Binary relations and reduced hypergroups

Different partial hypergroupoids are associated with binary relations defined on a set H. In this paper we find sufficient and necessary conditions for these hypergroupoids in order to be reduced hypergroups. Given two binary relations ρ and σ on H we investigate when the hypergroups associated with the relations ρ∩σ, ρ∪σ and ρσ are reduced. We also determine when the cartesian product of two hypergroupoids associated with a binary relation is a reduced hypergroup.     

On the complexity of the multicut problem in bounded tree-width graphs and digraphs

Given an edge- or vertex-weighted graph or digraph and a list of source-sink pairs, the minimum multicut problem consists in selecting a minimum weight set of edges or vertices whose removal leaves no path from each source to the corresponding sink. This is a classical NP-hard problem, and we show that the edge version becomes tractable in bounded tree-width graphs if the number of source-sink pairs is fixed, but remains NP-hard in directed acyclic graphs and APX-hard in bounded tree-width and bounded degree unweighted digraphs. The vertex version, although tractable in trees, is proved to be NP-hard in unweighted cacti of bounded degree and bounded path-width.     

Determining tension parameters in rational gamma-spline interpolation

Inspired by the classic γ-spline, we propose a method for constructing a G² rational γ-spline curve that interpolates a given set of distinct ordered data-points (planar or spatial). The only input of our method is just these data-points. We also present a procedure to solve the key problem of determining the tension parameters γ_i which are computed in terms of exponential functions that determine the eccentricities of the common conic osculants at the junction points while keeping in geometrical agreement with data-points. This allows the resulting curve to be modified in the close vicinity of each data-point.     

Positive Quaternion Kähler Manifolds with fourth Betti number equal to one

Positive Quaternion Kähler Manifolds are Riemannian manifolds with holonomy contained in Sp(n)Sp(1) and with positive scalar curvature. Conjecturally, they are symmetric spaces. In this article we are mainly concerned with Positive Quaternion Kähler Manifolds M satisfying b₄(M)=1. Generalising a result of Galicki and Salamon we prove that M4n in this case is homothetic to a quaternionic projective space if 2≠n?6.     

Noncommutative maximal ergodic theorems for positive contractions

Let M be a von Neumann algebra equipped with a normal semifinite faithful trace τ. Let T be a positive linear contraction on M such that τ○T?τ and such that the numerical range of T as an operator on L₂(M) is contained in a Stoltz region with vertex 1. We show that Junge and Xu's noncommutative Stein maximal ergodic inequality holds for the powers of T on Lp(M), 1<p?∞. We apply this result to obtain the noncommutative analogue of a recent result of Cohen concerning the iterates of the product of a finite number of conditional expectations.     

Property (w) and perturbations II

This note is a continuation of a previous article [P. Aiena, M.T. Biondi, Property (w) and perturbations, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 336 (2007) 683-692] concerning the stability of property (w), a variant of Weyl's theorem, for a bounded operator T acting on a Banach space, under finite-dimensional perturbations K commuting with T. A counterexample shows that property (w) in general is not preserved under finite-dimensional perturbations commuting with T, also under the assumption that T is a-isoloid.     

Bounds on isoperimetric values of trees

Let G=(V,E) be a finite, simple and undirected graph. For S⊆V, let δ(S,G)={(u,v)∈E:u∈S and v∈V−S} be the edge boundary of S. Given an integer i, 1≤i≤|V|, let the edge isoperimetric value of G at i be defined as b_e(i,G)=min_S⊆V;|S|=i|δ(S,G)|. The edge isoperimetric peak of G is defined as b_e(G)=max_1≤j≤|V|b_e(j,G). Let b_v(G) denote the vertex isoperimetric peak defined in a corresponding way. The problem of determining a lower bound for the vertex isoperimetric peak in complete t-ary trees was recently considered in [Y. Otachi, K. Yamazaki, A lower bound for the vertex boundary-width of complete k-ary trees, Discrete Mathematics, in press (doi:10.1016/j.disc.2007.05.014)]. In this paper we provide bounds which improve those in the above cited paper. Our results can be generalized to arbitrary (rooted) trees.The depth d of a tree is the number of nodes on the longest path starting from the root and ending at a leaf. In this paper we show that for a complete binary tree of depth d (denoted as ), and where c₁, c₂ are constants. For a complete t-ary tree of depth d (denoted as ) and d≥clogt where c is a constant, we show that and where c₁, c₂ are constants. At the heart of our proof we have the following theorem which works for an arbitrary rooted tree and not just for a complete t-ary tree. Let T=(V,E,r) be a finite, connected and rooted tree — the root being the vertex r. Define a weight function w:V→N where the weight w(u) of a vertex u is the number of its successors (including itself) and let the weight index η(T) be defined as the number of distinct weights in the tree, i.e η(T)=|{w(u):u∈V}|. For a positive integer k, let ?(k)=|{i∈N:1≤i≤|V|,b_e(i,G)≤k}|. We show that .     

