Counterexamples of the Conjecture on Roots of Ehrhart Polynomials

On roots of Ehrhart polynomials, Beck et al. conjecture that all roots α of the Ehrhart polynomial of an integral convex polytope of dimension d satisfy −d≤ℜ(α)≤d−1. In this paper, we provide counterexamples for this conjecture.     

Constant Approximation Algorithms for Embedding Graph Metrics into Trees and Outerplanar Graphs

In this paper, we present a simple factor 6 algorithm for approximating the optimal multiplicative distortion of embedding a graph metric into a tree metric (thus improving and simplifying the factor 100 and 27 algorithms of Bǎdoiu et al. (Proceedings of the eighteenth annual ACM–SIAM symposium on discrete algorithms (SODA 2007), pp. 512–521, 2007) and Bǎdoiu et al. (Proceedings of the 11th international workshop on approximation algorithms for combinatorial optimization problems (APPROX 2008), Springer, Berlin, pp. 21–34, 2008)). We also present a constant factor algorithm for approximating the optimal distortion of embedding a graph metric into an outerplanar metric. For this, we introduce a general notion of a metric relaxed minor and show that if G contains an α-metric relaxed H-minor, then the distortion of any embedding of G into any metric induced by a H-minor free graph is ≥α. Then, for H=K _2,3, we present an algorithm which either finds an α-relaxed minor, or produces an O(α)-embedding into an outerplanar metric.     

Calcul Fonctionnel Holomorphe en Dimension Infinie dans une Algebre de Banach Quotient

L. Waelbroeck a montré dans [10] que le calcul fonctionnel holomorphe de plusieurs variables dans une algèbre de BanachA se généralisait à une algèbre de Banach quotientA|α (i.e:α un idéal de Banach deA tel que l’injectionα→A soit continue) et que c’est dans ce cadre qu’il est naturel et a de nombreuses applications. Dans [13], [1] et [4] les auteurs ont construit des calculs fonctionnels holomorphes en dimension infinie dans une algèbre de Banach. Nous étendons ici leurs calculs au cas d’une algèbre de Banach quotient ainsi que le théorème d’Arens-Calderon.      

Global Heat Kernel Estimates for Relativistic Stable Processes in Half-space-like Open Sets

In this paper, by using probabilistic methods, we establish sharp two-sided large time estimates for the transition densities of relativistic α-stable processes with mass m ∈ (0, 1] (i.e., for the Dirichlet heat kernels of m − (m ^2/α  − Δ) ^α/2 with m ∈ (0, 1]) in half-space-like C ^{1, 1} open sets. The estimates are uniform in m in the sense that the constants are independent of m ∈ (0, 1]. Combining with the sharp two-sided small time estimates, established in Chen et al. (Ann Probab, 2011), valid for all C ^{1, 1} open sets, we have now sharp two-sided estimates for the transition densities of relativistic α-stable processes with mass m ∈ (0, 1] in half-space-like C ^{1, 1} open sets for all times. Integrating the heat kernel estimates with respect to the time variable, one can recover the sharp two-sided Green function estimates for relativistic α-stable processes with mass m ∈ (0, 1] in half-space-like C ^{1, 1} open sets established recently in Chen et al. (Stoch Process their Appl, 2011).     

Virtual control regularization of state constrained linear quadratic optimal control problems

A numerical method for linear quadratic optimal control problems with pure state constraints is analyzed. Using the virtual control concept introduced by Cherednichenko et al. (Inverse Probl. 24:1–21, 2008) and Krumbiegel and R?sch (Control Cybern. 37(2):369–392, 2008), the state constrained optimal control problem is embedded into a family of optimal control problems with mixed control-state constraints using a regularization parameter α>0. It is shown that the solutions of the problems with mixed control-state constraints converge to the solution of the state constrained problem in the L ² norm as α tends to zero. The regularized problems can be solved by a semi-smooth Newton method for every α>0 and thus the solution of the original state constrained problem can be approximated arbitrarily close as α approaches zero. Two numerical examples with benchmark problems are provided.     

