How big can the circuits of a bridge of a maximal circuit be?

IfCE(G) is a maximum cardinality cocircuit of a 2-connected graphG, then no other maximum cocircuit is contained in one and the same block ofG-C. The analogous conjecture for real representable matroids would have important applications to classifying convex bodies with a certain Helly type property.     

Bogoliubov’s metric as a global characteristic of the family of metrics in the Hilbert algebra of observables

We comparatively analyze a one-parameter family of bilinear complex functionals with the sense of “deformed” Wigner-Yanase-Dyson scalar products on the Hilbert algebra of operators of physical observables. We establish that these functionals and the corresponding metrics depend on the deformation parameter and the extremal properties of the Kubo-Martin-Schwinger and Wigner-Yanase metrics in quantum statistical mechanics. We show that the Bogoliubov-Kubo-Mori metric is a global (integral) characteristic of this family. It occupies an intermediate position between the extremal metrics and has the clear physical sense of the generalized isothermal susceptibility. We consider the example for the SU(2) algebra of observables in the simplest model of an ideal quantum spin paramagnet.     

How regular can the boundary of a quadratic Siegel disk be?

In the family of quadratic polynomials with an irrationally indifferent fixed point, we show the existence of Siegel disks with a fine control on the degree of regularity of the linearizing map on their boundary. A general theorem is stated and proved. As a particular case, we show that in the quadratic family, there are Siegel disks whose boundaries are but not Jordan curves.

     

How often can a finite group be realized as a Galois group over a field?

Let G be any finite group and any class of fields. By we denote the minimal number of realizations of G as a Galois group over some field from the class . For G abelian and the class of algebraic extensions of ℚ we give an explicit formula for . Similarly we treat the case of an abelian p-group G and the class which is conjectured to be the class of all fields of characteristic ≠p for which the Galois group of the maximal p-extension is finitely generated. For non-abelian groups G we offer a variety of sporadic results. Received: 27 October 1998 / Revised version: 3 February 1999     

What part of the concept of acceleration is difficult to understand: the mathematics, the physics, or both?

In this paper, details of student difficulties in understanding the concept of acceleration and the mathematical and physical/intuitive sources of these are delineated by utilizing the teaching experiment methodology. As a result of the study, two anchoring analogies are proposed that can be used as a diagnostic tool for students’ alternative conceptions. These can be used in teaching to highlight the peculiarity of acceleration concept. This study portrays how seeing acceleration as ‘rate of change’ of a quantity (velocity) and recognizing the consequences of such a definition are hindered in certain ways which in turn negatively affect learning the concept of force. This is also an example that illustrates that a rather “simple” mathematical concept (i.e., rate of change) for the expert can become a complex phenomenon when embedded in a physical concept (i.e., acceleration) which is consistently found to be as a misconception among learners at various levels that is widely occurring and very resistant to change.     

Validating a concept inventory for measuring students’ probabilistic reasoning: The case of reasoning within the context of a raffle

Assessing students’ conceptions related to independence of events and determining probabilities from a sample space has been the focus of research in probability education for over 40 years. While we know a lot from past studies about predictable ways students may reason with well-known tasks, developing a diagnostic assessment that can be used by teachers to inform instruction demands the use of familiar and unfamiliar contexts. This paper presents the current work of a research team whose aim is to create a formative concept inventory with strong evidence of validity that uses a psychometric model to confidently predict whether a student exhibits one or more misconception across many items. We illustrate this process in this paper using a particular item with a context of a raffle aimed to measure whether a student reasons with misconceptions related to independence or equiprobability. The results of two aspects of the validity process: cognitive interviews to assess response processes on individual items, and a large-scale administration to examine internal structure of the concept inventory revealed difficulties in assessing students’ reasoning about these key probability concepts and trends in the prevalence of misconceptions across grades. Results can provide guidance for others aiming to develop assessments in mathematics education and also support further possibilities for research into understanding students’ reasoning about independence and sample space.     

