Semiparametric estimation of the link function in binary-choice single-index models

We propose a new, easy to implement, semiparametric estimator for binary-choice single-index models which uses parametric information in the form of a known link (probability) function and nonparametrically corrects it. Asymptotic properties are derived and the finite sample performance of the proposed estimator is compared to those of the parametric probit and semiparametric single-index model estimators of Ichimura (J Econ 58:71–120, 1993) and Klein and Spady (Econometrica 61:387–421, 1993). Results indicate that if the parametric start is correct, the proposed estimator achieves significant bias reduction and efficiency gains compared to Ichimura (1993) and Klein and Spady (1993). Interestingly, the proposed estimator still achieves significant bias reduction and efficiency gains even if the parametric start is not correct.     

Asymptotic Expansion for the Distribution Density Function of the Compound Poisson Process in Large Deviations

The paper is devoted to obtaining the asymptotic expansion and determination of the structure of the remainder term taking into consideration large deviations in the Cramér zone for the distribution density function of the standardized compound Poisson process. Following Deltuvien? and Saulis (Acta Appl Math 78:87–97, 2003. doi: 10.1023/A:1025783905023; Lith Math J 41:620–625, 2001) and Saulis and Statulevi?ius [Limit theorems for large deviations. Mathematics and its applications (Soviet Series), vol 73, pp 154–187, Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1991], the solution to the problem is achieved by first using a general lemma presented by Saulis (see Lemma 6.1 in Saulis and Statulevi?ius 1991, p. 154) on the asymptotic expansion for the density function of an arbitrary random variable with zero mean and unit variance and combining methods for cumulants and characteristic functions. By taking into consideration the large deviations in the Cramér zone for the density function of the standardized compound Poisson process, the result for the asymptotic expansion extends the asymptotic expansions for the density function of the sums of non-random number of summands (Deltuvien? and Saulis 2003, 2001).     

Local convergence and the dynamics of a two-point four parameter Jarratt-like method under weak conditions

We present a local convergence analysis of a two-point four parameter Jarratt-like method of high convergence order in order to approximate a locally unique solution of a nonlinear equation. In contrast to earlier studies such us (Amat et al. Aequat. Math. 69(3), 212–223 2015; Amat et al. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 366(3), 24–32 2010; Behl, R. 2013; Bruns and Bailey Chem. Eng. Sci. 32, 257–264 1977; Candela and Marquina. Computing 44, 169–184 1990; Candela and Marquina. Computing 45(4), 355–367 1990; Chun. Appl. Math. Comput. 190(2), 1432–1437 2007; Cordero and Torregrosa. Appl. Math. Comput. 190, 686–698 2007; Deghan. Comput. Appl Math. 29(1), 19–30 2010; Deghan. Comput. Math. Math. Phys. 51(4), 513–519 2011; Deghan and Masoud. Eng. Comput. 29(4), 356–365 15; Cordero and Torregrosa. Appl. Math. Comput. 190, 686–698 2012; Deghan and Masoud. Eng. Comput. 29(4), 356–365 2012; Ezquerro and Hernández. Appl. Math. Optim. 41(2), 227–236 2000; Ezquerro and Hernández. BIT Numer. Math. 49, 325–342 2009; Ezquerro and Hernández. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 303, 591–601 2005; Gutiérrez and Hernández. Comput. Math. Appl. 36(7), 1–8 1998; Ganesh and Joshi. IMA J. Numer. Anal. 11, 21–31 1991; González-Crespo et al. Expert Syst. Appl. 40(18), 7381–7390 2013; Hernández. Comput. Math. Appl. 41(3-4), 433–455 2001; Hernández and Salanova. Southwest J. Pure Appl. Math. 1, 29–40 1999; Jarratt. Math. Comput. 20(95), 434–437 1966; Kou and Li. Appl. Math. Comput. 189, 1816–1821 2007; Kou and Wang. Numer. Algor. 60, 369–390 2012; Lorenzo et al. Int. J. Interact. Multimed. Artif. Intell. 1(3), 60–66 2010; Magreñán. Appl. Math. Comput. 233, 29–38 2014; Magreñán. Appl. Math. Comput. 248, 215–224 2014; Parhi and Gupta. J. Comput. Appl. Math. 206(2), 873–887 2007; Rall 1979; Ren et al. Numer. Algor. 52(4), 585–603 2009; Rheinboldt Pol. Acad. Sci. Banach Ctr. Publ. 3, 129–142 1978; Sicilia et al. J. Comput. Appl. Math. 291, 468–477 2016; Traub 1964; Wang et al. Numer. Algor. 57, 441–456 2011) using hypotheses up to the fifth derivative, our sufficient convergence conditions involve only hypotheses on the first Fréchet-derivative of the operator involved. The dynamics of the family for choices of the parameters such that it is optimal is also shown. Numerical examples are also provided in this study     

