Parametric Integer Programming Analysis: A Contraction Approach

An algorithm is presented for solving families of integer linear programming problems in which the problems are "related" by having identical objective coefficients and constraint matrix coefficients. The righthand-side constants have the form b + θd where b and d are conformable vectors and θ varies from zero to one.The approach consists primarily of solving the most relaxed problem (θ = 1) using cutting planes and then contracting the region of feasible integer solutions in such a manner that the current optimal integer solution is eliminated.The algorithm was applied to 1800 integer linear programming problems with reasonable success. Integer programming problems which have proved to be unsolvable using cutting planes have been solved by expanding the region of feasible integer solutions (θ = 1) and then contracting to the original region.     

Optimum super-simple mixed covering arrays of type <Emphasis Type="Italic">a</Emphasis><Superscript>1</Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">b</Emphasis><Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>−1</Superscript>

A mixed covering array (MCA) of type (_v 1, v ₂,..., v _k ), denoted by MCA_λ (N; t, k, (v ₁, v ₂,..., v _k )), is an N × k array with entries in the i-th column from a set _{V i} of v _i symbols and has the property that each N × t sub-array covers all the t-tuples at least λ times, where 1 ≤ i ≤ k. An MCA _λ (N; t, k, (_v 1, v ₂,..., v _k )) is said to be super-simple, if each of its N × (t + 1) sub-arrays contains each (t + 1)-tuple at most once. Recently, it was proved by Tang, Yin and the author that an optimum super-simple MCA of type (a, b, b,..., b) is equivalent to a mixed detecting array (DTA) of type (a, b, b,..., b) with optimum size. Such DTAs can be used to generate test suites to identify and determine the interaction faults between the factors in a component-based system. In this paper, some combinatorial constructions of optimum super-simple MCAs of type (a, b, b,..., b) are provided. By employing these constructions, some optimum super-simple MCAs are then obtained. In particular, the spectrum across which optimum super-simple MCA₂(2b ²; 2, 4, (a, b, b, b))′s exist, is completely determined, where 2 ≤ a ≤ b.     

On likelihood ratio ordering of parallel systems with exponential components

Let T(λ₁,...,λ _n ) be the lifetime of a parallel system consisting of exponential components with hazard rates λ₁,...,λ _n , respectively. For systems with only two components, Dykstra et. al. (1997) showed that if (λ₁, λ₂) majorizes (γ₁, γ₂), then, T(λ₁, λ₂) is larger than T(γ₁, γ₂) in likelihood ratio order. In this paper, we extend this theorem to general parallel systems. We introduce a new partial order, the so-called d-larger order, and show that if (λ₁,...,λ _n ) is d-larger than (γ₁,...,γ _n ), then T(λ₁,...,λ _n ) is larger than T(γ₁,...,γ _n ) in likelihood ratio order.     

Ranks of matrices with few distinct entries

It is consistent that P(ω ₁) is the union of less than \({2^{{\aleph _1}}}\) parts such that if A ₀,..., A _n?1, B ₀,..., B _m?1 are distinct elements of the same part, then |A ₀ ∩ · · · ∩ A _n?1 ∩ (ω ₁ ? B ₀) ∩ · · ·∩ (ω ₁ ? B _m?1)| = N₁.     

Drift perturbation of subordinate Brownian motions with Gaussian component

Let d ≥ 1 and Z be a subordinate Brownian motion on R~d with infinitesimal generator ? + ψ(?),where ψ is the Laplace exponent of a one-dimensional non-decreasing L′evy process(called subordinator). We establish the existence and uniqueness of fundamental solution(also called heat kernel) pb(t, x, y) for non-local operator L~b= ? + ψ(?) + b ?, where Rb is an Rd-valued function in Kato class K_(d,1). We show that p~b(t, x, y)is jointly continuous and derive its sharp two-sided estimates. The kernel pb(t, x, y) determines a conservative Feller process X. We further show that the law of X is the unique solution of the martingale problem for(L~b, C_c~∞(R~d)) and X is a weak solution of Xt = X0+ Zt + integral from n=0 to t(b(Xs)ds, t ≥ 0).Moreover, we prove that the above stochastic differential equation has a unique weak solution.     

