Tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs of order 2<Emphasis Type="Italic">pq</Emphasis>

A graph is half-arc-transitive if its automorphism group acts transitively on its vertex set, edge set, but not arc set. Let p and q be primes. It is known that no tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs of order 2p ² exist and a tetravalent half-arc-transitive graph of order 4p must be non-Cayley; such a non-Cayley graph exists if and only if p−1 is divisible by 8 and it is unique for a given order. Based on the constructions of tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs given by Marušič (J. Comb. Theory B 73:41–76, 1998), in this paper the connected tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs of order 2pq are classified for distinct odd primes p and q.     

A New Method for Finding the Characteristic Roots of E<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis></Subscript>/E<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">m</Emphasis></Subscript>/1 Queues

In 1953, Smith (Proc Camb Philos Soc 49:449–461, 1953), and, following him, Syski (1960) suggested a method to find the waiting time distribution for one server queues with Erlang-n arrivals and Erlang-m service times by using characteristic roots. Syski shows that these roots can be determined from a very simple equation, but an equation of degree n + m. Syski also shows that almost all of the characteristic roots are complex. In this paper, we derive a set of equations, one for each complex root, which can be solved by Newton’s method using real arithmetic. This method simplifies the programming logic because it avoids deflation and the subsequent polishing of the roots. Using the waiting time distribution, Syski then derived the distribution of the number in the system after a departure. E _n /E _m /1 queues can also formulated as quasi birth-death (QBD) processes, and in this case, the characteristic roots discussed by Syski are closely related to the eigenvalues of the QBD process. The QBD process provides information about the number in system at random times, but they are much more difficult to formulate and solve.     

Rates of Convergence of Means of Euclidean Functionals

Let L be the Euclidean functional with p-th power-weighted edges. Examples include the sum of the p-th power-weighted lengths of the edges in minimal spanning trees, traveling salesman tours, and minimal matchings. Motivated by the works of Steele, Redmond and Yukich (Ann. Appl. Probab. 4, 1057–1073, 1994, Stoch. Process. Appl. 61, 289–304, 1996) have shown that for n i.i.d. sample points {X ₁,…,X _n } from [0,1] ^d , L({X ₁,…,X _n })/n ^(d−p)/d converges a.s. to a finite constant. Here we bound the rate of convergence of EL({X ₁,…,X _n })/n ^(d−p)/d . Y. Koo supported by the BK21 project of the Department of Mathematics, Sungkyunkwan University. S. Lee supported by the BK21 project of the Department of Mathematics, Yonsei University.     

Elementary Abelian <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-groups of rank greater than or equal to 4<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>−2 are not CI-groups

In this paper we prove that an elementary Abelian p-group of rank 4p−2 is not a CI⁽²⁾-group, i.e. there exists a 2-closed transitive permutation group containing two non-conjugate regular elementary Abelian p-subgroups of rank 4p−2, see Hirasaka and Muzychuk (J. Comb. Theory Ser. A 94(2), 339–362, 2001). It was shown in Hirasaka and Muzychuk (loc cit) and Muzychuk (Discrete Math. 264(1–3), 167–185, 2003) that this is related to the problem of determining whether an elementary Abelian p-group of rank n is a CI-group. As a strengthening of this result we prove that an elementary Abelian p-group E of rank greater or equal to 4p−2 is not a CI-group, i.e. there exist two isomorphic Cayley digraphs over E whose corresponding connection sets are not conjugate in Aut E. This research was supported by a fellowship from the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences.     

Hopf Algebras of Type <Emphasis Type="Italic">A</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis></Subscript>, Twistings and the FRT-construction

We study pointed Hopf algebras of the form U(R _Q ), (Faddeev et al., Quantization of Lie groups and Lie algebras. Algebraic Analysis, vol. I, Academic, Boston, MA, pp. 129–139, 1988; Faddeev et al., Quantum groups. Braid group, knot theory and statistical mechanics. Adv. Ser. Math. Phys., vol. 9, World Science, Teaneck, NJ, pp. 97–110, 1989; Larson and Towber, Commun. Algebra 19(12):3295–3345, 1991), where R _Q is the Yang–Baxter operator associated with the multiparameter deformation of GL _n supplied in Artin et al. (Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 44:8–9, 879–895, 1991) and Sudbery (J. Phys. A, 23(15):697–704, 1990). We show that U(R _Q ) is of type A _n in the sense of Andruskiewitsch and Schneider (Adv. Math. 154:1–45, 2000; Pointed Hopf algebras. Recent developments in Hopf Algebras Theory, MSRI Series, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002). We consider the non-negative part of U(R _Q ) and show that for two sets of parameters, the corresponding Hopf sub-algebras can be obtained from each other by twisting the multiplication if and only if they possess the same groups of grouplike elements. We exhibit families of finite-dimensional Hopf algebras arising from U(R _Q ) with non-isomorphic groups of grouplike elements. We then discuss the case when the quantum determinant is central in A(R _Q ) and show that under some assumptions on the group of grouplike elements, two finite-dimensional Hopf algebras U(R _Q ), U(R _Q′) can be obtained from each other by twisting the comultiplication if and only if In the last part we show that U _Q is always a quotient of a double crossproduct. I wish to thank UIC, where some of the work was done, for hospitality.     