Two-Sided Optimal Bounds for Green Functions of Half-Spaces for Relativistic <Emphasis Type="Italic">α</Emphasis>-Stable Process

The purpose of this paper is to find optimal estimates for the Green function of a half-space of the relativistic α -stable process with parameter m on ℝ ^d space. This process has an infinitesimal generator of the form mI–(m ^2/α I–Δ) ^α/2, where 0<α<2, m>0, and reduces to the isotropic α-stable process for m=0. Its potential theory for open bounded sets has been well developed throughout the recent years however almost nothing was known about the behaviour of the process on unbounded sets. The present paper is intended to fill this gap and we provide two-sided sharp estimates for the Green function for a half-space. As a byproduct we obtain some improvements of the estimates known for bounded sets. Our approach combines the recent results obtained in Byczkowski et al. (Bessel Potentials, Hitting Distributions and Green Functions (2006) (preprint). ), where an explicit integral formula for the m-resolvent of a half-space was found, with estimates of the transition densities for the killed process on exiting a half-space. The main result states that the Green function is comparable with the Green function for the Brownian motion if the points are away from the boundary of a half-space and their distance is greater than one. On the other hand for the remaining points the Green function is somehow related the Green function for the isotropic α-stable process. For example, for d≥3, it is comparable with the Green function for the isotropic α-stable process, provided that the points are close enough. Research supported by KBN Grants.     

On non-smooth α-invex functions and vector variational-like inequality

In this paper, we establish some relationships between vector variational-like inequality and non-smooth vector optimization problems under the assumptions of α-invex non-smooth functions. We identify the vector critical points, the weakly efficient points and the solutions of the weak vector variational-like inequality, under non-smooth pseudo-α-invexity assumptions. These conditions are more general than those of existing ones in the literature. In particular, this work extends an earlier work of Ruiz-Garzon et al. (J Oper Res 157:113–119, 2004) to a wider class of functions, namely the non-smooth pseudo-α-invex functions. Moreover, this work extends an earlier work of Mishra and Noor (J Math Anal Appl 311:78–84, 2005) to non-differentiable case.     

Hitting Half-spaces by Bessel-Brownian Diffusions

The purpose of the paper is to find explicit formulas describing the joint distributions of the first hitting time and place for half-spaces of codimension one for a diffusion in ℝ ^n + 1, composed of one-dimensional Bessel process and independent n-dimensional Brownian motion. The most important argument is carried out for the two-dimensional situation. We show that this amounts to computation of distributions of various integral functionals with respect to a two-dimensional process with independent Bessel components. As a result, we provide a formula for the Poisson kernel of a half-space or of a strip for the operator (I − Δ) ^α/2, 0 < α < 2. In the case of a half-space, this result was recently found, by different methods, in Byczkowski et al. (Trans Am Math Soc 361:4871–4900, 2009). As an application of our method we also compute various formulas for first hitting places for the isotropic stable Lévy process.     

On discrete α-unimodality

A continuous composition semigroup of probability generating functionsF≔(F _t ,t≥0) and the corresponding multiplication ⊙ _F of van Harnet al. (1982,Z. Wahrsch. Verw. Gebiete,61, 97–118) are used to introduce the concept of [F; α]-unimodality which generalizes the discrete α-unimodality due to Abouammoh (1987,Statist. Neerlandica,41, 239–244) and Alamatsaz (1993,Statist. Neerlandica,47, 245–252). We offer various characterizations and other properties of [F;α]-unimodality. Notably, several convolution results are presented. Moreover, we explore the relationship between [F;α]-unimodality and the concepts of discrete self-decomposability and stability. Finally, lower bounds for variances of [F;α]-monotone and [F;α]-unimodal random variables are derived and some examples are also mentioned. Research supported by Grant SS024 of the Research Center of Kuwait University.     

Compression behavior and structure of dense helium at high temperatures by molecular dynamics simulation

In this work,the isotherm and energy distribution at T=304 K of dense helium are studied by molecular dynamic (MD) simulations with exp-6 potential r*=2.9673 ? (the position of the well minimum) and ε/kB=10.8 K (ε is the well-depth and kB is the Boltzmann constant) given by Peter et al.,and different values of stiffness parameter α.The optimized value of α=12.7 is deduced that can describe the atomic interactions for dense helium satisfactorily.This optimized α in exp-6 potential is used to conduct MD simulations of two isotherms of dense helium at T=300 K and T=298K.The calculations are in good agreement with the experimental.We further employed this method to investigate the equation-of-state and structure of dense helium at higher temperatures and found that when the density remained 1.6 g/cm3,the second peak of the radial distribution function would disappear in the temperature range from 2000 to 3040 K,demonstrating that a solid-liquid transition or decrystallization had occurred.     

