Regularity of minimal hypersurfaces with a common free boundary

Let \(N\) be a Riemannian manifold and consider a stationary union of three or more \(C^{1,\mu }\) hypersurfaces-with-boundary \(M_k \subset N\) with a common boundary \(\Gamma \) . We show that if \(N\) is smooth, then \(\Gamma \) is smooth and each \(M_k\) is smooth up to \(\Gamma \) (real analytic in the case \(N\) is real analytic). Consequently we strengthen a result of Wickramasekera for stable codimension 1 integral varifolds regularity to conclude that under the stronger hypothesis that \(V\) is a stationary, stable, integral \(n\) -varifold in an \((n+1)\) -dimensional, smooth (real analytic) Riemannian manifold such that the support of \(\Vert V\Vert \) is nowhere locally the union of three or more smooth (real analytic) hypersurfaces-with-boundary meeting along a common boundary, the singular set of \(V\) is empty if \(n \le 6\) , is discrete if \(n = 7\) , and has Hausdorff dimension at most \(n-7\) if \(n \ge 8\) .     

Sharp local estimates for the Szegö–Weinberger profile in Riemannian manifolds

We study the local Szegö–Weinberger profile in a geodesic ball \(B_g(y_0,r_0)\) centered at a point \(y_0\) in a Riemannian manifold \(({\mathcal {M}},g)\) . This profile is obtained by maximizing the first nontrivial Neumann eigenvalue \(\mu _2\) of the Laplace–Beltrami Operator \(\Delta _g\) on \({\mathcal {M}}\) among subdomains of \(B_g(y_0,r_0)\) with fixed volume. We derive a sharp asymptotic bounds of this profile in terms of the scalar curvature of \({\mathcal {M}}\) at \(y_0\) . As a corollary, we deduce a local comparison principle depending only on the scalar curvature. Our study is related to previous results on the profile corresponding to the minimization of the first Dirichlet eigenvalue of \(\Delta _g\) , but additional difficulties arise due to the fact that \(\mu _2\) is degenerate in the unit ball in \(\mathbb {R}^N\) and geodesic balls do not yield the optimal lower bound in the asymptotics we obtain.     

Some totally geodesic submanifolds of the nonlinear Grassmannian of a compact symmetric space

Let \(M\) and \(N\) be two connected smooth manifolds, where \(M\) is compact and oriented and \(N\) is Riemannian. Let \(\mathcal {E}\) be the Fréchet manifold of all embeddings of \(M\) in \(N\) , endowed with the canonical weak Riemannian metric. Let \(\sim \) be the equivalence relation on \(\mathcal {E}\) defined by \(f\sim g\) if and only if \(f=g\circ \phi \) for some orientation preserving diffeomorphism \(\phi \) of \(M\) . The Fréchet manifold \(\mathcal {S}= \mathcal {E}/_{\sim }\) of equivalence classes, which may be thought of as the set of submanifolds of \(N\) diffeomorphic to \(M\) and is called the nonlinear Grassmannian (or Chow manifold) of \(N\) of type \(M\) , inherits from \( \mathcal {E}\) a weak Riemannian structure. We consider the following particular case: \(N\) is a compact irreducible symmetric space and \(M\) is a reflective submanifold of \(N\) (that is, a connected component of the set of fixed points of an involutive isometry of \( N\) ). Let \(\mathcal {C}\) be the set of submanifolds of \(N\) which are congruent to \(M\) . We prove that the natural inclusion of \(\mathcal {C}\) in \(\mathcal {S}\) is totally geodesic.     

Non-positivity of the semigroup generated by the Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator

By analysing some explicit examples we investigate the positivity and the non-positivity of the semigroup generated by the Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator associated with the operator \(\varDelta +\lambda I\) as \(\lambda \) varies. It is known that the semigroup is positive if \(\lambda <\lambda _1\) , where \(\lambda _1\) is the principal eigenvalue of \(-\varDelta \) with Dirichlet boundary conditions. We show that it is possible for the semigroup to be non-positive, eventually positive or positive and irreducible depending on \(\lambda >\lambda _1\) .     

