Quantum Free Yang-Mills on the Plane

We construct a free-probability quantum Yang-Mills theory on the two dimensional plane, determine the Wilson loop expectation values, and show that this theory is the $N=\infty$ limit of U(N) quantum Yang-Mills theory on the plane.Comment: 24 pages, tikz figure

Upper bounds for packings of spheres of several radii

We give theorems that can be used to upper bound the densities of packings of different spherical caps in the unit sphere and of translates of different convex bodies in Euclidean space. These theorems extend the linear programming bounds for packings of spherical caps and of convex bodies through the use of semidefinite programming. We perform explicit computations, obtaining new bounds for packings of spherical caps of two different sizes and for binary sphere packings. We also slightly improve bounds for the classical problem of packing identical spheres.Comment: 31 page

Mathematical optimization for packing problems

During the last few years several new results on packing problems were obtained using a blend of tools from semidefinite optimization, polynomial optimization, and harmonic analysis. We survey some of these results and the techniques involved, concentrating on geometric packing problems such as the sphere-packing problem or the problem of packing regular tetrahedra in R^3.Comment: 17 pages, written for the SIAG/OPT Views-and-News, (v2) some updates and correction

Radial Dunkl Processes : Existence and uniqueness, Hitting time, Beta Processes and Random Matrices

We begin with the study of some properties of the radial Dunkl process associated to a reduced root system $R$. It is shown that this diffusion is the unique strong solution for all $t \geq 0$ of a SDE with singular drift. Then, we study $T_0$, the first hitting time of the positive Weyl chamber : we prove, via stochastic calculus, a result already obtained by Chybiryakov on the finiteness of $T_0$. The second and new part deals with the law of $T_0$ for which we compute the tail distribution, as well as some insight via stochastic calculus on how root systems are connected with eigenvalues of standard matrix-valued processes. This gives rise to the so-called $\beta$-processes. The ultraspherical $\beta$-Jacobi case still involves a reduced root system while the general case is closely connected to a non reduced one. This process lives in a convex bounded domain known as principal Weyl alcove and the strong uniqueness result remains valid. The last part deals with the first hitting time of the alcove's boundary and the semi group density which enables us to answer some open questions.Comment: 33 page

Efficient Algorithm for Asymptotics-Based Configuration-Interaction Methods and Electronic Structure of Transition Metal Atoms

Asymptotics-based configuration-interaction (CI) methods [G. Friesecke and B. D. Goddard, Multiscale Model. Simul. 7, 1876 (2009)] are a class of CI methods for atoms which reproduce, at fixed finite subspace dimension, the exact Schr\"odinger eigenstates in the limit of fixed electron number and large nuclear charge. Here we develop, implement, and apply to 3d transition metal atoms an efficient and accurate algorithm for asymptotics-based CI. Efficiency gains come from exact (symbolic) decomposition of the CI space into irreducible symmetry subspaces at essentially linear computational cost in the number of radial subshells with fixed angular momentum, use of reduced density matrices in order to avoid having to store wavefunctions, and use of Slater-type orbitals (STO's). The required Coulomb integrals for STO's are evaluated in closed form, with the help of Hankel matrices, Fourier analysis, and residue calculus. Applications to 3d transition metal atoms are in good agreement with experimental data. In particular we reproduce the anomalous magnetic moment and orbital filling of Chromium in the otherwise regular series Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur