Facet Bending in the Driven Crystalline Curvature Flow in the Plane

We study simple cases of crystalline driven curvature flow with spatially nonuniform driving force term. We assume special monotonicity properties of the driving term, which are motivated by our previous work on Berg’s effect. We show that initially flat facets may begin to bend, provided, loosely speaking, they are too large.      

Exact algorithms for the two-dimensional strip packing problem with and without rotations

We propose exact algorithms for the two-dimensional strip packing problem (2SP) with and without 90° rotations. We first focus on the perfect packing problem (PP), which is a special case of 2SP, wherein all given rectangles are required to be packed without wasted space, and design branch-and-bound algorithms introducing several branching rules and bounding operations. A combination of these rules yields an algorithm that is especially efficient for feasible instances of PP. We then propose several methods of applying the PP algorithms to 2SP. Our algorithms succeed in efficiently solving benchmark instances of PP with up to 500 rectangles and those of 2SP with up to 200 rectangles. They are often faster than existing exact algorithms specially tailored for problems without rotations.     

A basic class of symmetric orthogonal polynomials using the extended Sturm-Liouville theorem for symmetric functions

In this research, by applying the extended Sturm-Liouville theorem for symmetric functions, a basic class of symmetric orthogonal polynomials (BCSOP) with four free parameters is introduced and all its standard properties, such as a generic second order differential equation along with its explicit polynomial solution, a generic orthogonality relation, a generic three term recurrence relation and so on, are presented. Then, it is shown that four main sequences of symmetric orthogonal polynomials can essentially be extracted from the introduced class. They are respectively the generalized ultraspherical polynomials, generalized Hermite polynomials and two other sequences of symmetric polynomials, which are finitely orthogonal on (−∞,∞) and can be expressed in terms of the mentioned class directly. In this way, two half-trigonometric sequences of orthogonal polynomials, as special sub-cases of BCSOP, are also introduced.     

Large time behavior of disturbed planar fronts in the Allen-Cahn equation

We consider the Allen-Cahn equation in Rn (with n?2) and study how a planar front behaves when arbitrarily large (but bounded) perturbation is given near the front region. We first show that the behavior of the disturbed front can be approximated by that of the mean curvature flow with a drift term for all large time up to t=+∞. Using this observation, we then show that the planar front is asymptotically stable in L^∞(Rn) under spatially ergodic perturbations, which include quasi-periodic and almost periodic ones as special cases. As a by-product of our analysis, we present a result of a rather general nature, which states that, for a large class of evolution equations, the unique ergodicity of the initial data is inherited by the solution at any later time.     

Generic rectangulations

A rectangulation is a tiling of a rectangle by a finite number of rectangles. The rectangulation is called generic if no four of its rectangles share a single corner. We initiate the enumeration of generic rectangulations up to combinatorial equivalence by establishing an explicit bijection between generic rectangulations and a set of permutations defined by a pattern-avoidance condition analogous to the definition of the twisted Baxter permutations.     

On the Number of Tilings of a Square by Rectangles

We develop a recursive formula for counting the number of rectangulations of a square, i.e., the number of combinatorially distinct tilings of a square by rectangles. Our formula specializes to give a formula counting generic rectangulations, as analyzed by Reading in [5]. Our computations agree with [5] as far as was calculated and extend to the non-generic case. An interesting feature of the number of rectangulations is that it appears to have an 8-fold periodicity modulo 2. We verify this periodicity for small values of n, but the general result remains elusive, perhaps hinting at some unseen structure on the space of rectangulations, analogous to Reading’s discovery that generic rectangulations are in 1–1 correspondence with a certain class of permutations. Finally, we use discrete Morse theory to show that the space of tilings by ≤ n rectangles is homotopy-equivalent to a wedge of some number of (n?1)-dimensional spheres. Combining this result with the formulae for the number of tilings, the exact homotopy type is computed for n ≤ 28.     