Second eigenvalue of the Yamabe operator and applications

Let \((M,g)\) be a compact Riemannian manifold of dimension \(n\ge 3\) . In this paper, we give various properties of the eigenvalues of the Yamabe operator \(L_g\) . In particular, we show how the second eigenvalue of \(L_g\) is related to the existence of nodal solutions of the equation \(L_g u = {\varepsilon }|u|^{N-2}u,\) where \({\varepsilon }= +1,\) \(0,\) or \(-1.\)      

The extremal solution for the fractional Laplacian

We study the extremal solution for the problem \((-\Delta )^s u=\lambda f(u)\) in \(\Omega \) , \(u\equiv 0\) in \(\mathbb R ^n\setminus \Omega \) , where \(\lambda >0\) is a parameter and \(s\in (0,1)\) . We extend some well known results for the extremal solution when the operator is the Laplacian to this nonlocal case. For general convex nonlinearities we prove that the extremal solution is bounded in dimensions \(n<4s\) . We also show that, for exponential and power-like nonlinearities, the extremal solution is bounded whenever \(n<10s\) . In the limit \(s\uparrow 1\) , \(n<10\) is optimal. In addition, we show that the extremal solution is \(H^s(\mathbb R ^n)\) in any dimension whenever the domain is convex. To obtain some of these results we need \(L^q\) estimates for solutions to the linear Dirichlet problem for the fractional Laplacian with \(L^p\) data. We prove optimal \(L^q\) and \(C^\beta \) estimates, depending on the value of \(p\) . These estimates follow from classical embedding results for the Riesz potential in \(\mathbb R ^n\) . Finally, to prove the \(H^s\) regularity of the extremal solution we need an \(L^\infty \) estimate near the boundary of convex domains, which we obtain via the moving planes method. For it, we use a maximum principle in small domains for integro-differential operators with decreasing kernels.     

A sufficient condition for zero entropy

We prove that a diffeomorphism \(f\) defined on a compact manifold has zero topological entropy if there are \(d\in {\mathbb {N}}\) and \(K>0\) such that \(\Vert Dg^{n_x}(x)\Vert \le Kn^d_x\) for every diffeomorphism \(g\) that is \(C^1\) close to \(f\) and every periodic point \(x\) of least period \(n_x\) of \(g\) .     

A central limit theorem for projections of the cube

We prove a central limit theorem for the volume of projections of the cube \([-1,1]^N\) onto a random subspace of dimension \(n\) , when \(n\) is fixed and \(N\rightarrow \infty \) . Randomness in this case is with respect to the Haar measure on the Grassmannian manifold.     

Identification of a convolution kernel in a control problem for the heat equation with a boundary memory term

We consider the evolution of the temperature \(u\) in a material with thermal memory characterized by a time-dependent convolution kernel \(h\) . The material occupies a bounded region \(\Omega \) with a feedback device controlling the external temperature located on the boundary \(\Gamma \) . Assuming both \(u\) and \(h\) unknown, we formulate an inverse control problem for an integrodifferential equation with a nonlinear and nonlocal boundary condition. Existence and uniqueness results of a solution to the inverse problem are proved.     

Recovering a Constant in the Two-Dimensional Navier–Stokes System with No Initial Condition

We deal with the \(2D\) -Navier–Stokes system endowed with Cauchy boundary conditions, but with no initial condition. We assume that the right-hand side is of the form \(\beta f_0+f_1\) , where \(\beta \in \mathbb {R}\) is an unknown constant. To determine \(\beta \) we are given a functional involving the velocity field \(y\) . First we prove uniqueness for the pair \((y,\beta )\) , via suitable weak Carleman estimates, and then we show the locally Lipschitz-continuous dependence of \((y,\beta )\) on the data.     

The type and stable type of the boundary of a Gromov hyperbolic group

Consider an ergodic non-singular action \(\Gamma \curvearrowright B\) of a countable group on a probability space. The type of this action codes the asymptotic range of the Radon–Nikodym derivative, also called the ratio set. If \(\Gamma \curvearrowright X\) is a pmp (probability-measure-preserving) action, then the ratio set of the product action \(\Gamma \curvearrowright B\times X\) is contained in the ratio set of \(\Gamma \curvearrowright B\) . So we define the stable ratio set of \(\Gamma \curvearrowright B\) to be the intersection over all pmp actions \(\Gamma \curvearrowright X\) of the ratio sets of \(\Gamma \curvearrowright B\times X\) . By analogy, there is a notion of stable type which codes the stable ratio set of \(\Gamma \curvearrowright B\) . This concept is crucially important for the identification of the limit in pointwise ergodic theorems established by the author and Amos Nevo. Here, we establish a general criteria for a nonsingular action of a countable group on a probability space to have stable type \(III_\lambda \) for some \(\lambda >0\) . This is applied to show that the action of a non-elementary Gromov hyperbolic group on its boundary with respect to a quasi-conformal measure is not type \(III_0\) and, if it is weakly mixing, then it is not stable type \(III_0\) .     

