Components of the Fundamental Category II

In this article we carry on the study of the fundamental category (Goubault and Raussen, Dihomotopy as a tool in state space analysis. In: Rajsbaum, S. (ed.) LATIN 2002: Theoretical Informatics. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 2286, Cancun, Mexico, pp. 16–37, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 2002; Goubault, Homology, Homotopy Appl., 5(2): 95–136, 2003) of a partially ordered topological space (Nachbin, Topology and Order, Van Nostrand, Princeton, 1965; Johnstone, Stone Spaces, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1982), as arising in e.g. concurrency theory (Fajstrup et al., Theor. Comp. Sci. 357: 241–278, 2006), initiated in (Fajstrup et al., APCS, 12(1): 81–108, 2004). The “algebra” of dipaths modulo dihomotopy (the fundamental category) of such a po-space is essentially finite in a number of situations. We give new definitions of the component category that are more tractable than the one of Fajstrup et al. (APCS, 12(1): 81–108, 2004), as well as give definitions of future and past component categories, related to the past and future models of Grandis (Theory Appl. Categ., 15(4): 95–146, 2005). The component category is defined as a category of fractions, but it can be shown to be equivalent to a quotient category, much easier to portray. A van Kampen theorem is known to be available on fundamental categories (Grandis, Cahiers Topologie Géom. Différentielle Catég., 44: 281–316, 2003; Goubault, Homology, Homotopy Appl., 5(2): 95–136, 2003), we show in this paper a similar theorem for component categories (conjectured in Fajstrup et al. (APCS, 12(1): 81–108, 2004). This proves useful for inductively computing the component category in some circumstances, for instance, in the case of simple PV mutual exclusion models (Goubault and Haucourt, A practical application of geometric semantics to static analysis of concurrent programs. In: Abadi, M., de Alfaro, L. (eds.) CONCUR 2005 – Concurrency Theory: 16th International Conference, San Francisco, USA, August 23–26. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 3653, pp. 503–517, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 2005), corresponding to partially ordered subspaces of R ⁿ minus isothetic hyperrectangles. In this last case again, we conjecture (and give some hints) that component categories enjoy some nice adjunction relations directly with the fundamental category.      

Using Benders Decomposition to Implicitly Model Tour Scheduling

This paper introduces a new integrated model for the combined days-off and shift scheduling problem (the tour scheduling problem). This model generalizes the forward and backward constraints, previously introduced by Bechtold and Jacobs for the shift scheduling problem, to the tour scheduling problem. This results in a general and compact formulation that can handle several types of scheduling flexibility. We also provide a new proof of the correctness of forward and backward constraints based on Benders decomposition. The latter approach is interesting in itself because it can be used to solve the problem when extraordinary overlap of break windows or start-time bands is present. A discussion of model size for a set of hypothetical test problems is presented to show the merits of the new formulation.     

Convexity and Smoothness of Scale Functions and de Finetti’s Control Problem

We continue the recent work of Avram et al. (Ann. Appl. Probab. 17:156–180, 2007) and Loeffen (Ann. Appl. Probab., 2007) by showing that whenever the Lévy measure of a spectrally negative Lévy process has a density which is log-convex then the solution of the associated actuarial control problem of de Finetti is solved by a barrier strategy. Moreover, the level of the barrier can be identified in terms of the scale function of the underlying Lévy process. Our method appeals directly to very recent developments in the theory of potential analysis of subordinators and their application to convexity and smoothness properties of the relevant scale functions.     

A Bilinear Pseudodifferential Calculus

In this paper we construct a new class of bilinear pseudodifferential operators which contains both the Coifman-Meyer class as well as the non-translation invariant class closely related both to the bilinear Hilbert transform and previously studied in Bényi et al. (J. Geom. Anal. 16(3):431–453, 2006), Bényi et al. (J. Anal. Math., 2009), Bernicot (Anal. PDE 1:1–27, 2008) as well as the bilinear Marcinkiewicz class studied in Grafakos and Kalton (Stud. Math. 146(2):115–156, 2001). We prove boundedness on Sobolev spaces for these operators as well as establish a symbolic calculus that exhibits the nice behavior of our new class under transposition and composition with linear operators.     

