Anti-Substitution Intuitions and the Content of Belief Reports

Philosophers of language traditionally take it that anti-substitution intuitions teach us about the content of belief reports. Jennifer Saul [1997, 2002 (with David Braun), 2007] challenges this lesson. Here I offer a response to Saul’s challenge. In the first two sections of the article, I present a common sense justification for drawing conclusions about content from anti-substitution intuitions. Then, in Sect. 3, I outline Saul’s challenge—what she calls ‘the Enlightenment Problem’. Finally, in Sect. 4, I argue that Saul’s challenge does not undermine the common sense justification presented in Sects. 1 and 2. I avoid the challenge by arguing that anti-substitution intuitions are not directly sensitive to the content of the sentences that produce them, but rather to the possibility that one could have distinct ways of thinking about an object.     

Algebraic Hecke characters and strictly compatible systems of abelian mod p Galois representations over global fields

In [10] (C R Acad Sci Paris Ser I Math 323(2) 117–120, 1996), [11] (Math Res Lett 10(1):71–83 2003), [12] (Can J Math 57(6):1215–1223 2005), Khare showed that any strictly compatible systems of semisimple abelian mod p Galois representations of a number field arises from a unique finite set of algebraic Hecke characters. In this article, we consider a similar problem for arbitrary global fields. We give a definition of Hecke character which in the function field setting is more general than previous definitions by Goss and Gross and define a corresponding notion of compatible system of mod p Galois representations. In this context we present a unified proof of the analog of Khare’s result for arbitrary global fields. In a sequel we shall apply this result to strictly compatible systems arising from Drinfeld modular forms, and thereby attach Hecke characters to cuspidal Drinfeld Hecke eigenforms.     

Ownership, Agency, and Defeat

In this article, I respond to Jennifer Duke-Yonge’s (2012) discussion of my article ‘Reflective Luck and Belief Ownership’ (Breyer, Acta Analytica, 25:133–154, 2010) and defend my Taking Responsibility account of belief ownership against her insightful criticisms.     

Finite simple 3′-groups are cyclic or Suzuki groups

In this note we prove that all finite simple 3′-groups are cyclic of prime order or Suzuki groups. This is well known in the sense that it is mentioned frequently in the literature, often referring to unpublished work of Thompson. Recently an explicit proof was given by Aschbacher [3], as a corollary of the classification of ${\mathcal{S}_3}$ -free fusion systems. We argue differently, following Glauberman’s comment in the preface to the second printing of his booklet [8]. We use a result by Stellmacher (see [12]), and instead of quoting Goldschmidt’s result in its full strength, we give explicit arguments along his ideas in [10] for our special case of 3′-groups.     

The Shapley value for shortest path games: a non-graph-based approach

The shortest path games are considered in this paper. The transportation of a good in a network has costs and benefits. The problem is to divide the profit of the transportation among the players. Fragnelli et al. (Math Methods Oper Res 52: 251–264, 2000) introduce the class of shortest path games and show it coincides with the class of monotone games. They also give a characterization of the Shapley value on this class of games. In this paper we consider further five characterizations of the Shapley value (Hart and Mas-Colell’s in Econometrica 57:589–614, 1989; Shapley’s in Contributions to the theory of games II, annals of mathematics studies, vol 28. Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 307–317, 1953; Young’s in Int J Game Theory 14:65–72, 1985, Chun’s in Games Econ Behav 45:119–130, 1989; van den Brink’s in Int J Game Theory 30:309–319, 2001 axiomatizations), and conclude that all the mentioned axiomatizations are valid for the shortest path games. Fragnelli et al. (Math Methods Oper Res 52:251–264, 2000)’s axioms are based on the graph behind the problem, in this paper we do not consider graph specific axioms, we take $TU$ axioms only, that is we consider all shortest path problems and we take the viewpoint of an abstract decision maker who focuses rather on the abstract problem than on the concrete situations.     

Tilting Theory and Functor Categories I. Classical Tilting

Tilting theory has been a very important tool in the classification of finite dimensional algebras of finite and tame representation type, as well as, in many other branches of mathematics. Happel (1988) and Cline et al. (J Algebra 304:397–409 1986) proved that generalized tilting induces derived equivalences between module categories, and tilting complexes were used by Rickard (J Lond Math Soc 39:436–456, 1989) to develop a general Morita theory of derived categories. On the other hand, functor categories were introduced in representation theory by Auslander (I Commun Algebra 1(3):177–268, 1974), Auslander (1971) and used in his proof of the first Brauer–Thrall conjecture (Auslander 1978) and later on, used systematically in his joint work with I. Reiten on stable equivalence (Auslander and Reiten, Adv Math 12(3):306–366, 1974), Auslander and Reiten (1973) and many other applications. Recently, functor categories were used in Martínez-Villa and Solberg (J Algebra 323(5):1369–1407, 2010) to study the Auslander–Reiten components of finite dimensional algebras. The aim of this paper is to extend tilting theory to arbitrary functor categories, having in mind applications to the functor category Mod (mod_Λ), with Λ a finite dimensional algebra.     

