Characterization of well-posedness of piecewise linear systems

One of the basic issues in the study of hybrid systems is the well-posedness (existence and uniqueness of solutions) problem of discontinuous dynamical systems. The paper addresses this problem for a class of piecewise-linear discontinuous systems under the definition of solutions of Caratheodory. The concepts of jump solutions or of sliding modes are not considered here. In this sense, the problem to be discussed is one of the most basic problems in the study of well-posedness for discontinuous dynamical systems. First, we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for bimodal systems to be well-posed, in terms of an analysis based on lexicographic inequalities and the smooth continuation property of solutions. Next, its extensions to the multimodal case are discussed. As an application to switching control, in the case that two state feedback gains are switched according to a criterion depending on the state, we give a characterization of all admissible state feedback gains for which the closed loop system remains well-pose

Evaluating matrix functions for exponential integrators via Carathéodory-Fejér approximation and contour integrals

Among the fastest methods for solving stiff PDE are exponential integrators, which require the evaluation of $f(A)$, where $A$ is a negative definite matrix and $f$ is the exponential function or one of the related ``$\varphi$ functions'' such as $\varphi_1(z) = (e^z-1)/z$. Building on previous work by Trefethen and Gutknecht, Gonchar and Rakhmanov, and Lu, we propose two methods for the fast evaluation of $f(A)$ that are especially useful when shifted systems $(A+zI)x=b$ can be solved efficiently, e.g. by a sparse direct solver. The first method method is based on best rational approximations to $f$ on the negative real axis computed via the Carathéodory-Fejér procedure, and we conjecture that the accuracy scales as $(9.28903\dots)^{-2n}$, where $n$ is the number of complex matrix solves. In particular, three matrix solves suffice to evaluate $f(A)$ to approximately six digits of accuracy. The second method is an application of the trapezoid rule on a Talbot-type contour

Fine properties of functions with bounded variation in Carnot-Carath\'eodory spaces

We study properties of functions with bounded variation in Carnot-Ca\-ra\-th\'eo\-do\-ry spaces. We prove their almost everywhere approximate differentiability and we examine their approximate discontinuity set and the decomposition of their distributional derivatives. Under an additional assumption on the space, called property $\mathcal R$, we show that almost all approximate discontinuities are of jump type and we study a representation formula for the jump part of the derivative

The Carath\'eodory-Fej\'er Interpolation Problems and the von-Neumann Inequality

The validity of the von-Neumann inequality for commuting $n$ - tuples of $3\times 3$ matrices remains open for $n\geq 3$. We give a partial answer to this question, which is used to obtain a necessary condition for the Carath\'{e}odory-Fej\'{e}r interpolation problem on the polydisc $\mathbb D^n.$ In the special case of $n=2$ (which follows from Ando's theorem as well), this necessary condition is made explicit. An alternative approach to the Carath\'{e}odory-Fej\'{e}r interpolation problem, in the special case of $n=2,$ adapting a theorem of Kor\'{a}nyi and Puk\'{a}nzsky is given. As a consequence, a class of polynomials are isolated for which a complete solution to the Carath\'{e}odory-Fej\'{e}r interpolation problem is easily obtained. A natural generalization of the Hankel operators on the Hardy space of $H^2(\mathbb T^2)$ then becomes apparent. Many of our results remain valid for any $n\in \mathbb N,$ however, the computations are somewhat cumbersome for $n>2$ and are omitted. The inequality $\lim_{n\to \infty}C_2(n)\leq 2 K^\mathbb C_G$, where $K_G^\mathbb C$ is the complex Grothendieck constant and $$C_2(n)=\sup\big\{\|p(\boldsymbol T)\|:\|p\|_{\mathbb D^n,\infty}\leq 1, \|\boldsymbol T\|_{\infty} \leq 1 \big\}$$ is due to Varopoulos. Here the supremum is taken over all complex polynomials $p$ in $n$ variables of degree at most $2$ and commuting $n$ - tuples $\boldsymbol T:=(T_1,\ldots,T_n)$ of contractions. We show that $$\lim_{n\to \infty}C_2(n)\leq \frac{3\sqrt{3}}{4} K^\mathbb C_G$$ obtaining a slight improvement in the inequality of Varopoulos. We show that the normed linear space $\ell^1(n),$ $n>1,$ has no isometric embedding into $k\times k$ complex matrices for any $k\in \mathbb N$ and discuss several infinite dimensional operator space structures on it.Comment: This is my thesis submitted to Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore on 20th July, 201

An Approach to Studying Quasiconformal Mappings on Generalized Grushin Planes

We demonstrate that the complex plane and a class of generalized Grushin planes $G_r$, where $r$ is a function satisfying specific requirements, are quasisymmetrically equivalent. Then using conjugation we are able to develop an analytic definition of quasisymmetry for homeomorphisms on $G_r$ spaces. In the last section we show our analytic definition of quasisymmetry is consistent with earlier notions of conformal mappings on the Grushin plane. This leads to several characterizations of conformal mappings on the generalized Grushin planes

Quasilinear problems involving a perturbation with quadratic growth in the gradient and a noncoercive zeroth order term

In this paper we consider the problem u in H^1_0 (Omega), - div (A(x) Du) = H(x, u, Du) + f(x) + a_0 (x) u in D'(Omega), where Omega is an open bounded set of R^N, N \geq 3, A(x) is a coercive matrix with coefficients in L^\infty(Omega), H(x, s, xi) is a Carath\'eodory function which satisfies for some gamma > 0 -c_0 A(x) xi xi \leq H(x, s, xi) sign (s) \leq gamma A(x) xi xi a.e. x in Omega, forall s in R, forall xi in R^N, f belongs to L^{N/2} (Omega), and a_0 \geq 0 to L^q (Omega ), q > N/2. For f and a_0 sufficiently small, we prove the existence of at least one solution u of this problem which is moreover such that e^{delta_0 |u|} - 1 belongs to H^1_0 (Omega) for some delta_0 \geq gamma, and which satisfies an a priori estimate.Comment: 37 pages, 2 figure

Maximizing the probability of attaining a target prior to extinction

We present a dynamic programming-based solution to the problem of maximizing the probability of attaining a target set before hitting a cemetery set for a discrete-time Markov control process. Under mild hypotheses we establish that there exists a deterministic stationary policy that achieves the maximum value of this probability. We demonstrate how the maximization of this probability can be computed through the maximization of an expected total reward until the first hitting time to either the target or the cemetery set. Martingale characterizations of thrifty, equalizing, and optimal policies in the context of our problem are also established.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figure. Revise

Invariant subspaces for operators whose spectra are Carathéodory regions

AbstractIn this paper it is shown that if an operator T satisfies ‖p(T)‖⩽‖p‖σ(T) for every polynomial p and the polynomially convex hull of σ(T) is a Carathéodory region whose accessible boundary points lie in rectifiable Jordan arcs on its boundary, then T has a nontrivial invariant subspace. As a corollary, it is also shown that if T is a hyponormal operator and the outer boundary of σ(T) has at most finitely many prime ends corresponding to singular points on ∂D and has a tangent at almost every point on each Jordan arc, then T has a nontrivial invariant subspace