ANCOVA: a heteroscedastic global test when there is curvature and two covariates

For two independent groups, let \(M_j(\mathbf {X})\) be some conditional measure of location for the jth group associated with some random variable Y given \(\mathbf {X}=(X_1, X_2)\). Let \(\Omega =\{\mathbf {X}_1, \ldots , \mathbf {X}_K\}\) be a set of K points to be determined. An extant technique can be used to test \(H_0\): \(M_1(\mathbf {X})=M_2(\mathbf {X})\) for each \(\mathbf {X} \in \Omega \) without making any parametric assumption about \(M_j(\mathbf {X})\). But there are two general reasons to suspect that the method can have relatively low power. The paper reports simulation results on an alternative approach that is designed to test the global hypothesis \(H_0\): \(M_1(\mathbf {X})=M_2(\mathbf {X})\) for all \(\mathbf {X} \in \Omega \). The main result is that the new method offers a distinct power advantage. Using data from the Well Elderly 2 study, it is illustrated that the alternative method can make a practical difference in terms of detecting a difference between two groups.     

On the global convergence rate of the gradient descent method for functions with Hölder continuous gradients

The gradient descent method minimizes an unconstrained nonlinear optimization problem with \({\mathcal {O}}(1/\sqrt{K})\), where K is the number of iterations performed by the gradient method. Traditionally, this analysis is obtained for smooth objective functions having Lipschitz continuous gradients. This paper aims to consider a more general class of nonlinear programming problems in which functions have Hölder continuous gradients. More precisely, for any function f in this class, denoted by \({{\mathcal {C}}}^{1,\nu }_L\), there is a \(\nu \in (0,1]\) and \(L>0\) such that for all \(\mathbf{x,y}\in {{\mathbb {R}}}^n\) the relation \(\Vert \nabla f(\mathbf{x})-\nabla f(\mathbf{y})\Vert \le L \Vert \mathbf{x}-\mathbf{y}\Vert ^{\nu }\) holds. We prove that the gradient descent method converges globally to a stationary point and exhibits a convergence rate of \({\mathcal {O}}(1/K^{\frac{\nu }{\nu +1}})\) when the step-size is chosen properly, i.e., less than \([\frac{\nu +1}{L}]^{\frac{1}{\nu }}\Vert \nabla f(\mathbf{x}_k)\Vert ^{\frac{1}{\nu }-1}\). Moreover, the algorithm employs \({\mathcal {O}}(1/\epsilon ^{\frac{1}{\nu }+1})\) number of calls to an oracle to find \({\bar{\mathbf{x}}}\) such that \(\Vert \nabla f({{\bar{\mathbf{x}}}})\Vert <\epsilon \).     

Optimal bounds for convergence of expected spectral distributions to the semi-circular law

Let \(\mathbf {X}=(X_{jk})_{j,k=1}^n\) denote a Hermitian random matrix with entries \(X_{jk}\), which are independent for \(1\le j\le k\le n\). We consider the rate of convergence of the empirical spectral distribution function of the matrix \(\mathbf {X}\) to the semi-circular law assuming that \(\mathbf{E}X_{jk}=0\), \(\mathbf{E}X_{jk}^2=1\) and that

$$\begin{aligned} \sup _{n\ge 1}\sup _{1\le j,k\le n}\mathbf{E}|X_{jk}|^4=:\mu _4<\infty , \end{aligned}$$

and

$$\begin{aligned} \sup _{1\le j,k\le n}|X_{jk}|\le D_0n^{\frac{1}{4}}. \end{aligned}$$

By means of a recursion argument it is shown that the Kolmogorov distance between the expected spectral distribution of the Wigner matrix \(\mathbf {W}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}\mathbf {X}\) and the semicircular law is of order \(O(n^{-1})\).