Extensions of the Noncommutative Integration

In this paper we will continue the analysis undertaken in Bagarello et al. (Rend Circ Mat Palermo (2) 55:21–28, 2006), Bongiorno et al. (Rocky Mt J Math 40(6):1745–1777, 2010), Triolo (Rend Circ Mat Palermo (2) 60(3):409–416, 2011) on the general problem of extending the noncommutative integration in a *-algebra of measurable operators. As in Aiena et al. (Filomat 28(2):263–273, 2014), Bagarello (Stud Math 172(3):289–305, 2006) and Bagarello et al. (Rend Circ Mat Palermo (2) 55:21–28, 2006), the main problem is to represent different types of partial *-algebras into a *-algebra of measurable operators in Segal’s sense, provided that these partial *-algebras posses a sufficient family of positive linear functionals (states) (Fragoulopoulou et al., J Math Anal Appl 388(2):1180–1193, 2012; Trapani and Triolo, Stud Math 184(2):133–148, 2008; Trapani and Triolo, Rend Circolo Mat Palermo 59:295–302, 2010; La Russa and Triolo, J Oper Theory, 69:2, 2013; Triolo, J Pure Appl Math, 43(6):601–617, 2012). In this paper, a new condition is given in an attempt to provide a extension of the non commutative integration.     

Improved local convergence analysis of the Gauss–Newton method under a majorant condition

We present a local convergence analysis of Gauss-Newton method for solving nonlinear least square problems. Using more precise majorant conditions than in earlier studies such as Chen (Comput Optim Appl 40:97–118, 2008), Chen and Li (Appl Math Comput 170:686–705, 2005), Chen and Li (Appl Math Comput 324:1381–1394, 2006), Ferreira (J Comput Appl Math 235:1515–1522, 2011), Ferreira and Gonçalves (Comput Optim Appl 48:1–21, 2011), Ferreira and Gonçalves (J Complex 27(1):111–125, 2011), Li et al. (J Complex 26:268–295, 2010), Li et al. (Comput Optim Appl 47:1057–1067, 2004), Proinov (J Complex 25:38–62, 2009), Ewing, Gross, Martin (eds.) (The merging of disciplines: new directions in pure, applied and computational mathematics 185–196, 1986), Traup (Iterative methods for the solution of equations, 1964), Wang (J Numer Anal 20:123–134, 2000), we provide a larger radius of convergence; tighter error estimates on the distances involved and a clearer relationship between the majorant function and the associated least squares problem. Moreover, these advantages are obtained under the same computational cost.     

New characterizations of the Takagi function via functional equations

We provide two new characterizations of the Takagi function as the unique bounded solution of some systems of two functional equations. The results are independent of those obtained by Kairies (Wy? Szko? Ped Krakow Rocznik Nauk Dydakt Prace Mat 196:73–82, 1998), Kairies (Aequ Math 53:207–241, 1997), Kairies (Aequ Math 58:183–191, 1999) and Kairies et al. (Rad Mat 4:361–374, 1989; Errata, Rad Mat 5:179–180, 1989).     

Spectral Properties of Unbounded Jacobi Matrices with Almost Monotonic Weights

We present a unified framework to identify spectra of Jacobi matrices. We give applications of the long-standing problem of Chihara (Mt J Math 21(1):121–137, 1991, J Comput Appl Math 153(1–2):535–536, 2003) concerning one-quarter class of orthogonal polynomials, to the conjecture posed by Roehner and Valent (SIAM J Appl Math 42(5):1020–1046, 1982) concerning continuous spectra of generators of birth and death processes, and to spectral properties of operators studied by Janas and Moszyńki (Integral Equ Oper Theory 43(4):397–416, 2002) and Pedersen (Proc Am Math Soc 130(8):2369–2376, 2002).     

