On the -divisibility of Fermat quotients

The authors carried out a numerical search for Fermat quotients vanishing mod , for , up to . This article reports on the results and surveys the associated theoretical properties of . The approach of fixing the prime rather than the base leads to some aspects of the theory apparently not published before.

     

Computational experiences on the distances of polynomials to irreducible polynomials

In this paper we deal with a problem of Turán concerning the `distance' of polynomials to irreducible polynomials. Using computational methods we prove that for any monic polynomial of degree there exists a monic polynomial with deg() = deg() such that is irreducible over and the `distance' of and is .

     

A stochastic particle method for the McKean-Vlasov and the Burgers equation

In this paper we introduce and analyze a stochastic particle method for the McKean-Vlasov and the Burgers equation; the construction and error analysis are based upon the theory of the propagation of chaos for interacting particle systems. Our objective is three-fold. First, we consider a McKean-Vlasov equation in with sufficiently smooth kernels, and the PDEs giving the distribution function and the density of the measure , the solution to the McKean-Vlasov equation. The simulation of the stochastic system with particles provides a discrete measure which approximates for each time (where is a discretization step of the time interval ). An integration (resp. smoothing) of this discrete measure provides approximations of the distribution function (resp. density) of . We show that the convergence rate is for the approximation in of the cumulative distribution function at time , and of order for the approximation in of the density at time ( is the underlying probability space, is a smoothing parameter). Our second objective is to show that our particle method can be modified to solve the Burgers equation with a nonmonotonic initial condition, without modifying the convergence rate . This part extends earlier work of ours, where we have limited ourselves to monotonic initial conditions. Finally, we present numerical experiments which confirm our theoretical estimates and illustrate the numerical efficiency of the method when the viscosity coefficient is very small.

     

On the asymptotic spectrum of Hermitian block Toeplitz matrices with Toeplitz blocks

We study the asymptotic behaviour of the eigenvalues of Hermitian block Toeplitz matrices , with Toeplitz blocks. Such matrices are generated by the Fourier coefficients of an integrable bivariate function , and we study their eigenvalues for large and , relating their behaviour to some properties of as a function; in particular we show that, for any fixed , the first eigenvalues of tend to , while the last tend to , so extending to the block case a well-known result due to Szegö. In the case the 's are positive-definite, we study the asymptotic spectrum of , where is a block Toeplitz preconditioner for the conjugate gradient method, applied to solve the system , obtaining strict estimates, when and are fixed, and exact limit values, when and tend to infinity, for both the condition number and the conjugate gradient convergence factor of the previous matrices. Extensions to the case of a deeper nesting level of the block structure are also discussed.

     

On Wendt's determinant

Wendt's determinant of order is the circulant determinant whose -th entry is the binomial coefficient , for . We give a formula for , when is even not divisible by 6, in terms of the discriminant of a polynomial , with rational coefficients, associated to . In particular, when where is a prime , this yields a factorization of involving a Fermat quotient, a power of and the 6-th power of an integer.

     

A continuity property of multivariate Lagrange interpolation

Let be a sequence of interpolation schemes in of degree (i.e. for each one has unique interpolation by a polynomial of total degree and total order . Suppose that the points of tend to as and the Lagrange-Hermite interpolants, , satisfy for all monomials with . Theorem: for all functions of class in a neighborhood of . (Here denotes the Taylor series of at 0 to order .) Specific examples are given to show the optimality of this result.

     

A sinc-collocation method for initial value problems

A collocation procedure is developed for the initial value problem , , using the globally defined sinc basis functions. It is shown that this sinc procedure converges to the solution at an exponential rate, i.e., where and basis functions are used in the expansion. Problems on the domains and are used to illustrate the implementation and accuracy of the procedure.

     

The exponent of discrepancy is at most

We study discrepancy with arbitrary weights in the norm over the -dimensional unit cube. The exponent of discrepancy is defined as the smallest for which there exists a positive number such that for all and all there exist points with discrepancy at most . It is well known that . We improve the upper bound by showing that

This is done by using relations between discrepancy and integration in the average case setting with the Wiener sheet measure. Our proof is not constructive. The known constructive bound on the exponent is .

     

Accelerated polynomial approximation of finite order entire functions by growth reduction

Let be an entire function of positive order and finite type. The subject of this note is the convergence acceleration of polynomial approximants of by incorporating information about the growth of for . We consider ``near polynomial approximation' on a compact plane set , which should be thought of as a circle or a real interval. Our aim is to find sequences of functions which are the product of a polynomial of degree and an ``easy computable' second factor and such that converges essentially faster to on than the sequence of best approximating polynomials of degree . The resulting method, which we call Reduced Growth method (-method) is introduced in Section 2. In Section 5, numerical examples of the -method applied to the complex error function and to Bessel functions are given.

     

Pure product polynomials and the Prouhet-Tarry-Escott problem

An -factor pure product is a polynomial which can be expressed in the form for some natural numbers . We define the norm of a polynomial to be the sum of the absolute values of the coefficients. It is known that every -factor pure product has norm at least . We describe three algorithms for determining the least norm an -factor pure product can have. We report results of our computations using one of these algorithms which include the result that every -factor pure product has norm strictly greater than if is , , , or .

     

On searching for solutions of the Diophantine equation

We propose a new search algorithm to solve the equation for a fixed value of . By parametrizing min, this algorithm obtains and (if they exist) by solving a quadratic equation derived from divisors of . By using several efficient number-theoretic sieves, the new algorithm is much faster on average than previous straightforward algorithms. We performed a computer search for 51 values of below 1000 (except ) for which no solution has previously been found. We found eight new integer solutions for and in the range of .

