The “hot spots” conjecture for the Sierpinski gasket

There are many works on the “hot spots” conjecture for domains in Euclidean space since the conjecture was posed by J. Rauch in 1974. In this paper, using spectral decimation, we prove that the conjecture holds on the Sierpinski gasket, i.e., every eigenfunction of the second-smallest eigenvalue of the Neumann Laplacian (introduced by J. Kigami) attains its maximum and minimum on the boundary.     

The “Essential Tension” at Work in Qualitative Analysis: A Case Study of the Opposite Points of View of Poincaré and Enriques on the Relationships between Analysis and Geometry

An analysis of the different philosophic and scientific visions of Henri Poincaré and Federigo Enriques relative to qualitative analysis provides us with a complex and interesting image of the “essential tension” between “tradition” and “innovation” within the history of science. In accordance with his scientific paradigm, Poincaré viewed qualitative analysis as a means for preserving the nucleus of the classical reductionist program, even though it meant “bending the rules” somewhat. To Enriques's mind, qualitative analysis represented the affirmation of a synthetic, geometrical vision that would supplant the analytical/quantitative conception characteristic of 19th-century mathematics and mathematical physics. Here, we examine the two different answers given at the turn of the century to the question of the relationship between geometry and analysis and between mathematics, on the one hand, and mechanics and physics, on the other.Copyright 1998 Academic Press.Un'analisi delle diverse posizioni filosofiche e scientifiche di Henri Poincaré e Federigo Enriques nei riguardi dell'analisi qualitativa fornisce un'immagine complessa e interessante della “tensione essenziale” tra “tradizione” e “innovazione” nell'ambito della storia della scienza. In linea con il proprio paradigma scientifico, Poincaré vedeva nell'analisi qualitativa un mezzo per preservare il nucleo del programma riduzionista calssico, anche se cio comportava una lieve “distorsione delle regole”. Nella mente di Enriques, l'analisi qualitativa rappresentava l'affermazione di un punto di vista sintetico e geometrico che avrebbe soppiantato la concezione analitico-quantitativa caratteristica della matematica e della fisica matematica del 19° secolo. Il nostro scopo principale è di esaminare due diverse risposte date a cavallo del secolo alla questione dei rapporti tra geometria e analisi e tra matematica da un lato e meccanica e fisica dall'altro.Copyright 1998 Academic Press.AMS subject classification: 01A55     

Pointwise approximation by Bézier variant of integrated MKZ operators

In this paper the pointwise approximation of Bézier variant of integrated MKZ operators for general bounded functions is studied. Two estimate formulas of this type approximation are obtained. The approximation of functions of bounded variation becomes a special case of the main result of this paper. In the case of functions of bounded variation, Theorem B of the paper corrects the mistake of Theorem 1 of the article [V. Gupta, Degree of approximation to functions of bounded variation by Bézier variant of MKZ operators, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 289 (2004) 292-300].     

Familles de caractères des algèbres de Hecke cyclotomiques

Nous généralisons au cas des groupes de réflexions complexes la définition de Rouquier des “familles de caractères” des groupes de Weyl (définies antérieurement par Lusztig). Nous mettons en évidence le fait que cette notion dépend d'une manière essentielle du choix de la déformation de l'algèbre de groupe appelée “algèbre cyclotomique”, et nous calculons ces familles pour toutes les algèbres cyclotomiques des familles infinies de groupes de réflexions complexes qui généralisent les familles infinies de groupes de Weyl.     

A Berry-Esséen bound for student's statistic in the non-I.I.D. case

We establish a Berry-Esséen bound for Student's statistic for independent (nonidentically) distributed random variables. In particular, the bound implies a sharp estimate similar to the classical Berry-Esséen bound. In the i.i.d. case it yields sufficient conditions for the Central Limit Theorem for studentized sums. For non-i.i.d. random variables the bound shows that the Lindeberg condition is sufficient for the Central Limit Theorem for studentized sums.Research supported by the SFB 343 in Bielefeld.     

