The geometric invariants $${\Omega^{n}}$$ of a product of groups

We compute the geometric invariants of a product G × H of groups in terms of and . This gives a sufficient condition in terms of and for a normal subgroup of G × H with abelian quotient to be of type F _n . We give an example involving the direct product of the Baumslag–Solitar group BS_1,2 with itself.      

Première valeur propre du laplacien, volume conforme et chirurgies

We define a new differential invariant a compact manifold by , where V _c (M, [g]) is the conformal volume of M for the conformal class [g], and prove that it is uniformly bounded above. The main motivation is that this bound provides a upper bound of the Friedlander-Nadirashvili invariant defined by . The proof relies on the study of the behaviour of when one performs surgeries on M.      

A speciality theorem for curves in P<Superscript>5</Superscript>

Let be an integral projective curve. One defines the speciality index e(C) of C as the maximal integer t such that , where ω _C denotes the dualizing sheaf of . Extending a classical result of Halphen concerning the speciality of a space curve, in the present paper we prove that if is an integral degree d curve not contained in any surface of degree  < s, in any threefold of degree  < t, and in any fourfold of degree  < u, and if , then Moreover equality holds if and only if C is a complete intersection of hypersurfaces of degrees u, , and . We give also some partial results in the general case , .      

The Action of the Mapping Class Group on Maximal Representations

Let Γ _g be the fundamental group of a closed oriented Riemann surface Σ _g , g ≥ 2, and let G be a simple Lie group of Hermitian type. The Toledo invariant defines the subset of maximal representations Rep_max(Γ _g , G) in the representation variety Rep(Γ _g , G). Rep_max(Γ _g , G) is a union of connected components with similar properties as Teichmüller space . We prove that the mapping class group acts properly on Rep_max(Γ _g , G) when , SU(n,n), SO*(4n), Spin(2,n).     

Non-free isometric immersions of Riemannian manifolds

Let (V, g) be a Riemannian manifold and let be the isometric immersion operator which, to a map , associates the induced metric on V, where denotes the Euclidean scalar product in . By Nash–Gromov implicit function theorem is infinitesimally invertible over the space of free maps. In this paper we study non-free isometric immersions . We show that the operator (where denotes the space of C ^∞- smooth quadratic forms on ) is infinitesimally invertible over a non-empty open subset of and therefore is an open map in the respective fine topologies.      

Threshold θ ≥ 2 contact processes on homogeneous trees

We study the threshold θ ≥ 2 contact process on a homogeneous tree of degree κ = b + 1, with infection parameter λ ≥ 0 and started from a product measure with density p. The corresponding mean-field model displays a discontinuous transition at a critical point and for it survives iff , where this critical density satisfies , . For large b, we show that the process on has a qualitatively similar behavior when λ is small, including the behavior at and close to the critical point . In contrast, for large λ the behavior of the process on is qualitatively distinct from that of the mean-field model in that the critical density has . We also show that , where 1 < Φ₂ < Φ₃ < ..., , and . The work of L.R.F. was partially supported by the Brazilian CNPq through grants 307978/2004-4 and 475833/2003-1, and by FAPESP through grant 04/07276-2. The work of R.H.S. was partially supported by the American N.S.F. through grant DMS-0300672.     

Surfaces with many solitary points

It is classically known that a real cubic surface in cannot have more than one solitary point (or -singularity, locally given by x ² + y ² + z ² = 0) whereas it can have up to four nodes (or -singularity, locally given by x ² + y ² − z ² = 0). We show that on any surface of degree d ≥ 3 in the maximum possible number of solitary points is strictly smaller than the maximum possible number of nodes. Conversely, we adapt a construction of Chmutov to obtain surfaces with many solitary points by using a refined version of Brusotti’s Theorem. Combining lower and upper bounds, we deduce: , where denotes the maximum possible number of solitary points on a real surface of degree d in . Finally, we adapt this construction to get real algebraic surfaces in with many singular points of type for all k ≥ 1.      