Continuation of Time Bounds for a Regularized Boussinesq System

We study the periodic solution of a perturbed regularized Boussinesq system (Bona et al., J. Nonlinear Sci. 12:283–318, 2002, Bona et al., Nonlinearity 17:925–952, 2004), namely the system η _t +u _x +β(−η _xxt +u _xxx )+α((ηu) _x +ηη _x +uu _x )=0,u _t +η _x +β(η _xxx −u _xxt )+α((ηu) _x +ηη _x +uu _x )=0, with 0<α,β≤1. We prove that the solution, starting from an initial datum of size ε, remains smaller than ε for a time scale of order (ε ⁻¹ α ⁻¹ β)², whereas the natural time is of order ε ⁻¹ α ⁻¹ β.     

FFTs on the Rotation Group

We discuss an implementation of an efficient algorithm for the numerical computation of Fourier transforms of bandlimited functions defined on the rotation group SO(3). The implementation is freely available on the web. The algorithm described herein uses O(B ⁴) operations to compute the Fourier coefficients of a function whose Fourier expansion uses only (the O(B ³)) spherical harmonics of degree at most B. This compares very favorably with the direct O(B ⁶) algorithm derived from a basic quadrature rule on O(B ³) sample points. The efficient Fourier transform also makes possible the efficient calculation of convolution over SO(3) which has been used as the analytic engine for some new approaches to searching 3D databases (Funkhouser et al., ACM Trans. Graph. 83–105, [2003]; Kazhdan et al., Eurographics Symposium in Geometry Processing, pp. 167–175, [2003]). Our implementation is based on the “Separation of Variables” technique (see, e.g., Maslen and Rockmore, Proceedings of the DIMACS Workshop on Groups and Computation, pp. 183–237, [1997]). In conjunction with techniques developed for the efficient computation of orthogonal polynomial expansions (Driscoll et al., SIAM J. Comput. 26(4):1066–1099, [1997]), our fast SO(3) algorithm can be improved to give an algorithm of complexity O(B ³log ² B), but at a cost in numerical reliability. Numerical and empirical results are presented establishing the empirical stability of the basic algorithm. Examples of applications are presented as well. First author was supported by NSF ITR award; second author was supported by NSF Grant 0219717 and the Santa Fe Institute.     

Universally prestarlike functions as convolution multipliers

Universally prestarlike functions (of order α ≤ 1) in the slit domain L:=\mathbbC\[1,￥]{\Lambda:=\mathbb{C}{\setminus}[1,\infty]} have recently been introduced in Ruscheweyh et al. (Israel J Math, to appear). This notation generalizes the corresponding one for functions in the unit disk \mathbbD{\mathbb{D}} (and other circular domains in \mathbbC{\mathbb{C}}). In this paper we study the behaviour of universally prestarlike functions under the Hadamard product. In particular it is shown that these function classes (with α fixed), are closed under convolution, and that their members, as Hadamard multipliers, also preserve the prestarlikeness (of the same order) of functions in arbitrary circular domains containing the origin.     

Prodotti sghembi di insiemi e strutture di gruppo collegate

Riassunto Dati due insiemiG e Γ si considerano le coppie (a, α( cona∈G ed α ∈ Γ e per queste una legge di prodotto di tipo affatto generico. L'insieme dell (a, α) risulta allora un ?prodotto sghembo?G ⊗ Γ. Si dimostra che l'essereG ⊗ Γ un gruppo—con o senza l'aggiunta di ulteriori condizioni—porta all'esistenza di certi sottogruppi particolari inG⊗Γ; introduce delle strutture di gruppo inG e in Γ od in loro sottinsiemi; ed importa perG⊗Γ una scomposizione in prodotti di gruppi permutabili ed in ampliamenti di Schreier.

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Résumé étant donnés deux ensemblesG et Γ, on considère l'ensemble des couples (a, α) oùa∈G et α∈Γ et à propos de celles-ci une loi de produit, tout à fait générique. L'ensemble des (a, α) est alors un ?produit gauche?G⊗Γ. On démontre que, lorsqueG⊗Γ est un groupe (en ajoutant éventullement quelques autres hypothèses) on a les propriétés suivantes; enG⊗Γ existent certains sous-groupes; enG et en Γ, ou dans quelques luers sousensembles, on a des structures de groupe; le produit G⊗Γ peut être décomposé en produits de groupes permutables et en extensions de Schreier.