Some progress on the existence of 1-rotational Steiner triple systems

A Steiner triple system of order v (briefly STS(v)) is 1-rotational under G if it admits G as an automorphism group acting sharply transitively on all but one point. The spectrum of values of v for which there exists a 1-rotational STS(v) under a cyclic, an abelian, or a dicyclic group, has been established in Phelps and Rosa (Discrete Math 33:57–66, 1981), Buratti (J Combin Des 9:215–226, 2001) and Mishima (Discrete Math 308:2617–2619, 2008), respectively. Nevertheless, the spectrum of values of v for which there exists a 1-rotational STS(v) under an arbitrary group has not been completely determined yet. This paper is a considerable step forward to the solution of this problem. In fact, we leave as uncertain cases only those for which we have v =  (p ³−p)n +  1 ≡ 1 (mod 96) with p a prime, n \not o 0{n \not\equiv 0} (mod 4), and the odd part of (p ³ − p)n that is square-free and without prime factors congruent to 1 (mod 6).     

New Coins from Old, Smoothly

Given a (known) function f:[0,1]→(0,1), we consider the problem of simulating a coin with probability of heads f(p) by tossing a coin with unknown heads probability p, as well as a fair coin, N times each, where N may be random. The work of Keane and O’Brien (ACM Trans. Model. Comput. Simul. 4(2):213–219, 1994) implies that such a simulation scheme with the probability ℙ _p (N<∞) equal to 1 exists if and only if f is continuous. Nacu and Peres (Ann. Appl. Probab. 15(1A):93–115, 2005) proved that f is real analytic in an open set S⊂(0,1) if and only if such a simulation scheme exists with the probability ℙ _p (N>n) decaying exponentially in n for every p∈S. We prove that for α>0 noninteger, f is in the space C ^α [0,1] if and only if a simulation scheme as above exists with ℙ _p (N>n)≤C(Δ _n (p)) ^α , where \varDelta _n(x):=max{?{x(1-x)/n},1/n}\varDelta _{n}(x):=\max\{\sqrt{x(1-x)/n},1/n\}. The key to the proof is a new result in approximation theory: Let B⁺_n\mathcal{B}^{+}_{n} be the cone of univariate polynomials with nonnegative Bernstein coefficients of degree n. We show that a function f:[0,1]→(0,1) is in C ^α [0,1] if and only if f has a series representation ?_n=1^￥F_n\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}F_{n} with F_n ? B⁺_nF_{n}\in \mathcal{B}^{+}_{n} and ∑ _k>n F _k (x)≤C(Δ _n (x)) ^α for all x∈[0,1] and n≥1. We also provide a counterexample to a theorem stated without proof by Lorentz (Math. Ann. 151:239–251, 1963), who claimed that if some j_n ? B⁺_n\varphi_{n}\in\mathcal{B}^{+}_{n} satisfy |f(x)−φ _n (x)|≤C(Δ _n (x)) ^α for all x∈[0,1] and n≥1, then f∈C ^α [0,1].     

Fixed-point-free elements in <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-groups

In this paper we prove that there exists no function F(m, p) (where the first argument is an integer and the second a prime) such that, if G is a finite permutation p-group with m orbits, each of size at least p ^F(m,p), then G contains a fixed-point-free element. In particular, this gives an answer to a conjecture of Peter Cameron; see [4], [6].     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">C</Emphasis><Superscript>1+<Emphasis Type="Italic">α</Emphasis></Superscript>-Regularity for Two-Dimensional Almost-Minimal Sets in ℝ<Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis></Superscript>

We give a new proof and a partial generalization of Jean Taylor’s result (Ann. Math. (2) 103(3), 489–539, 1976) that says that Almgren almost-minimal sets of dimension 2 in ℝ³ are locally C ^1+α -equivalent to minimal cones. The proof is rather elementary, but uses a local separation result proved in Ann. Fac. Sci. Toulouse 18(1), 65–246, 2009 and an extension of Reifenberg’s parameterization theorem (David et al. in Geom. Funct. Anal. 18, 1168–1235, 2008). The key idea is still that if X is the cone over an arc of small Lipschitz graph in the unit sphere, but X is not contained in a disk, we can use the graph of a harmonic function to deform X and substantially diminish its area. The local separation result is used to reduce to unions of cones over arcs of Lipschitz graphs. A good part of the proof extends to minimal sets of dimension 2 in ℝ ⁿ , but in this setting our final regularity result on E may depend on the list of minimal cones obtained as blow-up limits of E at a point.     