     

Min-max and robust polynomial optimization

We consider the robust (or min-max) optimization problem

$J^*:=\max_{\mathbf{y}\in{\Omega}}\min_{\mathbf{x}}\{f(\mathbf{x},\mathbf{y}): (\mathbf{x},\mathbf{y})\in\mathbf{\Delta}\}$

where f is a polynomial and \({\mathbf{\Delta}\subset\mathbb{R}^n\times\mathbb{R}^p}\) as well as \({{\Omega}\subset\mathbb{R}^p}\) are compact basic semi-algebraic sets. We first provide a sequence of polynomial lower approximations \({(J_i)\subset\mathbb{R}[\mathbf{y}]}\) of the optimal value function \({J(\mathbf{y}):=\min_\mathbf{x}\{f(\mathbf{x},\mathbf{y}): (\mathbf{x},\mathbf{y})\in \mathbf{\Delta}\}}\). The polynomial \({J_i\in\mathbb{R}[\mathbf{y}]}\) is obtained from an optimal (or nearly optimal) solution of a semidefinite program, the ith in the “joint + marginal” hierarchy of semidefinite relaxations associated with the parametric optimization problem \({\mathbf{y}\mapsto J(\mathbf{y})}\), recently proposed in Lasserre (SIAM J Optim 20, 1995-2022, 2010). Then for fixed i, we consider the polynomial optimization problem \({J^*_i:=\max\nolimits_{\mathbf{y}}\{J_i(\mathbf{y}):\mathbf{y}\in{\Omega}\}}\) and prove that \({\hat{J}^*_i(:=\displaystyle\max\nolimits_{\ell=1,\ldots,i}J^*_\ell)}\) converges to J* as i → ∞. Finally, for fixed ? ≤ i, each \({J^*_\ell}\) (and hence \({\hat{J}^*_i}\)) can be approximated by solving a hierarchy of semidefinite relaxations as already described in Lasserre (SIAM J Optim 11, 796–817, 2001; Moments, Positive Polynomials and Their Applications. Imperial College Press, London 2009).

     

Few associative triples,isotopisms and groups

Let Q be a quasigroup. For \(\alpha ,\beta \in S_Q\) let \(Q_{\alpha ,\beta }\) be the principal isotope \(x*y = \alpha (x)\beta (y)\). Put \(\mathbf a(Q)= |\{(x,y,z)\in Q^3;\) \(x(yz)) = (xy)z\}|\) and assume that \(|Q|=n\). Then \(\sum _{\alpha ,\beta }\mathbf a(Q_{\alpha ,\beta })/(n!)^2 = n^2(1+(n-1)^{-1})\), and for every \(\alpha \in S_Q\) there is \(\sum _\beta \mathbf a(Q_{\alpha ,\beta })/n! = n(n-1)^{-1}\sum _x(f_x^2-2f_x+n)\ge n^2\), where \(f_x=|\{y\in Q;\) \( y = \alpha (y)x\}|\). If G is a group and \(\alpha \) is an orthomorphism, then \(\mathbf a(G_{\alpha ,\beta })=n^2\) for every \(\beta \in S_Q\). A detailed case study of \(\mathbf a(G_{\alpha ,\beta })\) is made for the situation when \(G = \mathbb Z_{2d}\), and both \(\alpha \) and \(\beta \) are “natural” near-orthomorphisms. Asymptotically, \(\mathbf a(G_{\alpha ,\beta })>3n\) if G is an abelian group of order n. Computational results: \(\mathbf a(7) = 17\) and \(\mathbf a(8) \le 21\), where \(\mathbf a(n) = \min \{\mathbf a(Q);\) \( |Q|=n\}\). There are also determined minimum values for \(\mathbf a(G_{\alpha ,\beta })\), G a group of order \(\le 8\).     

A Characterization of Two-Weight Norm Inequality for Littlewood–Paley $$g_{\lambda }^{*}$$-Function