Acute triangulation of a triangle in a general setting revisited

Axiom A16 from Pambuccian (Can. Math. Bull. 53, 534?C541, 2010) is shown to be superfluous as it depends on axioms A1?CA15. This provides a surprisingly simple axiom system in which the acute triangulation with seven triangles can be proved for any triangle, consisting only of A1?CA15 in Pambuccian (Can. Math. Bull. 53, 534?C541, 2010).     

A symmetry property for q-weighted Robinson–Schensted and other branching insertion algorithms

In [19], a \(q\) -weighted version of the Robinson–Schensted algorithm was introduced. In this paper, we show that this algorithm has a symmetry property analogous to the well-known symmetry property of the usual Robinson–Schensted algorithm. The proof uses a generalisation of the growth diagram approach introduced by Fomin [5–8]. This approach, which uses ‘growth graphs’, can also be applied to a wider class of insertion algorithms which have a branching structure, including some of the other \(q\) -weighted versions of the Robinson–Schensted algorithm which have recently been introduced by Borodin–Petrov [2].     

The Dirac delta function in two settings of Reverse Mathematics

The program of Reverse Mathematics (Simpson 2009) has provided us with the insight that most theorems of ordinary mathematics are either equivalent to one of a select few logical principles, or provable in a weak base theory. In this paper, we study the properties of the Dirac delta function (Dirac 1927; Schwartz 1951) in two settings of Reverse Mathematics. In particular, we consider the Dirac Delta Theorem, which formalizes the well-known property ${\int_\mathbb{R}f(x)\delta(x)\,dx=f(0)}$ of the Dirac delta function. We show that the Dirac Delta Theorem is equivalent to weak K?nig’s Lemma (see Yu and Simpson in Arch Math Log 30(3):171–180, 1990) in classical Reverse Mathematics. This further validates the status of WWKL₀ as one of the ‘Big’ systems of Reverse Mathematics. In the context of ERNA’s Reverse Mathematics (Sanders in J Symb Log 76(2):637–664, 2011), we show that the Dirac Delta Theorem is equivalent to the Universal Transfer Principle. Since the Universal Transfer Principle corresponds to WKL, it seems that, in ERNA’s Reverse Mathematics, the principles corresponding to WKL and WWKL coincide. Hence, ERNA’s Reverse Mathematics is actually coarser than classical Reverse Mathematics, although the base theory has lower first-order strength.     

Some Sufficient Conditions for the Controllability of Wave Equations with Variable Coefficients

Motivated by Fu et al. (SIAM J. Control Optim. 46: 1578–1614, 2007), we present in this paper some ‘algebraic’ conditions that ensure the controllability of wave equations with non-constant coefficients. Compared with the ‘geometric’ conditions obtained in Yao (SIAM J. Control Optim. 37: 1568–1599, 1999), the conditions presented here are easier to be verified because only the first order derivatives of the coefficients are involved.     

A construction of the universal classes for algebraic groups with the twisting spectral sequence

In this article, we adapt some ideas developed by M. Cha?upnik in [C2] to the framework of strict polynomial bifunctors. This allows us to get a new proof of the existence of the ‘universal classes’ originally constructed in [T1].     

Newton Polyhedra of Discriminants of Projections

For a system of polynomial equations, whose coefficients depend on parameters, the Newton polyhedron of its discriminant is computed in terms of the Newton polyhedra of the coefficients. This leads to an explicit formula (involving Euler obstructions of toric varieties) in the unmixed case, suggests certain open questions in general, and generalizes a number of similar known results (Gelfand et al. in Discriminants, resultants, and multidimensional determinants. Birkhäuser, Boston, 1994; Sturmfels in J. Algebraic Comb. 32(2):207–236, 1994; McDonald in Discrete Comput. Geom. 27:501–529, 2002; Gonzalez-Perez in Can. J. Math. 52(2):348-368, 2000; Esterov and Khovanskii in Funct. Anal. Math. 2(1), 2008).     

Conversational Implicatures Are Still Cancellable

Is it true that all conversational implicatures are cancellable? In some recent works (Weiner Analysis 66(2):127–130, 2004, followed by Blome-Tillmann Analysis 68(2):156–160, 2008 and, most recently, by Hazlett 2012), the property of cancellability that, according to Grice (1989), conversational implicatures must possess has been called into question. The aim of this article is to show that the cases on which Weiner builds his argument—the Train Case and the Sex Pistols Case— do not really suffice to endanger Grice’s Cancellability Hypothesis. What Weiner has shown with his examples is that a conversational implicature cannot be cancelled if the speaker, whose utterance gives rise to the implicature, does not intend to cancel it. To implicate is an intentional speech act and, therefore, cancelling an implicature must also be intentional and must be performed by the same speaker whose utterance gives rise to the putative implicature.     