Stochastic dominance equilibria in two-person noncooperative games

Two-person noncooperative games with finitely many pure strategies are considered, in which the players have linear orderings over sure outcomes but incomplete preferences over probability distributions resulting from mixed strategies. These probability distributions are evaluated according to t-degree stochastic dominance. A t-best reply is a strategy that induces a t-degree stochastically undominated distribution, and a t-equilibrium is a pair of t-best replies. The paper provides a characterization and an existence proof of t-equilibria in terms of representing utility functions, and shows that for large t behavior converges to a form of max–min play. Specifically, increased aversion to bad outcomes makes each player put all weight on a strategy that maximizes the worst outcome for the opponent, within the supports of the strategies in the limiting sequence of t-equilibria.The paper has benefitted from the comments of four referees and an associate editor.     

On sums and products in ℂ[<Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis>]

We prove that there exists an absolute constant c>0 such that if A is a set of n monic polynomials, and if the product set A.A has at most n ^1+c elements, then |A+A|≫n2. This can be thought of as step towards proving the Erdős–Szemerédi sum-product conjecture for polynomial rings. We also show that under a suitable generalization of Fermat’s Last Theorem, the same result holds for the integers. The methods we use to prove are a mixture of algebraic (e.g. Mason’s theorem) and combinatorial (e.g. the Ruzsa–Plunnecke inequality) techniques.     

Bispectrality of Multivariable Racah–Wilson Polynomials

We construct a commutative algebra A_x{\mathcal{A}}_{x} of difference operators in ℝ ^p , depending on p+3 parameters, which is diagonalized by the multivariable Racah polynomials R _p (n;x) considered by Tratnik (J. Math. Phys. 32(9):2337–2342, 1991). It is shown that for specific values of the variables x=(x ₁,x ₂,…,x _p ) there is a hidden duality between n and x. Analytic continuation allows us to construct another commutative algebra A_n{\mathcal{A}}_{n} in the variables n=(n ₁,n ₂,…,n _p ) which is also diagonalized by R _p (n;x). Thus, R _p (n;x) solve a multivariable discrete bispectral problem in the sense of Duistermaat and Grünbaum (Commun. Math. Phys. 103(2):177–240, 1986). Since a change of the variables and the parameters in the Racah polynomials gives the multivariable Wilson polynomials (Tratnik in J. Math. Phys. 32(8):2065–2073, 1991), this change of variables and parameters in A_x{\mathcal{A}}_{x} and A_n{\mathcal{A}}_{n} leads to bispectral commutative algebras for the multivariable Wilson polynomials.     

Absorbing Angles,Steiner Minimal Trees,and Antipodality

We give a new proof that a star {op _i :i=1,…,k} in a normed plane is a Steiner minimal tree of vertices {o,p ₁,…,p _k } if and only if all angles formed by the edges at o are absorbing (Swanepoel in Networks 36: 104–113, 2000). The proof is simpler and yet more conceptual than the original one. We also find a new sufficient condition for higher-dimensional normed spaces to share this characterization. In particular, a star {op _i :i=1,…,k} in any CL-space is a Steiner minimal tree of vertices {o,p ₁,…,p _k } if and only if all angles are absorbing, which in turn holds if and only if all distances between the normalizations \frac1||p_i||p_i\frac{1}{\Vert p_{i}\Vert}p_{i} equal 2. CL-spaces include the mixed ℓ ₁ and ℓ _∞ sum of finitely many copies of ℝ.     

