Dichotomies of the set of test measures of a Haar-null set

We prove that ifX is a Polish space andF a face ofP(X) with the Baire property, thenF is either a meager or a co-meager subset ofP(X). As a consequence we show that for every abelian Polish groupX and every analytic Haar-null set Λ⊆X, the set of test measuresT(Λ) of Λ is either meager or co-meager. We characterize the non-locally-compact groups as the ones for which there exists a closed Haar-null setF⊆X withT(F) meager, Moreover, we answer negatively a question of J. Mycielski by showing that for every non-locally-compact abelian Polish group and every σ-compact subgroupG ofX there exists aG-invariantF _σ subset ofX which is neither prevalent nor Haar-null. Research supported by a grant of EPEAEK program “Pythagoras”.     

Optimal stochastic scheduling of two interconnected queues with varying service rates

We consider two-stage tandem queueing systems attended by two specialized and one flexible server, where all servers have time varying rates. Assuming exponential processing times and linear holding costs, we derive properties of server allocation policies that minimize expected costs over an infinite time horizon.     

Measurable events indexed by products of trees

A tree T is said to be homogeneous if it is uniquely rooted and there exists an integer b ≥ 2, called the branching number of T, such that every t ∈ T has exactly b immediate successors. A vector homogeneous tree T is a finite sequence (T ₁,...,T _d ) of homogeneous trees and its level product ?T is the subset of the Cartesian product T ₁×...×T _d consisting of all finite sequences (t ₁,...,t _d ) of nodes having common length. We study the behavior of measurable events in probability spaces indexed by the level product ?T of a vector homogeneous tree T. We show that, by refining the index set to the level product ?S of a vector strong subtree S of T, such families of events become highly correlated. An analogue of Lebesgue’s density Theorem is also established which can be considered as the “probabilistic” version of the density Halpern-Läuchli Theorem.     

Unconditional families in Banach spaces

It is shown that for every separable Banach space X with non-separable dual, the space contains an unconditional family of size . The proof is based on Ramsey Theory for trees and finite products of perfect sets of reals. Among its consequences, it is proved that every dual Banach space has a separable quotient.     

A density version of the Halpern–Läuchli theorem

We prove a density version of the Halpern–Läuchli Theorem. This settles in the affirmative a conjecture of R. Laver.     

Optimal preemptive scheduling on uniform machines with discounted flowtime objectives

We consider the problem of scheduling n jobs on m parallel machines. Each job has a deterministic processing time and a weight associated with it. For uniform machines we show that discounted flowtime is minimized by serving jobs preemptively in increasing order of their remaining processing times, assigning the job with the shortest remaining processing time to the fastest available machine.     

Finite and infinite-horizon single vehicle routing problems with a predefined customer sequence and pickup and delivery

We consider the problem of finding the optimal routing of a single vehicle that starts its route from a depot and picks up from and delivers K different products to N customers that are served according to a predefined customer sequence. The vehicle is allowed during its route to return to the depot to unload returned products and restock with new products. The items of all products are of the same size. For each customer the demands for the products that are delivered by the vehicle and the quantity of the products that is returned to the vehicle are discrete random variables with known joint distribution. Under a suitable cost structure, it is shown that the optimal policy that serves all customers has a specific threshold-type structure. We also study a corresponding infinite-time horizon problem in which the service of the customers is not completed when the last customer has been serviced but it continues indefinitely with the same customer order. For each customer, the joint distribution of the quantities that are delivered and the quantity that is picked up is the same at each cycle. The discounted-cost optimal policy and the average-cost optimal policy have the same structure as the optimal policy in the finite-horizon problem. Numerical results are given that illustrate the structural results.     

Classes of strictly singular operators and their products

V. D. Milman proved in [20] that the product of two strictly singular operators on L _p [0, 1] (1 ⩽ p < 1) or on C[0, 1] is compact. In this note we utilize Schreier families in order to define the class of -strictly singular operators, and then we refine the technique of Milman to show that certain products of operators from this class are compact, under the assumption that the underlying Banach space has finitely many equivalence classes of Schreier-spreading sequences. Finally we define the class of -hereditarily indecomposable Banach spaces and we examine the operators on them. This project originated at SUMIRFAS conference in 2005 in Texas A&M University. The authors wish to thank the organizers of the SUMIRFAS conference for their hospitality.     

A simple load balancing problem with decentralized information

The following load balancing problem is investigated in discrete time: A service system consists of two service stations and two controllers, one in front of each station. The service stations provide the same service with identical service time distributions and identical waiting costs. Customers requiring service arrive at a controller's site and are routed to one of the two stations by the controller. The processes describing the two arrival streams are identical. Each controller has perfect knowledge of the workload in its own station and receives information about the other station's workload with one unit of delay. The controllers' routing strategies that minimize the customers' total flowtime are determined for a certain range of the parameters that describe the arrival process and the service distribution. Specifically, we prove that optimal routing strategies are characterized by thresholds that are either precisely specified or take one of two possible values.