Extending the applicability of the Gauss–Newton method under average Lipschitz–type conditions

We extend the applicability of the Gauss–Newton method for solving singular systems of equations under the notions of average Lipschitz–type conditions introduced recently in Li et al. (J Complex 26(3):268–295, 2010). Using our idea of recurrent functions, we provide a tighter local as well as semilocal convergence analysis for the Gauss–Newton method than in Li et al. (J Complex 26(3):268–295, 2010) who recently extended and improved earlier results (Hu et al. J Comput Appl Math 219:110–122, 2008; Li et al. Comput Math Appl 47:1057–1067, 2004; Wang Math Comput 68(255):169–186, 1999). We also note that our results are obtained under weaker or the same hypotheses as in Li et al. (J Complex 26(3):268–295, 2010). Applications to some special cases of Kantorovich–type conditions are also provided in this study.     

On the regular variation of ratios of jointly Fréchet random variables

We provide a necessary and sufficient condition for the ratio of two jointly α-Fréchet random variables to be regularly varying. This condition is based on the spectral representation of the joint distribution and is easy to check in practice. Our result motivates the notion of the ratio tail index, which quantifies dependence features that are not characterized by the tail dependence index. As an application, we derive the asymptotic behavior of the quotient correlation coefficient proposed in Zhang (Ann Stat 36(2):1007–1030, 2008) in the dependent case. Our result also serves as an example of a new type of regular variation of products, different from the ones investigated by Maulik et al (J Appl Probab 39(4):671–699, 2002).     

Iterated Point–Line Configurations Grow Doubly-Exponentially

Begin with a set of four points in the real plane in general position. Add to this collection the intersection of all lines through pairs of these points. Iterate. Ismailescu and Radoičić (Comput. Geom. 27:257–267, 2004) showed that the limiting set is dense in the plane. We give doubly exponential upper and lower bounds on the number of points at each stage. The proof employs a variant of the Szemerédi–Trotter Theorem and an analysis of the “minimum degree” of the growing configuration.     

One-dimensional chemotaxis kinetic model

In this paper, we study a variation of the equations of a chemotaxis kinetic model and investigate it in one dimension. In fact, we use fractional diffusion for the chemoattractant in the Othmar–Dunbar–Alt system (Othmer in J Math Biol 26(3):263–298, 1988). This version was exhibited in Calvez in Amer Math Soc, pp 45–62, 2007 for the macroscopic well-known Keller–Segel model in all space dimensions. These two macroscopic and kinetic models are related as mentioned in Bournaveas, Ann Inst H Poincaré Anal Non Linéaire, 26(5):1871–1895, 2009, Chalub, Math Models Methods Appl Sci, 16(7 suppl):1173–1197, 2006, Chalub, Monatsh Math, 142(1–2):123–141, 2004, Chalub, Port Math (NS), 63(2):227–250, 2006. The model we study here behaves in a similar way to the original model in two dimensions with the spherical symmetry assumption on the initial data which is described in Bournaveas, Ann Inst H Poincaré Anal Non Linéaire, 26(5):1871–1895, 2009. We prove the existence and uniqueness of solutions for this model, as well as a convergence result for a family of numerical schemes. The advantage of this model is that numerical simulations can be easily done especially to track the blow-up phenomenon.     

