et al. (C R Math Acad Sci Paris 349:961–964 2011, Adv Math 295:271–333 2016) introduced a form of non-linear thermodynamic formalism based on solutions to a non-linear equation using matrices. In this note we consider the more general setting of Hölder continuous functions.     

The Quest for the Ultimate Anisotropic Banach Space

We present a new scale \(\mathcal {U}^{t,s}_p\) (\(s<-t<0\) and \(1\le p <\infty \)) of anisotropic Banach spaces, defined via Paley–Littlewood, on which the transfer operator \(\mathcal {L}_g \varphi = (g \cdot \varphi ) \circ T^{-1}\) associated to a hyperbolic dynamical system T has good spectral properties. When \(p=1\) and t is an integer, the spaces are analogous to the “geometric” spaces \(\mathcal {B}^{t,|s+t|}\) considered by Gouëzel and Liverani (Ergod Theory Dyn Syst 26:189–217, 2006). When \(p>1\) and \(-1+1/p<s<-t<0<t<1/p\), the spaces are somewhat analogous to the geometric spaces considered by Demers and Liverani (Trans Am Math Soc 360:4777–4814, 2008). In addition, just like for the “microlocal” spaces defined by Baladi and Tsujii (Ann Inst Fourier 57:127–154, 2007) (or Faure–Roy–Sjöstrand in Open Math J 1:35–81, 2008), the transfer operator acting on \(\mathcal {U}^{t,s}_p\) can be decomposed into \(\mathcal {L}_{g,b}+\mathcal {L}_{g,c}\), where \(\mathcal {L}_{g,b}\) has a controlled norm while a suitable power of \(\mathcal {L}_{g,c}\) is nuclear. This “nuclear power decomposition” enhances the Lasota–Yorke bounds and makes the spaces \(\mathcal {U}^{t,s}_p\) amenable to the kneading approach of Milnor–Thurson (Dynamical Systems (Maryland 1986–1987), Springer, Berlin, 1988) (as revisited by Baladi–Ruelle, Baladi in Dynamical Zeta Functions and Dynamical Determinants for Hyperbolic Maps, Monograph, 2016; Baladi and Ruelle in Ergod Theory Dyn Syst 14:621–632, 1994; Baladi and Ruelle in Invent Math 123:553–574, 1996) to study dynamical determinants and zeta functions.     

Quantitative Pointwise Estimate of the Solution of the Linearized Boltzmann Equation

We study the quantitative pointwise behavior of the solutions of the linearized Boltzmann equation for hard potentials, Maxwellian molecules and soft potentials, with Grad’s angular cutoff assumption. More precisely, for solutions inside the finite Mach number region (time like region), we obtain the pointwise fluid structure for hard potentials and Maxwellian molecules, and optimal time decay in the fluid part and sub-exponential time decay in the non-fluid part for soft potentials. For solutions outside the finite Mach number region (space like region), we obtain sub-exponential decay in the space variable. The singular wave estimate, regularization estimate and refined weighted energy estimate play important roles in this paper. Our results extend the classical results of Liu and Yu (Commun Pure Appl Math 57:1543–1608, 2004), (Bull Inst Math Acad Sin 1:1–78, 2006), (Bull Inst Math Acad Sin 6:151–243, 2011) and Lee et al. (Commun Math Phys 269:17–37, 2007) to hard and soft potentials by imposing suitable exponential velocity weight on the initial condition.     

Yes,More Decoherence: A Reply to Critics

Recently I published an article in this journal entitled “Less interpretation and more decoherence in quantum gravity and inflationary cosmology” (Crull in Found Phys 45(9):1019–1045, 2015). This article generated responses from three pairs of authors: Vassallo and Esfeld (Found Phys 45(12):1533–1536, 2015), Okon and Sudarsky (Found Phys 46(7):852–879, 2016) and Fortin and Lombardi (Found Phys, 2017). In what follows, I reply to the criticisms raised by these authors.     

Rigidity of outermost MOTS: the initial data version

In the paper Commun Anal Geom 16(1):217–229, 2008, a rigidity result was obtained for outermost marginally outer trapped surfaces (MOTSs) that do not admit metrics of positive scalar curvature. This allowed one to treat the “borderline case” in the author’s work with R. Schoen concerning the topology of higher dimensional black holes (Commun Math Phys 266(2):571–576, 2006). The proof of this rigidity result involved bending the initial data manifold in the vicinity of the MOTS within the ambient spacetime. In this note we show how to circumvent this step, and thereby obtain a pure initial data version of this rigidity result and its consequence concerning the topology of black holes.     

