The design centering problem as a D.C. programming problem

The following problem is studied: Given a compact setS inR ⁿ and a Minkowski functionalp(x), find the largest positive numberr for which there existsx S such that the set of ally R ⁿ satisfyingp(y–x) r is contained inS. It is shown that whenS is the intersection of a closed convex set and several complementary convex sets (sets whose complements are open convex) this design centering problem can be reformulated as the minimization of some d.c. function (difference of two convex functions) overR ⁿ . In the case where, moreover,p(x) = (x ^T Ax)^1/2, withA being a symmetric positive definite matrix, a solution method is developed which is based on the reduction of the problem to the global minimization of a concave function over a compact convex set.     

On solving a D.C. programming problem by a sequence of linear programs

We are dealing with a numerical method for solving the problem of minimizing a difference of two convex functions (a d.c. function) over a closed convex set in ⁿ . This algorithm combines a new prismatic branch and bound technique with polyhedral outer approximation in such a way that only linear programming problems have to be solved.Parts of this research were accomplished while the third author was visiting the University of Trier, Germany, as a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation.     

A Method for Converting a Class of Univariate Functions into d.c. Functions

D.c. functions are functions that can be expressed as the sum of a concave function and a convex function (or as the difference of two convex functions). In this paper, we extend the class of univariate functions that can be represented as d.c. functions. This expanded class is very broad including a large number of nonlinear and/or nonsmooth univariate functions. In addition, the procedure specifies explicitly the functional and numerical forms of the concave and convex functions that comprise the d.c. representation of the univariate functions. The procedure is illustrated using two numerical examples. Extensions of the conversion procedure for discontinuous univariate functions is also discussed.     

Edge ranking and searching in partial orders

We consider a problem of searching an element in a partially ordered set (poset). The goal is to find a search strategy which minimizes the number of comparisons. Ben-Asher, Farchi and Newman considered a special case where the partial order has the maximum element and the Hasse diagram is a tree (tree-like posets) and they gave an O(n⁴log³n)-time algorithm for finding an optimal search strategy for such a partial order. We show that this problem is equivalent to finding edge ranking of a simple tree corresponding to the Hasse diagram, which implies the existence of a linear-time algorithm for this problem.Then we study a more general problem, namely searching in any partial order with maximum element. We prove that such a generalization is hard, and we give an -approximate polynomial-time algorithm for this problem.     

χ‐bounds,operations, and chords

A long unichord in a graph is an edge that is the unique chord of some cycle of length at least 5. A graph is long unichord free if it does not contain any long unichord. We prove a structure theorem for long unichord free graph. We give an time algorithm to recognize them. We show that any long unichord free graph G can be colored with at most colors, where ω is the maximum number of pairwise adjacent vertices in G.     

On the ω-problem for some types of non-metrizable spaces

The ω-problem on a topological space X consists in finding out whether there exists a function whose oscillation is equal to a given upper semi-continuous (USC) function f:X→[0,∞] vanishing at isolated points of X. If such F exists, we call it an ω-primitive for f. Unlike the case of metrizable spaces, an ω-primitive need not exist if X is not metrizable. We study the ω-problem for f taking the value ∞ in the case of ordinal space, products of regular “constancy” spaces and the wedge sums of such spaces. Some open problems are formulated.     

Computing a global optimal solution to a design centering problem

In this paper we present a method for solving a special three-dimensional design centering problem arising in diamond manufacturing: Find inside a given (not necessarily convex) polyhedral rough stone the largest diamond of prescribed shape and orientation. This problem can be formulated as the one of finding a global maximum of a difference of two convex functions over ³ and can be solved efficiently by using a global optimization algorithm provided that the objective function of the maximization problem can be easily evaluated. Here we prove that with the information available on the rough stone and on the reference diamond, evaluating the objective function at a pointx amounts to computing the distance, with respect to a Minkowski gauge, fromx to a finite number of planes. We propose a method for finding these planes and we report some numerical results.     

Finite element analysis of an A– method for time-dependent Maxwell’s equations based on explicit-magnetic-field scheme

In this paper, error analysis of a finite element A– method for the time-dependent Maxwell’s equations is presented. An explicit-magnetic-field scheme is applied. Provided that the time-stepsize τ is sufficiently small, the proposed algorithm yields for finite time T an error of in the L²-norm for the electric field E and the magnetic field H, where h is the mesh size.     

On the Roots of σ‐Polynomials

Given a graph G of order n, the σ‐polynomial of G is the generating function where is the number of partitions of the vertex set of G into i nonempty independent sets. Such polynomials arise in a natural way from chromatic polynomials. Brenti (Trans Am Math Soc 332 (1992), 729–756) proved that σ‐polynomials of graphs with chromatic number at least had all real roots, and conjectured the same held for chromatic number . We affirm this conjecture.     

Constraint decomposition algorithms in global optimization

Many global optimization problems can be formulated in the form min{c(x, y): x X, y Y, (x, y) Z, y G} where X, Y are polytopes in ^p , ⁿ , respectively, Z is a closed convex set in ^p+n, while G is the complement of an open convex set in ⁿ . The function c: ^p+n is assumed to be linear. Using the fact that the nonconvex constraints depend only upon they-variables, we modify and combine basic global optimization techniques such that some new decomposition methods result which involve global optimization procedures only in ⁿ . Computational experiments show that the resulting algorithms work well for problems with smalln.     

The Minimum Covering l pb -Hypersphere Problem

The minimu vering hypersphere problem is defined as to find a hypersphere of minimum radius enclosing a finite set of given points in ⁿ. A hypersphere is a set S(c,r)={x ⁿ : d(x,c) r}, where c is the center of S, r is the radius of S and d(x,c) is the Euclidean distance between x and c, i.e.,d(x,c)=l ₂ (x-c). We consider the extension of this problem when d(x, c) is given by any l _pb -norm, where 1<p and b=(b ₁,...,b _n ) with b _j >0, j=1,...,n, then S(c,r) is called an l _pb -hypersphere, in particular for p=2 and b _j =1, j=1,..., n, we obtain the l ₂-norm. We study some properties and propose some primal and dual algorithms for the extended problem , which are based on the feasible directions method and on the Wolfe duality theory. By computational experiments, we compare the proposed algorithms and show that they can be used to approximate the smallest l _pb -hypersphere enclosing a large set of points in ⁿ.     

Amalgams and χ‐Boundedness

A class of graphs is hereditary if it is closed under isomorphism and induced subgraphs. A class of graphs is χ‐bounded if there exists a function such that for all graphs , and all induced subgraphs H of G, we have that . We prove that proper homogeneous sets, clique‐cutsets, and amalgams together preserve χ‐boundedness. More precisely, we show that if and are hereditary classes of graphs such that is χ‐bounded, and such that every graph in either belongs to or admits a proper homogeneous set, a clique‐cutset, or an amalgam, then the class is χ‐bounded. This generalizes a result of [J Combin Theory Ser B 103(5) (2013), 567–586], which states that proper homogeneous sets and clique‐cutsets together preserve χ‐boundedness, as well as a result of [European J Combin 33(4) (2012), 679–683], which states that 1‐joins preserve χ‐boundedness. The house is the complement of the four‐edge path. As an application of our result and of the decomposition theorem for “cap‐free” graphs from [J Graph Theory 30(4) (1999), 289–308], we obtain that if G is a graph that does not contain any subdivision of the house as an induced subgraph, then .     

An anisotropic, superconvergent nonconforming plate finite element

The classical finite element convergence analysis relies on the following regularity condition: there exists a constant c independent of the element K and the mesh such that h_K/ρ_Kc, where h_K and ρ_K are diameters of K and the biggest ball contained in K, respectively. In this paper, we construct a new, nonconforming rectangular plate element by the double set parameter method. We prove the convergence of this element without the above regularity condition. The key in our proof is to obtain the O(h²) consistency error. We also prove the superconvergence of this element for narrow rectangular meshes. Results of our numerical tests agree well with our analysis.     

A bipartite analogue of Dilworth’s theorem for multiple partial orders

Let r be a fixed positive integer. It is shown that, given any partial orders <₁, …, <_r on the same n-element set P, there exist disjoint subsets A,BP, each with at least n^1−o(1) elements, such that one of the following two conditions is satisfied: (1) there is an such that every element of A is larger than every element of B in the partial order <_i, or (2) no element of A is comparable with any element of B in any of the partial orders <₁, …, <_r. As a corollary, we obtain that any family C of n convex compact sets in the plane has two disjoint subfamilies A,BC, each with at least n^1−o(1) members, such that either every member of A intersects all members of B, or no member of A intersects any member of B.     

The invariants of modular indecomposable representations of {{\mathbb Z}_{p^2}}

We consider the invariant ring for an indecomposable representation of a cyclic group of order p ² over a field of characteristic p. We describe a set of -algebra generators of this ring of invariants, and thus derive an upper bound for the largest degree of an element in a minimal generating set for the ring of invariants. This bound, as a polynomial in p, is of degree two.     

Primitive normal polynomials with a prescribed coefficient

In this paper, we established the existence of a primitive normal polynomial over any finite field with any specified coefficient arbitrarily prescribed. Let n15 be a positive integer and q a prime power. We prove that for any aF_q and any 1m<n, there exists a primitive normal polynomial f(x)=xⁿ−σ₁xⁿ⁻¹++(−1)ⁿ⁻¹σ_n−1x+(−1)ⁿσ_n such that σ_m=a, with the only exceptions σ₁≠0. The theory can be extended to polynomials of smaller degree too.     

Linear complementarity problems solvable by A single linear program

It is shown that the linear complementarity problem of finding az inR ⁿ such thatMz + q 0, z 0 andz ^T (Mz + q) = 0 can be solved by a single linear program in some important special cases including those whenM or its inverse is a Z-matrix, that is a real square matrix with nonpositive off-diagonal elements. As a consequence certain problems in mechanics, certain problems of finding the least element of a polyhedral set and certain quadratic programming problems, can each be solved by a single linear program.Research supported by NSF Grant GJ 35292.     

On hereditarily small sets in ZF

We show in (the usual set theory without Choice) that for any set X, the collection of sets Y such that each element of the transitive closure of is strictly smaller in size than X (the collection of sets hereditarily smaller than X) is a set. This result has been shown by Jech in the case (where the collection under consideration is the set of hereditarily countable sets).     

Well‐Balanced Designs for Data Placement

The problem we consider in this article is motivated by data placement, in particular data replication in distributed storage and retrieval systems. We are given a set V of v servers along with b files (data, documents). Each file is replicated on exactly k servers. A placement consists in finding a family of b subsets of V (representing the files) called blocks, each of size k. Each server has some probability to fail and we want to find a placement that minimizes the variance of the number of available files. It was conjectured that there always exists an optimal placement (with variance better than any other placement for any value of the probability of failure). We show that the conjecture is true, if there exists a well‐balanced design—that is, a family of blocks—each of size k, such that each j‐element subset of V, , belongs to the same or almost the same number of blocks (difference at most one). The existence of well‐balanced designs is a difficult problem as it contains, as a subproblem, the existence of Steiner systems. We completely solve the case and give bounds and constructions for and some values of v and b.