On Uniform Exponential Stability of Exponentially Bounded Evolution Families

A result of Barbashin ([1], [15]) states that an exponentially bounded evolution family defined on a Banach space and satisfying some measurability conditions is uniformly exponentially stable if and only if for some 1 ≤ p < ∞, we have that:

Campedelli surfaces with fundamental group of order 8

Let S be a Campedelli surface (a minimal surface of general type with p _g  = 0, K ² = 2), and an etale cover of degree 8. We prove that the canonical model of Y is a complete intersection of four quadrics . As a consequence, Y is the universal cover of S, the covering group G = Gal(Y/S) is the topological fundamental group π ₁ S and G cannot be the dihedral group D ₄ of order 8. The first author is a member of the Centre for Mathematical Analysis, Geometry and Dynamical Systems, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisboa. The second is a member of G.N.S.A.G.A.–I.N.d.A.M.     

Upper Triangular Operator Matrices, SVEP and Browder, Weyl Theorems

A Banach space operator T ∈ B(χ) is polaroid if points λ ∈ iso σ(T) are poles of the resolvent of T. Let denote, respectively, the approximate point, the Weyl, the Weyl essential approximate, the upper semi–Fredholm and lower semi–Fredholm spectrum of T. For A, B and C ∈ B(χ), let M _C denote the operator matrix . If A is polaroid on , M ₀ satisfies Weyl’s theorem, and A and B satisfy either of the hypotheses (i) A has SVEP at points and B has SVEP at points , or, (ii) both A and A* have SVEP at points , or, (iii) A^* has SVEP at points and B ^* has SVEP at points , then . Here the hypothesis that λ ∈ π₀(M _C ) are poles of the resolvent of A can not be replaced by the hypothesis are poles of the resolvent of A. For an operator , let . We prove that if A* and B* have SVEP, A is polaroid on π ^a ₀(M _C) and B is polaroid on π ^a ₀(B), then .      

Symplectic structure and reduction on the space of Riemannian metrics

The space of Riemannian metrics ${\mathfrak{Met}}MThe space of Riemannian metrics on an oriented compact manifold M of dimension n = 4k − 2 is endowed with a canonical presymplectic structure and a moment map [cf. Ferreiro Pérez and Mu?oz Masqué, Preprint (arXiv: math.DG/0507075)]. The fiber is characterized as the space of solutions to a differential equation. In dimension 2, the symplectic reduction of is analyzed and the construction presented here is compared with that introduced in Donaldson (Fields Medallists’ Lectures, 1997) and Fujiki (Sugaku Expositions 5(2):173–191, 1992). Finally, conformally flat metrics and, for n = 6, K?hler metrics of constant holomorphic sectional curvature are shown to be contained in .      

A posteriori error analysis for higher order dissipative methods for evolution problems

We prove a posteriori error estimates for time discretizations by the discontinuous Galerkin method dG(q) and the corresponding implicit Runge- Kutta-Radau method IRK-R(q) of arbitrary order q≥0 for both linear and nonlinear evolution problems of the form , with γ²-angle bounded operator . The key ingredient is a novel higher order reconstruction of the discrete solution U, which restores continuity and leads to the differential equation for a suitable interpolation operator Π and piecewise polynomial approximation F of f. We discuss applications to linear PDE, such as the convection-diffusion equation (γ ≥ 1/2) and the wave equation (formally γ = ∞), and nonlinear PDE corresponding to subgradient operators (γ = 1), such as the p-Laplacian, as well as Lipschitz operators (γ ≥ 1/2). We also derive conditional a posteriori error estimates for the time-dependent minimal surface problem.Partially supported by NSF Grants DMS-9971450 and DMS-0204670 and the General Research Board of the University of Maryland.     

Lie group structures on groups of smooth and holomorphic maps on non-compact manifolds

We study Lie group structures on groups of the form C ^∞(M, K), where M is a non-compact smooth manifold and K is a, possibly infinite-dimensional, Lie group. First we prove that there is at most one Lie group structure with Lie algebra for which the evaluation map is smooth. We then prove the existence of such a structure if the universal cover of K is diffeomorphic to a locally convex space and if the image of the left logarithmic derivative in is a smooth submanifold, the latter being the case in particular if M is one-dimensional. We also obtain analogs of these results for the group of holomorphic maps on a complex manifold with values in a complex Lie group K. We further show that there exists a natural Lie group structure on if K is Banach and M is a non-compact complex curve with finitely generated fundamental group.      

