Permutation graphs, fast forward permutations, and sampling the cycle structure of a permutation

PS_N is a fast forward permutation if for each m the computational complexity of evaluating P^m(x) is small independently of m and x. Naor and Reingold constructed fast forward pseudorandom cycluses and involutions. By studying the evolution of permutation graphs, we prove that the number of queries needed to distinguish a random cyclus from a random permutation in S_N is Θ(N) if one does not use queries of the form P^m(x), but is only Θ(1) if one is allowed to make such queries. We construct fast forward permutations which are indistinguishable from random permutations even when queries of the form P^m(x) are allowed. This is done by introducing an efficient method to sample the cycle structure of a random permutation, which in turn solves an open problem of Naor and Reingold.     

Extinction and non-extinction for a polytropic filtration equation with a nonlocal source

In this article, the authors establish the conditions for the extinction of solutions, in finite time, of the fast diffusive polytropic filtration equation u _t ?=?div(|?u ^m | ^p?2?u ^m )?+?a∫_Ω u ^q (y,?t)dy with a, q, m?>?0, p?>?1, m(p???1)?R ^N (N?>?2). More precisely speaking, it is shown that if q?>?m(p???1), any non-negative solution with small initial data vanishes in finite time, and if 0?q?m(p???1), there exists a solution which is positive in Ω for all t?>?0. For the critical case q?=?m(p???1), whether the solutions vanish in finite time or not depends on the comparison between a and μ, where μ?=?∫?_Ωφ ^p?1(x)dx and φ is the unique positive solution of the elliptic problem ?div(|?φ| ^p?2?φ)?=?1, x?∈?Ω; φ(x)?=?0, x?∈??Ω.     

Inverse problem for N × N hyperbolic systems on the plane and the N-wave interactions

We study regiorously the solvability of the direct and inverse problems associated with Ψ_x–JΨ_y = QΨ,(x,y) ∈ ?², where (i) Ψ is an N × N-matrix-valued function on ?² (N ≦ 2), (ii) J is a constant, real, diagonal N × N matrix with entries, J₁ > J₂ > …? > J_N and (iii) Q is off-diagonal with rapidly decreasing (Schwartz) component functions. In particular we show that the direct problem is always solvable and give a small norm condition for the solvability of the inverse problem. In the particular case that Q is skew Hermitian the inverse problem is solvable without the small norm assumption. Furthermore we show how these results can be used to solve certain Cauchy problems for the associated nonlinear evolution equations. For concreteness we consider the N-wave interactions and show that if a certain norm of Q(x, y, 0) is smallor if Q(x, y, 0) is skew Hermitian the N-wave interations equation has a unique global solution.     

SOLUTIONS OF THE EQUATION x^m＋y^m=z^m IN SL2z

This paper solves an open problem of Vaserstein. The main result is: the equation x^m y^m=z^m has a solution in SL2z if and only if m is not divisible by 4 or 6 and m is not congruent to 3 modulo 6.     

Center conditions III: Parametric and model center problems

We consider an Abel equation (*)y’=p(x)y ² +q(x)y ³ withp(x), q(x) polynomials inx. A center condition for (*) (closely related to the classical center condition for polynomial vector fields on the plane) is thaty ₀=y(0)≡y(1) for any solutiony(x) of (*). Folowing [7], we consider a parametric version of this condition: an equation (**)y’=p(x)y ² +εq(x)y ³ p, q as above, ε ∈ ℂ, is said to have a parametric center, if for any ɛ and for any solutiony(ɛ,x) of (**)y(ɛ, 0)≡y(ɛ, 1).. We give another proof of the fact, shown in [6], that the parametric center condition implies vanishing of all the momentsm _k (1), wherem _k (x)=∫ ₀ ^{x pk} (t)q(t)(dt),P(x)=∫ ₀ ^x p(t)dt. We investigate the structure of zeroes ofm _k (x) and generalize a “canonical representation” ofm _k (x) given in [7]. On this base we prove in some additional cases a composition conjecture, stated in [6, 7] for a parametric center problem. The research of the first and the third author was supported by the Israel Science Foundation, Grant No. 101/95-1 and by the Minerva Foundation.     

Center conditions II: Parametric and model center problems

We consider an Abel equation (*)y’=p(x)y ² +q(x)y ³ withp(x), q(x) polynomials inx. A center condition for (*) (closely related to the classical center condition for polynomial vector fields on the plane) is thaty ₀=y(0)≡y(1) for any solutiony(x) of (*). We introduce a parametric version of this condition: an equation (**)y’=p(x)y ² +εq(x)y ³ p, q as above, ℂ, is said to have a parametric center, if for any ε and for any solutiony(ε,x) of (**),y(ε,0)≡y(ε,1). We show that the parametric center condition implies vanishing of all the momentsm _k (1), wherem _k (x)=∫ ₀ ^{x pk} (t)q(t)(dt),P(x)=∫ ₀ ^x p(t)dt. We investigate the structure of zeroes ofm _k (x) and on this base prove in some special cases a composition conjecture, stated in [10], for a parametric center problem. The research of the first and the third author was supported by the Israel Science Foundation, Grant No. 101/95-1 and by the Minerva Foundation.     

Über die existenz und eindeutigkeit einer lösung für ein randwertproblem für eine gleichung vom gemischten typ in einem rechteck

In the paper a boundary value problem is studied for the equation of mixed typek(y)u_xx + u_yy + r(x, y)u = f(x, y) in the rectangular domain {(x, y)| ?1 < x < +1, y_c < y < y_H} with y_c < 0, y_H > 0, k(y) = sign y|y|^m, m > 0 (and more generally for a function k = k(y) with k(O) = 0, k(y)y > O for y ≠ O). Specific for the stated problem is that no data are prescribed on the line {(x, y_c), ?1 < x < +1}. It is proved that the formulated problem is well-posed in the sense that there is at most one quasi-regular solution and that a generalized solution exists. The energy-integral-(abc-)method is used to show uniqueness and to obtain an apriori estimate for the solution of the adjoint problem whence the existence statement follows.     

Caps with free pairs of points

We say that two points x, y of a cap C form a free pair of points if any plane containing x and y intersects C in at most three points. For given N and q, we denote by m₂⁺ (N, q) the maximum number of points in a cap of PG(N, q) that contains at least one free pair of points. It is straightforward to prove that m₂⁺ (N, q) ≤ (q^N-1 + 2q − 3)/(q − 1), and it is known that this bound is sharp for q = 2 and all N. We use geometric constructions to prove that this bound is sharp for all q when N ≤ 4. We briefly survey the motivation for constructions of caps with free pairs of points which comes from the area of statistical experimental design. Research supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and MITACS NCE of Canada.     

Nonlocal initial-boundary-value problems for a degenerate hyperbolic equation

We consider the equation y ^m u _xx − u _yy − b ² y ^m u = 0 in the rectangular area {(x, y) | 0 < x < 1, 0 < y < T}, where m < 0, b ≥ 0, T > 0 are given real numbers. For this equation we study problems with initial conditions u(x, 0) = τ(x), u _y (x, 0) = ν(x), 0 ≤ x ≤ 1, and nonlocal boundary conditions u(0, y) = u(1, y), u _x (0, y) = 0 or u _x (0, y) = u _x (1, y), u(1, y) = 0 with 0≤y≤T. Using the method of spectral analysis, we prove the uniqueness and existence theorems for solutions to these problems     

Almost orthogonal operators on the bitorus

The operators S _p f (x, y), for the sum of which we prove an L ²-estimate, act as a kind of Fourier coefficients on one variable and a kind of truncated Hilbert transforms with a phase N(x, y) on the other variable. This result is an extension to two-dimensions of an argument of almost orthogonality in Fefferman’s proof of a.e. convergence of Fourier series, under the basic assumption N(x, y) “mainly” a function of y and the additional assumption N(x, y) non-decreasing in x, for every y fixed.     

Left zero covering homomorphisms of laminated nearrings

Nearrings here are right nearrings. LetN be a nearring and fix an element α εN. Form another nearring N_α by taking addition to be the same as the addition inN but define the productx ⊗y of two elementsx, y ε N_α byx ⊗y =xay. The nearring N_α is referred to as a laminated nearring ofN andN is referred to as the base nearring. The element α is called the laminating element or the laminator. An elementx of a nearingN is a left zero ifxy =x for ally εN. A homomorphismϕ from a nearringN ₁ into a nearringN ₂ is a left zero covering homomorphism if for each left zeroy εN ₂,ϕ(x) =y for somex εN ₁. The left zero covering homomorphisms from one laminated nearring into another are investigated where the base nearring is the nearring of all continuous selfmaps of the Euclidean group ℝ² under pointwise addition and composition and the laminators are complex polynomials. Finally, it is shown that one can determine whether or not two such laminated nearrings are isomorphic simply by inspecting the coefficients of the two laminating polynomials.     

