The 192 solutions of the Heun equation

A machine-generated list of local solutions of the Heun equation is given. They are analogous to Kummer's  solutions of the Gauss hypergeometric equation, since the two equations are canonical Fuchsian differential equations on the Riemann sphere with four and three singular points, respectively. Tabulation is facilitated by the identification of the automorphism group of the equation with  singular points as the Coxeter group  . Each of the expressions is labeled by an element of  . Of the ,  are equivalent expressions for the local Heun function  , and it is shown that the resulting order- group of transformations of  is isomorphic to the symmetric group . The isomorphism encodes each transformation as a permutation of an abstract four-element set, not identical to the set of singular points.

     

On the smallest value of the maximal modulus of an algebraic integer

The house of an algebraic integer of degree is the largest modulus of its conjugates. For , we compute the smallest house of degree , say m. As a consequence we improve Matveev's theorem on the lower bound of m We show that, in this range, the conjecture of Schinzel-Zassenhaus is satisfied. The minimal polynomial of any algebraic integer whose house is equal to m is a factor of a bi-, tri- or quadrinomial. The computations use a family of explicit auxiliary functions. These functions depend on generalizations of the integer transfinite diameter of some compact sets in They give better bounds than the classical ones for the coefficients of the minimal polynomial of an algebraic integer whose house is small.

     

Heuristics for class numbers and lambda invariants

Let be an imaginary quadratic field and let be the associated real quadratic field. Starting from the Cohen-Lenstra heuristics and Scholz's theorem, we make predictions for the behaviors of the 3-parts of the class groups of these two fields as varies. We deduce heuristic predictions for the behavior of the Iwasawa -invariant for the cyclotomic -extension of and test them computationally.

     

On irregular prime power divisors of the Bernoulli numbers

Let ( ) denote the usual th Bernoulli number. Let be a positive even integer where or . It is well known that the numerator of the reduced quotient is a product of powers of irregular primes. Let be an irregular pair with . We show that for every the congruence has a unique solution where and . The sequence defines a -adic integer which is a zero of a certain -adic zeta function originally defined by T. Kubota and H. W. Leopoldt. We show some properties of these functions and give some applications. Subsequently we give several computations of the (truncated) -adic expansion of for irregular pairs with below 1000.

     

Stabilized finite element method based on the Crank-Nicolson extrapolation scheme for the time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations

This paper provides an error analysis for the Crank-Nicolson extrapolation scheme of time discretization applied to the spatially discrete stabilized finite element approximation of the two-dimensional time-dependent Navier-Stokes problem, where the finite element space pair for the approximation of the velocity and the pressure is constructed by the low-order finite element: the quadrilateral element or the triangle element with mesh size . Error estimates of the numerical solution to the exact solution with are derived.

     

Modular exponentiation via the explicit Chinese remainder theorem

Fix pairwise coprime positive integers . We propose representing integers modulo , where is any positive integer up to roughly , as vectors . We use this representation to obtain a new result on the parallel complexity of modular exponentiation: there is an algorithm for the Common CRCW PRAM that, given positive integers , , and in binary, of total bit length , computes in time using processors. For comparison, a parallelization of the standard binary algorithm takes superlinear time; Adleman and Kompella gave an expected time algorithm using processors; von zur Gathen gave an NC algorithm for the highly special case that is polynomially smooth.

     

A second-order Magnus-type integrator for quasi-linear parabolic problems

In this paper, we consider an explicit exponential method of classical order two for the time discretisation of quasi-linear parabolic problems. The numerical scheme is based on a Magnus integrator and requires the evaluation of two exponentials per step. Our convergence analysis includes parabolic partial differential equations under a Dirichlet boundary condition and provides error estimates in Sobolev spaces. In an abstract formulation the initial boundary value problem is written as an initial value problem on a Banach space 

    given

involving the sectorial operator with domain independent of . Under reasonable regularity requirements on the problem, we prove the stability of the numerical method and derive error estimates in the norm of certain intermediate spaces between  and . Various applications and a numerical experiment illustrate the theoretical results.

