Solution of Equations with One Variable

Let a function f(x) C ^(r)[a,b], r 0, and take values that have different signs at the endpoints of the interval [a,b]. In the article, we propose effective methods for calculating real roots of the equation f(x)=0 on the given interval [a,b]. We substantiate this method and make a comparison between this method and the chord and Newton methods.     

On bounds for the range of ordered variates II

Letx ₁, ,x _n be real numbers with ₁ ⁿ x _j =0, |x ₁ ||x ₂ ||x _n |, and ₁ ⁿ f(|x _i |)=A>0, wheref is a continuous, strictly increasing function on [0, ) withf(0)=0. Using a generalized Chebycheff inequality (or directly) it is easy to see that an upper bound for |x _m | isf ^–1 (A/(n–m+1)). If (n–m+1) is even, this bound is best possible, but not otherwise. Best upper bounds are obtained in case (n–m+1) is odd provided either (i)f is strictly convex on [0, ), or (ii)f is strictly concave on [0, ). Explicit best bounds are given as examples of (i) and (ii), namely the casesf(x)=x ^p forp>1 and 0<p<1 respectively.     

Estimate of the Remainder of the Best Quadratic Approximation of Differentiable Functions by Polynomials

We establish lower and upper bounds for the quantity

On two mean value properties and functional equations associated with them

Summary Motivated by different mean value properties, the functional equationsf(x) – f(y)/x–y=[(x, y)], (i)xf(y) – yf(x)/x–y=[(x, y)] (ii) (x y) are completely solved when, are arithmetic, geometric or harmonic means andx, y elements of proper real intervals. In view of a duality between (i) and (ii), three of the results are consequences of other three.The equation (ii) is also solved when is a (strictly monotonic) quasiarithmetic mean while the real interval contains 0 and when is the arithmetic mean while the domain is a field of characteristic different from 2 and 3. (A result similar to the latter has been proved previously for (i).)     

Strong Spherical Asymptotics for Rotor-Router Aggregation and the Divisible Sandpile

The rotor-router model is a deterministic analogue of random walk. It can be used to define a deterministic growth model analogous to internal DLA. We prove that the asymptotic shape of this model is a Euclidean ball, in a sense which is stronger than our earlier work (Levine and Peres, Indiana Univ Math J 57(1):431–450, 2008). For the shape consisting of sites, where ω _d is the volume of the unit ball in , we show that the inradius of the set of occupied sites is at least r − O(logr), while the outradius is at most r + O(r ^α ) for any α > 1 − 1/d. For a related model, the divisible sandpile, we show that the domain of occupied sites is a Euclidean ball with error in the radius a constant independent of the total mass. For the classical abelian sandpile model in two dimensions, with n = πr ² particles, we show that the inradius is at least , and the outradius is at most . This improves on bounds of Le Borgne and Rossin. Similar bounds apply in higher dimensions, improving on bounds of Fey and Redig. Yuval Peres is partially supported by NSF grant DMS-0605166.     

On sums of subsets of a set of integers

Forr2 letp(n, r) denote the maximum cardinality of a subsetA ofN={1, 2,...,n} such that there are noBA and an integery with b=y ^r. It is shown that for any>0 andn>n(), (1+o(1))2^1/(r+1) n ^{(r–1)/(r+1)}p(n, r)n ^+2/3 for allr5, and that for every fixedr6,p(n, r)=(1+o(1))·2^1/(r+1) n ^{(r–1)/(r+1)} asn. Letf(n, m) denote the maximum cardinality of a subsetA ofN such that there is noBA the sum of whose elements ism. It is proved that for 3n ^6/3+mn ²/20 log² n andn>n(), f(n, m)=[n/s]+s–2, wheres is the smallest integer that does not dividem. A special case of this result establishes a conjecture of Erds and Graham.Research supported in part by Allon Fellowship, by a Bat-Sheva de Rothschild Grant and by the Fund for Basic Research administered by the Israel Academy of Sciences.     