Global large solutions to incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations with gravity

In this per, we consider a special class of initial data for the three‐dimensional incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with gravity. We show that, under such conditions, the incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations with gravity are globally well posed, and the velocity minus gravity term has finite energy. The important features of the initial data is that the velocity fields minus gravity term are almost parallel to the corresponding vorticity fields in a very large space domain. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Calibrating affine stochastic mortality models using term assurance premiums

In this paper, we focus on the calibration of affine stochastic mortality models using term assurance premiums. We view term assurance contracts as a “swap” in which policyholders exchange cash flows (premiums vs. benefits) with an insurer analogous to a generic interest rate swap or credit default swap. Using a simple bootstrapping procedure, we derive the term structure of mortality rates from a stream of contract quotes with different maturities. This term structure is used to calibrate the parameters of affine stochastic mortality models where the survival probability is expressed in closed form. The Vasicek, Cox-Ingersoll-Ross, and jump-extended Vasicek models are considered for fitting the survival probabilities term structure. An evaluation of the performance of these models is provided with respect to premiums of three Italian insurance companies.     

Boundary value problems on planar graphs and flat surfaces with integer cone singularities, II: The mixed Dirichlet-Neumann problem

In this paper we continue the study started in Hersonsky (in press) [16]. We consider a planar, bounded, m-connected region Ω, and let ∂Ω be its boundary. Let T be a cellular decomposition of Ω∪∂Ω, where each 2-cell is either a triangle or a quadrilateral. From these data and a conductance function we construct a canonical pair (S,f) where S is a special type of a (possibly immersed) genus (m−1)singular flat surface, tiled by rectangles and f is an energy preserving mapping from T(1) onto S. In Hersonsky (in press) [16] the solution of a Dirichlet problem defined on T(0) was utilized, in this paper we employ the solution of a mixed Dirichlet-Neumann problem.     

Optimal rectangle packing

We consider the NP-complete problem of finding an enclosing rectangle of minimum area that will contain a given a set of rectangles. We present two different constraint-satisfaction formulations of this problem. The first searches a space of absolute placements of rectangles in the enclosing rectangle, while the other searches a space of relative placements between pairs of rectangles. Both approaches dramatically outperform previous approaches to optimal rectangle packing. For problems where the rectangle dimensions have low precision, such as small integers, absolute placement is generally more efficient, whereas for rectangles with high-precision dimensions, relative placement will be more effective. In two sets of experiments, we find both the smallest rectangles and squares that can contain the set of squares of size 1×1, 2×2,…,N×N, for N up to 27. In addition, we solve an open problem dating to 1966, concerning packing the set of consecutive squares up to 24×24 in a square of size 70×70. Finally, we find the smallest enclosing rectangles that can contain a set of unoriented rectangles of size 1×2, 2×3, 3×4,…,N×(N+1), for N up to 25.     

On the non-persistence of Hamiltonian identity cycles

We study the leading term of the holonomy map of a perturbed plane polynomial Hamiltonian foliation. The non-vanishing of this term implies the non-persistence of the corresponding Hamiltonian identity cycle. We prove that this does happen for generic perturbations and cycles, as well for cycles which are commutators in Hamiltonian foliations of degree two. Our approach relies on the Chen's theory of iterated path integrals which we briefly resume.     

Minimum perimeter rectangles that enclose congruent non-overlapping circles

We use computational experiments to find the rectangles of minimum perimeter into which a given number, n, of non-overlapping congruent circles can be packed. No assumption is made on the shape of the rectangles. In many of the packings found, the circles form the usual regular square-grid or hexagonal patterns or their hybrids. However, for most values of n in the tested range n≤5000, e.g., for n=7,13,17,21,22,26,31,37,38,41,43,…,4997,4998,4999,5000, we prove that the optimum cannot possibly be achieved by such regular arrangements. Usually, the irregularities in the best packings found for such n are small, localized modifications to regular patterns; those irregularities are usually easy to predict. Yet for some such irregular n, the best packings found show substantial, extended irregularities which we did not anticipate. In the range we explored carefully, the optimal packings were substantially irregular only for n of the form n=k(k+1)+1, k=3,4,5,6,7, i.e. for n=13,21,31,43, and 57. Also, we prove that the height-to-width ratio of rectangles of minimum perimeter containing packings of n congruent circles tends to 1 as n→∞.     