On a class of secant-like methods for solving nonlinear equations

We provide a semilocal convergence analysis for a certain class of secant-like methods considered also in Argyros (J Math Anal Appl 298:374–397, 2004, 2007), Potra (Libertas Mathematica 5:71–84, 1985), in order to approximate a locally unique solution of an equation in a Banach space. Using a combination of Lipschitz and center-Lipschitz conditions for the computation of the upper bounds on the inverses of the linear operators involved, instead of only Lipschitz conditions (Potra, Libertas Mathematica 5:71–84, 1985), we provide an analysis with the following advantages over the work in Potra (Libertas Mathematica 5:71–84, 1985) which improved the works in Bosarge and Falb (J Optim Theory Appl 4:156–166, 1969, Numer Math 14:264–286, 1970), Dennis (SIAM J Numer Anal 6(3):493–507, 1969, 1971), Kornstaedt (1975), Larsonen (Ann Acad Sci Fenn, A 450:1–10, 1969), Potra (L’Analyse Numérique et la Théorie de l’Approximation 8(2):203–214, 1979, Aplikace Mathematiky 26:111–120, 1981, 1982, Libertas Mathematica 5:71–84, 1985), Potra and Pták (Math Scand 46:236–250, 1980, Numer Func Anal Optim 2(1):107–120, 1980), Schmidt (Period Math Hung 9(3):241–247, 1978), Schmidt and Schwetlick (Computing 3:215–226, 1968), Traub (1964), Wolfe (Numer Math 31:153–174, 1978): larger convergence domain; weaker sufficient convergence conditions, finer error bounds on the distances involved, and a more precise information on the location of the solution. Numerical examples further validating the results are also provided.     

Generalized Qualification and Qualification Levels for Spectral Regularization Methods

The concept of qualification for spectral regularization methods (SRM) for inverse ill-posed problems is strongly associated to the optimal order of convergence of the regularization error (Engl et al. in Regularization of inverse problems. Mathematics and its applications, vol. 375, Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, 1996; Mathé in SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 42(3):968–973, 2004; Mathé and Pereverzev in Inverse Probl. 19(3):789–803, 2003; Vainikko in USSR Comput. Math. Math. Phys. 22(3): 1–19, 1982). In this article, the definition of qualification is extended and three different levels are introduced: weak, strong and optimal. It is shown that the weak qualification extends the definition introduced by Mathé and Pereverzev (Inverse Probl. 19(3):789–803, 2003), mainly in the sense that the functions associated with orders of convergence and source sets need not be the same. It is shown that certain methods possessing infinite classical qualification (e.g. truncated singular value decomposition (TSVD), Landweber’s method and Showalter’s method) also have generalized qualification leading to an optimal order of convergence of the regularization error. Sufficient conditions for a SRM to have weak qualification are provided and necessary and sufficient conditions for a given order of convergence to be strong or optimal qualification are found. Examples of all three qualification levels are provided and the relationships between them as well as with the classical concept of qualification and the qualification introduced in Mathé and Pereverzev (Inverse Probl. 19(3):789–803, 2003) are shown. In particular, SRMs having extended qualification in each one of the three levels and having zero or infinite classical qualification are presented. Finally, several implications of this theory in the context of orders of convergence, converse results and maximal source sets for inverse ill-posed problems, are shown. This work was supported by DARPA/SPO, NASA LaRC and the National Institute of Aerospace under Grant VT-03-1, 2535, by AFOSR Grants F49620-03-1-0243 and FA9550-07-1-0273, by Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, CONICET, and by Universidad Nacional del Litoral, U.N.L., Argentina, through Project CAI+D 2006, P.E. 236.     

A new complexity result on multiobjective linear integer programming using short rational generating functions

This paper presents a new complexity result for solving multiobjective integer programming problems. We prove that encoding the entire set of nondominated solutions of the problem in a short sum of rational functions is polynomially doable, when the dimension of the decision space is fixed. This result extends a previous result presented in De Loera et al. (INFORMS J. Comput. 21(1):39–48, 2009) in that there the number of the objective functions is assumed to be fixed whereas ours allows this number to vary.     

Fermats ?ad?quare? – und kein Ende?