Fréchet-Urysohn for finite sets, II

We continue our study [G. Gruenhage, P.J. Szeptycki, Fréchet Urysohn for finite sets, Topology Appl. 151 (2005) 238-259] of several variants of the property of the title. We answer a question from that paper by showing that a space defined in a natural way from a certain Hausdorff gap is a Fréchet α₂ space which is not Fréchet-Urysohn for 2-point sets (FU₂), and answer a question of Hrušák by showing that under MAω₁, no such “gap space” is FU₂. We also introduce versions of the properties which are defined in terms of “selection principles”, give examples when possible showing that the properties are distinct, and discuss relationships of these properties to convergence in product spaces, to the αi-spaces of A.V. Arhangel'skii, and to topological games.     

Almost sure rates of mixing for i.i.d. unimodal maps

It has been known since the pioneering work of Jakobson and subsequent work by Benedicks and Carleson and others that a positive measure set of quadratic maps admit an absolutely continuous invariant measure. Young and Keller-Nowicki proved exponential decay of its correlation functions. Benedicks and Young [8], and Baladi and Viana [4] studied stability of the density and exponential rate of decay of the Markov chain associated to i.i.d. small perturbations. The almost sure statistical properties of the sample stationary measures of i.i.d. itineraries are more difficult to estimate than the “averaged statistics”. Adapting to random systems, on the one hand partitions associated to hyperbolic times due to Alves [1], and on the other a probabilistic coupling method introduced by Young [26] to study rates of mixing, we prove stretched exponential upper bounds for the almost sure rates of mixing.     

Algorithmes mixtes asynchrones. Etude de convergence monotone

Summary In this paper we introduce two classes of iterative algorithms which we call Asynchronous mixed algorithms and we study their convergence under partial ordering. These algorithms can be implemented just as well on monoprocessors as on multiprocessors, and, along with their convergence study, constitute a generalization of the mixed classical Newton-relaxation algorithms.

---

Résumé Nous introduisons dans cet article deux classes d'algorithmes itératifs que nous appelons «Algorithmes mixtes asynchrones» et nous en étudierons la convergence selon un ordre partiel. Ces algorithmes sont implémentables aussi bien sur les monoprocesseurs que sur les multiprocesseurs, et avec leur étude de convergence constituent une généralisation des algorithmes mixtes classiques «Newton-relaxation».

     

The Topological Tverberg Theorem and winding numbers

The Topological Tverberg Theorem claims that any continuous map of a (q-1)(d+1)-simplex to R^d identifies points from q disjoint faces. (This has been proved for affine maps, for d?1, and if q is a prime power, but not yet in general.)The Topological Tverberg Theorem can be restricted to maps of the d-skeleton of the simplex. We further show that it is equivalent to a “Winding Number Conjecture” that concerns only maps of the (d-1)-skeleton of a (q-1)(d+1)-simplex to R^d. “Many Tverberg partitions” arise if and only if there are “many q-winding partitions.”The d=2 case of the Winding Number Conjecture is a problem about drawings of the complete graphs K_3q-2 in the plane. We investigate graphs that are minimal with respect to the winding number condition.     

Homogenization of divergence-form operators with lower-order terms in random media

The probabilistic machinery (Central Limit Theorem, Feynman-Kac formula and Girsanov Theorem) is used to study the homogenization property for PDE with second-order partial differential operator in divergence-form whose coefficients are stationary, ergodic random fields. Furthermore, we use the theory of Dirichlet forms, so that the only conditions required on the coefficients are non-degeneracy and boundedness. Received: 27 August 1999 / Revised version: 27 October 2000 / Published online: 26 April 2001     

Erratum to “Normality and countable paracompactness of hyperspaces of ordinals” [Topology Appl. 154 (2007) 358-362]

We correct the proof of Theorem 8 in “Normality and countable paracompactness of hyperspaces of ordinals” [Topology Appl. 154 (2007) 358-362].     

Computation of the invariant measure for a Lévy driven SDE: Rate of convergence

We study the rate of convergence of some recursive procedures based on some “exact” or “approximate” Euler schemes which converge to the invariant measure of an ergodic SDE driven by a Lévy process. The main interest of this work is to compare the rates induced by “exact” and “approximate” Euler schemes. In our main result, we show that replacing the small jumps by a Brownian component in the approximate case preserves the rate induced by the exact Euler scheme for a large class of Lévy processes.     

