Applications of the Frobenius Formulas for the Characters of the Symmetric Group and the Hecke Algebras of Type A

We give a simple combinatorial proof of Ram's rule for computing the characters of the Hecke Algebra. We also establish a relationship between the characters of the Hecke algebra and the Kronecker product of two irreducible representations of the Symmetric Group which allows us to give new combinatorial interpretations to the Kronecker product of two Schur functions evaluated at a Schur function of hook shape or a two row shape. We also give a formula for the regular representation of the Hecke algebra.     

Sets with the Pompeiu property on the plane and on the sphere

We obtain new sufficient conditions under which a set on the plane has the Pompeiu property. This result allows us to construct first examples of domains with the Pompeiu property with non-Lipschitz (and even fractal) boundary. In addition, we study the problem of determining the least radius of the ball on the sphere in which a given set is a Pompeiu set. We obtain the solution of this problem in the case of a biangle and a spherical half-disk. We also consider some applications to questions of complex analysis.     

On the extremal function of the modulus of a foliation

We investigate the properties of the modulus of a foliation on a Riemannian manifold. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of the extremal function and state some of its properties. We obtain an integral formula which, in a sense, combines the integral over the manifold with the integral over the leaves. We state a relation between the extremal function and the geometry of the distribution orthogonal to a foliation.     

Spacetime Causality in the Study of the Hankel Transform

We study Hilbert space aspects of the Klein-Gordon equation in two-dimensional spacetime. We associate to its restriction to a spacelike wedge a scattering from the past light cone to the future light cone, which is then shown to be (essentially) the Hankel transform of order zero. We apply this to give a novel proof, solely based on the causality of this spatio-temporal wave propagation, of the theorem of de Branges and V. Rovnyak concerning Hankel pairs with a support property. We recover their isometric expansion as an application of Riemann’s general method for solving Cauchy-Goursat problems of hyperbolic type. Communicated by Vincent Rivasseau Submitted: October 28, 2005; Accepted: February 17, 2006     

Application of graph-theoretic approaches to the random landscapes of the three-dimensional assignment problem

We study local optima of combinatorial optimization problems. We show that a local search algorithm can be represented as a digraph and apply recent results for spanning forests of a diagraph. We establish a correspondence between the number of local optima and the algebraic multiplicities of eigenvalues of digraph laplacians. We apply our finding to the three-dimensional assignment problem.     

On the reconstruction of a convolution perturbation of the Sturm-Liouville operator from the spectrum

We consider the sum of the Sturm-Liouville operator and a convolution operator. We study the inverse problem of reconstructing the convolution operator from the spectrum. This problem is reduced to a nonlinear integral equation with a singularity. We prove the global solvability of this nonlinear equation, which permits one to show that the asymptotics of the spectrum is a necessary and sufficient condition for the solvability of the inverse problem. The proof is constructive.     

About the Lipschitz property of the metric projection in the Hilbert space

We consider the metric projection operator from the real Hilbert space onto a strongly convex set. We prove that the restriction of this operator on the complement of some neighborhood of the strongly convex set is Lipschitz continuous with the Lipschitz constant strictly less than 1. This property characterizes the class of strongly convex sets and (to a certain degree) the Hilbert space. We apply the results obtained to the question concerning the rate of convergence for the gradient projection algorithm with differentiable convex function and strongly convex set.     

On the behaviour of the successive derivatives of meromorphic functions on the final set

We study the behaviour of the sequence of successive derivatives of meromorphic functions at points of the so-called final set. We prove that, whereas in many cases this sequence tends to ∞, for a special class of meromorphic functions, it may have extremely wild behaviour. We also prove a connection between the derivatives of meromorphic functions from this class and so-called Dirichlet sets.     

Regularity estimates for the solution and the free boundary of the obstacle problem for the fractional Laplacian

We use a characterization of the fractional Laplacian as a Dirichlet to Neumann operator for an appropriate differential equation to study its obstacle problem. We write an equivalent characterization as a thin obstacle problem. In this way we are able to apply local type arguments to obtain sharp regularity estimates for the solution and study the regularity of the free boundary.     

Order reduction in the integral equations of the null-field method

We reduce the system of equations of the null-field method in the problem of diffraction on a permeable scatterer to a single equation. For a special representation of the field inside the scatterer, we prove the equivalence of that equation to the original boundary value problem of diffraction. We state conditions of the convergence of the approximate solution to the exact one. We prove the completeness and closedness of a system of plane waves.     

On the isolated points in the space of groups

We investigate the isolated points in the space of finitely generated groups. We give a workable characterization of isolated groups and study their hereditary properties. Various examples of groups are shown to yield isolated groups. We also discuss a connection between isolated groups and solvability of the word problem.     