In his papers on the determination of maxima and minima and on the calculation of tangents Pierre Fermat uses two different Latin verbs, ?quare and ad?quare, which do not differ semantically but are used by him obviously in different meanings. While ?quabitur is used unambiguously in the sense of “is equal” the meaning of ad?quabitur is disputed by the experts since Tannery’s French translation (Œuvres complètes de Fermat, Vol. III, 1896). Herbert Breger (Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. 46, 193–219, (1994), p. 197 f), for instance, holds the view that Fermat used the word ad?quare in the sense of “to put equal” and adds: In a mathematical context, the only difference between “?quare” and “ad?quare” (if there is any) seems to be that the latter gives more stress on the fact that the equality is achieved. In contrast to this Michael Mahoney holds the thesis that ad?quare describes a counterfactual equality (Mahoney, M.S.: Fermat, Pierre de. In: Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol. IV (1971), p. 569) or a pseudo-equality (Mahoney, M.S.: The Mathematical Career of Pierre de Fermat (1601–1665), (1973), p. 164), whatever that may mean. This viewpoint has been taken up again recently by Enrico Giusti (Ann. Fac. Sci. Toulouse, Math. (6), 18 fascicule spécial, 59–85 (2009)) in order to bring arguments to bear against Breger. In contrast to these (and other) authors, I show that Fermat makes a subtle logical distinction between the words ?quare and ad?quare. The same distinction is made by Nicolas Bourbaki introducing his ?théorie égalitaire?. Notwithstanding: both verbs stand for a ?relation d’égalité?. On this premiss, I describe—using six selected examples—that Fermat’s “method” may be justified right down to the last detail, even from the view of today’s mathematical knowledge.     

Quasi exponential decay of a finite difference space discretization of the 1-d wave equation by pointwise interior stabilization

We consider the wave equation on an interval of length 1 with an interior damping at ξ. It is well-known that this system is well-posed in the energy space and that its natural energy is dissipative. Moreover, as it was proved in Ammari et al. (Asymptot Anal 28(3–4):215–240, 2001), the exponential decay property of its solution is equivalent to an observability estimate for the corresponding conservative system. In this case, the observability estimate holds if and only if ξ is a rational number with an irreducible fraction x = \fracpq,\xi=\frac{p}{q}, where p is odd, and therefore under this condition, this system is exponentially stable in the energy space. In this work, we are interested in the finite difference space semi-discretization of the above system. As for other problems (Zuazua, SIAM Rev 47(2):197–243, 2005; Tcheugoué Tébou and Zuazua, Adv Comput Math 26:337–365, 2007), we can expect that the exponential decay of this scheme does not hold in general due to high frequency spurious modes. We first show that this is indeed the case. Secondly we show that a filtering of high frequency modes allows to restore a quasi exponential decay of the discrete energy. This last result is based on a uniform interior observability estimate for filtered solutions of the corresponding conservative semi-discrete system.     

A fully benzenoid system has a unique maximum cardinality resonant set

A benzenoid system is a 2-connected plane graph such that its each inner face is a regular hexagon of side length 1. A benzenoid system is Kekuléan if it has a perfect matching. Let P be a set of hexagons of a Kekuléan benzenoid system B. The set P is called a resonant set of B if the hexagons in P are pair-wise disjoint and the subgraph B−P (obtained by deleting from B the vertices of the hexagons in P) is either empty or has a perfect matching. It was shown (Gutman in Wiss. Z. Thechn. Hochsch. Ilmenau 29:57–65, 1983; Zheng and Chen in Graphs Comb. 1:295–298, 1985) that for every maximum cardinality resonant set P of a Kekuléan benzenoid system B, the subgraph B−P is either empty or has a unique perfect matching. A Kekuléan benzenoid system B is said to be fully benzenoid if there exists a maximum cardinality resonant set P of B, such that the subgraph B−P is empty. It is shown that a fully benzenoid system has a unique maximum cardinality resonant set, a well-known statement that, so far, has remained without a rigorous proof.     

On the Classification of <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-Points Concentrating Solutions for Mean Field Equations and the Symmetry Properties of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-Vortex Singular Hamiltonian on the Unit Disk

Motivated by the analysis of the multiple bubbling phenomenon (Bartolucci et al. in Commun. Partial Differ. Equ. 29(7–8):1241–1265, 2004) for a singular mean field equation on the unit disk (Bartolucci and Montefusco in Nonlinearity 19:611–631, 2006), for any N≥3 we characterize a subset of the 2π/N-symmetric part of the critical set of the N-vortex singular Hamiltonian. In particular we prove that this critical subset is of saddle type. As a consequence of our result, and motivated by a recently posed open problem (Bartolucci et al. in Commun. Partial Differ. Equ. 29(7–8):1241–1265, 2004), we can prove the existence of a multiple bubbling sequence of solutions for the singular mean field equation.     