     

A direct approach to the weighted admissibility of observation operators for bounded analytic semigroups

In this note we adopt the approach in Bonnit et al. (Czechoslov. Math. J. 60(2):527–539, 2010) to give a direct proof of some recent results in Haak and Le Merdy (Houst. J. Math., 2005) and Haak and Kunstmann (SIAM J. Control Optim. 45:2094–2118, 2007) which characterizes the L ^p -admissibility of type α depending on p of unbounded observation operators for bounded analytic semigroups.     

Quelques observations sur lesL 2-resolvantes

Cet article a deux parties. Dans la première nous allons étudier les normes des opérateurs d'uneL ²-résolvante. Dans la deuxième partie on va associer à chaqueL ²-résolvante (G _α)_α>0 un processus (f _α)_α>0 (l'idée de considérer ce processus appartient à I. Cuculescu). En ce qui concerne ce processus (f _α)_α>0 on va montrer que si (G _α)_α>0 est uneL ²-résolvante qui correspond à un espace de Dirichlet fortement régulier sur (E, ℬ, μ) oùE est un espace métrique compact, ℬ est le corp borélien engendré par les ouverts deE et μ est une probabilité (ou une mesure finie), alors l'ensemble des zeros de chaquef _α est un ensemble fermé avec l'intérieur vide.     

Remarks on ��-strongly irreducible ideals

In this article, we study α-irreducible and α-strongly irreducible ideals of a commutative ring. The relations between α-strongly irreducible ideals of a ring and α-strongly irreducible ideals of localization of the ring are also studied.     

A New Algorithm for Box-Constrained Global Optimization

An important class of deterministic methods for global optimization is based on the theory of terminal attractors and repellers. Unfortunately, the utilization of scalar repellers is unsuitable, when the dimension n of the problem assumes values of operational interest. In previous papers the author et al. showed that BFSG-type methods, approximating the Hessian of twice continuously differentiable functions with a structured matrix, are very efficient to compute local minima, particularly in the secant case. On the other hand, the algorithms founded on the classical αBB technique are often ineffective for computational reasons. In order to increase the power of repellers in the tunneling phases, the utilization of repeller matrices with a proper structure is certainly promising and deserves investigation. In this work, it is shown that a BFGS-type method of low complexity, implemented in the local optimizations, can be effectively matched with proper repeller matrices in the tunneling phases. The novel algorithm FBαBB, which can be applied in the frame of the αBB computational scheme, is very efficient in terms of Number of Functions Generations (NFG), Success Rates (SR) in the evaluation of the global minimum and Number of Local Searches (NLS).     

A Class of New Large-Update Primal-Dual Interior-Point Algorithms for P＊（k） Nonlinear Complementarity Problems

In this paper we propose a class of new large-update primal-dual interior-point algorithms for P _*(κ) nonlinear complementarity problem (NCP), which are based on a class of kernel functions investigated by Bai et al. in their recent work for linear optimization (LO). The arguments for the algorithms are followed as Peng et al.’s for P _*(κ) complementarity problem based on the self-regular functions [Peng, J., Roos, C., Terlaky, T.: Self-Regularity: A New Paradigm for Primal-Dual Interior-Point Algorithms, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2002]. It is worth mentioning that since this class of kernel functions includes a class of non-self-regular functions as special case, so our algorithms are different from Peng et al.’s and the corresponding analysis is simpler than theirs. The ultimate goal of the paper is to show that the algorithms based on these functions have favorable polynomial complexity.     

Improved Convergence Result for the Discrete Gradient and Secant Methods for Nonsmooth Optimization

We study a generalization of the nonderivative discrete gradient method of Bagirov et al. for minimizing a locally Lipschitz function f on ℝ ⁿ . We strengthen the existing convergence result for this method by showing that it either drives the f-values to −∞ or each of its cluster points is Clarke stationary for f, without requiring the compactness of the level sets of f. Our generalization is an approximate bundle method, which also subsumes the secant method of Bagirov et al.