Intrinsically p-biharmonic maps

For a compact Riemannian manifold \(N\) , a domain \(\Omega \subset \mathbb {R}^m\) and for \(p\in (1, \infty )\) , we introduce an intrinsic version \(E_p\) of the \(p\) -biharmonic energy functional for maps \(u : \Omega \rightarrow N\) . This requires finding a definition for the intrinsic Hessian of maps \(u : \Omega \rightarrow N\) whose first derivatives are merely \(p\) -integrable. We prove, by means of the direct method, existence of minimizers of \(E_p\) within the corresponding intrinsic Sobolev space, and we derive a monotonicity formula. Finally, we also consider more general functionals defined in terms of polyconvex functions.     

On the commuting probability and supersolvability of finite groups

For a finite group \(G\) , let \(d(G)\) denote the probability that a randomly chosen pair of elements of \(G\) commute. We prove that if \(d(G)>1/s\) for some integer \(s>1\) and \(G\) splits over an abelian normal nontrivial subgroup \(N\) , then \(G\) has a nontrivial conjugacy class inside \(N\) of size at most \(s-1\) . We also extend two results of Barry, MacHale, and Ní Shé on the commuting probability in connection with supersolvability of finite groups. In particular, we prove that if \(d(G)>5/16\) then either \(G\) is supersolvable, or \(G\) isoclinic to \(A_4\) , or \(G/\mathbf{Z}(G)\) is isoclinic to \(A_4\) .     

The theme of a vanishing period

Consider a multivalued formal function of the type 1 $$\begin{aligned} \varphi (s) : = \sum _{j=0}^k\,c_j(s).s^{\lambda + m_j}.(\mathrm{Log}\,s)^j, \end{aligned}$$ where \(\lambda \) is a positive rational number, \(c_j\) is in \({{\mathrm{\mathbb {C}}}}[[s]]\) and \(m_j \in \mathbb {N}\) for \(j \in [0,k-1]\) . The theme associated with such a \(\varphi \) is the “minimal filtered integral equation” satisfied by \(\varphi \) , in a sense which is made precise in this article. We study such objects and show that their isomorphism classes may be characterized by a finite set of complex numbers, when we assume the Bernstein polynomial of \(\varphi \) to be fixed. For a given \(\lambda \) , to fix the Bernstein polynomial is equivalent to fix a finite set of integers associated with the logarithm of the monodromy in the geometric situation described below. Our aim is to construct some analytic invariants, for instance in the following situation, let \(f : X \rightarrow D\) be a proper holomorphic function defined on a complex manifold \(X\) with values in a disc \(D\) . We assume that the only critical value is \(0 \in D\) and we consider this situation as a degenerating family of compact complex manifolds to a singular compact complex space \(f^{-1}(0)\) . To a smooth \((p+1)\) -form \(\omega \) on \(X\) such that \(\mathrm{d}\omega = 0 = \mathrm{d}f \wedge \omega \) and to a vanishing \(p\) -cycle \(\gamma \) chosen in the generic fiber \(f^{-1}(s_0), s_0 \in D \setminus \{0\}\) , we associated a “vanishing period” \(F_{\gamma }(s) : = \int _{\gamma _s} \omega \big /\mathrm{d}f \) which has an asymptotic expansion at \(0\) of the form \((1)\) above, when \(\gamma \) is chosen in the spectral subspace of \(H_p(f^{-1}(s_0), {{\mathrm{\mathbb {C}}}})\) for the eigenvalue \(\mathrm{e}^{2i\pi .\lambda }\) of the monodromy of \(f\) . Here \((\gamma _s)_{s \in D^*}\) is the horizontal multivalued family of \(p\) -cycles in the fibers of \(f\) obtained from the choice of \(\gamma \) . The aim of this article was to study the module generated by such a \(\varphi \) over the algebra \(\tilde{\mathcal {A}}\) , which is the \(b\) -completion of the algebra \(\mathcal {A}\) generated by the operators \(\mathrm{a} : = \times s\) and \(\mathrm{b} : = \int _{0}^{s}\) .     

On an extension of the Frobenius^{\prime } theorem about p-nilpotency of a finite group

Suppose that \(G\) is a finite group and \(H\) is a subgroup of \(G\) . \(H\) is said to be \(s\) -quasinormally embedded in \(G\) if for each prime \(p\) dividing the order of \(H\) , a Sylow \(p\) -subgroup of \(H\) is also a Sylow \(p\) -subgroup of some \(s\) -quasinormal subgroup of \(G\) . We fix in every non-cyclic Sylow subgroup \(P\) of \(G\) some subgroup \(D\) satisfying \(1<|D|<|P|\) and study the \(p\) -nilpotency of \(G\) under the assumption that every subgroup \(H\) of \(P\) with \(|H|=|D|\) is \(s\) -quasinormally embedded in \(G\) . Some recent results and the Frobenius \(^{\prime }\) theorem are generalized.     

