Separately harmonic and subharmonic functions

Let u(x, y) be defined in B ₁×B ₂ where B ₁ ^m and B ₂ ⁿ , and assume that u(x, ·) harmonic for every fixed x and u(·, y) is subharmonic for every fixed y. We show that if u(·, y) is, in addition, C ² for each y then u is subharmonic in B ₁×B ₂ in both variables jointly.     

Extremal problems for linear orders on [n] p

Let be a product order on [n] ^p i.e. for A, B [n] ^p , 1a ₁<a ₂<...<a _p º-n and 1<-b ₁<b ₂<...<b _p <-n we have AB iff a _i<-b _i for all i=1, 2,..., p. For a linear extension < of (ordering [n] ^p as ) let F _< ^[n],p (m) count the number of A _i 's, i<-m such that 1A _i. Clearly, for every m and <, where <l denotes the lexicographic order on [n] ^p . In this note we prove that the colexicographical order, <c, provides a corresponding lower bound i.e. that holds for any linear extension < of .This project together with [2] was initiated by the first author and continued in colaboration with the second author. After the death of the first author the work was continued and finalized by the second and the third author.Research supported by NSF grant DMS 9011850.     

Λ-Shaped Policies to Schedule Deteriorating Jobs

We study a problem of scheduling deteriorating jobs, i.e. jobs whose processing times are an increasing function of their starting times. We consider the case of a single machine and linear job-independent deterioration. The objective is to minimize the sum of weighted completion times, with weights proportional to the basic processing times. The optimal schedule is shown to be Λ-shaped, i.e. the sequence of the basic processing times has a single local maximum. Moreover, we show that the problem is solved in O(N log N) time. In the last section we test heuristics for the case of general weights.