Posterior Sensitivity to the Sampling Distribution and the Prior: More than One Observation

Sensitivity of a posterior quantity (f, P) to the choice of the sampling distribution f and prior P is considered. Sensitivity is measured by the range of (f, P) when f and P vary in nonparametric classes ^f and ^P respectively. Direct and iterative methods are described which obtain the range of (f, P) over f ^f when prior P is fixed, and also the overall range over f ^f and P ^P . When multiple i.i.d. observations X ₁,...,X _k are observed from f, the posterior quantity (f, P) is not a ratio-linear function of f. A method of steepest descent is proposed to obtain the range of (f, P). Several examples illustrate applications of these methods.     

Asymptotic behavior of Brownian polymers

Summary We consider a system that models the shape of a growing polymer. Our basic problem concerns the asymptotic behavior ofX _t , the location of the end of the polymer at timet. We obtain bounds onX _t in the (physically uninteresting) case thatd=1 and the interaction functionf(x)0. If, in addition,f(x) behaves for largex likeCx ^– with <1 we obtain a strong law that gives the exact growth rate.Partially supported by the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Office through the Mathematical Sciences Institute (MSI) at Cornell UniversityPartially supported by SERC grant GR/G02307 and MSI, this work was done while the second author was visiting Cornell, April–July, 1990     

On Singularities of Generating Functions of Pólya Frequency Sequences of Finite Order

Let E be a closed set in C satisfying the conditions: (i) E is symmetric with respect to the real axis, (ii) E {z:|z|1} = . For any r 1 there exists a function f(z) satisfying the properties: (i) f(z) is a generating function of a Pólya frequency sequence of order r, (ii) the singularity set of f(z) is E {1}.     

Fourier inversion for multidimensional characteristic functions

A density functionf(x),xR ⁿ is said to bepiecewise smooth if for eachxR ⁿ , the mean value function is piecewiseC with compact support. (d is normalized surface measure on the unit sphere). The Fourier transform is with spherical partial sum . Theorem. For suchf, lim _r f _R (x)=M ₀+f(x) if and only ifrM _r f(x) hask=[(n–3)/2] continuous derivatives. ([]=integer part). Otherwise we have lim where 0 is uniquely determined.     

On the general solution of a nonsymmetric partial difference functional equation analogous to the wave equation

We give the general solution of the nonsymmetric partial difference functional equationf(x + t,y) + f(x – t,y) – 2f(x,y)/t ² =f(x,y + s) + f(x,y – s) – 2f(x,y)/s ² (N) analogous to the well-known wave equation ( ²/x ² – ²/y ²)f(x,y) = 0 with the aid of generalized polynomials when no regularity assumptions are imposed onf. The result is as follows. Theorem.Let R be the set of all real numbers. A function f: R × R R satisfies the functional equation (N)for all x, y R, s, t R\{0}, and s t if and only if there exist

An extreme value theory for long head runs

Summary For an infinite sequence of independent coin tosses withP(Heads)=p(0,1), the longest run of consecutive heads in the firstn tosses is a natural object of study. We show that the probabilistic behavior of the length of the longest pure head run is closely approximated by that of the greatest integer function of the maximum ofn(1-p) i.i.d. exponential random variables. These results are extended to the case of the longest head run interrupted byk tails. The mean length of this run is shown to be log(n)+klog(n)+(k+1)log(1–p)–log(k!)+k+/–1/2+ r₁(n)+ o(1) where log=log_1/p , =0.577 ... is the Euler-Mascheroni constant, =ln(1/p), andr ₁(n) is small. The variance is ₂/6²+1/12 +r ₂(n)+ o(1), wherer ₂(n) is again small. Upper and lower class results for these run lengths are also obtained and extensions discussed.This work was supported by a grant from the System Development Foundation     

An inequality linking packing and covering densities of plane convex bodies

For every convex body K in R ², let (K) denote the packing density of K, i.e. the density of the tightest packing of congruent copies of K in R ², and let (K) denote the covering density of K, i.e. the density of the thinnest covering of R ² with congruent copies of K. It is shown here that 4(K)3(K) for every convex body K in R ². This inequality is the strongest possible, since if E is an ellipse, then the equality 4(E)=3(E) holds. Two corollaries are presented, and a summary of known bounds for packing and covering densities is given.     

Sharp Lipschitz constant of bi-Lipschitz automorphism on Cantor set

Suppose C _r = (r C _r ) ∪ (r C _r + 1 − r) is a self-similar set with r ∈ (0, 1/2), and Aut(C _r ) is the set of all bi-Lipschitz automorphisms on C _r . This paper proves that there exists f* ∈ Aut(C _r ) such that

Stochastic properties of quadrature formulas

Summary The average error of suitable quadrature formulas and the stochastic error of Monte Carlo methods are both much smaller than the worst case error in many cases. This depends, however, on the classF of functions which is considered and there are counterexamples as well.Nonlinear methods, adaptive methods, or even methods with varying cardinality are not significantly better (with respect to certain stochastic error bounds) than the simplest linear methods .     

Explicit Convergence Rates of the Embedded M/G/1 Queue

This paper investigates the explicit convergence rates to the stationary distribution π of the embedded M/G/1 queue; specifically, for suitable rate functions r（n） which may be polynomial with r（n） = n^l, l 〉 0 or geometric with r（n） = α^n, a 〉 1 and ＂moments＂ f ≥ 1, we find the conditions under which Σ∞n=0 r（n）｜｜P^n（i,·） - π（·）｜｜f ≤ M（i） for all i ∈ E. For the polynomial case, the explicit bounds on M（i） are given in terms of both ＂drift functions＂ and behavior of the first hitting time on the state O; and for the geometric case, the largest geometric convergence rate α＊ is obtained.     

On the distribution of square-full and cube-full integers

LetN _r (x) be the number ofr-full integers x and let _r (x) be the error term in the asymptotic formula forN _r (x). Under Riemann's hypothesis, we prove the estimates ₂(x)x^1/7+, ₃(x)x^97/804+(>0), which improve those of Cao and Nowak. We also investigate the distribution ofr-full andl-free numbers in short intervals (r=2,3). Our results sharpen Krätzel's estimates.     

Upper bounds of best one-sided approximations of the classes WrLΨ in the metric of L

The lowest upper bound is obtained for best one-sided approximations of classes (r=1,2 ...) by trigonometric polynomials and splines of minimum deficiency with equidistant knots, in the metric of space L, where W^rL={f:f(x+2)=f(x), f^(r–1)(x) is absolutely continuous, f ^(r)L 1} and L is an Orlicz space.Translated from Matematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 257–267, August, 1977.     

Dually Degenerate Varieties and the Generalization of a Theorem of Griffiths–Harris

The dual variety X^* for a smooth n-dimensional variety X of the projective space P^N is the set of tangent hyperplanes to X. In the general case, the variety X^* is a hypersurface in the dual space (P^N)^*. If dimX^*<N–1, then the variety X is called dually degenerate. The authors refine these definitions for a variety XP^N with a degenerate Gauss map of rankr. For such a variety, in the general case, the dimension of its dual variety X^* is N–l–1, where l=n–r, and X is dually degenerate if dimX^*<N–l–1. In 1979 Griffiths and Harris proved that a smooth variety XP^N is dually degenerate if and only if all its second fundamental forms are singular. The authors generalize this theorem for a variety XP^N with a degenerate Gauss map of rankr. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000) 53A20.     

An Inequality for Large Deviation Probabilities of Sums of Bounded i.i.d. Random Variables

We provide precise bounds for tail probabilities, say {M _n x}, of sums M _n of bounded i.i.d. random variables. The bounds are expressed through tail probabilities of sums of i.i.d. Bernoulli random variables. In other words, we show that the tails are sub-Bernoullian. Sub-Bernoullian tails are dominated by Gaussian tails. Possible extensions of the methods are discussed.