     

On solving relative norm equations in algebraic number fields

Let be algebraic number fields and a free -module. We prove a theorem which enables us to determine whether a given relative norm equation of the form has any solutions at all and, if so, to compute a complete set of nonassociate solutions. Finally we formulate an algorithm using this theorem, consider its algebraic complexity and give some examples.

     

On a Problem of Byrnes concerning Polynomials with Restricted Coefficients

We consider a question of Byrnes concerning the minimal degree of a polynomial with all coefficients in which has a zero of a given order at . For , we prove his conjecture that the monic polynomial of this type of minimal degree is given by , but we disprove this for . We prove that a polynomial of this type must have , which is in sharp contrast with the situation when one allows coefficients in . The proofs use simple number theoretic ideas and depend ultimately on the fact that .

     

Locking-free finite element methods for shells

We propose a new family of finite element methods for the Naghdi shell model, one method associated with each nonnegative integer . The methods are based on a nonstandard mixed formulation, and the th method employs triangular Lagrange finite elements of degree augmented by bubble functions of degree for both the displacement and rotation variables, and discontinuous piecewise polynomials of degree for the shear and membrane stresses. This method can be implemented in terms of the displacement and rotation variables alone, as the minimization of an altered energy functional over the space mentioned. The alteration consists of the introduction of a weighted local projection into part, but not all, of the shear and membrane energy terms of the usual Naghdi energy. The relative error in the method, measured in a norm which combines the norm of the displacement and rotation fields and an appropriate norm of the shear and membrane stress fields, converges to zero with order uniformly with respect to the shell thickness for smooth solutions, at least under the assumption that certain geometrical coefficients in the Nagdhi model are replaced by piecewise constants.

     

The Diophantine equation

An effective method is derived for solving the equation of the title in positive integers and for given completely, and is carried out for all . If is of the form , then there is the solution , ; in the above range, except for with solution , , there are no other solutions.

     

New estimates for Ritz vectors

The following estimate for the Rayleigh-Ritz method is proved:

Here is a bounded self-adjoint operator in a real Hilbert/euclidian space, one of its eigenpairs, a trial subspace for the Rayleigh-Ritz method, and a Ritz pair. This inequality makes it possible to analyze the fine structure of the error of the Rayleigh-Ritz method, in particular, it shows that if an eigenvector is close to the trial subspace with accuracy and a Ritz vector is an approximation to another eigenvector, with a different eigenvalue. Generalizations of the estimate to the cases of eigenspaces and invariant subspaces are suggested, and estimates of approximation of eigenspaces and invariant subspaces are proved.

     

Stieltjes polynomials and Lagrange interpolation

Bounds are proved for the Stieltjes polynomial , and lower bounds are proved for the distances of consecutive zeros of the Stieltjes polynomials and the Legendre polynomials . This sharpens a known interlacing result of Szegö. As a byproduct, bounds are obtained for the Geronimus polynomials . Applying these results, convergence theorems are proved for the Lagrange interpolation process with respect to the zeros of , and for the extended Lagrange interpolation process with respect to the zeros of in the uniform and weighted norms. The corresponding Lebesgue constants are of optimal order.

     

Bounds for Multiplicative Cosets over Fields of Prime Order

Let be a positive integer and suppose that is an odd prime with . Suppose that and consider the polynomial . If this polynomial has any roots in , where the coset representatives for are taken to be all integers with , then these roots will form a coset of the multiplicative subgroup of consisting of the th roots of unity mod . Let be a coset of in , and define . In the paper ``Numbers Having Small th Roots mod ' (Mathematics of Computation, Vol. 61, No. 203 (1993),pp. 393-413), Robinson gives upper bounds for of the form , where is the Euler phi-function. This paper gives lower bounds that are of the same form, and seeks to sharpen the constants in the upper bounds of Robinson. The upper bounds of Robinson are proven to be optimal when is a power of or when

     

Numerical solution of the scalar double-well problem allowing microstructure

The direct numerical solution of a non-convex variational problem () typically faces the difficulty of the finite element approximation of rapid oscillations. Although the oscillatory discrete minimisers are properly related to corresponding Young measures and describe real physical phenomena, they are costly and difficult to compute. In this work, we treat the scalar double-well problem by numerical solution of the relaxed problem () leading to a (degenerate) convex minimisation problem. The problem () has a minimiser and a related stress field which is known to coincide with the stress field obtained by solving () in a generalised sense involving Young measures. If is a finite element solution, is the related discrete stress field. We prove a priori and a posteriori estimates for in and weaker weighted estimates for . The a posteriori estimate indicates an adaptive scheme for automatic mesh refinements as illustrated in numerical experiments.

     

Optimal, quasi-optimal and superlinear band-Toeplitz preconditioners for asymptotically ill-conditioned positive definite Toeplitz systems

In this paper we are concerned with the solution of Hermitian Toeplitz systems with nonnegative generating functions . The preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) method with the well-known circulant preconditioners fails in the case where has zeros. In this paper we consider as preconditioners band-Toeplitz matrices generated by trigonometric polynomials of fixed degree . We use different strategies of approximation of to devise a polynomial which has some analytical properties of , is easily computable and is such that the corresponding preconditioned system has a condition number bounded by a constant independent of . For each strategy we analyze the cost per iteration and the number of iterations required for the convergence within a preassigned accuracy. We obtain different estimates of for which the total cost of the proposed PCG methods is optimal and the related rates of convergence are superlinear. Finally, for the most economical strategy, we perform various numerical experiments which fully confirm the effectiveness of approximation theory tools in the solution of this kind of linear algebra problems.