Don’t Touch the Button

Opening a copy of The Mathematical Intelligenceryou may ask yourself uneasily, “What is this anyway—a mathematical journal, or what?” Or you may ask, “Where am I?” Or even “Who am I?” This sense of disorientation is at its most acute when you open to Colin Adams’s column. Relax. Breathe regularly. It’s mathematical, it’s a humor column, and it may even be harmless.     

On the Poisson geometry of the Adler-Gel’fand-Dikii brackets

In this paper, we consider a symplectic leaf that goes through a singular point of the Adler-Gel’fand-Dikii Poisson bracket associated to SL(n,R). We find a finite-dimensional transverse section2 at the singular point and we prove that one can induce a Poisson structure on2 (the transverse structure) that is linearizable and equivalent to the Lie-Poisson structure on sl(n,R)*. This problem is closely related to finding normal forms for nth order scalar differential operators with periodic coefficient. We partially generalize a well-known result for Hill’s operators to the higher order case.     

On the solution of the Gellerstedt problem for the Lavrent’ev-Bitsadze equation

We study the solvability of the Gellerstedt problem for the Lavrent??ev-Bitsadze equation under an inhomogeneous boundary condition on the half-circle of the ellipticity domain of the equation, homogeneous boundary conditions on external, internal, and parallel side characteristics of the hyperbolicity domain of the equation, and the transmission conditions on the type change line of the equation.     

Convergence of the Lavrent’ev method

The convergence of the Lavrent’ev method, which is a well-known regularization method for integral equations of the first kind, is analyzed as applied to equations with arbitrary linear bounded operators. A theorem concerning necessary and sufficient conditions for this convergence is proved. It is shown that these conditions are satisfied for two classes of integral equations that do not possess the properties required by the classical Lavrent’ev method.     

Uncertainty in the traveler’s dilemma

We quantify the sensitivity of the traveler’s dilemma (Basu, Am Econ Rev 84:391–395, 1994) to perturbations from common knowledge. The perturbations entail a small uncertainty about the set of admissible actions. We show that the sensitivity scale is exponential in the range of admissible actions in the traveler’s dilemma. Such rapid growth is consistent with the intuition that a wider range makes the outcome of the traveler’s dilemma less intuitive.     

Minimizing the passengers’ traveling time in the stop location problem

In this paper we consider the location of stops along the edges of an already existing public transportation network. The positive effect of new stops is given by the better access of the passengers to the public transport network, while the passengers’ traveling time increases due to the additional stopping activities of the trains, which is a negative effect for the passengers. The problem has been treated in the literature where the most common model is to cover all demand points with a minimal number of new stops. In this paper, we follow this line and seek for a set of new stops covering all demand points but instead of minimizing the number of new stops we minimize the additional passengers’ traveling time due to the new stops. For computing this additional traveling time we do not only take the stopping times of the vehicles but also acceleration and deceleration of the vehicles into account. We show that the problem is NP-hard, but we are able to derive a finite candidate set and two tractable IP formulations. For linear networks we show that the problem is polynomially solvable. We also discuss the differences to the common models from literature showing that minimizing the number of new stops does not necessarily lead to a solution with minimal additional traveling times for the passengers. We finally provide a case study showing that our new model decreases the traveling times for the passengers while still achieving the minimal number of new stops.     

On Landis’ Conjecture in the Plane

In this paper we prove a quantitative form of Landis’ conjecture in the plane. Precisely, let W(z) be a measurable real vector-valued function and V(z) ≥0 be a real measurable scalar function, satisfying ‖W‖ _{L ^∞(R ²)} ≤ 1 and ‖V‖ _{L ^∞(R ²)} ≤ 1. Let u be a real solution of Δu ? ?(Wu) ? Vu = 0 in R ². Assume that u(0) = 1 and |u(z)| ≤exp (C ₀|z|). Then u satisfies inf _{|z 0| =R}  sup _{|z?z 0| <1}|u(z)| ≥exp (?CRlog R), where C depends on C ₀. In addition to the case of the whole plane, we also establish a quantitative form of Landis’ conjecture defined in an exterior domain.     