A new approach to the dynamic maintenance of maximal points in a plane

A pointp _i=(x _i, y_i) in thex–y plane ismaximal if there is no pointp _j=(x _j, y_j) such thatx _j>x_i andy _j>y_i. We present a simple data structure, a dynamic contour search tree, which contains all the points in the plane and maintains an embedded linked list of maximal points so thatm maximal points are accessible inO(m) time. Our data structure dynamically maintains the set of points so that insertions takeO(logn) time, a speedup ofO(logn) over previous results, and deletions takeO((logn)²) time.The research of the first author was partially supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DCR-8320214 and by the Office of Naval Research on Contract No. N 00014-86-K-0689. The research of the second author was partially supported by the Office of Naval Research on Contract No. N 00014-86-K-0689.     

Calculation of the Shannon information

Let ($\text{Ω, β, μ}{}_{\mathrm{X}}$) and $\text{(?, F, μ}{}_{\mathrm{N}}\text{)}$ be probability spaces, with $\text{f: Ω × ? ? ?}\text{a}\text{β × F|F}$ measurable map. Define μ_XY on β × $\text{F}$ by μ_XY(A) = μ_X ? μ_N{(x, y): (x, f(x, y)) ?A}, and let μ_Y = (μ_X ? μ_N)^of^?1. An expression is determined for computing the Shannon information in the measure μ_XY. This expression is used to compute the information for the non-linear additive Gaussian channel, and can be used to solve the channel capacity problem.     

Recursive generation of the Galerkin–Chebyshev matrix for convolution kernels

The Galerkin–Chebyshev matrix is the coefficient matrix for the Galerkin method (or the degenerate kernel approximation method) using Chebyshev polynomials. Each entry of the matrix is defined by a double integral. For convolution kernels K(x-y) on finite intervals, this paper obtains a general recursion relation connecting the matrix entries. This relation provides a fast generation of the Galerkin–Chebyshev matrix by reducing the construction of a matrix of order N from N ²+O(N) double integral evaluations to 3N+O(1) evaluations. For the special cases (a) K(x-y)=|x-y|^α-1(-ln|x-y|) ^p and (b) K(x-y)=K _ν(σ|x-y|) (modified Bessel functions), the number of double integral evaluations to generate a Galerkin–Chebyshev matrix of arbitrary order can be further reduced to 2p+2 double integral evaluations in case (a) and to 8 double integral evaluations in case (b). This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

On the global existence and uniqueness of solutions to Prandtl’s system

In this paper, we consider the Prandtl system for the non-stationary boundary layer in the vicinity of a point where the outer flow has zero velocity. It is assumed that U（t, x, y） = x^mU1（t, x）, where 0 〈 x 〈 L and m 〉 1. We establish the global existence of the weak solution to this problem. Moreover the uniqueness of the weak solution is proved.     

Adjacency preserving functions on symmetric elements and linear preservers of non-zero decomposable symmetric tensors

Let A be a non-empty set and m be a positive integer. Let ≡ be the equivalence relation defined on A ^m such that (x ₁, …, x _m ) ≡ (y ₁, …, y _m ) if there exists a permutation σ on {1, …, m} such that y _σ(i) = x _i for all i. Let A ^(m) denote the set of all equivalence classes determined by ≡. Two elements X and Y in A ^(m) are said to be adjacent if (x ₁, …, x _m?1, a) ∈ X and (x ₁, …, x _m?1, b) ∈ Y for some x ₁, …, x _m?1 ∈ A and some distinct elements a, b ∈ A. We study the structure of functions from A ^(m) to B ⁽ⁿ⁾ that send adjacent elements to adjacent elements when A has at least n + 2 elements and its application to linear preservers of non-zero decomposable symmetric tensors.     