On the determination of the potential function from given orbits

The paper deals with the problem of finding the field of force that generates a given (N ? 1)-parametric family of orbits for a mechanical system with N degrees of freedom. This problem is usually referred to as the inverse problem of dynamics. We study this problem in relation to the problems of celestial mechanics. We state and solve a generalization of the Dainelli and Joukovski problem and propose a new approach to solve the inverse Suslov’s problem. We apply the obtained results to generalize the theorem enunciated by Joukovski in 1890, solve the inverse Stäckel problem and solve the problem of constructing the potential-energy function U that is capable of generating a bi-parametric family of orbits for a particle in space. We determine the equations for the sought-for function U and show that on the basis of these equations we can define a system of two linear partial differential equations with respect to U which contains as a particular case the Szebehely equation. We solve completely a special case of the inverse dynamics problem of constructing U that generates a given family of conics known as Bertrand’s problem. At the end we establish the relation between Bertrand’s problem and the solutions to the Heun differential equation. We illustrate our results by several examples.     

A mathematical model for the first-pass dynamics of antibiotics acting on the cardiovascular system

We present a preliminary first-pass dynamic model for delivery of drug compounds to the lungs and heart. We use a compartmental mass-balance approach to develop a system of nonlinear differential equations for mass accumulated in the heart as a result of intravenous injection. We discuss sensitivity analysis as well as methodology for minimizing mass in the heart while maximizing mass delivered to the lungs on a first circulatory pass.     

A boosting method for maximization of the area under the ROC curve

We discuss receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) for binary classification problems in clinical fields. We propose a statistical method for combining multiple feature variables, based on a boosting algorithm for maximization of the AUC. In this iterative procedure, various simple classifiers that consist of the feature variables are combined flexibly into a single strong classifier. We consider a regularization to prevent overfitting to data in the algorithm using a penalty term for nonsmoothness. This regularization method not only improves the classification performance but also helps us to get a clearer understanding about how each feature variable is related to the binary outcome variable. We demonstrate the usefulness of score plots constructed componentwise by the boosting method. We describe two simulation studies and a real data analysis in order to illustrate the utility of our method.     

On the mean square of the remainder for the euclidean lattice point counting problem

We study an invariant of dynamical systems called naive entropy, which is defined for both measurable and topological actions of any countable group. We focus on nonamenable groups, in which case the invariant is two-valued, with every system having naive entropy either zero or infinity. Bowen has conjectured that when the acting group is sofic, zero naive entropy implies sofic entropy at most zero for both types of systems. We prove the topological version of this conjecture by showing that for every action of a sofic group by homeomorphisms of a compact metric space, zero naive entropy implies sofic entropy at most zero. This result and the simple definition of naive entropy allow us to show that the generic action of a free group on the Cantor set has sofic entropy at most zero. We observe that a distal Γ-system has zero naive entropy in both senses, if Γ has an element of infinite order. We also show that the naive entropy of a topological system is greater than or equal to the naive measure entropy of the same system with respect to any invariant measure.     

On the effect of a noise on the solutions of the focusing supercritical nonlinear Schrödinger equation

We investigate the influence of a random perturbation of white noise type on the finite time blow up of solutions of a focusing supercritical nonlinear Schrödinger equation. We prove that, contrary to the deterministic case, any initial data gives birth to a solution which develops singularities. Moreover, the singularities appear immediately. We use a stochastic generalization of the variance identity and a control argument.     

On maximization of the likelihood for the generalized gamma distribution

We explore computational aspects of likelihood maximization for the generalized gamma (GG) distribution. We formulate a version of the score equations such that the equations involved are individually uniquely solvable. We observe that the resulting algorithm is well-behaved and competitive with the application of standard optimisation procedures. We also show that a somewhat neglected alternative existing approach to solving the score equations is good too, at least in the basic, three-parameter case. Most importantly, we argue that, in practice far from being problematic as a number of authors have suggested, the GG distribution is actually particularly amenable to maximum likelihood estimation, by the standards of general three- or more-parameter distributions. We do not, however, make any theoretical advances on questions of convergence of algorithms or uniqueness of roots.     

On the subexponentiality of the ridgelet transform

We show that we can consider the ridgelet transform for Wiener functionals as a subexponential random variable. We give an application of this result to random walks.     

Estimation of the measure of the image of the ball

Under study is the class of ring Q-homeomorphisms with respect to the p-module. We establish a criterion for a function to belong to the class and solve a problem that stems from M. A. Lavrentiev [1] on the estimation of the measure of the image of the ball under these mappings. We also address the asymptotic behavior of these mappings at a point.     

Determining the best strategy for changing the configuration of a football team

This paper proposes a dynamic programming (DP) approach to find the optimal substitution strategy for a football match, which maximises the probability of winning or the expected number of league points, supported by real data of the English Premier League. We use a Markov process model to evaluate the offensive and defensive strengths of teams by means of maximum likelihood estimators. We develop a DP formulation to derive quantitatively the optimal substitution strategy of a team, in relation to the number required of each type of outfield player. We demonstrate how this approach may help to determine how many of each type of player should start a match and be substituted during a match. We also show how the expected league points would increase if the optimal strategy were followed.