A reversal index for tournament matrices *

Given a tournament matrix T, its reversal indexi_R (T), is the minimum k such that the reversal of the orientation of k arcs in the directed graph associated with T results in a reducible matrix. We give a formula for i_R (T) in terms of the score vector of T which generalizes a simple criterion for a tournament matrix to be irreducible. We show that i_R (T)≤[(n?1)/2] for any tournament matrix T of order n, with equality holding if and only if T is regular or almost regular, according as n is odd or even. We construct, for each k between 1 and [(n?1)/2], a tournament matrix of order n whose reversal index is k. Finally, we suggest a few problems.     

Stability conditions for systems of linear nonautonomous delay differential equations

Systems of linear nonautonomous delay differential equations are considered which are of the form y′_i(t) = ∑_{k = 1}ⁿ ∝₀^T b_ik(t, s) y_k(t − s) dη_ik(s) − c_i(t) y_i(t), where I = 1,…, n. Sufficient conditions are derived for both the asymptotic stability and the instability of the zero solution. The main result is found by a monotone technique using elementary methods only. Moreover, additional criteria are obtained by using the method of Lyapunov functionals.     

On the Range of Possible Integrities of Graphs G(n, k)

We discuss the range of values for the integrity of a graphs G(n, k) where G(n, k) denotes a simple graph with n vertices and k edges. Let I _max(n, k) and I _min(n, k) be the maximal and minimal value for the integrity of all possible G(n, k) graphs and let the difference be D(n, k) = I _max(n, k) − I _min(n, k). In this paper we give some exact values and several lower bounds of D(n, k) for various values of n and k. For some special values of n and for s < n ^1/4 we construct examples of graphs G _n  = G _n (n, n + s) with a maximal integrity of I(G _n ) = I(C _n ) + s where C _n is the cycle with n vertices. We show that for k = n ²/6 the value of D(n, n ²/6) is at least \frac?6-13n{\frac{\sqrt{6}-1}{3}n} for large n.     

Comonotone approximation of twice differentiable periodic functions

In the case where a 2π-periodic function f is twice continuously differentiable on the real axis ℝ and changes its monotonicity at different fixed points y _i ∈ [− π, π), i = 1,…, 2s, s ∈ ℕ (i.e., on ℝ, there exists a set Y := {y _i } _i∈ℤ of points y _i = y _i+2s + 2π such that the function f does not decrease on [y _i , y _i−1] if i is odd and does not increase if i is even), for any natural k and n, n ≥ N(Y, k) = const, we construct a trigonometric polynomial T _n of order ≤n that changes its monotonicity at the same points y _i ∈ Y as f and is such that

Deformation of certain quadratic algebras and the corresponding quantum semigroups

LetV be a finite-dimensional vector space. Given a decompositionV⊗V=⊕ _i=1,…n I _i , definen quadratic algebrasQ(V, J _(m)) whereJ _(m)=⊕ _i≠m I _i . There is also a quantum semigroupM(V; I ₁, …,I _n ) which acts on all these quadratic algebras. The decomposition determines as well a family of associative subalgebras of End (V ^⊗k ), which we denote byA _k =A _k (I ₁,…,I _n ),k≥2. In the classical case, whenV⊗V decomposes into the symmetric and skewsymmetric tensors,A _k coincides with the image of the representation of the group algebra of the symmetric groupS _k in End(V ^⊗k ). LetI _i,h be deformations of the subspacesI _i . In this paper we give a criteria for flatness of the corresponding deformations of the quadratic algebrasQ(V, J _(m),h ) and the quantum semigroupM(V;I _1,h ,…,I _n,h ). It says that the deformations will be flat if the algebrasA _k (I ₁, …,I _n ) are semisimple and under the deformation their dimension does not change. Usually, the decomposition intoI _i is defined by a given semisimple operatorS onV⊗V, for whichI _i are its eigensubspaces, and the deformationsI _i,h are defined by a deformationS _h ofS. We consider the cases whenS _h is a deformation of Hecke or Birman-Wenzl symmetry, and also the case whenS _h is the Yang-Baxter operator which appears by a representation of the Drinfeld-Jimbo quantum group. Applying the flatness criteria we prove that in all these cases we obtain flat deformations of the quadratic algebras and the corresponding quantum semigroups. Partially supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation administered by the Israel Academy of Sciences.     