Let \(n\ge 2\) and \(g_{\lambda }^{*}\) be the well-known high-dimensional Littlewood–Paley function which was defined and studied by E. M. Stein,

$$\begin{aligned} g_{\lambda }^{*}(f)(x) =\bigg (\iint _{\mathbb {R}^{n+1}_{+}} \Big (\frac{t}{t+|x-y|}\Big )^{n\lambda } |\nabla P_tf(y,t)|^2 \frac{\mathrm{d}y \mathrm{d}t}{t^{n-1}}\bigg )^{1/2}, \ \quad \lambda > 1, \end{aligned}$$

where \(P_tf(y,t)=p_t*f(y)\), \(p_t(y)=t^{-n}p(y/t)\), and \(p(x) = (1+|x|^2)^{-(n+1)/2}\), \(\nabla =(\frac{\partial }{\partial y_1},\ldots ,\frac{\partial }{\partial y_n},\frac{\partial }{\partial t})\). In this paper, we give a characterization of two-weight norm inequality for \(g_{\lambda }^{*}\)-function. We show that \(\big \Vert g_{\lambda }^{*}(f \sigma ) \big \Vert _{L^2(w)} \lesssim \big \Vert f \big \Vert _{L^2(\sigma )}\) if and only if the two-weight Muckenhoupt \(A_2\) condition holds, and a testing condition holds:

$$\begin{aligned} \sup _{Q : \text {cubes}~\mathrm{in} \ {\mathbb {R}^n}} \frac{1}{\sigma (Q)} \int _{{\mathbb {R}^n}} \iint _{\widehat{Q}} \Big (\frac{t}{t+|x-y|}\Big )^{n\lambda }|\nabla P_t(\mathbf {1}_Q \sigma )(y,t)|^2 \frac{w \mathrm{d}x \mathrm{d}t}{t^{n-1}} \mathrm{d}y < \infty , \end{aligned}$$

where \(\widehat{Q}\) is the Carleson box over Q and \((w, \sigma )\) is a pair of weights. We actually prove this characterization for \(g_{\lambda }^{*}\)-function associated with more general fractional Poisson kernel \(p^\alpha (x) = (1+|x|^2)^{-{(n+\alpha )}/{2}}\). Moreover, the corresponding results for intrinsic \(g_{\lambda }^*\)-function are also presented.

     

The finite basis problem for infinite involution semigroups of triangular 2 $$\times $$ 2 matrices

Let \(T_n(\mathbb {F})\) and \(UT_n(\mathbb {F})\) be the semigroups of all upper triangular \(n\times n\) matrices and all upper triangular \(n\times n\) matrices with 0s and/or 1s on the main diagonal over a field \(\mathbb {F}\) with \(\mathsf {char}(\mathbb {F})=0\), respectively. In this paper, we address the finite basis problem for \(T_2(\mathbb {F})\) and \(UT_2(\mathbb {F})\) as involution semigroups under the skew transposition. By giving a sufficient condition under which an involution semigroup is nonfinitely based, we show that both \(T_2(\mathbb {F})\) and \(UT_2(\mathbb {F})\) are nonfinitely based, and that there is a continuum of nonfinitely based involution monoid varieties between the involution monoid variety \(\mathsf {var} UT_2(\mathbb {F})\) generated by \(UT_2(\mathbb {F})\) and the involution monoid variety \(\mathsf {var} T_2(\mathbb {F})\) generated by \(T_2(\mathbb {F})\). Moreover, \(\mathsf {var} UT_2(\mathbb {F})\) cannot be defined within \(\mathsf {var} T_2(\mathbb {F})\) by any finite set of identities.     

Sharp MSE Bounds for Proximal Denoising

Denoising has to do with estimating a signal \(\mathbf {x}_0\) from its noisy observations \(\mathbf {y}=\mathbf {x}_0+\mathbf {z}\). In this paper, we focus on the “structured denoising problem,” where the signal \(\mathbf {x}_0\) possesses a certain structure and \(\mathbf {z}\) has independent normally distributed entries with mean zero and variance \(\sigma ^2\). We employ a structure-inducing convex function \(f(\cdot )\) and solve \(\min _\mathbf {x}\{\frac{1}{2}\Vert \mathbf {y}-\mathbf {x}\Vert _2^2+\sigma {\lambda }f(\mathbf {x})\}\) to estimate \(\mathbf {x}_0\), for some \(\lambda >0\). Common choices for \(f(\cdot )\) include the \(\ell _1\) norm for sparse vectors, the \(\ell _1-\ell _2\) norm for block-sparse signals and the nuclear norm for low-rank matrices. The metric we use to evaluate the performance of an estimate \(\mathbf {x}^*\) is the normalized mean-squared error \(\text {NMSE}(\sigma )=\frac{{\mathbb {E}}\Vert \mathbf {x}^*-\mathbf {x}_0\Vert _2^2}{\sigma ^2}\). We show that NMSE is maximized as \(\sigma \rightarrow 0\) and we find the exact worst-case NMSE, which has a simple geometric interpretation: the mean-squared distance of a standard normal vector to the \({\lambda }\)-scaled subdifferential \({\lambda }\partial f(\mathbf {x}_0)\). When \({\lambda }\) is optimally tuned to minimize the worst-case NMSE, our results can be related to the constrained denoising problem \(\min _{f(\mathbf {x})\le f(\mathbf {x}_0)}\{\Vert \mathbf {y}-\mathbf {x}\Vert _2\}\). The paper also connects these results to the generalized LASSO problem, in which one solves \(\min _{f(\mathbf {x})\le f(\mathbf {x}_0)}\{\Vert \mathbf {y}-{\mathbf {A}}\mathbf {x}\Vert _2\}\) to estimate \(\mathbf {x}_0\) from noisy linear observations \(\mathbf {y}={\mathbf {A}}\mathbf {x}_0+\mathbf {z}\). We show that certain properties of the LASSO problem are closely related to the denoising problem. In particular, we characterize the normalized LASSO cost and show that it exhibits a “phase transition” as a function of number of observations. We also provide an order-optimal bound for the LASSO error in terms of the mean-squared distance. Our results are significant in two ways. First, we find a simple formula for the performance of a general convex estimator. Secondly, we establish a connection between the denoising and linear inverse problems.     

Map determined by rank-$$\varvec{}$$ matrice for relatively mall $$\varvec{}$$

Let n and s be integers such that \(1\le s<\frac{n}{2}\), and let \(M_n(\mathbb {K})\) be the ring of all \(n\times n\) matrices over a field \(\mathbb {K}\). Denote by \([\frac{n}{s}]\) the least integer m with \(m\ge \frac{n}{s}\). In this short note, it is proved that if \(g:M_n(\mathbb {K})\rightarrow M_n(\mathbb {K})\) is a map such that \(g\left( \sum _{i=1}^{[\frac{n}{s}]}A_i\right) =\sum _{i=1}^{[\frac{n}{s}]}g(A_i)\) holds for any \([\frac{n}{s}]\) rank-s matrices \(A_1,\ldots ,A_{[\frac{n}{s}]}\in M_n(\mathbb {K})\), then \(g(x)=f(x)+g(0)\), \(x\in M_n(\mathbb {K})\), for some additive map \(f:M_n(\mathbb {K})\rightarrow M_n(\mathbb {K})\). Particularly, g is additive if \(char\mathbb {K}\not \mid \left( [\frac{n}{s}]-1\right) \).     

Jump and Variational Inequalities for Rough Operators

In this paper, we systematically study jump and variational inequalities for rough operators, whose research have been initiated by Jones et al. More precisely, we show some jump and variational inequalities for the families \(\mathcal T:=\{T_\varepsilon \}_{\varepsilon >0}\) of truncated singular integrals and \(\mathcal M:=\{M_t\}_{t>0}\) of averaging operators with rough kernels, which are defined respectively by

$$\begin{aligned} T_\varepsilon f(x)=\int _{|y|>\varepsilon }\frac{\Omega (y')}{|y|^n}f(x-y)dy \end{aligned}$$

and

$$\begin{aligned} M_t f(x)=\frac{1}{t^n}\int _{|y|<t}\Omega (y')f(x-y)dy, \end{aligned}$$

where the kernel \(\Omega \) belongs to \(L\log ^+\!\!L(\mathbf S^{n-1})\) or \(H^1(\mathbf S^{n-1})\) or \(\mathcal {G}_\alpha (\mathbf S^{n-1})\) (the condition introduced by Grafakos and Stefanov). Some of our results are sharp in the sense that the underlying assumptions are the best known conditions for the boundedness of corresponding maximal operators.