Small prime solutions to cubic equations

Let a_1,..., a_9 be nonzero integers not of the same sign, and let b be an integer. Suppose that a_1,..., a_9 are pairwise coprime and a_1 + + a_9 ≡ b(mod 2). We apply the p-adic method of Davenport to find an explicit P = P(a_1,..., a_9, n) such that the cubic equation a_1p_1~3+ + a9p_9~3= b is solvable with p_j 《 P for all 1 ≤ j ≤ 9. It is proved that one can take P = max{|a_1|,..., |a_9|}~c+ |b|~(1/3) with c = 2. This improves upon the earlier result with c = 14 due to Liu(2013).     

Generic hypersurface singularities

The problem considered here can be viewed as the analogue in higher dimensions of the one variable polynomial interpolation of Lagrange and Newton. Let x₁,...,x_r be closed points in general position in projective spacePn, then the linear subspaceV ofH⁰ (?ⁿ,O(d)) (the space of homogeneous polynomials of degreed on ?ⁿ) formed by those polynomials which are singular at eachx_i, is given by r(n + 1) linear equations in the coefficients, expressing the fact that the polynomial vanishes with its first derivatives at x₁,...,x_r. As such, the “expected” value for the dimension ofV is max(0,h⁰(O(d))?r(n+1)). We prove thatV has the “expected” dimension for d≥5 (theorem A). This theorem was first proven in [A] using a very complicated induction with many initial cases. Here we give a greatly simplified proof using techniques developed by the authors while treating the corresponding problem in lower degrees.     

Diophantine inequality involving binary forms

Let d ? 3 be an integer, and set r = 2^d?1 + 1 for 3 ? d ? 4, \(\tfrac{{17}}{{32}} \cdot 2^d + 1\) for 5 ? d ? 6, r = d²+d+1 for 7 ? d ? 8, and r = d²+d+2 for d ? 9, respectively. Suppose that Φ _i (x, y) ∈ ?[x, y] (1 ? i ? r) are homogeneous and nondegenerate binary forms of degree d. Suppose further that λ₁, λ₂,..., λ _r are nonzero real numbers with λ₁/λ₂ irrational, and λ₁Φ₁(x₁, y₁) + λ₂Φ₂(x₂, y₂) + · · · + λ _r Φ _r (x _r , y _r ) is indefinite. Then for any given real η and σ with 0 < σ < 2^2?d, it is proved that the inequality

$$\left| {\sum\limits_{i = 1}^r {{\lambda _i}\Phi {}_i\left( {{x_i},{y_i}} \right) + \eta } } \right| < {\left( {\mathop {\max \left\{ {\left| {{x_i}} \right|,\left| {{y_i}} \right|} \right\}}\limits_{1 \leqslant i \leqslant r} } \right)^{ - \sigma }}$$

has infinitely many solutions in integers x₁, x₂,..., x _r , y₁, y₂,..., y _r . This result constitutes an improvement upon that of B. Q. Xue.

     

Depth and Stanley depth of the facet ideals of some classes of simplicial complexes

Let Δ _n,d (resp. Δ′ _n,d ) be the simplicial complex and the facet ideal I _n,d = (x ₁... x _d, x d?k+1... x _2d?k ,..., x _n?d+1... x _n ) (resp. J _n,d = (x ₁... x _d , x _d?k+1... x _2d?k ,..., x n?2d+2k+1... x _n?d+2k , x n?d+k+1... x n x ₁... x _k)). When d ≥ 2k + 1, we give the exact formulas to compute the depth and Stanley depth of quotient rings S/J _n,d and S/I _n,d ^t for all t ≥ 1. When d = 2k, we compute the depth and Stanley depth of quotient rings S/Jn,d and S/I _n,d , and give lower bounds for the depth and Stanley depth of quotient rings S/I _n,d ^t for all t ≥ 1.     

