On the spectrum of the magnetohydrodynamic mean-field alpha^2-dynamo operator

The existence of magnetohydrodynamic mean-field alpha^2-dynamos with spherically symmetric, isotropic helical turbulence function alpha is related to a non-self-adjoint spectral problem for a coupled system of two singular second order ordinary differential equations. We establish global estimates for the eigenvalues of this system in terms of the turbulence function alpha and its derivative alpha'. They allow us to formulate an anti-dynamo theorem and a non-oscillation theorem. The conditions of these theorems, which again involve alpha and alpha', must be violated in order to reach supercritical or oscillatory regimes.Comment: 35 pages, 4 figures, to be published in SIAM J. Math. Anal

Yan’s oscillation theorem revisited

AbstractYan’s contribution [J. Yan, Oscillation theorems for second order linear differential equations with damping, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 98 (1986) 276–282] was an important breakthrough in the development of the Theory of Oscillation. This frequently cited paper has stimulated extensive investigations in the field. During the last decade, an integral oscillation technique has been developed to such an extent as to allow us to revisit Yan’s fundamental oscillation theorem and remove one of the conditions, leaving the other assumptions and the conclusion intact, thus enhancing this keystone result

Supermassive black holes or boson stars? Hair counting with gravitational wave detectors

The evidence for supermassive Kerr black holes in galactic centers is strong and growing, but only the detection of gravitational waves will convincingly rule out other possibilities to explain the observations. The Kerr spacetime is completely specified by the first two multipole moments: mass and angular momentum. This is usually referred to as the ``no-hair theorem'', but it is really a ``two-hair'' theorem. If general relativity is the correct theory of gravity, the most plausible alternative to a supermassive Kerr black hole is a rotating boson star. Numerical calculations indicate that the spacetime of rotating boson stars is determined by the first three multipole moments (``three-hair theorem''). LISA could accurately measure the oscillation frequencies of these supermassive objects. We propose to use these measurements to ``count their hair'', unambiguously determining their nature and properties.Comment: 8 pages. This essay received an honorable mention in the Gravity Research Foundation Essay Competition, 200

REMARK ON MEDIAN OSCILLATION DECOMPOSITION AND DYADIC POINT WISE DOMINATION

In this note, we extend Lerner's local median oscillation decomposition to arbitrary (possibly non-doubling) measures. In the light of the analogy between median and mean oscillation, our extension can be viewed as a median oscillation decomposition adapted to the dyadic (martingale) BMO. As an application of the decomposition, we give an alternative proof for the dyadic (martingale) John-Nirenberg inequality, and for Lacey's domination theorem, which states that each martingale transform is pointwise dominated by a positive dyadic operator of zero complexity. Furthermore, by using Lacey's recent technique, we give an alternative proof for Conde-Alonso and Rey's domination theorem, which states that each positive dyadic operator of arbitrary complexity is pointwise dominated by a positive dyadic operator of zero complexity.Peer reviewe

Uniform rates of the Glivenko-Cantelli convergence and their use in approximating Bayesian inferences

This paper deals with the problem of quantifying the approximation a probability measure by means of an empirical (in a wide sense) random probability measure, depending on the first n terms of a sequence of random elements. In Section 2, one studies the range of oscillation near zero of the Wasserstein distance ^{(p)}_{\pms} between \pfrak_0 and \hat{\pfrak}_n, assuming that the \xitil_i's are i.i.d. with \pfrak_0 as common law. Theorem 2.3 deals with the case in which \pfrak_0 is fixed as a generic element of the space of all probability measures on (\rd, \mathscr{B}(\rd)) and \hat{\pfrak}_n coincides with the empirical measure. In Theorem 2.4 (Theorem 2.5, respectively) \pfrak_0 is a d-dimensional Gaussian distribution (an element of a distinguished type of statistical exponential family, respectively) and \hat{\pfrak}_n is another $d$-dimensional Gaussian distribution with estimated mean and covariance matrix (another element of the same family with an estimated parameter, respectively). These new results improve on allied recent works (see, e.g., [31]) since they also provide uniform bounds with respect to $n$, meaning that the finiteness of the p-moment of the random variable \sup_{n \geq 1} b_n ^{(p)}_{\pms}(\pfrak_0, \hat{\pfrak}_n) is proved for some suitable diverging sequence b_n of positive numbers. In Section 3, under the hypothesis that the \xitil_i's are exchangeable, one studies the range of the random oscillation near zero of the Wasserstein distance between the conditional distribution--also called posterior--of the directing measure of the sequence, given \xitil_1, \dots, \xitil_n, and the point mass at \hat{\pfrak}_n. In a similar vein, a bound for the approximation of predictive distributions is given. Finally, Theorems from 3.3 to 3.5 reconsider Theorems from 2.3 to 2.5, respectively, according to a Bayesian perspective