Right-convergence of sparse random graphs

The paper is devoted to the problem of establishing right-convergence of sparse random graphs. This concerns the convergence of the logarithm of number of homomorphisms from graphs or hyper-graphs \(\mathbb{G }_N, N\ge 1\) to some target graph \(W\) . The theory of dense graph convergence, including random dense graphs, is now well understood (Borgs et al. in Ann Math 176:151–219, 2012; Borgs et al. in Adv Math 219:1801–1851, 2008; Chatterjee and Varadhan in Eur J Comb 32:1000–1017, 2011; Lovász and Szegedy in J Comb Theory Ser B 96:933–957, 2006), but its counterpart for sparse random graphs presents some fundamental difficulties. Phrased in the statistical physics terminology, the issue is the existence of the limits of appropriately normalized log-partition functions, also known as free energy limits, for the Gibbs distribution associated with \(W\) . In this paper we prove that the sequence of sparse Erdös-Rényi graphs is right-converging when the tensor product associated with the target graph \(W\) satisfies a certain convexity property. We treat the case of discrete and continuous target graphs \(W\) . The latter case allows us to prove a special case of Talagrand’s recent conjecture [more accurately stated as level III Research Problem 6.7.2 in his recent book (Talagrand in Mean Field Models for Spin Glasses: Volume I: Basic examples. Springer, Berlin, 2010)], concerning the existence of the limit of the measure of a set obtained from \(\mathbb{R }^N\) by intersecting it with linearly in \(N\) many subsets, generated according to some common probability law. Our proof is based on the interpolation technique, introduced first by Guerra and Toninelli (Commun Math Phys 230:71–79, 2002) and developed further in (Abbe and Montanari in On the concentration of the number of solutions of random satisfiability formulas, 2013; Bayati et al. in Ann Probab Conference version in Proceedings of 42nd Ann. Symposium on the Theory of Computing (STOC), 2010; Contucci et al. in Antiferromagnetic Potts model on the Erdös-Rényi random graph, 2011; Franz and Leone in J Stat Phys 111(3/4):535–564, 2003; Franz et al. in J Phys A Math Gen 36:10967–10985, 2003; Montanari in IEEE Trans Inf Theory 51(9):3221–3246, 2005; Panchenko and Talagrand in Probab Theory Relat Fields 130:312–336, 2004). Specifically, Bayati et al. (Ann Probab Conference version in Proceedings of 42nd Ann. Symposium on the Theory of Computing (STOC), 2010) establishes the right-convergence property for Erdös-Rényi graphs for some special cases of \(W\) . In this paper most of the results in Bayati et al. (Ann Probab Conference version in Proceedings of 42nd Ann. Symposium on the Theory of Computing (STOC), 2010) follow as a special case of our main theorem.     

Universal Lagrangian bundles

The obstruction to construct a Lagrangian bundle over a fixed integral affine manifold was constructed by Dazord and Delzant (J Differ Geom 26:223–251, 1987) and shown to be given by ‘twisted’ cup products in Sepe (Differ Geom Appl 29(6): 787–800, 2011). This paper uses the topology of universal Lagrangian bundles, which classify Lagrangian bundles topologically [cf. Sepe in J Geom Phys 60:341–351, 2010], to reinterpret this obstruction as the vanishing of a differential on the second page of a Leray-Serre spectral sequence. Using this interpretation, it is shown that the obstruction of Dazord and Delzant depends on an important cohomological invariant of the integral affine structure on the base space, called the radiance obstruction, which was introduced by Goldman and Hirsch (Trans Am Math Soc 286(2):629–649, 1984). Some examples, related to non-degenerate singularities of completely integrable Hamiltonian systems, are discussed.     

Explicit Polynomial Generators for the Ring of Quasisymmetric Functions over the Integers

In (Hazewinkel in Adv. Math. 164:283–300, 2001, and CWI preprint, 2001) it has been proved that the ring of quasisymmetric functions over the integers is free polynomial. This is a matter that has been of great interest since 1972; for instance because of the role this statement plays in a classification theory for noncommutative formal groups that has been in development since then, see (Ditters in Invent. Math. 17:1–20, 1972; in Scholtens’ Thesis, Free Univ. of Amsterdam, 1996) and the references in the latter. Meanwhile quasisymmetric functions have found many more applications (see Gel’fand et al. in Adv. Math. 112:218–348, 1995). However, the proofs of the author in the aforementioned papers do not give explicit polynomial generators for QSymm over the integers. In this note I give a (really quite simple) set of polynomial generators for QSymm over the integers.     