     

Maximum norm error analysis of a 2d singularly perturbed semilinear reaction-diffusion problem

A semilinear reaction-diffusion equation with multiple solutions is considered in a smooth two-dimensional domain. Its diffusion parameter is arbitrarily small, which induces boundary layers. Constructing discrete sub- and super-solutions, we prove existence and investigate the accuracy of multiple discrete solutions on layer-adapted meshes of Bakhvalov and Shishkin types. It is shown that one gets second-order convergence (with, in the case of the Shishkin mesh, a logarithmic factor) in the discrete maximum norm, uniformly in for . Here is the maximum side length of mesh elements, while the number of mesh nodes does not exceed . Numerical experiments are performed to support the theoretical results.

     

Detecting perfect powers by factoring into coprimes

This paper presents an algorithm that, given an integer , finds the largest integer such that is a th power. A previous algorithm by the first author took time where ; more precisely, time ; conjecturally, time . The new algorithm takes time . It relies on relatively complicated subroutines--specifically, on the first author's fast algorithm to factor integers into coprimes--but it allows a proof of the bound without much background; the previous proof of relied on transcendental number theory.

The computation of is the first step, and occasionally the bottleneck, in many number-theoretic algorithms: the Agrawal-Kayal-Saxena primality test, for example, and the number-field sieve for integer factorization.

     

Two kinds of strong pseudoprimes up to

Let be an odd composite integer. Write with odd. If either mod or mod for some , then we say that is a strong pseudoprime to base , or spsp() for short. Define to be the smallest strong pseudoprime to all the first prime bases. If we know the exact value of , we will have, for integers , a deterministic efficient primality testing algorithm which is easy to implement. Thanks to Pomerance et al. and Jaeschke, the are known for . Conjectured values of were given by us in our previous papers (Math. Comp. 72 (2003), 2085-2097; 74 (2005), 1009-1024).

The main purpose of this paper is to give exact values of for ; to give a lower bound of : ; and to give reasons and numerical evidence of K2- and -spsp's to support the following conjecture: for any , where (resp. ) is the smallest K2- (resp. -) strong pseudoprime to all the first prime bases. For this purpose we describe procedures for computing and enumerating the two kinds of spsp's to the first 9 prime bases. The entire calculation took about 4000 hours on a PC Pentium IV/1.8GHz. (Recall that a K2-spsp is an spsp of the form: with primes and ; and that a -spsp is an spsp and a Carmichael number of the form: with each prime factor mod .)

     

Efficient computation of root numbers and class numbers of parametrized families of real abelian number fields

Let be a parametrized family of simplest real cyclic cubic, quartic, quintic or sextic number fields of known regulators, e.g., the so-called simplest cubic and quartic fields associated with the polynomials and . We give explicit formulas for powers of the Gaussian sums attached to the characters associated with these simplest number fields. We deduce a method for computing the exact values of these Gaussian sums. These values are then used to efficiently compute class numbers of simplest fields. Finally, such class number computations yield many examples of real cyclotomic fields of prime conductors and class numbers greater than or equal to . However, in accordance with Vandiver's conjecture, we found no example of for which divides .

     

Univariate splines: Equivalence of moduli of smoothness and applications

Several results on equivalence of moduli of smoothness of univariate splines are obtained. For example, it is shown that, for any , , and , the inequality , , is satisfied, where is a piecewise polynomial of degree on a quasi-uniform (i.e., the ratio of lengths of the largest and the smallest intervals is bounded by a constant) partition of an interval. Similar results for Chebyshev partitions and weighted Ditzian-Totik moduli of smoothness are also obtained. These results yield simple new constructions and allow considerable simplification of various known proofs in the area of constrained approximation by polynomials and splines.

     

A locally divergence-free nonconforming finite element method for the time-harmonic Maxwell equations

A new numerical method for computing the divergence-free part of the solution of the time-harmonic Maxwell equations is studied in this paper. It is based on a discretization that uses the locally divergence-free Crouzeix-Raviart nonconforming vector fields and includes a consistency term involving the jumps of the vector fields across element boundaries. Optimal convergence rates (up to an arbitrary positive ) in both the energy norm and the norm are established on graded meshes. The theoretical results are confirmed by numerical experiments.

