Sharp transition between extinction and propagation of reaction

We consider the reaction-diffusion equation

on with and . In 1964 Kanel proved that if is an ignition non-linearity, then as when , and when L_1$">. We answer the open question of the relation of and by showing that . We also determine the large time limit of in the critical case , thus providing the phase portrait for the above PDE with respect to a 1-parameter family of initial data. Analogous results for combustion and bistable non-linearities are proved as well.

     

The number of Reidemeister moves needed for unknotting

There is a positive constant such that for any diagram representing the unknot, there is a sequence of at most Reidemeister moves that will convert it to a trivial knot diagram, where is the number of crossings in . A similar result holds for elementary moves on a polygonal knot embedded in the 1-skeleton of the interior of a compact, orientable, triangulated 3-manifold . There is a positive constant such that for each , if consists of tetrahedra and is unknotted, then there is a sequence of at most elementary moves in which transforms to a triangle contained inside one tetrahedron of . We obtain explicit values for and .

     

Mating Siegel quadratic polynomials

Let be a quadratic rational map of the sphere which has two fixed Siegel disks with bounded type rotation numbers and . Using a new degree Blaschke product model for the dynamics of and an adaptation of complex a priori bounds for renormalization of critical circle maps, we prove that can be realized as the mating of two Siegel quadratic polynomials with the corresponding rotation numbers and .

     

The strange duality conjecture for generic curves

Let be a smooth connected projective algebraic curve of genus . The strange duality conjecture connects non-abelian theta functions of rank and level and those of rank and level on (for and , respectively). In this paper we prove this conjecture for generic in the moduli space of curves of genus .

     

Universal characteristic factors and Furstenberg averages

Let be an ergodic probability measure-preserving system. For a natural number we consider the averages

where , and are integers. A factor of is characteristic for averaging schemes of length (or -characteristic) if for any nonzero distinct integers , the limiting behavior of the averages in (*) is unaltered if we first project the functions onto the factor. A factor of is a -universal characteristic factor (-u.c.f.) if it is a -characteristic factor, and a factor of any -characteristic factor. We show that there exists a unique -u.c.f., and it has the structure of a -step nilsystem, more specifically an inverse limit of -step nilflows. Using this we show that the averages in (*) converge in . This provides an alternative proof to the one given by Host and Kra.

     

Computing roadmaps of semi-algebraic sets on a variety

We consider a semi-algebraic set defined by polynomials in variables which is contained in an algebraic variety . The variety is assumed to have real dimension the polynomial and the polynomials defining have degree at most . We present an algorithm which constructs a roadmap on . The complexity of this algorithm is . We also present an algorithm which, given a point of defined by polynomials of degree at most , constructs a path joining this point to the roadmap. The complexity of this algorithm is These algorithms easily yield an algorithm which, given two points of defined by polynomials of degree at most , decides whether or not these two points of lie in the same semi-algebraically connected component of and if they do computes a semi-algebraic path in connecting the two points.

     

Vaught's conjecture on analytic sets

Let be a Polish group. We characterize when there is a Polish space with a continuous -action and an analytic set (that is, the Borel image of some Borel set in some Polish space) having uncountably many orbits but no perfect set of orbit inequivalent points.

Such a Polish -space and analytic exist exactly when there is a continuous, surjective homomorphism from a closed subgroup of onto the infinite symmetric group, , consisting of all permutations of equipped with the topology of pointwise convergence.

     

Principe local-global pour les zéro-cycles sur les surfaces réglées

Let be a number field, a smooth projective curve, and a smooth projective surface which is a conic bundle over . Let be the relative Chow group, which is the kernel of the projection map on Chow groups of zero-cycles. For each place of , one may consider the relative Chow group . Under minor assumptions, we identify the diagonal image of in the product of all as the kernel of the natural pairing with the Brauer group of . When is an elliptic curve with finite Tate-Shafarevich group, under minor assumptions, we show that the Brauer-Manin obstruction to the existence of a zero-cycle of degree one on is the only obstruction.

     

Order -adic field

Let be an algebraically closed field of characteristic the ring of Witt vectors and a complete discrete valuation ring dominating and containing a primitive -th root of unity. Let denote a uniformizing parameter for We study order automorphisms of the formal power series ring which are defined by a series

The set of fixed points of is denoted by and we suppose that they are -rational and that for Let be the minimal semi-stable model of the -adic open disc over in which specializes to distinct smooth points. We study the differential data that can be associated to each irreducible component of the special fibre of Using this data we show that if , then the fixed points are equidistant, and that there are only a finite number of conjugacy classes of order automorphisms in which are not the identity

     

Dirac cohomology, unitary representations and a proof of a conjecture of Vogan

Let be a connected semisimple Lie group with finite center. Let be the maximal compact subgroup of corresponding to a fixed Cartan involution . We prove a conjecture of Vogan which says that if the Dirac cohomology of an irreducible unitary -module contains a -type with highest weight , then has infinitesimal character . Here is the half sum of the compact positive roots. As an application of the main result we classify irreducible unitary -modules with non-zero Dirac cohomology, provided has a strongly regular infinitesimal character. We also mention a generalization to the setting of Kostant's cubic Dirac operator.