     

Asymptotic Behaviour of a Random Walk Killed on a Finite Set

We study asymptotic behavior, for large time n, of the transition probability of a two-dimensional random walk killed when entering into a non-empty finite subset A. We show that it behaves like \(4 \tilde u_{A}(x) \tilde u_{-A}(-y) (\lg n)^{-2} p^{n}(y- x)\) for large n, uniformly in the parabolic regime \(|x|\vee |y| =O(\sqrt n)\), where p ⁿ (y-x) is the transition kernel of the random walk (without killing) and \(\tilde u_{A}\) is the unique harmonic function in the ‘exterior of A’ satisfying the boundary condition \(\tilde u_{A}(x) \sim \lg |x|\) at infinity.     

Transformation formulae and asymptotic expansions for double holomorphic Eisenstein series of two complex variables

The main object of study in this paper is the double holomorphic Eisenstein series \(\widetilde{\zeta _{\mathbb {Z}^2}}(\mathbf{s};\mathbf{z})\) having two complex variables \(\mathbf{s}=(s_1,s_2)\) and two parameters \(\mathbf{z}= (z_1,z_2)\) which satisfies either \(\mathbf{z}\in (\mathfrak {H}^+)^2\) or \(\mathbf{z}\in (\mathfrak {H}^-)^2\), where \(\mathfrak {H}^{\pm }\) denotes the complex upper and lower half-planes, respectively. For \(\widetilde{\zeta _{\mathbb {Z}^2}}(\mathbf{s};\mathbf{z})\), its transformation properties and asymptotic aspects are studied when the distance \(|z_2-z_1|\) becomes both small and large under certain natural settings on the movement of \(\mathbf{z}\in (\mathfrak {H}^{\pm })^2\). Prior to the proofs our main results, a new parameter \(\eta \), which plays a pivotal role in describing our results, is introduced in connection with the difference \(z_2-z_1\). We then establish complete asymptotic expansions for \(\widetilde{\zeta _{\mathbb {Z}^2}}(\mathbf{s};\mathbf{z})\) when \(\mathbf{z}\) moves within the poly-sector either \((\mathfrak {H}^+)^2\) or \((\mathfrak {H}^-)^2\), so as to \(\eta \rightarrow 0\) through \(|\arg \eta |<\pi /2\) in the ascending order of \(\eta \) (Theorem 1). This further leads us to show that counterpart expansions exist for \(\widetilde{\zeta _{\mathbb {Z}^2}}(\mathbf{s};\mathbf{z})\) in the descending order of \(\eta \) as \(\eta \rightarrow \infty \) through \(|\arg \eta |<\pi /2\) (Theorem 2). Our second main formula in Theorem 2 yields a functional equation for \(\widetilde{\zeta _{\mathbb {Z}^2}}(\mathbf{s};\mathbf{z})\) (Corollaries 2.1, 2.2), and also reduces naturally to various expressions of \(\widetilde{\zeta _{\mathbb {Z}^2}}(\mathbf{s};\mathbf{z})\) in closed forms for integer lattice point \(\mathbf{s}\in \mathbb {Z}^2\) (Corollaries 2.3–2.17). Most of these results reveal that the particular values of \(\widetilde{\zeta _{\mathbb {Z}^2}}(\mathbf{s};\mathbf{z})\) at \(\mathbf{s}\in \mathbb {Z}^2\) are closely linked to Weierstraß’ elliptic function, the classical Eisenstein series reformulated by Ramanujan, and the Jordan–Kronecker type functions, each associated with the bases \(2\pi (1, z_j)\), \(j=1,2\). The latter two functions were extensively utilized by Ramanujan in the course of developing his theories of Eisenstein series, elliptic functions, and theta functions. As for the methods used, crucial roles in the proofs are played by the Mellin–Barnes type integrals, manipulated with several properties of hypergeometric functions; the transference from Theorem 1 to Theorem 2 is, for instance, achieved by a connection formula for Kummer’s confluent hypergeometric functions.     

