Van der Corput sets in Z^d

In this partly expository paper we study van der Corput sets in $\Z^d$, with a focus on connections with harmonic analysis and recurrence properties of measure preserving dynamical systems. We prove multidimensional versions of some classical results obtained for $d=1$ in \cite{K-MF} and \cite{R}, establish new characterizations, introduce and discuss some modifications of van der Corput sets which correspond to various notions of recurrence, provide numerous examples and formulate some natural open questions

Singularity analysis, Hadamard products, and tree recurrences

We present a toolbox for extracting asymptotic information on the coefficients of combinatorial generating functions. This toolbox notably includes a treatment of the effect of Hadamard products on singularities in the context of the complex Tauberian technique known as singularity analysis. As a consequence, it becomes possible to unify the analysis of a number of divide-and-conquer algorithms, or equivalently random tree models, including several classical methods for sorting, searching, and dynamically managing equivalence relationsComment: 47 pages. Submitted for publicatio

Semi-classical Orthogonal Polynomial Systems on Non-uniform Lattices, Deformations of the Askey Table and Analogs of Isomonodromy

A $\mathbb{D}$-semi-classical weight is one which satisfies a particular linear, first order homogeneous equation in a divided-difference operator $\mathbb{D}$. It is known that the system of polynomials, orthogonal with respect to this weight, and the associated functions satisfy a linear, first order homogeneous matrix equation in the divided-difference operator termed the spectral equation. Attached to the spectral equation is a structure which constitutes a number of relations such as those arising from compatibility with the three-term recurrence relation. Here this structure is elucidated in the general case of quadratic lattices. The simplest examples of the $\mathbb{D}$-semi-classical orthogonal polynomial systems are precisely those in the Askey table of hypergeometric and basic hypergeometric orthogonal polynomials. However within the $\mathbb{D}$-semi-classical class it is entirely natural to define a generalisation of the Askey table weights which involve a deformation with respect to new deformation variables. We completely construct the analogous structures arising from such deformations and their relations with the other elements of the theory. As an example we treat the first non-trivial deformation of the Askey-Wilson orthogonal polynomial system defined by the $q$-quadratic divided-difference operator, the Askey-Wilson operator, and derive the coupled first order divided-difference equations characterising its evolution in the deformation variable. We show that this system is a member of a sequence of classical solutions to the $E^{(1)}_7$ $q$-Painlev\'e system.Comment: Submitted to Duke Mathematical Journal on 5th April 201

Effective Scalar Products for D-finite Symmetric Functions

Many combinatorial generating functions can be expressed as combinations of symmetric functions, or extracted as sub-series and specializations from such combinations. Gessel has outlined a large class of symmetric functions for which the resulting generating functions are D-finite. We extend Gessel's work by providing algorithms that compute differential equations these generating functions satisfy in the case they are given as a scalar product of symmetric functions in Gessel's class. Examples of applications to k-regular graphs and Young tableaux with repeated entries are given. Asymptotic estimates are a natural application of our method, which we illustrate on the same model of Young tableaux. We also derive a seemingly new formula for the Kronecker product of the sum of Schur functions with itself.Comment: 51 pages, full paper version of FPSAC 02 extended abstract; v2: corrections from original submission, improved clarity; now formatted for journal + bibliograph

A Quantitative Study of Pure Parallel Processes

In this paper, we study the interleaving -- or pure merge -- operator that most often characterizes parallelism in concurrency theory. This operator is a principal cause of the so-called combinatorial explosion that makes very hard - at least from the point of view of computational complexity - the analysis of process behaviours e.g. by model-checking. The originality of our approach is to study this combinatorial explosion phenomenon on average, relying on advanced analytic combinatorics techniques. We study various measures that contribute to a better understanding of the process behaviours represented as plane rooted trees: the number of runs (corresponding to the width of the trees), the expected total size of the trees as well as their overall shape. Two practical outcomes of our quantitative study are also presented: (1) a linear-time algorithm to compute the probability of a concurrent run prefix, and (2) an efficient algorithm for uniform random sampling of concurrent runs. These provide interesting responses to the combinatorial explosion problem