Minimal Non—Commutative n—Insertive Rings

Let n be an integer with |n| > 1. If p is the smallest prime factor of |n|, we prove that a minimal non-commutative n-insertive ring contains n ⁴ elements and these rings have five (2p+4) isomorphic classes for p = 2 (p ≠ 2). This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Scientific Research Foundation for “Bai-Qian-Wan” Project, Fujian Province of China     

A permutation-coded evolutionary strategy for multi-objective GSM network planning

The base station placement problem, with n potential candidate sites is NP-Hard with 2 ⁿ solutions (Mathar and Niessen, Wirel. Netw. 6, 421–428, 2000). When dimensioned on m unknown variable settings (e.g., number of power settings + number of tilt settings, etc.) the computational complexity becomes (m+1) ⁿ (Raisanen, PhD. thesis, 2006). We introduce a novel approach to reduce the computational complexity by dimensioning sites only once to guarantee traffic hold requirements are satisfied. This approach works by determining the maximum set of service test points candidate sites can handle without exceeding a hard traffic constraint, T _MAX . Following this, the ability of two evolutionary strategies (binary and permutation-coded) to search for the minimum set cover are compared. This reverses the commonly followed approach of achieving service coverage first and then dimensioning to meet traffic hold. To test this approach, three realistic GSM network simulation environments are engineered, and a series of tests performed. Results indicate this approach can quickly meet network operator objectives.     

Conditioning exceedances on covariate processes

This article concerns the statistical inference for the upper tail of the conditional distribution of a response variable Y given a covariate X = x based on n random vectors within the parametric extreme value framework. Pioneering work in this field was done by Smith (Stat Sci 4:367–393, 1989) and Smith and Shively (Atmos Environ 29:3489–3499, 1995). We propose to base the inference on a conditional distribution of the point process of exceedances given the point process of covariates. It is of importance that the conditional distribution merely depends on the conditional distribution of the response variable given the covariates. In the special case of Poisson processes such a result may be found in Reiss (1993). Our results are valid within the broader model where the response variables are conditionally independent given the covariates. It is numerically exemplified that the maximum likelihood principle leads to more accurate estimators within the conditional approach than in the previous one.     

On translation and dilation invariant subspaces of L p (ℝn), 0 < p < 1

We prove that each translation and dilation invariant subspace X ⊂ L ^p (ℝⁿ), X ≠ L ^p (ℝⁿ), is contained in a maximal translation and dilation invariant subspace of L ^p (ℝⁿ). Moreover, we prove that the set of all maximal translation and dilation invariant subspaces of L ^p (ℝⁿ) has the power of continuum. Bibliography: 6 titles. __________ Translated from Zapiski Nauchnykh Seminarov POMI, Vol. 345, 2007, pp. 5–21.     

The commuting graphs of some subsets in the quaternion algebra over the ring of integers modulo <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>

Let R be an arbitrary ring, S be a subset of R, and Z(S) = {s ∈ S | sx = xs for every x ∈ S}. The commuting graph of S, denoted by Γ(S), is the graph with vertex set S \ Z(S) such that two different vertices x and y are adjacent if and only if xy = yx. In this paper, let I _n , N _n be the sets of all idempotents, nilpotent elements in the quaternion algebra ℤ _n [i, j, k], respectively. We completely determine Γ(I _n ) and Γ(N _n ). Moreover, it is proved that for n ≥ 2, Γ(I _n ) is connected if and only if n has at least two odd prime factors, while Γ(N _n ) is connected if and only if n ∈ 2, 2², p, 2p for all odd primes p.     

Some cyclic codes of length 2<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis><Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis></Superscript>

Explicit expressions for 4n + 2 primitive idempotents in the semi-simple group ring $R_{2p^{n}}\equiv \frac{GF(q)[x]}{p and q are distinct odd primes; n ≥ 1 is an integer and q has order \fracf(2pⁿ)2{\frac{\phi(2p^{n})}{2}} modulo 2p ⁿ . The generator polynomials, the dimension, the minimum distance of the minimal cyclic codes of length 2p ⁿ generated by these 4n + 2 primitive idempotents are discussed. For n = 1, the properties of some (2p, p) cyclic codes, containing the above minimal cyclic codes are analyzed in particular. The minimum weight of some subset of each of these (2p, p) codes are observed to satisfy a square root bound.     

Littlewood–Paley theorem on spaces <Emphasis Type="Italic">L</Emphasis><Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">t</Emphasis>)</Superscript>(ℝ<Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis></Superscript>)

We point out that if the Hardy–Littlewood maximal operator is bounded on the space L ^p(t)(ℝ), 1 < a ≤ p(t) ≤ b < ∞, t ∈ ℝ, then the well-known characterization of the spaces L ^p (ℝ), 1 < p < ∞, by the Littlewood–Paley theory extends to the space L ^p(t)(ℝ). We show that, for n > 1 , the Littlewood–Paley operator is bounded on L ^p(t) (ℝ ⁿ ), 1 < a ≤ p(t) ≤ b < ∞, t ∈ ℝ ⁿ , if and only if p(t) = const. Published in Ukrains’kyi Matematychnyi Zhurnal, Vol. 60, No. 12, pp. 1709–1715, December, 2008.