On the solution of systems of equations with constant rank derivatives

The famous for its simplicity and clarity Newton–Kantorovich hypothesis of Newton’s method has been used for a long time as the sufficient convergence condition for solving nonlinear equations. Recently, in the elegant study by Hu et al. (J Comput Appl Math 219:110–122, 2008), a Kantorovich-type convergence analysis for the Gauss–Newton method (GNM) was given improving earlier results by Häubler (Numer Math 48:119–125, 1986), and extending some results by Argyros (Adv Nonlinear Var Inequal 8:93–99, 2005, 2007) to hold for systems of equations with constant rank derivatives. In this study, we use our new idea of recurrent functions to extend the applicability of (GNM) by replacing existing conditions by weaker ones. Finally, we provide numerical examples to solve equations in cases not covered before (Häubler, Numer Math 48:119–125, 1986; Hu et al., J Comput Appl Math 219:110–122, 2008; Kontorovich and Akilov 2004).     

Performance of convex underestimators in a branch-and-bound framework

The efficient determination of tight lower bounds in a branch-and-bound algorithm is crucial for the global optimization of models spanning numerous applications and fields. The global optimization method \(\alpha \)-branch-and-bound (\(\alpha \)BB, Adjiman et al. in Comput Chem Eng 22(9):1159–1179, 1998b, Comput Chem Eng 22(9):1137–1158, 1998a; Adjiman and Floudas in J Global Optim 9(1):23–40, 1996; Androulakis et al. J Global Optim 7(4):337–363, 1995; Floudas in Deterministic Global Optimization: Theory, Methods and Applications, vol. 37. Springer, Berlin, 2000; Maranas and Floudas in J Chem Phys 97(10):7667–7678, 1992, J Chem Phys 100(2):1247–1261, 1994a, J Global Optim 4(2):135–170, 1994), guarantees a global optimum with \(\epsilon \)-convergence for any \(\mathcal {C}^2\)-continuous function within a finite number of iterations via fathoming nodes of a branch-and-bound tree. We explored the performance of the \(\alpha \)BB method and a number of competing methods designed to provide tight, convex underestimators, including the piecewise (Meyer and Floudas in J Global Optim 32(2):221–258, 2005), generalized (Akrotirianakis and Floudas in J Global Optim 30(4):367–390, 2004a, J Global Optim 29(3):249–264, 2004b), and nondiagonal (Skjäl et al. in J Optim Theory Appl 154(2):462–490, 2012) \(\alpha \)BB methods, the Brauer and Rohn+E (Skjäl et al. in J Global Optim 58(3):411–427, 2014) \(\alpha \)BB methods, and the moment method (Lasserre and Thanh in J Global Optim 56(1):1–25, 2013). Using a test suite of 40 multivariate, box-constrained, nonconvex functions, the methods were compared based on the tightness of generated underestimators and the efficiency of convergence of a branch-and-bound global optimization algorithm.     

Robust return risk measures

In this paper we provide an axiomatic foundation to Orlicz risk measures in terms of properties of their acceptance sets, by exploiting their natural correspondence with shortfall risk Föllmer and Schied (Stochastic finance. De Gruyter, Berlin, 2011), thus paralleling the characterization in Weber (Math Financ 16:419–442, 2006). From a financial point of view, Orlicz risk measures assess the stochastic nature of returns, in contrast to the common use of risk measures to assess the stochastic nature of a position’s monetary value. The correspondence with shortfall risk leads to several robustified versions of Orlicz risk measures, and of their optimized translation invariant extensions (Rockafellar and Uryasev in J Risk 2:21–42, 2000, Goovaerts et al. in Insur Math Econ 34:505–516, 2004), arising from an ambiguity averse approach as in Gilboa and Schmeidler (J Math Econ 18:141–153, 1989), Maccheroni et al. (Econometrica 74:1447–1498, 2006), Chateauneuf and Faro (J Math Econ 45:535–558, 2010), or from a multiplicity of Young functions. We study the properties of these robust Orlicz risk measures, derive their dual representations, and provide some examples and applications.     

A remark on energy estimates concerning extremals for Trudinger–Moser inequalities on a disc

In this short note, we generalized an energy estimate due to Malchiodi–Martinazzi (J Eur Math Soc 16:893–908, 2014) and Mancini–Martinazzi (Calc Var 56:94, 2017). As an application, we used it to reprove existence of extremals for Trudinger–Moser inequalities of Adimurthi–Druet type on the unit disc. Such existence problems in general cases had been considered by Yang  (Trans Am Math Soc 359:5761–5776, 2007; J Differ Equ 258:3161–3193, 2015) and Lu–Yang (Discrete Contin Dyn Syst 25:963–979, 2009) by using another method.     