Diameter preserving bijections between Grassmann spaces over Bezout domains

Let R, S be Bezout domains. Assume that n is an integer ≥ 3, 1 ≤ k ≤ n − 2. Denoted by the k-dimensional Grassmann space on . Let be a map. This paper proves the following are equivalent: (i) is an adjacency preserving bijection in both directions. (ii) is a diameter preserving bijection in both directions. Moreover, Chow’s theorem on Grassmann spaces over division rings is extended to the case of Bezout domains: If is an adjacency preserving bijection in both directions, then is induced by either a collineation or the duality of a collineation. Project 10671026 supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China.     

A Generalization of the prime geodesic theorem to counting conjugacy classes of free subgroups

The classical prime geodesic theorem (PGT) gives an asymptotic formula (as x tends to infinity) for the number of closed geodesics with length at most x on a hyperbolic manifold M. Closed geodesics correspond to conjugacy classes of π₁(M) = Γ where Γ is a lattice in G = SO(n,1). The theorem can be rephrased in the following format. Let be the space of representations of into Γ modulo conjugation by Γ. is defined similarly. Let be the projection map. The PGT provides a volume form vol on such that for sequences of subsets {B _t }, satisfying certain explicit hypotheses, |π⁻¹(B _t )| is asymptotic to vol(B _t ). We prove a statement having a similar format in which is replaced by a free group of finite rank under the additional hypothesis that n = 2 or 3.      

Invariants of 2 × 2 matrices, irreducible {\hbox{SL}(2, \mathbb{C})} characters and the Magnus trace map

We obtain an explicit characterization of the stable points of the action of on the cartesian product G  ^{× n} by simultaneous conjugation on each factor in terms of the corresponding invariant functions. From this, a simple criterion for the irreducibility of representations of finitely generated groups into G is derived. We also obtain analogous results for the action of on the vector space of n-tuples of 2 × 2 complex matrices. For a free group F _n of rank n, we show how to generically reconstruct the 2 ^n-2 conjugacy classes of representations F _n → G from their values under the map considered in Magnus [Math. Zeit. 170, 91–103 (1980)], defined by certain 3n − 3 traces of words of length one and two.      

Small weight codewords in LDPC codes defined by (dual) classical generalized quadrangles

We find lower bounds on the minimum distance and characterize codewords of small weight in low-density parity check (LDPC) codes defined by (dual) classical generalized quadrangles. We analyze the geometry of the non-singular parabolic quadric in PG(4,q) to find information about the LDPC codes defined by Q (4,q), and . For , and , we are able to describe small weight codewords geometrically. For , q odd, and for , we improve the best known lower bounds on the minimum distance, again only using geometric arguments. Similar results are also presented for the LDPC codes LU(3,q) given in [Kim, (2004) IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, Vol. 50: 2378–2388]     

Topological dimensions and multifractal Rényi dimensions of Polish spaces: a multifractal Szpilrajn type theorem

In this paper we consider the relationship between the topological dimension and the lower and upper q-Rényi dimensions and of a Polish space X for q ∈ [1, ∞]. Let and denote the Hausdorff dimension and the packing dimension, respectively. We prove that for all analytic metric spaces X (whose upper box dimension is finite) and all q ∈ (1, ∞); of course, trivially, for all q ∈ [1, ∞]. As a corollary to this we obtain the following result relating the topological dimension and the lower and upper q-Rényi dimensions: for all Polish spaces X and all q ∈ [1, ∞]; in (1) and (2) we have used the following notation, namely, for two metric spaces X and Y, we write X ∼ Y if and only if X is homeomorphic to Y. Equality (1) has recently been proved for q = ∞ by Myjak et al. Author’s address: Department of Mathematics, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9SS, Scotland