Countably compact topological group topologies on free Abelian groups from selective ultrafilters

Tkachenko showed in 1990 the existence of a countably compact group topology on the free Abelian group of size c using CH. Koszmider, Tomita and Watson showed in 2000 the existence of a countably compact group topology on the free Abelian group of size c² using a forcing model in which CH holds.Wallace's question from 1955, asks whether every both-sided cancellative countably compact semigroup is a topological group. A counterexample to Wallace's question has been called a Wallace semigroup. In 1996, Robbie and Svetlichny constructed a Wallace semigroup under CH. In the same year, Tomita constructed a Wallace semigroup from MAcountable.In this note, we show that the examples of Tkachenko, Robbie and Svetlichny, and Koszmider, Tomita and Watson can be obtained using a family of selective ultrafilters. As a corollary, the constructions presented here are compatible with the total failure of Martin's Axiom.     

QN-spaces, wQN-spaces and covering properties

The main results of the paper are as follows: covering characterizations of wQN-spaces, covering characterizations of QN-spaces and a theorem saying that Cp(X) has the Arkhangel'ski?ˇ property (α₁) provided that X is a QN-space. The latter statement solves a problem posed by M. Scheepers [M. Scheepers, Cp(X) and Arhangel'ski?ˇ's αi-spaces, Topology Appl. 89 (1998) 265-275] and for Tychonoff spaces was independently proved by M. Sakai [M. Sakai, The sequence selection properties of Cp(X), Preprint, April 25, 2006]. As the most interesting result we consider the equivalence that a normal topological space X is a wQN-space if and only if X has the property S₁(Γshr,Γ). Moreover we show that X is a QN-space if and only if Cp(X) has the property (α₀), and for perfectly normal spaces, if and only if X has the covering property (β₃).     

Unions of three starshaped sets in R2

LetS be a compact, simply connected set inR ². If every boundary point ofS is clearly visible viaS from at least one of the three pointsa, b, c, thenS is a union of three starshaped sets whose kernels containa, b, c, respectively. The result fails when the number three is replaced by four.As a partial converse, ifS is a union of three starshaped sets whose kernels containa, b, c, respectively, then the set of points in the boundary ofS clearly visible from at least one ofa, b, orc is dense in the boundary ofS.Supported in part by NSF grant DMS-8705336.     

Optimal Control in Heterogeneous Domain Decomposition Methods for Advection-Diffusion Equations

New domain decomposition methods (DDM) based on optimal control approach are introduced for the coupling of first and second order equations on overlapping subdomains. Several cost functionals and control functions are proposed. Uniqueness and existence results are proved for the coupled problem, and the convergence of iterative processes is analyzed. The work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (04-01-00615) and it was partly carried out while the first author was visiting the IACS at EPFL.     

Long-time dynamics of von Karman semi-flows with non-linear boundary/interior damping

We study von Karman evolution equations with non-linear dissipation and with partially clamped and partially free boundary conditions. Two distinctive mechanisms of dissipation are considered: (i) internal dissipation generated by non-linear operator, and (ii) boundary dissipation generated by shear forces friction acting on a free part of the boundary. The main emphasis is given to the effects of boundary dissipation. Under suitable hypotheses we prove existence of a compact global attractor and finiteness of its fractal dimension. We also show that any solution is stabilized to an equilibrium and estimate the rate of the convergence which, in turn, depends on the behaviour at the origin of the functions describing the dissipation.     

Resolvability properties via independent families

The authors give a consistent affirmative response to a question of Juhász, Soukup and Szentmiklóssy: If GCH fails, there are (many) extraresolvable, not maximally resolvable Tychonoff spaces. They show also in ZFC that for ω<λ?κ, no maximal λ-independent family of λ-partitions of κ is ω-resolvable. In topological language, that theorem translates to this: A dense, ω-resolvable subset of a space of the form (DI(λ)) is λ-resolvable.     

The problem of Dirichlet for anisotropic quasilinear degenerate elliptic equations

We consider the Dirichlet problem for a class of anisotropic degenerate elliptic equations. New a priori estimates for solutions and for the gradient of solutions are established. Based on these estimates sufficient conditions guaranteeing the solvability of the problem are formulated. The results are new even in the semilinear case when the principal part is the Laplace operator.     

A complete global solution to the pressure gradient equation

We study the domain of existence of a solution to a Riemann problem for the pressure gradient equation in two space dimensions. The Riemann problem is the expansion of a quadrant of gas of constant state into the other three vacuum quadrants. The global existence of a smooth solution was established in Dai and Zhang [Z. Dai, T. Zhang, Existence of a global smooth solution for a degenerate Goursat problem of gas dynamics, Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 155 (2000) 277-298] up to the free boundary of vacuum. We prove that the vacuum boundary is the coordinate axes.     

Predicting automobile claims bodily injury severity with sequential ordered logit models

Despite the large cost of bodily injury (BI) claims in motor insurance, relatively little research has been done in this area. Many companies estimate (and therefore reserve) bodily injury compensation directly from initial medical reports. This practice may underestimate the final cost, because the severity is often assessed during the recovery period. Since the evaluation of this severity is often only qualitative, in this paper we apply an ordered multiple choice model at different moments in the life of a claim reported to an insurance company. We assume that the information available to the insurer does not flow continuously, because it is obtained at different stages. Using a real data set, we show that the application of sequential ordered logit models leads to a significant improvement in the prediction of the BI severity level, compared to the subjective classification that is used in practice. We also show that these results could improve the insurer’s reserves notably.     

A nondifferentiable extension of a theorem of Pucci and Serrin and applications

We study the multiplicity of critical points for functionals which are only differentiable along some directions. We extend to this class of functionals the three critical point theorem of Pucci and Serrin and we apply it to a one-parameter family of functionals Jλ, λ∈I⊂R. Under suitable assumptions, we locate an open subinterval of values λ in I for which Jλ possesses at least three critical points. Applications to quasilinear boundary value problems are also given.