On the evaluation of the Eigenvalues of a banded toeplitz block matrix

Let A = (a_ij) be an n × n Toeplitz matrix with bandwidth k + 1, K = r + s, that is, a_ij = a_j−i, i, J = 1,… ,n, a_i = 0 if i > s and if i < -r. We compute p(λ)= det(A - λI), as well as p(λ)/p′(λ), where p′(λ) is the first derivative of p(λ), by using O(k log k log n) arithmetic operations. Moreover, if a_i are m × m matrices, so that A is a banded Toeplitz block matrix, then we compute p(λ), as well as p(λ)/p′(λ), by using O(m³k(log² k + log n) + m²k log k log n) arithmetic operations. The algorithms can be extended to the computation of det(A − λB) and of its first derivative, where both A and B are banded Toeplitz matrices. The algorithms may be used as a basis for iterative solution of the eigenvalue problem for the matrix A and of the generalized eigenvalue problem for A and B.     

On improved estimators of the generalized variance

Treated in this paper is the problem of estimating with squared error loss the generalized variance | Σ | from a Wishart random matrix S: p × p W_p(n, Σ) and an independent normal random matrix X: p × k N(ξ, Σ I_k) with ξ(p × k) unknown. Denote the columns of X by X₍₁₎ ,…, X_(k) and set ψ⁽⁰⁾(S, X) = {(n − p + 2)!/(n + 2)!} | S |, ψ⁽ⁱ⁾(X, X) = min[ψ⁽ⁱ⁻¹⁾(S, X), {(n − p + i + 2)!/(n + i + 2)!} | S + X₍₁₎ X′₍₁₎ + + X_(i) X′_(i) |] and Ψ⁽ⁱ⁾(S, X) = min[ψ⁽⁰⁾(S, X), {(n − p + i + 2)!/(n + i + 2)!}| S + X₍₁₎ X′₍₁₎ + + X_(i) X′_(i) |], i = 1,…,k. Our result is that the minimax, best affine equivariant estimator ψ⁽⁰⁾(S, X) is dominated by each of Ψ⁽ⁱ⁾(S, X), i = 1,…,k and for every i, ψ⁽ⁱ⁾(S, X) is better than ψ⁽ⁱ⁻¹⁾(S, X). In particular, ψ^(k)(S, X) = min[{(n − p + 2)!/(n + 2)!} | S |, {(n − p + 2)!/(n + 2)!} | S + X₍₁₎X′₍₁₎|,…,| {(n − p + k + 2)!/(n + k + 2)!} | S + X₍₁₎X′₍₁₎ + + X_(k)X′_(k)|] dominates all other ψ's. It is obtained by considering a multivariate extension of Stein's result (Ann. Inst. Statist. Math. 16, 155–160 (1964)) on the estimation of the normal variance.     

Sets of Double and Triple Weights of Trees

Let T be a weighted tree with n leaves numbered by the set {1, . . . , n}. Let D _{i, j} (T) be the distance between the leaves i and j. Let D_i,j,k(T) = \frac12(D_i,j(T)+D_j,k(T)+D_i,k(T)){{D_{i,j,k}(T) = \frac{1}{2}(D_{i,j}(T)+D_{j,k}(T)+D_{i,k}(T))}} . We will call such numbers “triple weights” of the tree. In this paper, we give a characterization, different from the previous ones, for sets indexed by 2-subsets of a n-set to be double weights of a tree. By using the same ideas, we find also necessary and sufficient conditions for a set of real numbers indexed by 3-subsets of an n-set to be the set of the triple weights of a tree with n leaves. Besides we propose a slight modification of Saitou-Nei’s Neighbour-Joining algorithm to reconstruct trees from the data D _{i, j} .     

Pancyclic arcs and connectivity in tournaments

A tournament is an orientation of the edges of a complete graph. An arc is pancyclic in a tournament T if it is contained in a cycle of length l, for every 3 ≤ l ≤ |T|. Let p(T) denote the number of pancyclic arcs in a tournament T. In 4 , Moon showed that for every non‐trivial strong tournament T, p(T) ≥ 3. Actually, he proved a somewhat stronger result: for any non‐trivial strong tournament h(T) ≥ 3 where h(T) is the maximum number of pancyclic arcs contained in the same hamiltonian cycle of T. Moreover, Moon characterized the tournaments with h(T) = 3. All these tournaments are not 2‐strong. In this paper, we investigate relationship between the functions p(T) and h(T) and the connectivity of the tournament T. Let p_k(n) := min {p(T), T k‐strong tournament of order n} and h_k(n) := min{h(T), T k‐strong tournament of order n}. We conjecture that (for k ≥ 2) there exists a constant α_k> 0 such that p_k(n) ≥ α_kn and h_k(n) ≥ 2k+1. In this paper, we establish the later conjecture when k = 2. We then characterized the tournaments with h(T) = 4 and those with p(T) = 4. We also prove that for k ≥ 2, p_k(n) ≥ 2k+3. At last, we characterize the tournaments having exactly five pancyclic arcs. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 47: 87–110, 2004     