A remark on the ring of algebraic integers in $$\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt { - d} )$$

It is well-known that the rings O_d of algebraic integers in \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt { - d} )\) for d = 19, 43, 67, and 163 are principal ideal domains but not Euclidean. In this article we shall provide a method, based on a result of P. M. Cohn, to construct explicitly pairs (b, a) of integers in O_d for d = 19, 43, 67, and 163 such that, in O_d, there exists no terminating division chain of finite length starting from the pairs (b, a). That is, a greatest common divisor of the pairs (b, a) exists in O_d but it can not be obtained by applying a terminating division chain of finite length starting from (b, a). Furthermore, for squarefree positive integer d ? {1, 2, 3, 7, 11, 19, 43, 67, 163}, we shall also construct pairs (b, a) of integers in O_d which generate O_d but have no terminating division chain of finite length. It is of interest to note that our construction provides a short alternative proof of a theorem of Cohn which is related to the concept of GE₂-rings.     

Representations of the general linear group over symmetry classes of polynomials

Let V be the complex vector space of homogeneous linear polynomials in the variables x₁,..., x _m . Suppose G is a subgroup of S _m , and χ is an irreducible character of G. Let H _d (G, χ) be the symmetry class of polynomials of degree d with respect to G and χ.

For any linear operator T acting on V, there is a (unique) induced operator K _χ (T) ∈ End(H _d (G, χ)) acting on symmetrized decomposable polynomials by

$${K_\chi }\left( T \right)\left( {{f_1} * {f_2} * \cdots * {f_d}} \right) = T{f_1} * T{f_2} * \cdots * T{f_d}.$$

In this paper, we show that the representation T ? K _χ (T) of the general linear group GL(V) is equivalent to the direct sum of χ(1) copies of a representation (not necessarily irreducible) T ? B _χ ^G (T).

     

On Tverberg partitions

A theorem of Tverberg from 1966 asserts that every set X ? ? ^d of n = T(d, r) = (d + 1)(r ? 1) + 1 points can be partitioned into r pairwise disjoint subsets, whose convex hulls have a point in common. Thus every such partition induces an integer partition of n into r parts (that is, r integers a ₁,..., a _r satisfying n = a ₁ + ··· + a _r ), in which the parts a _i correspond to the number of points in every subset. In this paper, we prove that for any partition of n where the parts satisfy a _i ≤ d + 1 for all i = 1,..., r, there exists a set X ? ? of n points, such that every Tverberg partition of X induces the same partition on n, given by the parts a ₁,..., a _r .     

On boundary value problems for systems of nonlinear generalized ordinary differential equations

A general theorem (principle of a priori boundedness) on solvability of the boundary value problem dx = dA(t) · f(t, x), h(x) = 0 is established, where f: [a, b]×R ⁿ → R ⁿ is a vector-function belonging to the Carathéodory class corresponding to the matrix-function A: [a, b] → R ^n×n with bounded total variation components, and h: BV_s([a, b],R ⁿ ) → R ⁿ is a continuous operator. Basing on the mentioned principle of a priori boundedness, effective criteria are obtained for the solvability of the system under the condition x(t₁(x)) = B(x) · x(t ₂(x))+c ₀, where t _i: BV_s([a, b],R ⁿ ) → [a, b] (i = 1, 2) and B: BV_s([a, b], R ⁿ ) → R ⁿ are continuous operators, and c ₀ ∈ R ⁿ .     

Equations in finite fields with restricted solution sets. I (Character sums)

In earlier papers, for “large” (but otherwise unspecified) subsets A, B of Z _p and for h(x) ∈ Z _p [x], Gyarmati studied the solvability of the equations a + b = h(x), resp. ab = h(x) with a ∈ A, b ∈ B, x ∈ Z _p , and for large subsets A, B, C, D of Z _p Sárközy showed the solvability of the equations a + b = cd, resp. ab + 1 = cd with a ∈ A, b ∈ B, c ∈ C, d ∈ D. In this series of papers equations of this type will be studied in finite fields. In particular, in Part I of the series we will prove the necessary character sum estimates of independent interest some of which generalize earlier results.     

