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School of Mathematics

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College of Sciences

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 71

Some results on linear discrepancy for partially ordered sets

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-11-24) Keller, Mitchel Todd

Tanenbaum, Trenk, and Fishburn introduced the concept of linear discrepancy in 2001, proposing it as a way to measure a partially ordered set's distance from being a linear order. In addition to proving a number of results about linear discrepancy, they posed eight challenges and questions for future work. This dissertation completely resolves one of those challenges and makes contributions on two others. This dissertation has three principal components: 3-discrepancy irreducible posets of width 3, degree bounds, and online algorithms for linear discrepancy. The first principal component of this dissertation provides a forbidden subposet characterization of the posets with linear discrepancy equal to 2 by completing the determination of the posets that are 3-irreducible with respect to linear discrepancy. The second principal component concerns degree bounds for linear discrepancy and weak discrepancy, a parameter similar to linear discrepancy. Specifically, if every point of a poset is incomparable to at most D other points of the poset, we prove three bounds: the linear discrepancy of an interval order is at most D, with equality if and only if it contains an antichain of size D; the linear discrepancy of a disconnected poset is at most the greatest integer less than or equal to (3D-1)/2; and the weak discrepancy of a poset is at most D. The third principal component of this dissertation incorporates another large area of research, that of online algorithms. We show that no online algorithm for linear discrepancy can be better than 3-competitive, even for the class of interval orders. We also give a 2-competitive online algorithm for linear discrepancy on semiorders and show that this algorithm is optimal.
Eigenvalue inequalities for relativistic Hamiltonians and fractional Laplacian

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-11-11) Yildirim Yolcu, Selma

Some eigenvalue inequalities for Klein-Gordon operators and fractional Laplacians restricted to a bounded domain are proved. Such operators became very popular recently as they arise in many problems ranging from mathematical finance to crystal dislocations, especially relativistic quantum mechanics and symmetric stable stochastic processes. Many of the results obtained here are concerned with finding bounds for some functions of the spectrum of these operators. The subject, which is well developed for the Laplacian, is examined from the spectral theory perspective through some of the tools used to prove analogous results for the Laplacian. This work highlights some important results, sparking interest in constructing a similar theory for Klein-Gordon operators. For instance, the Weyl asymptotics and semiclassical bounds for the Klein-Gordon operator are developed. As a result, a Berezin-Li-Yau type inequality is derived and an improvement of the bound is proved in a separate chapter. Other results involving some universal bounds for the Klein-Gordon Hamiltonian with an external interaction are also obtained.
Mathematical approaches to digital color image denoising

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-09-14) Deng, Hao

Many mathematical models have been designed to remove noise from images. Most of them focus on grey value images with additive artificial noise. Only very few specifically target natural color photos taken by a digital camera with real noise. Noise in natural color photos have special characteristics that are substantially different from those that have been added artificially. In this thesis previous denoising models are reviewed. We analyze the strengths and weakness of existing denoising models by showing where they perform well and where they don't. We put special focus on two models: The steering kernel regression model and the non-local model. For Kernel Regression model, an adaptive bilateral ﬁlter is introduced as complementary to enhance it. Also a non-local bilateral filter is proposed as an application of the idea of non-local means ﬁlter. Then the idea of cross-channel denoising is proposed in this thesis. It is effective in denoising monochromatic images by understanding the characteristics of digital noise in natural color images. A non-traditional color space is also introduced specifically for this purpose. The cross-channel paradigm can be applied to most of the exisiting models to greatly improve their performance for denoising natural color images.
Initial-boundary value problems in fluid dynamics modeling

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-08-31) Zhao, Kun

This thesis is devoted to studies of initial-boundary value problems (IBVPs) for systems of partial differential equations (PDEs) arising from fluid mechanics modeling, especially for the compressible Euler equations with frictional damping, the Boussinesq equations, the Cahn-Hilliard equations and the incompressible density-dependent Navier-Stokes equations. The emphasis of this thesis is to understand the influences to the qualitative behavior of solutions caused by boundary effects and various dissipative mechanisms including damping, viscosity and heat diffusion.
Parabolic systems and an underlying Lagrangian

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-07-07) Yolcu, Türkay

In this thesis, we extend De Giorgi's interpolation method to a class of parabolic equations which are not gradient flows but possess an entropy functional and an underlying Lagrangian. The new fact in the study is that not only the Lagrangian may depend on spatial variables, but also it does not induce a metric. Assuming the initial condition is a density function, not necessarily smooth, but solely of bounded first moments and finite "entropy", we use a variational scheme to discretize the equation in time and construct approximate solutions. Moreover, De Giorgi's interpolation method is revealed to be a powerful tool for proving convergence of our algorithm. Finally, we analyze uniqueness and stability of our solution in L¹.
Hamiltonian systems and the calculus of differential forms on the Wasserstein space