Approximation Numbers of Operators on Normed Linear Spaces

In [1], B?ttcher et. al. showed that if T is a bounded linear operator on a separable Hilbert space H, {e_j}_j=1^￥H, \{e_{j}\}_{j=1}^{\infty} is an orthonormal basis of H and P_n is the orthogonal projection onto the span of {e_j}_j=1ⁿ\{e_{j}\}_{j=1}^{n}, then for each k ? \mathbbNk \in {\mathbb{N}}, the sequence {s_k(P_nTP_n)}\{s_{k}(P_{n}TP_{n})\} converges to s_k(T), where for a bounded operator A on H, s_k(A) denotes the kth approximation number of A, that is, s_k(A) is the distance from A to the set of all bounded linear operators of rank at most k − 1. In this paper we extend the above result to more general cases. In particular, we prove that if T is a bounded linear operator from a separable normed linear space X to a reflexive Banach space Y and if {P_n} and {Q_n} are sequences of bounded linear operators on X and Y, respectively, such that ||P_n|| ||Q_n|| ￡ 1\|P_n\| \|Q_n\| \leq 1 for all n ? \mathbbNn \in {\mathbb{N}} and {Q_nTP_n} converges to T under the weak operator topology, then {s_k(Q_nTP_n)}\{s_{k}(Q_{n}TP_{n})\} converges to s_k(T). We also obtain a similar result for the case of any normed linear space Y which is the dual of some separable normed linear space. For compact operators, we give this convergence of s_k(Q_nTP_n)s_{k}(Q_{n}TP_{n}) to s_k(T) with separability assumptions on X and the dual of Y. Counter examples are given to show that the results do not hold if additional assumptions on the space Y are removed. Under separability assumptions on X and Y, we also show that if there exist sequences of bounded linear operators {P_n} and {Q_n} on X and Y respectively such that (i) Q_nTP_nQ_{n}TP_{n} is compact, (ii) ||P_n|| ||Q_n|| ￡ 1\|P_{n}\| \|Q_{n}\| \leq 1 and (iii) {Q_nTP_n}\{Q_{n}TP_{n}\} converges to T in the weak operator topology, then {s_k(Q_nTP_n)}\{s_k(Q_{n}TP_{n})\} converges to s_k(T) if and only if s_k(T) = s_k(T￠)s_{k}(T) = s_{k}(T^\prime). This leads to a generalization of a result of Hutton [3], proved for compact operators between normed linear spaces.     

The average Steiner distance of a graph

The average distance μ(G) of a graph G is the average among the distances between all pairs of vertices in G. For n ≥ 2, the average Steiner n-distance μ_n(G) of a connected graph G is the average Steiner distance over all sets of n vertices in G. It is shown that for a connected weighted graph G, μ_n(G) ≤ μ_k(G) + μ_n+1−k(G) where 2 ≤ k ≤ n − 1. The range for the average Steiner n-distance of a connected graph G in terms of n and |V(G)| is established. Moreover, for a tree T and integer k, 2 ≤ k ≤ n − 1, it is shown that μ_n(T) ≤ (n/k)μ_k(T) and the range for μ_n(T) in terms of n and |V(T)| is established. Two efficient algorithms for finding the average Steiner n-distance of a tree are outlined. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Insertible vertices,neighborhood intersections,and hamiltonicity

Let G be a simple undirected graph of order n. For an independent set S ? V(G) of k vertices, we define the k neighborhood intersections S_i = {v ? V(G)&#92;S|N(v) ∩ S| = i}, 1 ≦ i ≦ k, with s_i = |S_i|. Using the concept of insertible vertices and the concept of neighborhood intersections, we prove the following theorem.     

General symbolic powers: A homological point of view

Let I be an ideal of a Noetherian ring R and let S be a multiplicatively closed subset of R. We define the n-th (S)-symbolic power of 7 as S(Iⁿ) = IⁿR_s ∩R. The purpose of this paper is to compare the topologies defined by the adic {I_n}_n≤0 and the (S)-symbolic filtration {S(Iⁿ)}n≥o using the direct system {Extⁱ _R(R/Iⁿ,R)}_n≥0     

Disjoint skolem sequences and related disjoint structures

A Skolem sequence of order n is a sequence S = (s₁, s₂…, s²ⁿ) of 2n integers satisfying the following conditions: (1) for every k ∈ {1, 2,… n} there exist exactly two elements s_i,S_j such that S_i = S_j = k; (2) If s_i = s_j = k,i < j then j ? i = k. In this article we show the existence of disjoint Skolem, disjoint hooked Skolem, and disjoint near-Skolem sequences. Then we apply these concepts to the existence problems of disjoint cyclic Steiner and Mendelsohn triple systems and the existence of disjoint 1-covering designs. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Approximations of Two-Place Functions by Finite Sums of Terms with Separable Variables

