Theory of Valuations on Manifolds: A Survey

This is a non-technical survey of a recent theory of valuations on manifolds constructed in [A10], [A11], [AF] and [A12], and actually a guide to this series of articles. We also review some recent related results obtained by a number of people. Received: February 2006, Revision: June 2006, Accepted: June 2006     

Quantization of lie Bialgebras via the Formality of the operad of Little Disks

We give a proof of the Etingof–Kazhdan theorem on quantization of Lie bialgebras based on the formality of the chain operad of little disks and show that the Grothendieck–Teichmüller group acts non-trivially on the corresponding quantization functors. Partially supported by an NSF Grant and A. Sloan Research Fellowship Received: November 2004 Revision: April 2006 Accepted: May 2006     

Szemerédi’s Lemma for the Analyst

Szemerédi’s regularity lemma is a fundamental tool in graph theory: it has many applications to extremal graph theory, graph property testing, combinatorial number theory, etc. The goal of this paper is to point out that Szemerédi’s lemma can be thought of as a result in analysis. We show three different analytic interpretations. Received: February 2006 Revision: April 2006 Accepted: April 2006     

A finitely presented monoid with a non-finitely generated group of units

We exhibit an example of a monoid defined by finitely many generators and defining relations, the group of units of which is not finitely generated. Received: 30 August 2006 Revised: 23 October 2006     

Semi-Classical Analysis for Hartree Equations in Some Supercritical Cases

We study the semi-classical limit of the Hartree equation, which has focusing at a point. There exists a critical index indicating nonlinear effect around the caustic, and it is known that the influence by the nonlinearity is negligible in subcritical case (called linear caustic case), and that it is not in critical case (nonlinear caustic case). We give the asymptotic behavior beyond caustic in some supercritical cases which give rise to very strong nonlinear effect. Submitted: August 25, 2006. Accepted: December 11, 2006.     

The Green–Kubo Formula for Locally Interacting Fermionic Open Systems

We consider a model describing finitely many free Fermi gas reservoirs coupled by local interactions and prove the Green–Kubo formulas and the Onsager reciprocity relations for heat and charge fluxes generated by temperature and chemical potential differentials. Submitted: September 2, 2006. Accepted: November 21, 2006.     

Covering the edges of a graph by three odd subgraphs

We prove that any finite simple graph can be covered by three of its odd subgraphs, and we construct an infinite sequence of graphs where an edge‐disjoint covering by three odd subgraphs is not possible. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 53: 77–82, 2006     

Fermi Liquid Behavior in the 2D Hubbard Model at Low Temperatures

We prove that the weak coupling 2D Hubbard model away from half filling is a Landau Fermi liquid up to exponentially small temperatures. In particular we show that the wave function renormalization is an order 1 constant and essentially temperature independent in the considered range of temperatures and that the interacting Fermi surface is a regular convex curve. This result is obtained by deriving a convergent expansion (which is not a power series) for the two point Schwinger function by Renormalization Group methods and proving at each order suitable power counting improvements due to the convexity of the interacting Fermi surface. Convergence follows from determinant bounds for the fermionic expectations. Communicated by Vincent Rivasseau Submitted: January 4, 2006 Accepted: January 31, 2006     

Countable Primitive Groups

We give a complete characterization of countable primitive groups in several settings including linear groups, subgroups of mapping class groups, groups acting minimally on trees and convergence groups. The latter category includes as a special case Kleinian groups as well as subgroups of word hyperbolic groups. As an application we calculate the Frattini subgroup in many of these settings, often generalizing results that were only known for finitely generated groups. In particular, we answer a question of G. Higman and B.H. Neumann on the Frattini group of an amalgamated product. Received: January 2006, Revision: May 2006, Accepted: May 2006     

Estimates from Below for the Spectral Function and for the Remainder in Local Weyl’s Law

We obtain asymptotic lower bounds for the spectral function of the Laplacian and for the remainder in local Weyl’s law on manifolds. In the negatively curved case, thermodynamic formalism is applied to improve the estimates. Key ingredients of the proof include the wave equation parametrix, a pretrace formula and the Dirichlet box principle. Our results develop and extend the unpublished thesis of A. Karnaukh [Ka]. The first author was supported by NSERC, FQRNT, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship and Dawson Fellowship. The second author was supported by NSERC and FQRNT. Received: April 2006 Revision: October 2006 Accepted: October 2006     

How the Curvature Generates the Holonomy of a Connection in an Arbitrary Fibre Bundle

For an arbitrary fibre bundle with a connection, the holonomy group of which is a Lie transformation group, it is shown how the parallel displacement along a null-homotopic loop can be obtained from the curvature by integration. The result also sheds some new light on the situation for vector bundles and principal fibre bundles. The Theorem of Ambrose–Singer is derived as a corollary in our general setting. The curvature of the connection is interpreted as a differential 2-form with values in the holonomy algebra bundle, the elements of which are special vector fields on the fibres of the given bundle. Received: May 16, 2006; Revised: July 30, 2006; Accepted: August 2, 2006     