A characteristics-mixed covolume method for a convection-dominated transport problem

In this paper, we propose a characteristics-mixed covolume method for approximating the solution to a convection dominated transport problem. The method is a combination of characteristic approximation to handle the convection term in time and mixed covolume method spatial approximation to deal with the diffusion term. The velocity and press are approximated by the lowest order Raviart-Thomas mixed finite element space on rectangles. The projection of a mixed covolume element is introduced. We prove its first order optimal rate of convergence for the approximate velocities in the L² norm as well as for the approximate pressures in the L² norm.     

广义Ky Fan点的通有稳定性

得到一个广义的Ky Fan不等式,它以通常的Ky Fan不等式为特例.我们讨论了在一致度量诱导的拓扑结构和二元泛函上方图形的拓扑结构下广义Ky Fan不等式问题构成的空间M中,大多数(在Baire分类意义下)广义Ky Fan不等式问题的所有广义Ky Fan点都是稳定的.     

The Paley–Wiener theorem for certain nilpotent Lie groupsJean

We generalize the classical Paley–Wiener theorem to special types of connected, simply connected, nilpotent Lie groups: First we consider nilpotent Lie groups whose Lie algebra admits an ideal which is a polarization for a dense subset of generic linear forms on the Lie algebra. Then we consider nilpotent Lie groups such that the co-adjoint orbits of all the elements of a dense subset of the dual of the Lie algebra 𝔤^* are flat (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A reduction approach for solving the rectangle packing area minimization problem

In the rectangle packing area minimization problem (RPAMP) we are given a set of rectangles with known dimensions. We have to determine an arrangement of all rectangles, without overlapping, inside an enveloping rectangle of minimum area. The paper presents a generic approach for solving the RPAMP that is based on two algorithms, one for the 2D Knapsack Problem (KP), and the other for the 2D Strip Packing Problem (SPP). In this way, solving an instance of the RPAMP is reduced to solving multiple SPP and KP instances. A fast constructive heuristic is used as SPP algorithm while the KP algorithm is instantiated by a tree search method and a genetic algorithm alternatively. All these SPP and KP methods have been published previously. Finally, the best variants of the resulting RPAMP heuristics are combined within one procedure. The guillotine cutting condition is always observed as an additional constraint. The approach was tested on 15 well-known RPAMP instances (above all MCNC and GSRC instances) and new best solutions were obtained for 10 instances. The computational effort remains acceptable. Moreover, 24 new benchmark instances are introduced and promising results are reported.     

Perturbed closed geodesics are periodic orbits: Index and transversality

We study the classical action functional ${\cal S}_V$ on the free loop space of a closed, finite dimensional Riemannian manifold M and the symplectic action on the free loop space of its cotangent bundle. The critical points of both functionals can be identified with the set of perturbed closed geodesics in M. The potential $V\in C^\infty(M\times S^1,\mathbb{R})$ serves as perturbation and we show that both functionals are Morse for generic V. In this case we prove that the Morse index of a critical point x of equals minus its Conley-Zehnder index when viewed as a critical point of and if is trivial. Otherwise a correction term +1 appears. Received: 21 May 2001; in final form: 10 October 2001 / Published online: 4 April 2002     

Conjugate function method for numerical conformal mappings

We present a method for numerical computation of conformal mappings from simply or doubly connected domains onto so-called canonical domains, which in our case are rectangles or annuli. The method is based on conjugate harmonic functions and properties of quadrilaterals. Several numerical examples are given.     

Tromino tilings of domino-deficient rectangles

We consider tromino tilings of m×n domino-deficient rectangles, where 3|(mn−2) and m,n≥0, and characterize all cases of domino removal that admit such tilings, thereby settling the open problem posed by Ash and Golomb in [J. Marshall Ash, S. Golomb, Tiling Deficient Rectangles with Trominoes, Integre Technical Publishing Co., Mathematics Magazine (2003), 46-55]. We suggest a procedure for tiling domino-deficient rectangles based on this characterization. We also consider general 2-deficiency in n×4 rectangles, where n≥8, and characterize all pairs of missing squares which do not permit a tromino tiling.     

Curvature flow with driving force on fixed boundary points

In this paper, we consider the curvature flow with driving force on fixed boundary points in the plane. We give a general local existence and uniqueness result of this problem with \(C^2\) initial curve. For a special family of initial curves, we classify the solutions into three categories. Moreover, in each category, the asymptotic behavior is given.