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-06-01) Kim, Hwa Kil

This thesis consists of two parts. In the first part, we study stability properties of Hamiltonian systems on the Wasserstein space. Let H be a Hamiltonian satisfying conditions imposed in the work of Ambrosio and Gangbo. We regularize H via Moreau-Yosida approximation to get H[subscript Tau] and denote by μ[subscript Tau] a solution of system with the new Hamiltonian H[subscript Tau] . Suppose H[subscript Tau] converges to H as τ tends to zero. We show μ[subscript Tau] converges to μ and μ is a solution of a Hamiltonian system which is corresponding to the Hamiltonian H. At the end of first part, we give a sufficient condition for the uniqueness of Hamiltonian systems. In the second part, we develop a general theory of differential forms on the Wasserstein space. Our main result is to prove an analogue of Green's theorem for 1-forms and show that every closed 1-form on the Wasserstein space is exact. If the Wasserstein space were a manifold in the classical sense, this result wouldn't be worthy of mention. Hence, the first cohomology group, in the sense of de Rham, vanishes.
Additive stucture, rich lines, and exponential set-expansion

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05-19) Borenstein, Evan

We will survey some of the major directions of research in arithmetic combinatorics and their connections to other fields. We will then discuss three new results. The first result will generalize a structural theorem from Balog and Szemerédi. The second result will establish a new tool in incidence geometry, which should prove useful in attacking combinatorial estimates. The third result evolved from the famous sum-product problem, by providing a partial categorization of bivariate polynomial set functions which induce exponential expansion on all finite sets of real numbers.
Billiards and statistical mechanics

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05-18) Grigo, Alexander

In this thesis we consider mathematical problems related to different aspects of hard sphere systems. In the first part we study planar billiards, which arise in the context of hard sphere systems when only one or two spheres are present. In particular we investigate the possibility of elliptic periodic orbits in the general construction of hyperbolic billiards. We show that if non-absolutely focusing components are present there can be elliptic periodic orbits with arbitrarily long free paths. Furthermore, we show that smooth stadium like billiards have elliptic periodic orbits for a large range of separation distances. In the second part we consider hard sphere systems with a large number of particles, which we model by the Boltzmann equation. We develop a new approach to derive hydrodynamic limits, which is based on classical methods of geometric singular perturbation theory of ordinary differential equations. This method provides new geometric and dynamical interpretations of hydrodynamic limits, in particular, for the of the dissipative Boltzmann equation.
Random sampling of lattice configurations using local Markov chains

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-12-01) Greenberg, Sam

Algorithms based on Markov chains are ubiquitous across scientific disciplines, as they provide a method for extracting statistical information about large, complicated systems. Although these algorithms may be applied to arbitrary graphs, many physical applications are more naturally studied under the restriction to regular lattices. We study several local Markov chains on lattices, exploring how small changes to some parameters can greatly influence efficiency of the algorithms. We begin by examining a natural Markov Chain that arises in the context of "monotonic surfaces", where some point on a surface is sightly raised or lowered each step, but with a greater rate of raising than lowering. We show that this chain is rapidly mixing (converges quickly to the equilibrium) using a coupling argument; the novelty of our proof is that it requires defining an exponentially increasing distance function on pairs of surfaces, allowing us to derive near optimal results in many settings. Next, we present new methods for lower bounding the time local chains may take to converge to equilibrium. For many models that we study, there seems to be a phase transition as a parameter is changed, so that the chain is rapidly mixing above a critical point and slow mixing below it. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to make this intuition rigorous. We present the first proofs of slow mixing for three sampling problems motivated by statistical physics and nanotechnology: independent sets on the triangular lattice (the hard-core lattice gas model), weighted even orientations of the two-dimensional Cartesian lattice (the 8-vertex model), and non-saturated Ising (tile-based self-assembly). Previous proofs of slow mixing for other models have been based on contour arguments that allow us prove that a bottleneck in the state space constricts the mixing. The standard contour arguments do not seem to apply to these problems, so we modify this approach by introducing the notion of "fat contours" that can have nontrivial area. We use these to prove that the local chains defined for these models are slow mixing. Finally, we study another important issue that arises in the context of phase transitions in physical systems, namely how the boundary of a lattice can affect the efficiency of the Markov chain. We examine a local chain on the perfect and near-perfect matchings of the square-octagon lattice, and show for one boundary condition the chain will mix in polynomial time, while for another it will mix exponentially slowly. Strikingly, the two boundary conditions only differ at four vertices. These are the first rigorous proofs of such a phenomenon on lattice graphs.
On the limiting shape of random young tableaux for Markovian words

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-11-17) Litherland, Trevis J.

The limiting law of the length of the longest increasing subsequence, LI_n, for sequences (words) of length n arising from iid letters drawn from finite, ordered alphabets is studied using a straightforward Brownian functional approach. Building on the insights gained in both the uniform and non-uniform iid cases, this approach is then applied to iid countable alphabets. Some partial results associated with the extension to independent, growing alphabets are also given. Returning again to the finite setting, and keeping with the same Brownian formalism, a generalization is then made to words arising from irreducible, aperiodic, time-homogeneous Markov chains on a finite, ordered alphabet. At the same time, the probabilistic object, LI_n, is simultaneously generalized to the shape of the associated Young tableau given by the well-known RSK-correspondence. Our results on this limiting shape describe, in detail, precisely when the limiting shape of the Young tableau is (up to scaling) that of the iid case, thereby answering a conjecture of Kuperberg. These results are based heavily on an analysis of the covariance structure of an m-dimensional Brownian motion and the precise form of the Brownian functionals. Finally, in both the iid and more general Markovian cases, connections to the limiting laws of the spectrum of certain random matrices associated with the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (GUE) are explored.