A Free Boundary Problem with Non Local Interaction

We prove local existence for classical solutions of a free boundary problem which arises in one of the biological selection models proposed by Brunet and Derrida, (Phys. Rev. E 56, 2597D2604, 1997) and Durrett and Remenik, (Ann. Probab. 39, 2043–2078, 2011). The problem we consider describes the limit evolution of branching brownian particles on the line with death of the leftmost particle at each creation time as studied in De Masi et al. (2017). We use extensively results in Cannon (1984) and Fasano (2008).     

Exponential Decay of Correlations for Piecewise Cone Hyperbolic Contact Flows

We prove exponential decay of correlations for a realistic model of piecewise hyperbolic flows preserving a contact form, in dimension three. This is the first time exponential decay of correlations is proved for continuous-time dynamics with singularities on a manifold. Our proof combines the second author’s version (Liverani in Ann Math 159:1275–1312, 2004) of Dolgopyat’s estimates for contact flows and the first author’s work with Gouëzel (J Mod Dyn 4:91–137, 2010) on piecewise hyperbolic discrete-time dynamics.     

Traces of Intertwiners for Quantum Affine {\mathfrak{sl}}_2 and Felder–Varchenko Functions

We show that the traces of \({U_q({\widehat{\mathfrak{sl}}}_2)}\)-intertwiners of [ESV02] valued in the three-dimensional evaluation representation converge in a certain region of parameters and give a representation-theoretic construction of Felder–Varchenko’s hypergeometric solutions to the q-KZB heat equation given in [FV02]. This gives the first proof that such a trace function converges and resolves the first case of the Etingof–Varchenko conjecture of [EV00]. As applications, we prove a symmetry property for traces of intertwiners and prove Felder–Varchenko’s conjecture in [FV04] that their elliptic Macdonald polynomials are related to the affine Macdonald polynomials defined as traces over irreducible integrable \({U_q({\widehat{\mathfrak{sl}}}_2)}\)-modules in [EK95]. In the trigonometric and classical limits, we recover results of [EK94,EV00]. Our method relies on an interplay between the method of coherent states applied to the free field realization of the q-Wakimoto module of [Mat94], convergence properties given by the theta hypergeometric integrals of [FV02], and rationality properties originating from the representation-theoretic definition of the trace function.     

Convergence of Mayer and Virial expansions and the Penrose tree-graph identity

We establish new lower bounds for the convergence radius of the Mayer series and the Virial series of a continuous particle system interacting via a stable and tempered pair potential. Our bounds considerably improve those given by Penrose (J Math Phys 4:1312, 1963) and Ruelle (Ann Phys 5:109–120, 1963) for the Mayer series and by Lebowitz and Penrose (J Math Phys 7:841–847, 1964) for the Virial series. To get our results, we exploit the tree-graph identity given by Penrose (Statistical mechanics: foundations and applications. Benjamin, New York, 1967) using a new partition scheme based on minimum spanning trees.     

On the Motion of a Small Light Body Immersed in a Two Dimensional Incompressible Perfect Fluid with Vorticity

In this paper we consider the motion of a rigid body immersed in a two dimensional unbounded incompressible perfect fluid with vorticity. We prove that when the body shrinks to a massless pointwise particle with fixed circulation, the “fluid+rigid body” system converges to the vortex-wave system introduced by Marchioro and Pulvirenti (Mathematical theory of incompressible nonviscous fluids. Applied Mathematical Sciences 96, Springer-Verlag, 1994). This extends both the paper (Glass et al. Bull Soc Math France 142(3):489–536, 2014) where the case of a solid tending to a massive pointwise particle was tackled and the paper (Glass et al. Dynamics of a point vortex as limits of a shrinking solid in an irrotational fluid, 2014) where the massless case was considered but in a bounded cavity filled with an irrotational fluid.     

Contiguity and Entire Separability of States on von Neumann Algebras

We introduce the notions of the contiguity and entirely separability for two sequences of states on von Neumann algebras. The ultraproducts technique allows us to reduce the study of the contiguity to investigation of the equivalence for two states. Here we apply the Ocneanu ultraproduct and the Groh–Raynaud ultraproduct (see Ocneanu (1985), Groh (J. Operator Theory, 11, 2, 395–404 1984), Raynaud (J. Operator Theory, 48, 1, 41–68, 2002), Ando and Haagerup (J. Funct. Anal., 266, 12, 6842–6913, 2014)), as well as the technique developed in Mushtari and Haliullin (Lobachevskii J. Math., 35, 2, 138–146, 2014).     