Processing second-order stochastic dominance models using cutting-plane representations

Second-order stochastic dominance (SSD) is widely recognised as an important decision criterion in portfolio selection. Unfortunately, stochastic dominance models are known to be very demanding from a computational point of view. In this paper we consider two classes of models which use SSD as a choice criterion. The first, proposed by Dentcheva and Ruszczyński (J Bank Finance 30:433–451, 2006), uses a SSD constraint, which can be expressed as integrated chance constraints (ICCs). The second, proposed by Roman et al. (Math Program, Ser B 108:541–569, 2006) uses SSD through a multi-objective formulation with CVaR objectives. Cutting plane representations and algorithms were proposed by Klein Haneveld and Van der Vlerk (Comput Manage Sci 3:245–269, 2006) for ICCs, and by Künzi-Bay and Mayer (Comput Manage Sci 3:3–27, 2006) for CVaR minimization. These concepts are taken into consideration to propose representations and solution methods for the above class of SSD based models. We describe a cutting plane based solution algorithm and outline implementation details. A computational study is presented, which demonstrates the effectiveness and the scale-up properties of the solution algorithm, as applied to the SSD model of Roman et al. (Math Program, Ser B 108:541–569, 2006).     

Topological Factors Derived from Bohmian Mechanics

We derive for Bohmian mechanics topological factors for quantum systems with a multiply-connected configuration space $$ \mathcal{Q}. $$ These include nonabelian factors corresponding to what we call holonomy-twisted representations of the fundamental group of $$ \mathcal{Q}. $$ We employ wave functions on the universal covering space of $$ \mathcal{Q}. $$ As a byproduct of our analysis, we obtain an explanation, within the framework of Bohmian mechanics, of the fact that the wave function of a system of identical particles is either symmetric or anti-symmetric. Communicated by Yosi Avron Submitted: 21/06/2005 Revised: 10/01/2006 Accepted: 27/01/2006     

Module Categories Over Representations of SL q (2) in the Non-Semisimple Case

We classify semisimple module categories over the tensor category of representations of quantum SL(2). Received: May 2006, Revised: December 2006, Accepted: December 2006     

Effective Models for Excitons in Carbon Nanotubes

We analyse the low lying spectrum of a model of excitons in carbon nanotubes. Consider two particles with opposite charges and a Coulomb self-interaction, placed on an infinitely long cylinder. If the cylinder radius becomes small, the low lying spectrum of their relative motion is well described by a one-dimensional effective Hamiltonian which is exactly solvable. Submitted: February 2, 2006; Accepted: March 24, 2006     

Families of vector measures of uniformly bounded variation

We characterize families of vector measures of uniformly bounded variation and semivariation in terms of additivity properties. A classical theorem of Rickart and a simplified proof of Nikodym’s boundedness theorem follow. Received: 3 January 2006; Revised: 31 March 2006 The second named author was supported by Estonian Science Foundation Grant 5704.     

End-Point Equations and Regularity of Sub-Riemannian Geodesics

For a large class of equiregular sub-Riemannian manifolds, we show that length-minimizing curves have no corner-like singularities. Our first result is the reduction of the problem to the homogeneous, rank-2 case, by means of a nilpotent approximation. We also identify a suitable condition on the tangent Lie algebra implying existence of a horizontal basis of vector fields whose coefficients depend only on the first two coordinates x ₁, x ₂. Then, we cut the corner and lift the new curve to a horizontal one, obtaining a decrease of length as well as a perturbation of the end-point. In order to restore the end-point at a lower cost of length, we introduce a new iterative construction, which represents the main contribution of the paper. We also apply our results to some examples. Received: July 2006, Revision: October 2006, Accepted: November 2006     

Floer–Novikov cohomology and the flux conjecture

We study Floer–Novikov cohomology with local coefficients and prove the flux conjecture for general closed symplectic manifolds. Received: February 2005, Revised: May 2006, Accepted: May 2006 Partially supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 14003419, Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences.     

Random Conformal Dynamical Systems

We consider random dynamical systems such as groups of conformal transformations with a probability measure, or transversally conformal foliations with a Laplace operator along the leaves, in which case we consider the holonomy pseudo-group. We prove that either there exists a measure invariant under all the elements of the group (or the pseudo-group), or almost surely a long composition of maps contracts a ball exponentially. We deduce some results about the unique ergodicity. Received: June 2005, Revision: January 2006, Accepted: March 2006     

A Floquet Operator with Purely Point Spectrum and Energy Instability

An example of Floquet operator with purely point spectrum and energy instability is presented. In the unperturbed energy eigenbasis its eigenfunctions are exponentially localized. CRdeO was partially supported by CNPq (Brazil). MSS was supported by CAPES (Brazil). Submitted: September 21, 2006. Accepted: December 12, 2006.