Trust-region algorithms for derivative-free optimization and nonlinear bilevel programming

We briefly describe the contents of the authors PhD thesis (see Colson 2003) discussed on July 2003 at the University of Namur (Belgium) and supervised by Philippe L. Toint. The contributions presented in this thesis are the development of trust-region methods for solving two particular classes of mathematical programs, namely derivative-free optimization (DFO) problems and nonlinear bilevel programming problems. The thesis is written in English and is available via the author.Received: July 2003, AMS classification: 65D05, 90C30, 90C56, 90C59     

Kinetic Models for Chemotaxis and their Drift-Diffusion Limits

Kinetic models for chemotaxis, nonlinearly coupled to a Poisson equation for the chemo-attractant density, are considered. Under suitable assumptions on the turning kernel (including models introduced by Othmer, Dunbar and Alt), convergence in the macroscopic limit to a drift-diffusion model is proven. The drift-diffusion models derived in this way include the classical Keller-Segel model. Furthermore, sufficient conditions for kinetic models are given such that finite-time-blow-up does not occur. Examples are given satisfying these conditions, whereas the macroscopic limit problem is known to exhibit finite-time-blow-up. The main analytical tools are entropy techniques for the macroscopic limit as well as results from potential theory for the control of the chemo-attractant density.Present address: Centro de Matemática e Aplicações Fundamentais, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Prof. Gama Pinto 2, 1649-003, Lisboa, Portugal     

A Note on the Game Chromatic Index of Graphs

In this note we prove that the game chromatic index χ _g ^′(G) of a graph G of arboricity k is at most Δ + 3k − 1. This improves a bound obtained by Cai and Zhu [J. Graph Theory 36 (2001), 144–155] for k-degenerate graphs. Tomasz Bartnicki: Research of the first author is supported by a PhD grant from Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education N201 2128 33. Received: November 1, 2006. Final version received: December 22, 2007.     

Irreducible recurrence,ergodicity, and extremality of invariant measures for resolvents

We analyze the transience, recurrence, and irreducibility properties of general sub-Markovian resolvents of kernels and their duals, with respect to a fixed sub-invariant measure $m$. We give a unifying characterization of the invariant functions, revealing the fact that an $L^p$-integrable function is harmonic if and only if it is harmonic with respect to the weak dual resolvent. Our approach is based on potential theoretical techniques for resolvents in weak duality. We prove the equivalence between the $m$-irreducible recurrence of the resolvent and the extremality of $m$ in the set of all invariant measures, and we apply this result to the extremality of Gibbs states. We also show that our results can be applied to non-symmetric Dirichlet forms, in general and in concrete situations. A second application is the extension of the so called Fukushima ergodic theorem for symmetric Dirichlet forms to the case of sub-Markovian resolvents of kernels.     

On dual of square free modules

A module M is said to be square free if whenever its submodule is isomorphic to N² = N⊕N for some module N, then N = 0. Dually, a module M is said to be d-square free (dual square free) if whenever its factor module is isomorphic to N² for some module N, then N = 0. In this paper, we give some fundamental properties of d-square free modules and study rings whose d-square free modules are closed under submodules or essential extensions.     

Chebyshev model arithmetic for factorable functions

This article presents an arithmetic for the computation of Chebyshev models for factorable functions and an analysis of their convergence properties. Similar to Taylor models, Chebyshev models consist of a pair of a multivariate polynomial approximating the factorable function and an interval remainder term bounding the actual gap with this polynomial approximant. Propagation rules and local convergence bounds are established for the addition, multiplication and composition operations with Chebyshev models. The global convergence of this arithmetic as the polynomial expansion order increases is also discussed. A generic implementation of Chebyshev model arithmetic is available in the library MC++. It is shown through several numerical case studies that Chebyshev models provide tighter bounds than their Taylor model counterparts, but this comes at the price of extra computational burden.     

When automorphism-coinvariant modules are quasi-projective

In this paper we provide conditions under which automorphism-coinvariant modules over a right perfect ring are quasi-projective.