Intrinsic metrics for non-local symmetric Dirichlet forms and applications to spectral theory

We present a study of what may be called an intrinsic metric for a general regular Dirichlet form. For such forms we then prove a Rademacher type theorem. For strongly local forms we show existence of a maximal intrinsic metric (under a weak continuity condition) and for Dirichlet forms with an absolutely continuous jump kernel we characterize intrinsic metrics by bounds on certain integrals. We then turn to applications on spectral theory and provide for (measure perturbation of) general regular Dirichlet forms an Allegretto–Piepenbrink type theorem, which is based on a ground state transform, and a Shnol' type theorem. Our setting includes Laplacian on manifolds, on graphs and α-stable processes.     

A support property for infinite-dimensional interacting diffusion processes

The Dirichlet form associated with the intrinsic gradient on Poisson space is known to be quasi-regular on the complete metric space Γ = {ℤ₊-valued Radon measures on ℝ^d}. We show that under mild conditions, the set Γ\Γ is ɛ-exceptional, where Γ is the space of locally finite configurations in ℝ^d, that is, measures γ ε Γ satisfying sup_xε, γ({x}) ≤ 1. Thus, the associated diffusion lives on the smaller space Γ. This result also holds for Gibbs measures with superstable interactions.     

Orthogonal polynomials in several variables for measures with mass points

Let dν be a measure in ? ^d obtained from adding a set of mass points to another measure dμ. Orthogonal polynomials in several variables associated with dν can be explicitly expressed in terms of orthogonal polynomials associated with dμ, so are the reproducing kernels associated with these polynomials. The explicit formulas that are obtained are further specialized in the case of Jacobi measure on the simplex, with mass points added on the vertices, which are then used to study the asymptotics kernel functions for dν.     

IFS attractors and Cantor sets

We build a metric space which is homeomorphic to a Cantor set but cannot be realized as the attractor of an iterated function system. We give also an example of a Cantor set K in R³ such that every homeomorphism f of R³ which preserves K coincides with the identity on K.     

Self-similarity and spectral asymptotics for the continuum random tree

We use the random self-similarity of the continuum random tree to show that it is homeomorphic to a post-critically finite self-similar fractal equipped with a random self-similar metric. As an application, we determine the mean and almost-sure leading order behaviour of the high frequency asymptotics of the eigenvalue counting function associated with the natural Dirichlet form on the continuum random tree. We also obtain short time asymptotics for the trace of the heat semigroup and the annealed on-diagonal heat kernel associated with this Dirichlet form.     

Isometric embeddings of finite metric spaces

It is proved that there exists a metric on a Cantor set such that any finite metric space whose diameter does not exceed 1 and the number of points does not exceed n can be isometrically embedded into it. It is also proved that for any m, n ∈ N there exists a Cantor set in R^m that isometrically contains all finite metric spaces which can be embedded into R^m, contain at most n points, and have the diameter at most 1. The latter result is proved for a wide class of metrics on R^m and, in particular, for the Euclidean metric.     

Singularité de la mesure harmonique sur le bord d'un groupe hyperbolique

This Note deals with the dimension of the harmonic measure ν associated with a random walk on the isometry group of a Gromov hyperbolic space. We establish a link of the form $\dim \nu ?h/l$ between the dimension of the harmonic measure, the asymptotic entropy h of the random walk and its rate of escape l. Then we use this inequality to show that the dimension of this measure can be made arbitrarily small and deduce a result on the type of the harmonic measure. To cite this article: V. Le Prince, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 340 (2005).     

Weak shadowing for discrete dynamical systems on nonsmooth manifolds

In J. Math. Anal. Appl. 189 (1995) 409-423, Corless and Pilyugin proved that weak shadowing is a C⁰ generic property in the space of discrete dynamical systems on a compact smooth manifold M. In our paper we give another proof of this theorem which does not assume that M has a differential structure. Moreover, our method also works for systems on some compact metric spaces that are not manifolds, such as a Hilbert cube (or generally, a countably infinite Cartesian product of manifolds with boundary) and a Cantor set.     

Obtaining upper bounds of heat kernels from lower bounds

We show that a near‐diagonal lower bound of the heat kernel of a Dirichlet form on a metric measure space with a regular measure implies an on‐diagonal upper bound. If in addition the Dirichlet form is local and regular, then we obtain a full off‐diagonal upper bound of the heat kernel provided the Dirichlet heat kernel on any ball satisfies a near‐diagonal lower estimate. This reveals a new phenomenon in the relationship between the lower and upper bounds of the heat kernel. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A discrete Gauss-Green identity for unbounded Laplace operators, and the transience of random walks

On a finite network (connected weighted undirected graph), the relationship between the natural Dirichlet form E and the discrete Laplace operator Δ is given by $\varepsilon (u,v) = {\langle u,\Delta v\rangle _{{\ell ^2}}}$ , where the latter is the usual ? ² inner product. This formula is not generally true for infinite networks; earlier authors have given various conditions under which this formula remains valid. Instead, we extend this formula to arbitrary infinite networks (including the case when Δ is unbounded) by including a new (boundary) term, in parallel with the classical Gauss-Green identity. This tool allows for detailed study of the boundary of the network. We construct a reproducing kernel for the space of functions of finite energy which allows us to specify a dense domain for Δ and give several criteria for the transience of the random walk on the network. The extended Gauss-Green identity and the reproducing kernel also yield a boundary integral representation for harmonic functions of finite energy. The boundary representation is developed further in [24].     

Berezin kernels and analysis on Makarevich spaces

Following ideas of van Dijk and Hille we study the link which exists between maximal degenerate representations and Berezin kernels.We consider the conformal group Conf(V) of a simple real Jordan algebra V. The maximal degenerate representations π_s (s ε ℂ) we shall study are induced by a character of a maximal parabolic subgroup P¯ of Conf(V). These representations π_s can be realized on a space I_s of smooth functions on V. There is an invariant bilinear form ℬ_s on the space Is. The problem we consider is to diagonalize this bilinear form ℬ_s, with respect to the action of a symmetric subgroup G of the conformal group Conf(V). This bilinear form can be written as an integral involving the Berezin kernel B_v an invariant kernel on the Riemannian symmetric space G/K, which is a Makarevich symmetric space in the sense of Bertram. Then we can use results by van Dijk and Pevzner who computed the spherical Fourier transform of B_v. From these, one deduces that the Berezin kernel satisfies a remarkable Bernstein identity: D(_ν)B_ν=b(ν)B_ν+1, where D(_ν) is an invariant differential operator on G/K and b(ν) is a polynomial. By using this identity we compute a Hua type integral which gives the normalizing factor for an intertwining operator from I_−s to I_s. Furthermore, we obtain the diagonalization of the invariant bilinear form with respect to the action of the maximal compact group U of the conformal group Conf(V).     

Level crossing probabilities II: Polygonal recurrence of multidimensional random walks

In part I we proved for an arbitrary one-dimensional random walk with independent increments that the probability of crossing a level at a given time n is O(n−1/2). In higher dimensions we call a random walk ‘polygonally recurrent’ if there is a bounded set, hit by infinitely many of the straight lines between two consecutive sites a.s. The above estimate implies that three-dimensional random walks with independent components are polygonally transient. Similarly a directionally reinforced random walk on Z³ in the sense of Mauldin, Monticino and von Weizsäcker [R.D. Mauldin, M. Monticino, H. von Weizsäcker, Directionally reinforced random walks, Adv. Math. 117 (1996) 239-252] is transient. On the other hand, we construct an example of a transient but polygonally recurrent random walk with independent components on Z².     

Ultrametric Cantor sets and growth of measure

A class of ultrametric Cantor sets (C, d _u ) introduced recently (S. Raut and D. P. Datta, Fractals 17, 45–52 (2009)) is shown to enjoy some novel properties. The ultrametric d _u is defined using the concept of relative infinitesimals and an inversion rule. The associated (infinitesimal) valuation which turns out to be both scale and reparametrization invariant, is identified with the Cantor function associated with a Cantor set $ \tilde C $ \tilde C , where the relative infinitesimals are supposed to live in. These ultrametrics are both metrically as well as topologically inequivalent compared to the topology induced by the usual metric. Every point of the original Cantor set C is identified with the closure of the set of gaps of $ \tilde C $ \tilde C . The increments on such an ultrametric space is accomplished by following the inversion rule. As a consequence, Cantor functions are reinterpreted as locally constant functions on these extended ultrametric spaces. An interesting phenomenon, called growth of measure, is studied on such an ultrametric space. Using the reparametrization invariance of the valuation it is shown how the scale factors of a Lebesgue measure zero Cantor set might get deformed leading to a deformed Cantor set with a positive measure. The definition of a new valuated exponent is introduced which is shown to yield the fatness exponent in the case of a positive measure (fat) Cantor set. However, the valuated exponent can also be used to distinguish Cantor sets with identical Hausdorff dimension and thickness. A class of Cantor sets with Hausdorff dimension log₃ 2 and thickness 1 are constructed explicitly.     

Free continuous actions on zero-dimensional spaces

We show that every countably infinite group admits a free, continuous action on the Cantor set having an invariant probability measure. We also show that every countably infinite group admits a free, continuous action on a non-homogeneous compact metric space and the action is minimal (that is to say, every orbit is dense). In answer to a question posed by Giordano, Putnam and Skau, we establish that there is a continuous, minimal action of a countably infinite group on the Cantor set such that no free continuous action of any group gives rise to the same equivalence relation.     

Gradient flows of the entropy for finite Markov chains

Let K be an irreducible and reversible Markov kernel on a finite set X. We construct a metric W on the set of probability measures on X and show that with respect to this metric, the law of the continuous time Markov chain evolves as the gradient flow of the entropy. This result is a discrete counterpart of the Wasserstein gradient flow interpretation of the heat flow in Rn by Jordan, Kinderlehrer and Otto (1998). The metric W is similar to, but different from, the L²-Wasserstein metric, and is defined via a discrete variant of the Benamou-Brenier formula.     

Analysis on free Riemannian path spaces

The gradient operator is defined on the free path space with reference measure Pμ, the law of the Brownian motion on the base manifold with initial distribution μ, where μ has strictly positive density w.r.t. the volume measure. The formula of integration by parts is established for the underlying directional derivatives, which implies the closability of the gradient operator so that it induces a conservative Dirichlet form on the free path space. The log-Sobolev inequality for this Dirichlet form is established and, consequently, the transportation cost inequality is obtained for the associated intrinsic distance.     

A kernel for automorphic L-functions

The full multiple Dirichlet series of an automorphic cusp form is defined, in classical language, as a Dirichlet series of several complex variables over all the Fourier coefficients of the cusp form. It is different from the L-function of Godement and Jacquet, which is defined as a Dirichlet series in one complex variable over a one-dimensional array of the Fourier coefficients. In GL(2) and GL(3), the two notions are simply related. In this paper, we construct a kernel function that gives the full multiple Dirichlet series of automorphic cusp forms on GL(n,R). The kernel function is a new Poincaré series. Specifically, the inner product of a cusp form with this Poincaré series is the product of the full multiple Dirichlet series of the form times a function that is essentially the Mellin transform of Jacquet's Whittaker function. In the proof, the full multiple Dirichlet series is produced by applying the Lipschitz summation formula several times and by an integral which collapses the sum over SL(n−1,Z) in the Fourier expansion of the cusp form.     

Capacity and Covering Numbers

We establish the inequality $1/C_K(E)\ge \int_0^\infty |dK(t)|/N_E(t)$ , where E is a compact metric space, K is a kernel function, C _K is the associated capacity, and N _E (t) denotes the minimal number of sets of diameter t needed to cover E. We give applications to the capacity of generalized Cantor sets, and to the capacity of δ-neighborhoods of a set. We also investigate possible converses to the inequality.     

Explosion of Jump-Type Symmetric Dirichlet Forms on ℝ d

We give a sufficient condition for a class of jump-type symmetric Dirichlet forms on ? ^d to be conservative in terms of the jump kernel and the associated measure. Our condition allows the coefficients dominating big jumps to be unbounded. We derive the conservativeness for Dirichlet forms related to symmetric stable processes. We also show that our criterion is sharp by using time changed Dirichlet forms. We finally remark that our approach is applicable to jump-diffusion type symmetric Dirichlet forms on ? ^d .     

Rough sets based matrix approaches with dynamic attribute variation in set-valued information systems

Set-valued information systems are generalized models of single-valued information systems. The attribute set in the set-valued information system may evolve over time when new information arrives. Approximations of a concept by rough set theory need updating for knowledge discovery or other related tasks. Based on a matrix representation of rough set approximations, a basic vector H(X) is induced from the relation matrix. Four cut matrices of H(X), denoted by H^[μ,ν](X), H^(μ,ν](X), H^[μ,ν)(X) and H^(μ,ν)(X), are derived for the approximations, positive, boundary and negative regions intuitively. The variation of the relation matrix is discussed while the system varies over time. The incremental approaches for updating the relation matrix are proposed to update rough set approximations. The algorithms corresponding to the incremental approaches are presented. Extensive experiments on different data sets from UCI and user-defined data sets show that the proposed incremental approaches effectively reduce the computational time in comparison with the non-incremental approach.