Timing of messages and the Aumann conjecture: a multiple-selves approach

The Aumann (In: Gabszewicz JJ, Richard JF, Wolsey L (eds) Economic decision making: games, econometrics and optimisation, 1990) conjecture states that cheap-talk messages do not necessarily help to coordinate on efficient Nash equilibria. In an experimental test of Aumann’s conjecture, Charness (Games Econ Behav 33(2):177–194, 2000) found that cheap-talk messages facilitate coordination when they precede the action, but not when they follow the action. Standard game-theoretical modeling abstracts from this timing effect, and therefore cannot account for it. To allow for a formal analysis of the timing effect, I study the sequential equilibria of the signaling game in which the sender is modeled as comprising two selves: an acting self and a signaling self. I interpret Aumann’s argument in this context to imply that all of the equilibria in this game are ‘babbling’ equilibria, in which the message conveys no information and does not affect the behavior of the receiver. Using this framework, I show that a fully communicative equilibrium exists—only if the message precedes the action but not when the message follows the action. In the latter case, no information is transmitted in any equilibrium. This result provides a game-theoretical explanation for the puzzling experimental results obtained by Charness (2000). I discuss other explanations for this timing-of-message effect and their relationship to the current analysis.     

Burgers type equations, Gelfand’s problem and Schumpeterian dynamics

Burgers?? equations have been introduced to study different models of fluids (Bateman, 1915, Burgers, 1939, Hopf, 1950, Cole, 1951, Lighthill andWhitham, 1955, etc.). The difference-differential analogues of these equations have been proposed for Schumpeterian models of economic development (Iwai, 1984, Polterovich and Henkin, 1988, Belenky, 1990, Henkin and Polterovich, 1999, Tashlitskaya and Shananin, 2000, etc.). This paper gives a short survey of the results and conjectures on Burgers type equations, motivated both by fluid mechanics and by Schumpeterian dynamics. Proofs of some new results are given. This paper is an extension and an improvement of (Henkin, 2007, 2011).     

Estimating upper bounds on the limit points of majorizing sequences for Newton’s method

We present new sufficient conditions for the semilocal convergence of Newton’s method to a locally unique solution of an equation in a Banach space setting. Upper bounds on the limit points of majorizing sequences are also given. Numerical examples are provided, where our new results compare favorably to earlier ones such as Argyros (J Math Anal Appl 298:374–397, 2004), Argyros and Hilout (J Comput Appl Math 234:2993-3006, 2010, 2011), Ortega and Rheinboldt (1970) and Potra and Pták (1984).     

Proper and adjoint exhausters in nonsmooth analysis: optimality conditions

The notions of upper and lower exhausters represent generalizations of the notions of exhaustive families of upper convex and lower concave approximations (u.c.a., l.c.a.). The notions of u.c.a.’s and l.c.a.’s were introduced by Pshenichnyi (Convex Analysis and Extremal Problems, Series in Nonlinear Analysis and its Applications, 1980), while the notions of exhaustive families of u.c.a.’s and l.c.a.’s were described by Demyanov and Rubinov in Nonsmooth Problems of Optimization Theory and Control, Leningrad University Press, Leningrad, 1982. These notions allow one to solve the problem of optimization of an arbitrary function by means of Convex Analysis thus essentially extending the area of application of Convex Analysis. In terms of exhausters it is possible to describe extremality conditions, and it turns out that conditions for a minimum are expressed via an upper exhauster while conditions for a maximum are formulated in terms of a lower exhauster (Abbasov and Demyanov (2010), Demyanov and Roshchina (Appl Comput Math 4(2): 114–124, 2005), Demyanov and Roshchina (2007), Demyanov and Roshchina (Optimization 55(5–6): 525–540, 2006)). This is why an upper exhauster is called a proper exhauster for minimization problems while a lower exhauster is called a proper one for maximization problems. The results obtained provide a simple geometric interpretation and allow one to construct steepest descent and ascent directions. Until recently, the problem of expressing extremality conditions in terms of adjoint exhausters remained open. Demyanov and Roshchina (Appl Comput Math 4(2): 114–124, 2005), Demyanov and Roshchina (Optimization 55(5–6): 525–540, 2006) was the first to derive such conditions. However, using the conditions obtained (unlike the conditions expressed in terms of proper exhausters) it was not possible to find directions of descent and ascent. In Abbasov (2011) new extremality conditions in terms of adjoint exhausters were discovered. In the present paper, a different proof of these conditions is given and it is shown how to find steepest descent and ascent conditions in terms of adjoint exhausters. The results obtained open the way to constructing numerical methods based on the usage of adjoint exhausters thus avoiding the necessity of converting the adjoint exhauster into a proper one.