Non-simultaneous blow-up and blow-up rates for reaction-diffusion equations

This paper considers blow-up solutions for reaction-diffusion equations, complemented by homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. It is proved that there exist initial data such that one block or two (separated or contiguous) blocks of n components blow up simultaneously while the others remain bounded. As a corollary, a necessary and sufficient condition is obtained such that any blow-up must be the case for at least two components blowing up simultaneously. We also show some other exponent regions, where any blow-up of k(∈{1,2,…,n}) components must be simultaneous. Moreover, the corresponding blow-up rates and sets are discussed. The results extend those in Liu and Li [B.C. Liu, F.J. Li, Non-simultaneous blow-up of n components for nonlinear parabolic systems, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 356 (2009) 215-231].     

A degree sum condition for graphs to be prism hamiltonian

Win, in 1975, and Jackson and Wormald, in 1990, found the best sufficient conditions on the degree sum of a graph to guarantee the properties of “having a k-tree” and “having a k-walk”, respectively. The property of “being prism hamiltonian” is an intermediate property between “having a 2-tree” and “having a 2-walk”. Thus, it is natural to ask what is the best degree sum condition for graphs to be prism hamiltonian. As an answer to this problem, in this paper, we show that a connected graph G of order n with σ₃(G)≥n is prism hamiltonian. The degree sum condition “σ₃(G)≥n” is best possible.     

Nonlinear dissipative wave equations with space-time dependent potential

We study the long time behavior of solutions for damped wave equations with absorption. These equations are generally accepted as models of wave propagation in heterogeneous media with space-time dependent friction a(t,x)u_t and nonlinear absorption |u|^p−1u (Ikawa (2000) [17]). We consider 1<p<(n+2)/(n−2) and separable a(t,x)=λ(x)η(t) with λ(x)∼(1+|x|)^−α and η(t)∼(1+t)^−β satisfying conditions (A1) or (A2) which are given. The main results are precise decay estimates for the energy, L² and L^p+1 norms of solutions. We also observe the following behavior: if α∈[0,1), β∈(−1,1) and 0<α+β<1, there are three different regions for the decay of solutions depending on p; if α∈(−∞,0) and β∈(−1,1), there are only two different regions for the decay of the solutions depending on p.     

Least and most colored bases

Consider a matroid M=(E,B), where B denotes the family of bases of M, and assign a color c(e) to every element e∈E (the same color can go to more than one element). The palette of a subset F of E, denoted by c(F), is the image of F under c. Assume also that colors have prices (in the form of a function π(?), where ? is the label of a color), and define the chromatic price as: π(F)=∑_?∈c(F)π(?). We consider the following problem: find a base B∈B such that π(B) is minimum. We show that the greedy algorithm delivers a lnr(M)-approximation of the unknown optimal value, where r(M) is the rank of matroid M. By means of a reduction from SETCOVER, we prove that the lnr(M) ratio cannot be further improved, even in the special case of partition matroids, unless . The results apply to the special case where M is a graphic matroid and where the prices π(?) are restricted to be all equal. This special case was previously known as the minimum label spanning tree (MLST) problem. For the MLST, our results improve over the ln(n-1)+1 ratio achieved by Wan, Chen and Xu in 2002. Inspired by the generality of our results, we study the approximability of coloring problems with different objective function π(F), where F is a common independent set on matroids M₁,…,M_k and, more generally, to independent systems characterized by the k-for-1 property.     