Unanimity and the Anscombe’s paradox

We establish a new sufficient condition for avoiding a generalized Anscombe’s paradox. In a situation where votes describe positions regarding finitely many yes-or-no issues, the Anscombe’s α-paradox holds if more than α% of the voters disagree on a majority of issues with the outcome of issue-wise majority voting. We define the level of unanimity of a set of votes as the number of issues minus the maximal Hamming distance between two votes. We compute for the case of large electorates the exact level of unanimity above which the Anscombe’s α-paradox never holds, whatever the distribution of individuals among votes.     

On the equivalence of Lagrange’s axiom to the Lotschnittaxiom

We prove that, in Hilbert’s plane absolute geometry, an axiom used by Lagrange in a proof of the Euclidean parallel postulate in a paper read on 3 February 1806 at the Institut de France, which states that “If a and b are two parallels from P to g, then the reflection of a in b is parallel to g as well”, is equivalent to F. Bachmann’s Lotschnittaxiom, which states that “The perpendiculars on the sides a right angle always intersect.”     

Note on the coefficients of Ramanujan’s expansion for the logarithm of the factorial

Similar to Ramanujan’s expansion for the nth harmonic number, Villarino suggested that there might exist a series expansion for the logarithm of the factorial in terms of the reciprocal of a triangular number. This has been proved in 2010 by Nemes, who gave a complete asymptotic expansion with explicit coefficients and error terms. In this short note, we provide a recursive formula for successively determining the coefficients of the asymptotic expansion by using combinatorial technique.     

On the Behaviour of the spectral characteristic of Feigenbaum’s map

Let T _g : [?1, 1] ?? [?1, 1] be the Feigenbaum map. It is well known that T _g has a Cantor-type attractor F and a unique invariant measure ??₀ supported on F. The corresponding unitary operator (U _g ??)(x) = ??(g(x)) has pure point spectrum consisting of eigenvalues ?? _n,r , n ?? 1, 0 ?? r ?? 2 ^n?1 ? 1 with eigenfunctions e _r ⁽ⁿ⁾ (x). Suppose that f ?? C ¹([?1, 1]), f?? is absolutely continuous on [?1, 1] and f?? ?? L ^p ([?1, 1], d??₀), p > 1. Consider the sum of the amplitudes of the spectral measure of f: $$ Sn(f): = \sum\limits_{r = 0}^{2^n - 1} {|\rho _r^{(n)} |^2 ,\rho _r^{(n)} = \int\limits_{ - 1}^1 {f(x)\overline {e_r^{(n)} (x)} d\mu _o } } (x). $$ Using the thermodynamic formalism for T _g we prove that S _n (f) ?? 2^?n q ⁿ , as n ?? ??, where the constant q ?? (0, 1) does not depend on f.     

Schwarz’s lemma for the circle packings with the general combinatorics

Rodin (1987) proved the Schwarz’s lemma analog for the circle packings based on the hexagonal combinatorics. In this paper, we prove the Schwarz’s lemma for the circle packings with the general combinatorics and our proof is more simpler than Rodin’s proof. At the same time, we obtain a rigidity property for those packings with the general combinatorics.     

A note on the equilibria of the unbounded traveler’s dilemma

When there is no upward limit on admissible claims, the traveler’s dilemma admits a continuum of symmetric mixed strategy equilibria in addition to the pure strategy equilibrium in which both players ask and obtain the minimum. The payoff of any of these equilibria exceeds the payoff of the pure strategy one and any claim represents an attainable payoff. If the distinction between a large and an unbounded action set is fuzzy, this result can explain some puzzling stylized facts on the behavior of experimental subjects in the game.     

On improving the accuracy of Horner’s and Goertzel’s algorithms

It is known that Goertzels algorithm is much less numerically accurate than the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) (cf. [2]). In order to improve accuracy we propose modifications of both Goertzels and Horners algorithms based on the divide-and-conquer techniques. The proof of the numerical stability of these two modified algorithms is given. The numerical tests in Matlab demonstrate the computational advantages of the proposed modifications. The appendix contains the proof of numerical stability of Goertzels algorithm of polynomial evaluation. AMS subject classification 65F35, 65G50     

From Pappus’ Theorem to the Twisted Cubic

We discuss a classical result in planar projective geometry known as Steiners theorem involving 12 interlocking applications of Pappus theorem. We prove this result using three dimensional projective geometry then uncover the dynamics of this construction and relate them to the geometry of the twisted cubic.Mathematics Subject Classification (2000). Primary 51N15.