Central Limit Theorem for Lipschitz–Killing Curvatures of Excursion Sets of Gaussian Random Fields

Our interest in this paper is to explore limit theorems for various geometric functionals of excursion sets of isotropic Gaussian random fields. In the past, asymptotics of nonlinear functionals of Gaussian random fields have been studied [see Berman (Sojourns and extremes of stochastic processes, Wadsworth & Brooks, Monterey, 1991), Kratz and León (Extremes 3(1):57–86, 2000), Kratz and León (J Theor Probab 14(3):639–672, 2001), Meshenmoser and Shashkin (Stat Probab Lett 81(6):642–646, 2011), Pham (Stoch Proc Appl 123(6):2158–2174, 2013), Spodarev (Chapter in modern stochastics and applications, volume 90 of the series Springer optimization and its applications, pp 221–241, 2013) for a sample of works in such settings], the most recent addition being (Adler and Naitzat in Stoch Proc Appl 2016; Estrade and León in Ann Probab 2016) where a central limit theorem (CLT) for Euler integral and Euler–Poincaré characteristic, respectively, of the excursions set of a Gaussian random field is proven under some conditions. In this paper, we obtain a CLT for some global geometric functionals, called the Lipschitz–Killing curvatures of excursion sets of Gaussian random fields, in an appropriate setting.     

On a rigidity result of singularities

The aim of this note is to prove, in the spirit of a rigidity result for isolated singularities of Schlessinger see Schlessinger (Invent Math 14:17–26, 1971) or also Kleiman and Landolfi (Compositio Math 23:407–434, 1971), a variant of a rigidity criterion for arbitrary singularities (Theorem 2.1 below). The proof of this result does not use Schlessinger’s Deformation Theory [Schlessinger (Trans Am Math Soc 130:208–222, 1968) and Schlessinger (Invent Math 14:17–26, 1971)]. Instead it makes use of Local Grothendieck-Lefschetz Theory, see (Grothendieck 1968, Éxposé 9, Proposition 1.4, page 106) and a Lemma of Zariski, see (Zariski, Am J Math 87:507–536, 1965, Lemma 4, page 526). I hope that this proof, although works only in characteristic zero, might also have some interest in its own.     

Finite time blow up for a solution to system of the drift–diffusion equations in higher dimensions

We discuss the existence of a blow-up solution for a multi-component parabolic–elliptic drift–diffusion model in higher space dimensions. We show that the local existence, uniqueness and well-posedness of a solution in the weighted \(L^2\) spaces. Moreover we prove that if the initial data satisfies certain conditions, then the corresponding solution blows up in a finite time. This is a system case for the blow up result of the chemotactic and drift–diffusion equation proved by Nagai (J Inequal Appl 6:37–55, 2001) and Nagai et al. (Hiroshima J Math 30:463–497, 2000) and gravitational interaction of particles by Biler (Colloq Math 68:229–239, 1995), Biler and Nadzieja (Colloq Math 66:319–334, 1994, Adv Differ Equ 3:177–197, 1998). We generalize the result in Kurokiba and Ogawa (Differ Integral Equ 16:427–452, 2003, Differ Integral Equ 28:441–472, 2015) and Kurokiba (Differ Integral Equ 27(5–6):425–446, 2014) for the multi-component problem and give a sufficient condition for the finite time blow up of the solution. The condition is different from the one obtained by Corrias et al. (Milan J Math 72:1–28, 2004).     

Absolute Cesàro Series Spaces and Matrix Operators

In this paper we derive a series space \(\vert C_{\lambda,\mu} \vert _{k}\) using the well known absolute Cesàro summability \(\vert C_{\lambda,\mu} \vert _{k}\) of Das (Proc. Camb. Philol. Soc. 67:321–326, 1970), compute its \(\beta\)-dual, give some algebraic and topological properties, and characterize some matrix operators defined on that space. So we generalize some results of Bosanquet (J. Lond. Math. Soc. 20:39–48, 1945), Flett (Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 7:113–141, 1957), Mehdi (Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3)10:180–199, 1960), Mazhar (Tohoku Math. J. 23:433–451, 1971), Orhan and Sar?göl (Rocky Mt. J. Math. 23(3):1091–1097, 1993) and Sar?göl (Commun. Math. Appl. 7(1):11–22, 2016; Math. Comput. Model. 55:1763–1769, 2012).     