For most large underdetermined systems of equations,the minimal 𝓁1‐norm near‐solution approximates the sparsest near‐solution

We consider inexact linear equations y ≈ Φx where y is a given vector in ?ⁿ, Φ is a given n × m matrix, and we wish to find x_0,? as sparse as possible while obeying ‖y ? Φx_0,?‖₂ ≤ ?. In general, this requires combinatorial optimization and so is considered intractable. On the other hand, the ??₁‐minimization problem is convex and is considered tractable. We show that for most Φ, if the optimally sparse approximation x_0,? is sufficiently sparse, then the solution x_1,? of the ??₁‐minimization problem is a good approximation to x_0,?. We suppose that the columns of Φ are normalized to the unit ??₂‐norm, and we place uniform measure on such Φ. We study the underdetermined case where m ～ τn and τ > 1, and prove the existence of ρ = ρ(τ) > 0 and C = C(ρ, τ) so that for large n and for all Φ's except a negligible fraction, the following approximate sparse solution property of Φ holds: for every y having an approximation ‖y ? Φx₀‖₂ ≤ ? by a coefficient vector x₀ ∈ ?^m with fewer than ρ · n nonzeros, This has two implications. First, for most Φ, whenever the combinatorial optimization result x_0,? would be very sparse, x_1,? is a good approximation to x_0,?. Second, suppose we are given noisy data obeying y = Φx₀ + z where the unknown x₀ is known to be sparse and the noise ‖z‖₂ ≤ ?. For most Φ, noise‐tolerant ??₁‐minimization will stably recover x₀ from y in the presence of noise z. We also study the barely determined case m = n and reach parallel conclusions by slightly different arguments. Proof techniques include the use of almost‐spherical sections in Banach space theory and concentration of measure for eigenvalues of random matrices. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Identification of the Time Derivative Coefficient in a Fast Diffusion Degenerate Equation

In this paper, we deal with the identification of the space variable time derivative coefficient u in a degenerate fast diffusion differential inclusion. The function u is vanishing on a subset strictly included in the space domain Ω. This problem is approached as a control problem (P) with the control u. An approximating control problem (P _ε ) is introduced and the existence of an optimal pair is proved. Under certain assumptions on the initial data, the control is found in W ^2,m (Ω), with m>N, in an implicit variational form. Next, it is shown that a sequence of optimal pairs (u_e^*,y_e^*)(u_{\varepsilon }^{\ast },y_{\varepsilon }^{\ast }) of (P _ε ) converges as ε goes to 0 to a pair (u ^*,y ^*) which realizes the minimum in (P), and y ^* is the solution to the original state system.     

Simplex pivots on the set packing polytope

This paper considers the set packing problem max{wx: Ax b, x 0 and integral}, whereA is anm × n 0–1 matrix,w is a 1 ×n weight vector of real numbers andb is anm × 1 vector of ones. In equality form, its linear programming relaxation is max{wx: (x, y) P(A)} whereP(A) = {(x, y):Ax +I _m y =b, x0,y0}. Letx ¹ be any feasible solution to the set packing problem that is not optimal and lety ¹ =b – Ax ¹; then (x ¹,y ¹) is an integral extreme point ofP(A). We show that there exists a sequence of simplex pivots from (x ¹,y ¹) to (x*,y*), wherex* is an optimal solution to the set packing problem andy* =b – Ax*, that satisfies the following properties. Each pivot column has positive reduced weight and each pivot element equals plus one. The number of pivots equals the number of components ofx* that are nonbasic in (x ¹,y ¹).This research was supported by NSF Grants ECS-8005360 and ECS-8307473 to Cornell University.     

Legendrian Links, Causality, and the Low Conjecture

Let (X ^m+1, g) be a globally hyperbolic spacetime with Cauchy surface diffeomorphic to an open subset of ${\mathbb{R}^{m}}Let (X ^m+1, g) be a globally hyperbolic spacetime with Cauchy surface diffeomorphic to an open subset of \mathbbR^m{\mathbb{R}^{m}} . The Legendrian Low conjecture formulated by Natário and Tod says that two events x, y ? X{x, y \in X} are causally related if and only if the Legendrian link of spheres \mathfrakS_x, \mathfrakS_y{{\mathfrak{S}_x,\,\mathfrak{S}_y}} whose points are light geodesics passing through x and y is non-trivial in the contact manifold of all light geodesics in X. The Low conjecture says that for m = 2 the events x, y are causally related if and only if \mathfrakS_x, \mathfrakS_y{{\mathfrak{S}_x,\,\mathfrak{S}_y}} is non-trivial as a topological link. We prove the Low and the Legendrian Low conjectures. We also show that similar statements hold for any globally hyperbolic (X ^m+1, g) such that a cover of its Cauchy surface is diffeomorphic to an open domain in \mathbbR^m{\mathbb{R}^{m}} .