Variations on the Drygas equation and its stability

We study the stability of the Drygas functional equation:

g(xy)+g(xy⁻¹)=2g(x)+g(y)+g(y⁻¹)     

On cyclic compositions of positive integers

Say that two compositions of n into k parts are related if they differ only by a cyclic shift. This defines an equivalence relation on the set of such compositions. Let ${\left\langle \begin{array}{c}n \\ k\end{array} \right\rangle}$ denote the number of distinct corresponding equivalence classes, that is, the number of cyclic compositions of n into k parts. We show that the sequence ${\left\langle\begin{array}{c}n \\ k\end{array}\right\rangle}$ is log-concave and prove some results concerning ${\left\langle \begin{array}{c}n \\ k \end{array} \right\rangle}$ modulo two.     

A goodwill model with predatory advertising

We investigate the dynamic advertising policies of two competing firms in a duopolistic industry, assuming a predatory phenomenon between their advertising campaigns. The resulting model is a differential game which is not linear-quadratic. We show that there exists a Markovian Nash equilibrium, and that it leads to time constant advertising strategies. According to this model, predatory advertising produces a negative externality: the interference between the advertising campaigns decreases the total demand of the market.     

Subcanonical curves and complete intersections in projective 3-space

Summary Un classico teorema di G. Gherardelli afferma che una curvaC P ³ è intersezionè completa se e soltanto se è proiettivamente normale e sottocanonica. Qui si prova che, seC e a- sottocanonica ed inoltre le superficie di grado 1 + (a/2) (a pari) ovvero (a + l)/2 o (a + 3)/2 o (a + 5)/2 (a dispari) tagliano suC serie complete, alloraC è intersezione completa. Si determina inoltre un bound d funzione di a tale che, seC è a-sottocanonica e di grado d d, alloraC è intersezione completa se e soltanto se le superficie di grado a tagliano suC una serie completa. Si discutono poi numerosi esempi di curve sottocanoniche non intersezioni complete.Paper written while P. Valabrega was member of C.N.R. (G.N.A.S.G.A.) and both authors were supported by M.P.I. funds.     

Efficient computation of the exponential operator for large,sparse, symmetric matrices

In this paper we compare Krylov subspace methods with Chebyshev series expansion for approximating the matrix exponential operator on large, sparse, symmetric matrices. Experimental results upon negative‐definite matrices with very large size, arising from (2D and 3D) FE and FD spatial discretization of linear parabolic PDEs, demonstrate that the Chebyshev method can be an effective alternative to Krylov techniques, especially when memory bounds do not allow the storage of all Ritz vectors. We also discuss the sensitivity of Chebyshev convergence to extreme eigenvalue approximation, as well as the reliability of various a priori and a posteriori error estimates for both methods. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Active slip-band separation and the energetics of slip in single crystals

This research supports recent efforts to provide an energetic approach to the prediction of stress–strain relations for single crystals undergoing single slip and to give precise formulations of experimentally observed connections between hardening of single crystals and separation of active slip-bands. Non–classical, structured deformations in the form of two-level shears permit the formulation of new measures of the active slip-band separation and of the number of lattice cells traversed during slip. A formula is obtained for the Helmholtz free energy per unit volume as a function of the shear without slip, the shear due to slip, and the relative separation of active slip-bands in a single crystal. This formula is the basis for a model, under preparation by the authors, of hardening of single crystals in single slip that is consistent with the Portevin-Le Chatelier effect and the existence of a critical resolved shear stress.     

Smoothing estimates for the Schrödinger equation with unbounded potentials

We prove a local in time smoothing estimate for a magnetic Schrödinger equation with coefficients growing polynomially at spatial infinity. The assumptions on the magnetic field are gauge invariant and involve only the first two derivatives. The proof is based on the multiplier method and no pseudodifferential techniques are required.     

Existence and multiplicity for positive solutions of a system of higher-order multi-point boundary value problems

We investigate the existence and multiplicity of positive solutions of multi-point boundary value problems for systems of nonlinear higher-order ordinary differential equations.     

Finite mixtures of unimodal beta and gamma densities and the k-bumps algorithm

This paper addresses the problem of estimating a density, with either a compact support or a support bounded at only one end, exploiting a general and natural form of a finite mixture of distributions. Due to the importance of the concept of multimodality in the mixture framework, unimodal beta and gamma densities are used as mixture components, leading to a flexible modeling approach. Accordingly, a mode-based parameterization of the components is provided. A partitional clustering method, named $k$ -bumps, is also proposed; it is used as an ad hoc initialization strategy in the EM algorithm to obtain the maximum likelihood estimation of the mixture parameters. The performance of the $k$ -bumps algorithm as an initialization tool, in comparison to other common initialization strategies, is evaluated through some simulation experiments. Finally, two real applications are presented.