A family of new smoothing functions and?a?nonmonotone smoothing Newton method for?the?nonlinear complementarity problems

In this paper, based on a p-norm with p being any fixed real number in the interval (1,+??), we introduce a family of new smoothing functions, which include the smoothing symmetric perturbed Fischer function as a special case. We also show that the functions have several favorable properties. Based on the new smoothing functions, we propose a nonmonotone smoothing Newton algorithm for solving nonlinear complementarity problems. The proposed algorithm only need to solve one linear system of equations. We show that the proposed algorithm is globally and locally superlinearly convergent under suitable assumptions. Numerical experiments indicate that the method associated with a smaller p, for example p=1.1, usually has better numerical performance than the smoothing symmetric perturbed Fischer function, which exactly corresponds to p=2.     

The universality of ? 1 as a dual space

Let X be a Banach space with a separable dual. We prove that X embeds isomorphically into a ${{\mathcal L}_\infty}$ space Z whose dual is isomorphic to ? ₁. If, moreover, U is a space with separable dual, so that U and X are totally incomparable, then we construct such a Z, so that Z and U are totally incomparable. If X is separable and reflexive, we show that Z can be made to be somewhat reflexive.     

Computation of the number representations of the elements of the ringℤ/dℤ as a sum of squares

The number of representations of the elements of the ringℤ/dℤ as a sum of invertible squares is computed, provided that each square occurs in the sum no more tha a fized number of times. For prime d an exhaustive answer is given in term of the class number and the fundamental unit of the real quadratic field . Biblography: 5 titles. Translted fromZapiski Nauchnykh Seminarov POMI, Vol. 227, 1995, pp. 5–8.     

On solutions of a common generalization of the Go?a?b-Schinzel equation and of the addition formulae

Under some additional assumptions we determine solutions of the equation

f(x+M(f(x))y)=f(x)○f(y),     

An approximation of the Mumford–Shah energy by a family of discrete edge-preserving functionals

We show the Γ$\Gamma$-convergence of a family of discrete functionals to the Mumford and Shah image segmentation functional. The functionals of the family are constructed by modifying the elliptic approximating functionals proposed by Ambrosio and Tortorelli. The quadratic term of the energy related to the edges of the segmentation is replaced by a nonconvex functional.     

Luby–Rackoff Revisited: On the Use of Permutations as Inner Functions of a Feistel Scheme

In this paper we are dealing with the security of the Feistel structure in the Luby–Rackoff model when the round functions are replaced by permutations. There is a priori no reason to think that the security bounds remain the same in this case, as illustrated by Knudsen’s attack [5]. It is why we revisit Luby–Rackoff’s proofs [6] in this specific case. The conclusion is that when the inner functions are random permutations, a 3-round (resp. 4-round) Feistel scheme remains secure against pseudorandom (resp. superpseudorandom) distinguishers as long as m 2^n/2 (with m the number of queries and 2n the block size). The main part of this work was carried out when the author was a member of the UCL Crypto Group (http://www.uclcrypto.org).     

Living on the edge: how risky is it to operate at the limit of the tolerated risk?

This paper studies some of the implicit risks associated with strategies followed by a risk averse investor who maximizes the expected value of his final wealth, subject to a risk tolerance constraint characterized in terms of a convex risk measure such as Conditional Value-at-Risk. Embedded probability measures are uncovered using duality theory; these are used to assess the probability of surpassing a standard Value-at-Risk threshold. Using one of these embedded probabilities, a closed-form measure of the financial cost of hedging the loss exposure associated to the optimal strategies is derived and shown to be, under certain assumptions, a coherent measure of risk.     

Asymptotic behavior on (−∞, 0) of the spectral measures of a family of singular Sturm-Liouville operators

We find the asymptotics as λ/? → ?∞ of the density of the spectral measure of the Sturm-Liouville operator in L ²(0,+∞) generated by the expression ?y″ + ?q(x)y, ? > 0, with the boundary condition y(0) cos α+y′(0) sinα = 0. The potential q(x) tends to ?∞ as x → +∞ and is assumed to satisfy the Sears condition and some additional regularity conditions.     

One-parameter family of integrable solutions of a system of nonlinear integral equations of the Hammerstein–Volterra type in the supercritical case

We study a system of nonlinear integral equations of the Hammerstein–Volterra type on a half-line in the supercritical case. We show that this system has a one-parameter family of positive integrable bounded solutions. We describe the structure of each solution in this family. The monotone dependence of the solutions on the parameter is proved.