Interactions between large-scale invariants in infinite graphs

This thesis is devoted to the study of a number of properties of graphs. Our first main result clarifies the relationship between hyperbolicity and non-amenability for plane graphs of bounded degree. This generalises a known result for Cayley graphs to bounded degree graphs. The second main result provides a counterexample to a conjecture of Benjamini asking whether a transient, hyperbolic graph must have a transient subtree. In Chapter 4 we endow the set of all graphs with two pseudometrics and we compare metric properties arising from each of them. The two remaining chapters deal with bi-infinite paths in Z² and geodetic Cayley graphs

Distance-regular graphs

This is a survey of distance-regular graphs. We present an introduction to distance-regular graphs for the reader who is unfamiliar with the subject, and then give an overview of some developments in the area of distance-regular graphs since the monograph 'BCN' [Brouwer, A.E., Cohen, A.M., Neumaier, A., Distance-Regular Graphs, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1989] was written.Comment: 156 page

A scalable parallel finite element framework for growing geometries. Application to metal additive manufacturing

This work introduces an innovative parallel, fully-distributed finite element framework for growing geometries and its application to metal additive manufacturing. It is well-known that virtual part design and qualification in additive manufacturing requires highly-accurate multiscale and multiphysics analyses. Only high performance computing tools are able to handle such complexity in time frames compatible with time-to-market. However, efficiency, without loss of accuracy, has rarely held the centre stage in the numerical community. Here, in contrast, the framework is designed to adequately exploit the resources of high-end distributed-memory machines. It is grounded on three building blocks: (1) Hierarchical adaptive mesh refinement with octree-based meshes; (2) a parallel strategy to model the growth of the geometry; (3) state-of-the-art parallel iterative linear solvers. Computational experiments consider the heat transfer analysis at the part scale of the printing process by powder-bed technologies. After verification against a 3D benchmark, a strong-scaling analysis assesses performance and identifies major sources of parallel overhead. A third numerical example examines the efficiency and robustness of (2) in a curved 3D shape. Unprecedented parallelism and scalability were achieved in this work. Hence, this framework contributes to take on higher complexity and/or accuracy, not only of part-scale simulations of metal or polymer additive manufacturing, but also in welding, sedimentation, atherosclerosis, or any other physical problem where the physical domain of interest grows in time

A parallel fast multipole method for elliptic difference equations

A new fast multipole formulation for solving elliptic difference equations on unbounded domains and its parallel implementation are presented. These difference equations can arise directly in the description of physical systems, e.g. crystal structures, or indirectly through the discretization of PDEs. In the analog to solving continuous inhomogeneous differential equations using Green's functions, the proposed method uses the fundamental solution of the discrete operator on an infinite grid, or lattice Green's function. Fast solutions O(N)O(N) are achieved by using a kernel-independent interpolation-based fast multipole method. Unlike other fast multipole algorithms, our approach exploits the regularity of the underlying Cartesian grid and the efficiency of FFTs to reduce the computation time. Our parallel implementation allows communications and computations to be overlapped and requires minimal global synchronization. The accuracy, efficiency, and parallel performance of the method are demonstrated through numerical experiments on the discrete 3D Poisson equation

Combinatorics

Combinatorics is a fundamental mathematical discipline that focuses on the study of discrete objects and their properties. The present workshop featured research in such diverse areas as Extremal, Probabilistic and Algebraic Combinatorics, Graph Theory, Discrete Geometry, Combinatorial Optimization, Theory of Computation and Statistical Mechanics. It provided current accounts of exciting developments and challenges in these fields and a stimulating venue for a variety of fruitful interactions. This is a report on the meeting, containing extended abstracts of the presentations and a summary of the problem session