It is known that if a smooth function h in two real variables x and y belongs to the class Σ_n of all sums of the form Σⁿ_k=1ƒ_k(x) g_k(y), then its (n + 1)th order "Wronskian" det[h_xⁱy^j]ⁿ_i,j=0 is identically equal to zero. The present paper deals with the approximation problem h(x, y) Σⁿ_k=1ƒ_k(x) g_k(y) with a prescribed n, for general smooth functions h not lying in Σ_n. Two natural approximation sums T=T(h) Σ_n, S=S(h) Σ_n are introduced and the errors |h-T|, |h-S| are estimated by means of the above mentioned Wronskian of the function h. The proofs utilize the technique of ordinary linear differential equations.     

Asymptotic Behavior of Variable-Coefficient Toeplitz Determinants

For a continuous function s\sigma defined on [0,1]×\mathbbT[0,1]\times\mathbb{T}, let \ops\op\sigma stand for the (n+1)×(n+1)(n+1)\times(n+1) matrix whose (j,k)(j,k)-entries are equal to \frac1 2pò₀^2p s( \fracjn,e^iq) e^-i(j-k)q  dq,        j,k = 0,1,...,n . \displaystyle \frac{1} {2\pi}\int_0^{2\pi} \sigma \left( \frac{j}{n},e^{i\theta}\right) e^{-i(j-k)\theta} \,d\theta, \qquad j,k =0,1,\dots,n~. These matrices can be thought of as variable-coefficient Toeplitz matrices or as the discrete analogue of pseudodifferential operators. Under the assumption that the function s\sigma possesses a logarithm which is sufficiently smooth on [0,1]×\mathbbT[0,1]\times\mathbb{T}, we prove that the asymptotics of the determinants of \ops\op\sigma are given by det[\ops] ~ G[s]⁽ⁿ⁺¹⁾E[s]     \text as   n?￥ , \det \left[\op\sigma\right] \sim G[\sigma]^{(n+1)}E[\sigma] \quad \text{ as \ } n\to\infty~, where G[s]G[\sigma] and E[s]E[\sigma] are explicitly determined constants. This formula is a generalization of the Szegö Limit Theorem. In comparison with the classical theory of Toeplitz determinants some new features appear.     

Monotonicity of permanents of direct sums of doubly stochastic matrices

Let Ωn be the set of all n × n doubly stochastic matrices, let J_n be the n × n matrix all of whose entries are 1/n and let σ _k (A) denote the sum of the permanent of all k × k submatrices of A. It has been conjectured that if A ε Ω _n and A ≠ J_J then g_A,k (θ) ? σ _k ((1 θ)J_n 1 θA) is strictly increasing on [0,1] for k = 2,3,…,n. We show that if A = A ₁ ⊕ ⊕A_t (t ≥ 2) is an n × n matrix where A_i for i = 1,2, …,t, and if for each i g_Ai,ki (θ) is non-decreasing on [0.1] for k_t = 2,3,…,n_i , then g_A,k (θ) is strictly increasing on [0,1] for k = 2,3,…,n.     

Convex interpolating splines of arbitrary degree. III

For given data (x _i, f_i) _i=0 ⁿ (x ₀<x ₁<...<x _n) we consider the possibility of finding a spline functions of arbitrary degreek (k3) with preassigned smoothnessl, where 1l[(k-1)/2]. The splines should be such thats(x _i)=f _i (i=0, 1,...,n) ands is convex or nondecreasing and convex on [x ₀,x _n]. An explicit formula for this function as well as the conditions that guarantee the required properties are established. An algorithm for the determination of the splines and the error bounds is also included.     

Complexity results for scheduling tasks with discrete starting times

Suppose that n independent tasks are to be scheduled without preemption on a set of identical parallel processors. Each task T_i requires a given execution time τ_i and it may be started for execution on any processor at any of its prescribed starting times s_i1, s_i2, …, s_iki, with k_i ≤ k for some fixed integer k. We first prove that the problem of finding a feasible schedule on a single processor is NP-complete in the strong sense even when τ_i ε {τ, τ′} and k_i ≤ 3 for 1 ≤ i ≤ n. The same problem is, however, shown to be solvable in O(n log n) time, provided s_iki − s_i1 < τ_i for 1 ≤ i ≤ n. We then show that the problem of finding a feasible schedule on an arbitrary number of processors is strongly NP-complete even when τ_i ε {τ, τ′}, k_i = 2 and s_i2 − s_i1 = δ < τ_i for 1 ≤ i ≤ n. Finally a special case with k_i = 2 and s_i2 − s_i1 = 1, 1 ≤ i ≤ n, of the above multiprocessor scheduling problem is shown to be solvable in polynomial time.