Conversations on mind, matter, and mathematics

Conclusion  The debate between Jean-Pierre Changeux and Alain Connes is one of the most, interesting to take place in recent years. It re-frames in a very up-to-date context a whole series of traditional and difficult questions from the standpoint of the knowledge and experience of two of the leading protagonists of contemporary science. To the choice presented by the neurobiologist between a Platonist ontology and a neurocognitive psychology of mathematical activity, the mathematician replies with a conception that is objective (neither ontological nor psychological) of the thoroughly consistent universe of mathematical idealities. It is indeed in this three-sided arena that the major difficulties play themselves out. One of the great virtues of the book is to cast a spotlight on this confrontation.     

Approche non paramétrique du filtrage de système non linéaire à temps discret et à paramètres inconnus

Particle filters are presently among the most powerful tools for filtering discrete time non linear systems. However the presence of unknown parameters in the system equations makes their use more complex and can even impair their convergence properties. This Note shows how an on-line consistent estimation of these parameters can be obtained simultaneously to that of the state variables to be filtered. This approach relies upon a kernel-based non parametric estimation of conditional probability densities from successive Monte Carlo generations of system particles. To cite this article: V. Rossi, J.-P. Vila, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 340 (2005).     

Impulse capture basins of sets under impulse control systems

Given a target contained in a constrained set and an impulse control system governing the evolutions of runs or executions, that are hybrids of continuous and discrete evolutions, this paper studies and provides several characterizations of the capture basin of the target viable in the constrained set. It is the subset of initial runs from which start at least one run viable in the constrained set until it reaches the target in finite time. It also provides algorithms and regulation rules governing the runs that reach the targets while obeying state constraints.     

Newton's method on Riemannian manifolds and a geometric model for the human spine

To study a geometric model of the human spine we are led tofinding a constrained minimum of a real valued function definedon a product of special orthogonal groups. To take advantgeof its Lie group structure we consider Newton's method on thismanifold. Comparisons between measured spines and computed spinesshow the pertinence of this approach.     

Characterization Theorem for Best Polynomial Spline Approximation with Free Knots,Variable Degree and Fixed Tails

In this paper, we derive a necessary condition for a best approximation by piecewise polynomial functions of varying degree from one interval to another. Based on these results, we obtain a characterization theorem for the polynomial splines with fixed tails, that is the value of the spline is fixed in one or more knots (external or internal). We apply nonsmooth nonconvex analysis to obtain this result, which is also a necessary and sufficient condition for inf-stationarity in the sense of Demyanov–Rubinov. This paper is an extension of a paper where similar conditions were obtained for free tails splines. The main results of this paper are essential for the development of a Remez-type algorithm for free knot spline approximation.     

CLT for Random Walks of Commuting Endomorphisms on Compact Abelian Groups

Let \(\mathcal S\) be an abelian group of automorphisms of a probability space \((X, {\mathcal A}, \mu )\) with a finite system of generators \((A_1, \ldots , A_d).\) Let \(A^{{\underline{\ell }}}\) denote \(A_1^{\ell _1} \ldots A_d^{\ell _d}\), for \({{\underline{\ell }}}= (\ell _1, \ldots , \ell _d).\) If \((Z_k)\) is a random walk on \({\mathbb {Z}}^d\), one can study the asymptotic distribution of the sums \(\sum _{k=0}^{n-1} \, f \circ A^{\,{Z_k(\omega )}}\) and \(\sum _{{\underline{\ell }}\in {\mathbb {Z}}^d} {\mathbb {P}}(Z_n= {\underline{\ell }}) \, A^{\underline{\ell }}f\), for a function f on X. In particular, given a random walk on commuting matrices in \(SL(\rho , {\mathbb {Z}})\) or in \({\mathcal M}^*(\rho , {\mathbb {Z}})\) acting on the torus \({\mathbb {T}}^\rho \), \(\rho \ge 1\), what is the asymptotic distribution of the associated ergodic sums along the random walk for a smooth function on \({\mathbb {T}}^\rho \) after normalization? In this paper, we prove a central limit theorem when X is a compact abelian connected group G endowed with its Haar measure (e.g., a torus or a connected extension of a torus), \(\mathcal S\) a totally ergodic d-dimensional group of commuting algebraic automorphisms of G and f a regular function on G. The proof is based on the cumulant method and on preliminary results on random walks.     

Stochastic Invariance for Differential Inclusions

The aim of this paper is to combine two ways for representing uncertainty through stochastic differential inclusions: a 'stochastic uncertainty", driven by a Wiener process, and a 'contingent uncertainty", driven by a set-valued map. The paper is also devoted to the invariance of closed under stochastic differential inclusions with a Lipschitz right-hand side, characterized in terms of stochastic tangent sets to closed subsets.     

Sur les automorphismes analytiques des variétés hyperboliques

Results of H. Cartan about holomorphic automorphisms on bounded domains are generalized to the case of hyperbolic manifolds in the sense of Kobayashi. In this setting, we give an identity theorem together with its topological version. We show also that a sequence of automorphisms which converges uniformly on some nonempty open set, has a limit on the whole space which is an automorphism. At the end of the paper, conditions are given for the sequence of iterates of a self holomorphic map in order to be an automorphism.