Gravitational Rutherford scattering and Keplerian orbits for electrically charged bodies in heterotic string theory

Properties of the motion of electrically charged particles in the background of the Gibbons–Maeda–Garfinkle–Horowitz–Strominger black hole is presented in this paper. Radial and angular motions are studied analytically for different values of the fundamental parameter. Therefore, gravitational Rutherford scattering and Keplerian orbits are analyzed in detail. Finally, this paper complements previous work by Fernando for null geodesics (Phys Rev D 85:024033, 2012), Olivares and Villanueva (Eur Phys J C 73:2659, 2013) and Blaga (Automat Comp Appl Math 22:41–48, 2013; Serb Astron 190:41, 2015) for time-like geodesics.     

A Short Note on the Scaling Function Constant Problem in the Two-Dimensional Ising Model

We provide a simple derivation of the constant factor in the short-distance asymptotics of the tau-function associated with the 2-point function of the two-dimensional Ising model. This factor was first computed by Tracy (Commun Math Phys 142:297–311, 1991) via an exponential series expansion of the correlation function. Further simplifications in the analysis are due to Tracy and Widom (Commun Math Phys 190:697–721, 1998) using Fredholm determinant representations of the correlation function and Wiener–Hopf approximation results for the underlying resolvent operator. Our method relies on an action integral representation of the tau-function and asymptotic results for the underlying Painlevé-III transcendent from McCoy et al. (J Math Phys 18:1058–1092, 1977).     

On Bell,Suarez-Scarani,and Leggett Experiments: Reply to a Comment by Marek Żukowski in [Found. Phys. 38:1070, 2008]

It is shown that the before-before (or Suarez-Scarani) experiment refutes hidden variable models with a deterministic (“realistic”) nonlocal part, whereas experiments violating Leggett-type inequalities refute models with biased random local part. Therefore the claim that Gröblacher et al. (Nature 446:871–875, 2007) present “an experimental test of nonlocal realism” is misleading, and Marek ?ukowski’s (Found. Phys. 38:1070, 2008) comment misses the point. A new experiment is suggested.     

Persistence Probabilities of Two-Sided (Integrated) Sums of Correlated Stationary Gaussian Sequences

We study the persistence probability for some two-sided, discrete-time Gaussian sequences that are discrete-time analogues of fractional Brownian motion and integrated fractional Brownian motion, respectively. Our results extend the corresponding ones in continuous time in Molchan (Commun Math Phys 205(1):97–111, 1999) and Molchan (J Stat Phys 167(6):1546–1554, 2017) to a wide class of discrete-time processes.     

A Matrix Model with a Singular Weight and Painlevé III

We develop an existence, regularity and potential theory for nonlinear integrodifferential equations involving measure data. The nonlocal elliptic operators considered are possibly degenerate and cover the case of the fractional p-Laplacean operator with measurable coefficients. We introduce a natural function class where we solve the Dirichlet problem, and prove basic and optimal nonlinear Wolff potential estimates for solutions. These are the exact analogs of the results valid in the case of local quasilinear degenerate equations established by Boccardo and Gallouët (J Funct Anal 87:149–169, 1989, Partial Differ Equ 17:641–655, 1992) and Kilpeläinen and Malý (Ann Scuola Norm Sup Pisa Cl Sci (IV) 19:591–613, 1992, Acta Math 172:137–161, 1994). As a consequence, we establish a number of results that can be considered as basic building blocks for a nonlocal, nonlinear potential theory: fine properties of solutions, Calderón–Zygmund estimates, continuity and boundedness criteria are established via Wolff potentials. A main tool is the introduction of a global excess functional that allows us to prove a nonlocal analog of the classical theory due to Campanato (Ann Mat Pura Appl (IV) 69:321–381, 1965). Our results cover the case of linear nonlocal equations with measurable coefficients, and the one of the fractional Laplacean, and are new already in such cases.     

Wall-crossing between stable and co-stable ADHM data

We prove formula between Nekrasov partition functions defined from stable and co-stable ADHM data for the plane following method by Nakajima and Yoshioka (Kyoto J Math 51(2):263–335, 2011) based on the theory of wall-crossing formula developed by Mochizuki (Donaldson type invariants for algebraic surfaces: transition of moduli stacks, Lecture notes in mathematics, vol 1972, Springer, Berlin, 2009). This formula is similar to conjectures by Ito et al. [J High Energy Phys 2013(5):045, 2013, (4.1), (4.2)] for \(A_{1}\) singularity.