     

On the equation and application to control of phases

The main result is the following. Let be a bounded Lipschitz domain in , . Then for every with , there exists a solution of the equation div in , satisfying in addition on and the estimate

where depends only on . However one cannot choose depending linearly on .

Our proof is constructive, but nonlinear--which is quite surprising for such an elementary linear PDE. When there is a simpler proof by duality--hence nonconstructive.

     

Double affine Hecke algebras and 2-dimensional local fields

We give an interpretation of the double affine Hecke algebra of Cherednik as a (suitably regularized) algebra of double cosets of a group by a subgroup , extending the well-known interpretations of the finite and affine Hecke algebras. In this interpretation, consists of -points of a simple algebraic group, where is a 2-dimensional local field such as or , and is a certain analog of the Iwahori subgroup.

     

Zeta function of representations of compact -adic analytic groups

Let be an FAb compact -adic analytic group and suppose that 2$"> or and is uniform. We prove that there are natural numbers and functions rational in such that

     

Locally analytic distributions and

In this paper we study continuous representations of locally -analytic groups in locally convex -vector spaces, where is a finite extension of and is a spherically complete nonarchimedean extension field of . The class of such representations includes both the smooth representations of Langlands theory and the finite dimensional algebraic representations of , along with interesting new objects such as the action of on global sections of equivariant vector bundles on -adic symmetric spaces. We introduce a restricted category of such representations that we call ``strongly admissible' and we show that, when is compact, our category is anti-equivalent to a subcategory of the category of modules over the locally analytic distribution algebra of . As an application we prove the topological irreducibility of generic members of the -adic principal series for . Our hope is that our definition of strongly admissible representation may be used as a foundation for a general theory of continuous -valued representations of locally -analytic groups.

     

Generalized group characters and complex oriented cohomology theories

Let be the classifying space of a finite group . Given a multiplicative cohomology theory , the assignment

is a functor from groups to rings, endowed with induction (transfer) maps. In this paper we investigate these functors for complex oriented cohomology theories , using the theory of complex representations of finite groups as a model for what one would like to know.

An analogue of Artin's Theorem is proved for all complex oriented : the abelian subgroups of serve as a detecting family for , modulo torsion dividing the order of .

When is a complete local ring, with residue field of characteristic and associated formal group of height , we construct a character ring of class functions that computes . The domain of the characters is , the set of -tuples of elements in each of which has order a power of . A formula for induction is also found. The ideas we use are related to the Lubin-Tate theory of formal groups. The construction applies to many cohomology theories of current interest: completed versions of elliptic cohomology, -theory, etc.

The th Morava K-theory Euler characteristic for is computed to be the number of -orbits in . For various groups , including all symmetric groups, we prove that is concentrated in even degrees.

Our results about extend to theorems about , where is a finite -CW complex.

     

Quasianalyticity and pluripolarity

We show that the graph

in of a function on the unit circle which is either continuous and quasianalytic in the sense of Bernstein or and quasianalytic in the sense of Denjoy is pluripolar.

     

The McKay correspondence as an equivalence of derived categories

Let be a finite group of automorphisms of a nonsingular three-dimensional complex variety , whose canonical bundle is locally trivial as a -sheaf. We prove that the Hilbert scheme parametrising -clusters in is a crepant resolution of and that there is a derived equivalence (Fourier-Mukai transform) between coherent sheaves on and coherent -sheaves on . This identifies the K theory of with the equivariant K theory of , and thus generalises the classical McKay correspondence. Some higher-dimensional extensions are possible.

     

On the number of zero-patterns of a sequence of polynomials

Let be a sequence of polynomials of degree in variables over a field . The zero-pattern of at is the set of those ( ) for which . Let denote the number of zero-patterns of as ranges over . We prove that for and

for . For , these bounds are optimal within a factor of . The bound () improves the bound proved by J. Heintz (1983) using the dimension theory of affine varieties. Over the field of real numbers, bounds stronger than Heintz's but slightly weaker than () follow from results of J. Milnor (1964), H.E.  Warren (1968), and others; their proofs use techniques from real algebraic geometry. In contrast, our half-page proof is a simple application of the elementary ``linear algebra bound'.

Heintz applied his bound to estimate the complexity of his quantifier elimination algorithm for algebraically closed fields. We give several additional applications. The first two establish the existence of certain combinatorial objects. Our first application, motivated by the ``branching program' model in the theory of computing, asserts that over any field , most graphs with vertices have projective dimension (the implied constant is absolute). This result was previously known over the reals (Pudlák-Rödl). The second application concerns a lower bound in the span program model for computing Boolean functions. The third application, motivated by a paper by N. Alon, gives nearly tight Ramsey bounds for matrices whose entries are defined by zero-patterns of a sequence of polynomials. We conclude the paper with a number of open problems.

     

Purity of the stratification by Newton polygons

Let be a variety in characteristic . Suppose we are given a nondegenerate -crystal over , for example the th relative crystalline cohomology sheaf of a family of smooth projective varieties over . At each point of we have the Newton polygon associated to the action of on the fibre of the crystal at . According to a theorem of Grothendieck the Newton polygon jumps up under specialization. The main theorem of this paper is that the jumps occur in codimension on (the Purity Theorem). As an application we prove some results on deformations of iso-simple -divisible groups.