Block partitions of sequences

Given a sequence A = (a ₁, …, a _n ) of real numbers, a block B of A is either a set B = {a _i , a _i+1, …, a _j } where i ≤ j or the empty set. The size b of a block B is the sum of its elements. We show that when each a _i ∈ [0, 1] and k is a positive integer, there is a partition of A into k blocks B ₁, …, B _k with |b _i ?b _j | ≤ 1 for every i, j. We extend this result in several directions.     

Chowla’s cosine problem

A continuous linear map T from a Banach algebra A into another B approximately preserves the zero products if ‖T(a)T(b)‖ ≤ α‖a‖‖b‖ (a,b ∈ A, ab = 0) for some small positive α. This paper is mainly concerned with the question of whether any continuous linear surjective map T: A → B that approximately preserves the zero products is close to a continuous homomorphism from A onto B with respect to the operator norm. We show that this is indeed the case for amenable group algebras.     

Determinantal representations of smooth cubic surfaces

For every smooth (irreducible) cubic surface S we give an explicit construction of a representative for each of the 72 equivalence classes of determinantal representations. Equivalence classes (under GL₃ × GL₃ action by left and right multiplication) of determinantal representations are in one to one correspondence with the sets of six mutually skew lines on S and with the 72 (two-dimensional) linear systems of twisted cubic curves on S. Moreover, if a determinantal representation M corresponds to lines (a ₁,...,a ₆) then its transpose M ^t corresponds to lines (b ₁,...,b ₆) which together form a Schläfli’s double-six \(a_1\ldots a_6 \choose b_1\ldots b_6\) . We also discuss the existence of self-adjoint and definite determinantal representation for smooth real cubic surfaces. The number of these representations depends on the Segre type F _i . We show that a surface of type F _i , i = 1,2,3,4 has exactly 2(i?1) nonequivalent self-adjoint determinantal representations none of which is definite, while a surface of type F ₅ has 24 nonequivalent self-adjoint determinantal representations, 16 of which are definite.     

Special issue: recent progress on iterative methods for large systems of equations

Let A x = b be a large and sparse system of linear equations where A is a nonsingular matrix. An approximate solution is frequently obtained by applying preconditioned iterations. Consider the matrix B = A + P Q ^T where \(P, Q \in \mathbb {R}^{n \times k}\) are full rank matrices. In this work, we study the problem of updating a previously computed preconditioner for A in order to solve the updated linear system B x = b by preconditioned iterations. In particular, we propose a method for updating a Balanced Incomplete Factorization preconditioner. The strategy is based on the computation of an approximate Inverse Sherman-Morrison decomposition for an equivalent augmented linear system. Approximation properties of the preconditioned matrix and an analysis of the computational cost of the algorithm are studied. Moreover, the results of the numerical experiments with different types of problems show that the proposed method contributes to accelerate the convergence.     

Small sample statistical condition estimation for the total least squares problem

In this paper, under the genericity condition, we study the condition estimation of the total least squares (TLS) problem based on small sample condition estimation (SCE), which can be incorporated into the direct solver for the TLS problem via the singular value decomposition (SVD) of the augmented matrix [A, b]. Our proposed condition estimation algorithms are efficient for the small and medium size TLS problem because they utilize the computed SVD of [A, b] during the numerical solution to the TLS problem. Numerical examples illustrate the reliability of the algorithms. Both normwise and componentwise perturbations are considered. Moreover, structured condition estimations are investigated for the structured TLS problem.     

Modern thermodynamics as a branch of mathematics (mathematical physics)

In the paper, it is proved that, if f(x₁,..., x_n)g(y₁,..., y_m) is a multilinear central polynomial for a verbally prime T-ideal Γ over a field of arbitrary characteristic, then both polynomials f(x₁,..., x_n) and g(y₁,..., y_m) are central for Γ.