A numerical algorithm for zero counting. II: Distance to ill-posedness and smoothed analysis

We show a Condition Number Theorem for the condition number of zero counting for real polynomial systems. That is, we show that this condition number equals the inverse of the normalized distance to the set of ill-posed systems (i.e., those having multiple real zeros). As a consequence, a smoothed analysis of this condition number follows.     

A direct attempt to goldbach problem

The so-called principal term of Goldbach problem, i.e., the principal order of the number of representations of an even number as a sum of two primes, is evaluated here in a way quite different from the classical circle method. It is amazing that the author did this with the knowledge just at the PNT (Prime Number Theorem) level, even without using high-level theorems in analytic number theory as usual, e.g., Siegel-Walfisz Theorem.     

Statistical properties of topological Collet-Eckmann maps

We study geometric and statistical properties of complex rational maps satisfying a non-uniform hyperbolicity condition called “Topological Collet-Eckmann”. This condition is weaker than the “Collet-Eckmann” condition. We show that every such map possesses a unique conformal probability measure of minimal exponent, and that this measure is non-atomic, ergodic, and that its Hausdorff dimension is equal to the Hausdorff dimension of the Julia set. Furthermore, we show that there is a unique invariant probability measure that is absolutely continuous with respect to this conformal measure, and that this invariant measure is exponentially mixing (it has exponential decay of correlations) and satisfies the Central Limit Theorem.We also show that for a complex rational map the existence of such invariant measure characterizes the Topological Collet-Eckmann condition: a rational map satisfies the Topological Collet-Eckmann condition if, and only if, it possesses an exponentially mixing invariant measure that is absolutely continuous with respect to some conformal measure, and whose topological support contains at least 2 points.     

Globular lattices

We study “globular lattices”, i.e. compact sublattices of Euclidean spaces for which the sets of primes agrees with the set of co-primes. These lattices are a generalization of homogeneous sublattices of Euclidean spaces. For dimension n?4, a full classification of globular lattices is obtained.     

Nonlinear Alfvén/Beltrami waves—An integrable structure built around the Casimir

We formulate a nonlinear wave equations that describe amplitude and pitch modulations of one-dimensional Alfvén waves propagating on a dispersive nonlinear plasma. The well-known fact that the ideal Alfvén wave can propagate on a homogeneous ambient magnetic field with conserving an arbitrary wave shape of any amplitude is explained by invoking the Casimirs stemming from a “topological defect” (or, a kernel) in the Poisson bracket operator of the ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) system. Including the Hall term, however, the Alfvén waves are affected by the dispersive effect, and the aforementioned simplicity of the ideal Alfvén waves is greatly lost; an arbitrary wave can no longer propagate with a constant shape. Yet, we observe an integrable structure in the nonlinear modulation (induced by a compressible motion) of the Alfvén waves, which is described as nonlinear deformation of “Beltrami vortex” pertaining to the Casimirs.     

Trémaux trees and planarity

We present a characterization of planarity based on Trémaux trees (i.e. DFS trees), from which we deduce a rather simple planarity test algorithm. We finally recall a theorem on “cotree critical non-planar graphs” which very much simplifies the search for a Kuratowski subdivision in a non-planar graph.     

Distribution of primes and dynamics of the w function

Let P be the set of all primes. The following result is proved: For any nonzero integer a, the set a+P contains arbitrarily long sequences which have the same largest prime factor. We give an application to the dynamics of the w function which extends the “seven” in Theorem 2.14 of [Wushi Goldring, Dynamics of the w function and primes, J. Number Theory 119 (2006) 86-98] to any positive integer. Beyond this we also establish a relation between a result of congruent covering systems and a question on the dynamics of the w function. This implies that the answer to Conjecture 2.16 of Goldring's paper is negative. Two conjectures are posed.     

Comments on “Solving real car sequencing problems with ant colony optimization”

This note corrects the calculation of the utilization rate in the article “Solving real car sequencing problems with ant colony optimization” by Gagné et al. [Gagné, C., Gravel, M., Price, W.L., 2006. Solving real car sequencing problems with ant colony optimization. European Journal of Operational Research 174, 1427–1448] and provides hints on deriving a fast lower bound for the car sequencing problem. It further adjusts a proposed objective function, so that it becomes a viable alternative to the “sliding window” approach.