     

Quaternionic Manin symbols, Brandt matrices, and Hilbert modular forms

In this paper, we propose a generalization of the algorithm we developed previously. Along the way, we also develop a theory of quaternionic -symbols whose definition bears some resemblance to the classical -symbols, except for their combinatorial nature. The theory gives a more efficient way to compute Hilbert modular forms over totally real number fields, especially quadratic fields, and we have illustrated it with several examples. Namely, we have computed all the newforms of prime levels of norm less than 100 over the quadratic fields and , and whose Fourier coefficients are rational or are defined over a quadratic field.

     

On the distribution of zeros of the Hurwitz zeta-function

Assuming the Riemann hypothesis, we prove asymptotics for the sum of values of the Hurwitz zeta-function taken at the nontrivial zeros of the Riemann zeta-function when the parameter either tends to and , respectively, or is fixed; the case is of special interest since . If is fixed, we improve an older result of Fujii. Besides, we present several computer plots which reflect the dependence of zeros of on the parameter . Inspired by these plots, we call a zero of stable if its trajectory starts and ends on the critical line as varies from to , and we conjecture an asymptotic formula for these zeros.

     

Littlewood polynomials with high order zeros

Let be the minimal length of a polynomial with coefficients divisible by . Byrnes noted that for each , and asked whether in fact . Boyd showed that for all , but . He further showed that , and that is one of the 5 numbers , or . Here we prove that . Similarly, let be the maximal power of dividing some polynomial of degree with coefficients. Boyd was able to find for . In this paper we determine for .

     

Efficient CM-constructions of elliptic curves over finite fields

We present an algorithm that, on input of an integer together with its prime factorization, constructs a finite field and an elliptic curve over for which has order . Although it is unproved that this can be done for all , a heuristic analysis shows that the algorithm has an expected run time that is polynomial in , where is the number of distinct prime factors of . In the cryptographically relevant case where is prime, an expected run time can be achieved. We illustrate the efficiency of the algorithm by constructing elliptic curves with point groups of order and nextprime.

     

Sharp estimates for finite element approximations to elliptic problems with Neumann boundary data of low regularity

Consider a second order homogeneous elliptic problem with smooth coefficients, , on a smooth domain, , but with Neumann boundary data of low regularity. Interior maximum norm error estimates are given for finite element approximations to this problem. When the Neumann data is not in , these local estimates are not of optimal order but are nevertheless shown to be sharp. A method for ameliorating this sub-optimality by preliminary smoothing of the boundary data is given. Numerical examples illustrate the findings.

     

A search for Fibonacci-Wieferich and Wolstenholme primes

A prime is called a Fibonacci-Wieferich prime if , where is the th Fibonacci number. We report that there exist no such primes . A prime is called a Wolstenholme prime if . To date the only known Wolstenholme primes are 16843 and 2124679. We report that there exist no new Wolstenholme primes . Wolstenholme, in 1862, proved that for all primes . It is estimated by a heuristic argument that the ``probability' that is Fibonacci-Wieferich (independently: that is Wolstenholme) is about . We provide some statistical data relevant to occurrences of small values of the Fibonacci-Wieferich quotient modulo .

     

On the embedding problem for representations

Let denote the double cover of corresponding to the element in where transpositions lift to elements of order and the product of two disjoint transpositions to elements of order . Given an elliptic curve , let denote its -torsion points. Under some conditions on elements in correspond to Galois extensions of with Galois group (isomorphic to) . In this work we give an interpretation of the addition law on such fields, and prove that the obstruction for having a Galois extension with gives a homomorphism . As a corollary we can prove (if has conductor divisible by few primes and high rank) the existence of -dimensional representations of the absolute Galois group of attached to and use them in some examples to construct modular forms mapping via the Shimura map to (the modular form of weight attached to) .