Transcendence of zeros of Jacobi forms

A special case of a fundamental theorem of Schneider asserts that if \(j(\tau )\) is algebraic (where j is the classical modular invariant), then any zero z not in \(\mathbf{Q}.L_\tau := \mathbf{Q}\oplus \mathbf{Q}\tau \) of the Weierstrass function \(\wp (\tau ,\cdot )\) attached to the lattice \(L_\tau =\mathbf{Z}\oplus \mathbf{Z}\tau \) is transcendental. In this note we generalize this result to holomorphic Jacobi forms of weight k and index \(m\in \mathbf{N}\) with algebraic Fourier coefficients.     

Isometric multipliers of a vector valued Beurling algebra on a discrete semigroup

Let (S,ω) be a weighted abelian semigroup, let M _ω (S) be the semigroup of ω-bounded multipliers of S, and let \(\mathcal {A}\) be a strictly convex commutative Banach algebra with identity. It is shown that T is an onto isometric multiplier of \(\ell ^{1}(S,\omega , \mathcal {A})\) if and only if there exists an invertible σ ∈ M _ω (S), a unitary point \(a \in \mathcal {A}\), and a k>0 such that \(T(f)= ka{\sum }_{x \in S} f(x)\delta _{\sigma (x)}\) for each \(f={\sum }_{x \in S}f(x)\delta _{x} \in \ell ^{1}(S,\omega ,\mathcal {A})\). It is also shown that an isomorphism from \(\ell ^{1}(S_{1},\omega _{1},\mathcal {A})\) onto \(\ell ^{1}(S_{2},\omega _{2}, \mathcal {B})\) induces an isomorphism from \(M(\ell ^{1}(S_{1},\omega _{1},\mathcal {A}))\), the set of all multipliers of \(\ell ^{1}(S_{1},\omega _{1},\mathcal {A})\), onto \(M(\ell ^{1}(S_{2},\omega _{2},\mathcal {B}))\).     

Virtual Bound Levels in a Gap of the Essential Spectrum of the Weakly Perturbed Periodic Schrödinger Operator

In the space \({L_{2}(\mathbf{R}^{d}) (d \le 3)}\) we consider the Schrödinger operator \({H_{\gamma}=-{\Delta}+ V(\mathbf{x})\cdot+\gamma W(\mathbf{x})\cdot}\), where \({V(\mathbf{x})=V(x_{1}, x_{2}, \dots, x_{d})}\) is a periodic function with respect to all the variables, \({\gamma}\) is a small real coupling constant and the perturbation \({W(\mathbf{x})}\) tends to zero sufficiently fast as \({|\mathbf{x}|\rightarrow\infty}\). We study so called virtual bound levels of the operator \({H_\gamma}\), i.e., those eigenvalues of \({H_\gamma}\) which are born at the moment \({\gamma=0}\) in a gap \({(\lambda_-,\,\lambda_+)}\) of the spectrum of the unperturbed operator \({H_0=-\Delta+ V(\mathbf{x})\cdot}\) from an edge of this gap while \({\gamma}\) increases or decreases. We assume that the dispersion function of H₀, branching from an edge of \({(\lambda_-,\lambda_+)}\), is non-degenerate in the Morse sense at its extremal set. For a definite perturbation \({(W(\mathbf{x})\ge 0)}\) we show that if d ≤ 2, then in the gap there exist virtual eigenvalues which are born from this edge. We investigate their number and an asymptotic behavior of them and of the corresponding eigenfunctions as \({\gamma\rightarrow 0}\). For an indefinite perturbation we estimate the multiplicity of virtual bound levels. In particular, we show that if d = 3 and both edges of the gap \({(\lambda_-,\,\lambda_+)}\) are non-degenerate, then under additional conditions there is a threshold for the birth of the impurity spectrum in the gap, i.e., \({\sigma(H_\gamma)\cap(\lambda_-,\,\lambda_+)=\emptyset}\) for a small enough \({|\gamma|}\).     