Well-posedness for a mean field model of Ginzburg–Landau vortices with opposite degrees

In this paper we analyze the hydrodynamic equations for Ginzburg–Landau vortices as derived by E (Phys. Rev. B. 50(3):1126–1135, 1994). In particular, we are interested in the mean field model describing the evolution of two patches of vortices with equal and opposite degrees. Many results are already available for the case of a single density of vortices with uniform degree. This model does not take into account the vortex annihilation, hence it can also be seen as a particular instance of the signed measures system obtained in Ambrosio et al. (Ann. Inst. H. Poincaré Anal. Non Linéaire 28(2):217–246, 2011) and related to the Chapman et al. (Eur. J. Appl. Math. 7(2):97–111, 1996) formulation. We establish global existence of L ^p solutions, exploiting some optimal transport techniques introduced in this context in Ambrosio and Serfaty (Commun. Pure Appl. Math. LXI(11):1495–1539, 2008). We prove uniqueness for L ^∞ solutions, as expected by analogy with the incompressible Euler equations in fluidodynamics. We also consider the corresponding Dirichlet problem in a bounded domain. Moreover, we show some simple examples of 1-dimensional dynamic.     

Ramsey Properties of Finite Posets

An important problem in topological dynamics is the calculation of the universal minimal flow of a topological group. When the universal minimal flow is one point, we say that the group is extremely amenable. For the automorphism group of Fra?ssé structures, this problem has been translated into a question about the Ramsey and ordering properties of certain classes of finite structures by Kechris et al. (Geom Funct Anal 15:106–189, 2005). Using the Schmerl list (Schmerl, Algebra Univers 9:317–321, 1979) of Fra?ssé posets, we consider classes of finite posets with arbitrary linear orderings and linear orderings that are linear extensions of the partial ordering. We provide classification of each of these classes according to their Ramsey and ordering properties. Additionally, we extend the list of extremely amenable groups as well as the list of metrizable universal minimal flows.     

Aggregation in age and space structured population models: an asymptotic analysis approach

In this paper we describe how techniques of asymptotic analysis can be used in a systematic way to perform ‘aggregation’ of variables, based on a separation of different time scales, in a population model with age and space structure. The main result of the paper is proving the convergence of the formal asymptotic expansion to the solution of the original equation. This result improves and clarifies earlier results of Arino et al. (SIAM J Appl Math 60(2):408–436, 1999), Auger et al. (Structured population models in biology and epidemiology. Springer Verlag, Berlin, 2008), Lisi and Totaro (Math Biosci 196(2):153–186, 2005).     

Distribution of Eigenvalues of Highly Palindromic Toeplitz Matrices

Consider the ensemble of real symmetric Toeplitz matrices whose entries are i.i.d. random variables chosen from a fixed probability distribution p of mean 0, variance 1, and finite higher moments. Previous work (Bryc et al., Ann. Probab. 34(1):1–38, 2006; Hammond and Miller, J. Theor. Probab. 18(3):537–566, 2005) showed that the spectral measures (the density of normalized eigenvalues) converge almost surely to a universal distribution almost that of the Gaussian, independent of p. The deficit from the Gaussian distribution is due to obstructions to solutions of Diophantine equations and can be removed (see Massey et al., J. Theor. Probab. 20(3):637–662, 2007) by making the first row palindromic. In this paper we study the case where there is more than one palindrome in the first row of real symmetric Toeplitz matrices. Using the method of moments and an analysis of the resulting Diophantine equations, we show that the spectral measures converge almost surely to a universal distribution. Assuming a conjecture on the resulting Diophantine sums (which is supported by numerics and some theoretical arguments), we prove that the limiting distribution has a fatter tail than any previously seen limiting spectral measure.