Stably-interior points and the Semicontinuity of the Automorphism group

We present the new semicontinuity theorem for automorphism groups: If a sequence \(\{\Omega _j\}\) of bounded pseudoconvex domains in \(\mathbb C^2\) converges to \(\Omega _0\) in \({\mathcal C}^\infty \) -topology, where \(\Omega _0\) is a bounded pseudoconvex domain in \(\mathbb C^2\) with its boundary \({\mathcal C}^\infty \) and of the D’Angelo finite type and with \(\text {Aut}\,(\Omega _0)\) compact, then there is an integer \(N>0\) such that, for every \(j > N\) , there exists an injective Lie group homomorphism \(\psi _j:\text {Aut}\,(\Omega _j) \rightarrow \text {Aut}\,(\Omega _0)\) . The method of our proof of this theorem is new that it simplifies the proof of the earlier semicontinuity theorems for bounded strongly pseudoconvex domains.     

On matching cover of graphs

A k-matching cover of a graph \(G\) is a union of \(k\) matchings of \(G\) which covers \(V(G)\) . The matching cover number of \(G\) , denoted by \(mc(G)\) , is the minimum number \(k\) such that \(G\) has a \(k\) -matching cover. A matching cover of \(G\) is optimal if it consists of \(mc(G)\) matchings of \(G\) . In this paper, we present an algorithm for finding an optimal matching cover of a graph on \(n\) vertices in \(O(n^3)\) time (if use a faster maximum matching algorithm, the time complexity can be reduced to \(O(nm)\) , where \(m=|E(G)|\) ), and give an upper bound on matching cover number of graphs. In particular, for trees, a linear-time algorithm is given, and as a by-product, the matching cover number of trees is determined.     

A backward \lambda -lemma for the forward heat flow

The inclination or \(\lambda \) -lemma is a fundamental tool in finite dimensional hyperbolic dynamics. In contrast to finite dimension, we consider the forward semi-flow on the loop space of a closed Riemannian manifold \(M\) provided by the heat flow. The main result is a backward \(\lambda \) -lemma for the heat flow near a hyperbolic fixed point \(x\) . There are the following novelties. Firstly, infinite versus finite dimension. Secondly, semi-flow versus flow. Thirdly, suitable adaption provides a new proof in the finite dimensional case. Fourthly and a priori most surprisingly, our \(\lambda \) -lemma moves the given disk transversal to the unstable manifold backward in time, although there is no backward flow. As a first application we propose a new method to calculate the Conley homotopy index of \(x\) .     

A canonical structure on the tangent bundle of a pseudo- or para-Kähler manifold

It is a classical fact that the cotangent bundle \(T^* {\mathcal {M}}\) of a differentiable manifold \({\mathcal {M}}\) enjoys a canonical symplectic form \(\Omega ^*\) . If \(({\mathcal {M}},\mathrm{J} ,g,\omega )\) is a pseudo-Kähler or para-Kähler \(2n\) -dimensional manifold, we prove that the tangent bundle \(T{\mathcal {M}}\) also enjoys a natural pseudo-Kähler or para-Kähler structure \(({\tilde{\hbox {J}}},\tilde{g},\Omega )\) , where \(\Omega \) is the pull-back by \(g\) of \(\Omega ^*\) and \(\tilde{g}\) is a pseudo-Riemannian metric with neutral signature \((2n,2n)\) . We investigate the curvature properties of the pair \(({\tilde{\hbox {J}}},\tilde{g})\) and prove that: \(\tilde{g}\) is scalar-flat, is not Einstein unless \(g\) is flat, has nonpositive (resp. nonnegative) Ricci curvature if and only if \(g\) has nonpositive (resp. nonnegative) Ricci curvature as well, and is locally conformally flat if and only if \(n=1\) and \(g\) has constant curvature, or \(n>2\) and \(g\) is flat. We also check that (i) the holomorphic sectional curvature of \(({\tilde{\hbox {J}}},\tilde{g})\) is not constant unless \(g\) is flat, and (ii) in \(n=1\) case, that \(\tilde{g}\) is never anti-self-dual, unless conformally flat.