A general pinching principle for mean curvature flow and applications

We prove a sharp pinching estimate for immersed mean convex solutions of mean curvature flow which unifies and improves all previously known pinching estimates, including the umbilic estimate of Huisken (J Differ Geom 20(1):237–266, 1984), the convexity estimates of Huisken–Sinestrari (Acta Math 183(1):45–70, 1999) and the cylindrical estimate of Huisken–Sinestrari (Invent Math 175(1):137–221, 2009; see also Andrews and Langford in Anal PDE 7(5):1091–1107, 2014; Huisken and Sinestrari in J Differ Geom 101(2):267–287, 2015). Namely, we show that the curvature of the solution pinches onto the convex cone generated by the curvatures of any shrinking cylinder solutions admitted by the initial data. For example, if the initial data is \((m+1)\)-convex, then the curvature of the solution pinches onto the convex hull of the curvatures of the shrinking cylinders \(\mathbb {R}^m\times S^{n-m}_{\sqrt{2(n-m)(1-t)}}\), \(t<1\). In particular, this yields a sharp estimate for the largest principal curvature, which we use to obtain a new proof of a sharp estimate for the inscribed curvature for embedded solutions (Brendle in Invent Math 202(1):217–237, 2015; Haslhofer and Kleiner in Int Math Res Not 15:6558–6561, 2015; Langford in Proc Am Math Soc 143(12):5395–5398, 2015). Making use of a recent idea of Huisken–Sinestrari (2015), we then obtain a series of sharp estimates for ancient solutions. In particular, we obtain a convexity estimate for ancient solutions which allows us to strengthen recent characterizations of the shrinking sphere due to Huisken–Sinestrari (2015) and Haslhofer–Hershkovits (Commun Anal Geom 24(3):593–604, 2016).     

Construction of cyclotomic codebooks nearly meeting the Welch bound

Ding and Feng (IEEE Trans Inform Theory 52(9):4229–4235, 2006, IEEE Trans Inform Theory 53(11):4245–4250, 2007) constructed series of (N, K) codebooks which meet or nearly meet the Welch bound \({\sqrt{\frac{N-K}{(N-1)K}}}\) by using difference set (DS) or almost difference set (ADS) in certain finite abelian group respectively. In this paper, we generalize the cyclotomic constructions considered in (IEEE Trans Inform Theory 52(9):4229–4235, 2006, IEEE Trans Inform Theory 53(11):4245–4250, 2007) and (IEEE Trans Inform Theory 52(5), 2052–2061, 2006) to present more series of codebooks which nearly meet the Welch bound under looser conditions than ones required by DS and ADS.     

Remarks on defective Fano manifolds

This note continues our previous work on special secant defective (specifically, conic connected and local quadratic entry locus) and dual defective manifolds. These are now well understood, except for the prime Fano ones. Here we add a few remarks on this case, completing the results in our papers (Russo in Math Ann 344:597–617, 2009; Ionescu and Russo in Compos Math 144:949–962, 2008; Ionescu and Russo in J Reine Angew Math 644:145–157, 2010; Ionescu and Russo in Am J Math 135:349–360, 2013; Ionescu and Russo in Math Res Lett 21:1137–1154, 2014); see also the recent book (Russo, On the Geometry of Some Special Projective Varieties, Lecture Notes of the Unione Matematica Italiana, Springer, 2016).     

Condition Length and Complexity for the Solution of Polynomial Systems

Smale’s 17th problem asks for an algorithm which finds an approximate zero of polynomial systems in average polynomial time (see Smale in Mathematical problems for the next century, American Mathematical Society, Providence, 2000). The main progress on Smale’s problem is Beltrán and Pardo (Found Comput Math 11(1):95–129, 2011) and Bürgisser and Cucker (Ann Math 174(3):1785–1836, 2011). In this paper, we will improve on both approaches and prove an interesting intermediate result on the average value of the condition number. Our main results are Theorem 1 on the complexity of a randomized algorithm which improves the result of Beltrán and Pardo (2011), Theorem 2 on the average of the condition number of polynomial systems which improves the estimate found in Bürgisser and Cucker (2011), and Theorem 3 on the complexity of finding a single zero of polynomial systems. This last theorem is similar to the main result of Bürgisser and Cucker (2011) but relies only on homotopy methods, thus removing the need for the elimination theory methods used in Bürgisser and Cucker (2011). We build on methods developed in Armentano et al. (2014).