Global $$C^{1,\al pha }$$ regularity and e xistence of multi ple solutions for singular p( x)-La placian equations

In this paper we study the following singular p(x)-Laplacian problem

$$\begin{aligned} \left\{ \begin{array}{l@{\quad }l} - \text{ div } \left( |\nabla u|^{p(x)-2} \nabla u\right) =\frac{ \lambda }{u^{\beta (x)}}+u^{q(x)}, &{} \text{ in }\quad \Omega , \\ u>0, &{} \text{ in }\quad \Omega , \\ u=0, &{} \text{ on }\quad \partial \Omega , \end{array}\right. \end{aligned}$$

where \(\Omega \) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb {R}^N\), \(N\ge 2\), with smooth boundary \(\partial \Omega \), \(\beta \in C^1(\bar{\Omega })\) with \( 0< \beta (x) <1\), \(p\in C^1(\bar{\Omega })\), \(q \in C(\bar{\Omega })\) with \(p(x)>1\), \(p(x)< q(x) +1 <p^*(x)\) for \(x \in \bar{\Omega }\), where \( p^*(x)= \frac{Np(x)}{N-p(x)} \) for \(p(x) <N\) and \( p^*(x)= \infty \) for \( p(x) \ge N\). We establish \(C^{1,\alpha }\) regularity of weak solutions of the problem and strong comparison principle. Based on these two results, we prove the existence of multiple (at least two) positive solutions for a certain range of \(\lambda \).

     

On the structure of modules of vector-valued modular forms

If \(\rho \) denotes a finite-dimensional complex representation of \(\mathbf {SL}_{2}(\mathbf {Z})\), then it is known that the module \(M(\rho )\) of vector-valued modular forms for \(\rho \) is free and of finite rank over the ring M of scalar modular forms of level one. This paper initiates a general study of the structure of \(M(\rho )\). Among our results are absolute upper and lower bounds, depending only on the dimension of \(\rho \), on the weights of generators for \(M(\rho )\), as well as upper bounds on the multiplicities of weights of generators of \(M(\rho )\). We provide evidence, both computational and theoretical, that a stronger three-term multiplicity bound might hold. An important step in establishing the multiplicity bounds is to show that there exists a free basis for \(M(\rho )\) in which the matrix of the modular derivative operator does not contain any copies of the Eisenstein series \(E_6\) of weight six.     

Relations among complementary and supplementary pairings of Saalschützian $${}_4F_3(1)$$ series

We investigate sums \(J(\vec {x})\) and \(L(\vec {x})\) of pairs of normalized Saalschützian \({}_4F_3(1)\) hypergeometric series, and develop a theory of relations among these J and L functions. The function \(L(\vec {x})\) has been studied extensively in the literature and has been shown to satisfy a number of two-term and three-term relations with respect to the variable \(\vec {x}\). More recent works have framed these relations in terms of Coxeter group actions on \(\vec {x}\) and have developed a similar theory of two-term and three-term relations for \(J(\vec {x})\). In this article, we derive “mixed” three-term relations, wherein any one of the L (respectively, J) functions arising in the above context may be expressed as a linear combination of two of the above J (respectively, L) functions. We show that, under the appropriate Coxeter group action, the resulting set of three-term relations (mixed and otherwise) among J and L functions partitions into eighteen orbits. We provide an explicit example of a relation from each orbit. We further classify the eighteen orbits into five types, with each type uniquely determined by the distances (under a certain natural metric) between the J and L functions in the relation. We show that the type of a relation dictates the complexity (in terms of both number of summands and number of factors in each summand) of the coefficients of the J and L functions therein.     

Some results on a special case of a general continued fraction of Ramanujan

We derive a new special case C(q) of a general continued fraction recorded by Ramanujan in his Lost Notebook. We give a representation of the continued fraction C(q) as a quotient of Dedekind eta-function and then use it to prove modular identities connecting C(q) with each of the continued fractions \(C(-q)\), \(C(q^{2})\), \(C(q^{3})\), \(C(q^{5})\), \(C(q^{7})\), \(C(q^{11})\), \(C(q^{13})\) and \(C(q^{17})\). We also prove general theorems for the explicit evaluation of the continued fraction C(q) by using Ramanujan’s class invariants.