Conservation laws for some compacton equations using the multiplier approach

This paper is an application of the variational derivative method to the derivation of the conservation laws for partial differential equations. The conservation laws for (1+1) dimensional compacton k(2,2) and compacton k(3,3) equations are studied via multiplier approach. Also the conservation laws for (2+1) dimensional compacton Zk(2,2) equation are established by first computing the multipliers.     

On constants in the Füredi-Hajnal and the Stanley-Wilf conjecture

For a given permutation matrix P, let fP(n) be the maximum number of 1-entries in an n×n(0,1)-matrix avoiding P and let SP(n) be the set of all n×n permutation matrices avoiding P. The Füredi-Hajnal conjecture asserts that cP:=limn→∞fP(n)/n is finite, while the Stanley-Wilf conjecture asserts that is finite.In 2004, Marcus and Tardos proved the Füredi-Hajnal conjecture, which together with the reduction introduced by Klazar in 2000 proves the Stanley-Wilf conjecture.We focus on the values of the Stanley-Wilf limit (sP) and the Füredi-Hajnal limit (cP). We improve the reduction and obtain which decreases the general upper bound on sP from sP?constconstO(klog(k)) to sP?constO(klog(k)) for any k×k permutation matrix P. In the opposite direction, we show .For a lower bound, we present for each k a k×k permutation matrix satisfying cP=Ω(k²).     

On the base dimension I and the property of universality

In Iliadis (2005) [13] for an ordinal α the notion of the so-called (bn-Ind?α)-dimensional normal base C for the closed subsets of a space X was introduced. This notion is defined similarly to the classical large inductive dimension Ind. In this case we shall write here I(X,C)?α and say that the base dimension I of the space X by the normal base C is less than or equal to α. The classical large inductive dimension Ind of a normal space X, the large inductive dimension Ind₀ of a Tychonoff space X defined independently by Charalambous and Filippov, as well as, the relative inductive dimension defined by Chigogidze for a subspace X of a Tychonoff space Y may be considered as the base dimension I of X by normal bases Z(X) (all closed subsets of X), Z(X) (all functionally closed subsets of X), and , respectively.In the present paper, we shall consider normal bases of spaces consisting of functionally closed subsets. In particular, we introduce new dimension invariant : for a space X, is the minimal element α of the class O∪{−1,∞}, where O is the class of all ordinals, for which there exists a normal base C on X consisting of functionally closed subsets such that I(X,C)?α. We prove that in the class of all completely regular spaces X of weight less than or equal to a given infinite cardinal τ such that there exist universal spaces. However, the following questions are open.(1) Are there universal elements in the class of all normal (respectively, of all compact) spaces X of weight ?τ with ?(2) Are there universal elements in the class of all Tychonoff (respectively, of all normal) spaces X of weight ?τ with Ind₀(X)?n∈ω? (Note that for a compact space X.)     

Identities for the Widder transform and transforms with Bessel function kernels

In the present paper, we consider the classical Widder transform, the H_ν-transform, the K_ν-transform, and the Y_ν-transform. Some identities involving these transforms and many others are given. By making use of these identities, a number of new Parseval-Goldstein type identities are obtained for these and other well-known integral transforms.     

On a new class of Finsler metrics

In this paper, the geometric meaning of (α,β)-norms is made clear. On this basis, a new class of Finsler metrics called general (α,β)-metrics are introduced, which are defined by a Riemannian metric and a 1-form. These metrics not only generalize (α,β)-metrics naturally, but also include some metrics structured by R. Bryant. The spray coefficients formula of some kinds of general (α,β)-metrics is given and the projective flatness is also discussed.     

On certain spaces of vector measures of bounded variation

If (Σ,X) is a measurable space and X a Banach space we investigate the X-inheritance of copies of ?_∞ in certain subspaces Δ(Σ,X) of bvca(Σ,X), the Banach space of all X-valued countable additive measures of bounded variation equipped with the variation norm. Among the consequences of our main theorem we get a theorem of J. Mendoza on the X-inheritance of copies of ?_∞ in the Bochner space L₁(μ,X) and other of the author on the X-inheritance of copies of ?_∞ in bvca(Σ,X).