4,664 research outputs found
Extremal metrics for Laplace eigenvalues in perturbed conformal classes on products
In this short note, we prove that conformal classes which are small perturbations of a product conformal class on a product with a standard sphere admit a metric extremal for some Laplace eigenvalue. As part of the arguments, we obtain perturbed harmonic maps with constant density
On the complexity of optimal homotopies
In this article, we provide new structural results and algorithms for the
Homotopy Height problem. In broad terms, this problem quantifies how much a
curve on a surface needs to be stretched to sweep continuously between two
positions. More precisely, given two homotopic curves and
on a combinatorial (say, triangulated) surface, we investigate the problem of
computing a homotopy between and where the length of the
longest intermediate curve is minimized. Such optimal homotopies are relevant
for a wide range of purposes, from very theoretical questions in quantitative
homotopy theory to more practical applications such as similarity measures on
meshes and graph searching problems.
We prove that Homotopy Height is in the complexity class NP, and the
corresponding exponential algorithm is the best one known for this problem.
This result builds on a structural theorem on monotonicity of optimal
homotopies, which is proved in a companion paper. Then we show that this
problem encompasses the Homotopic Fr\'echet distance problem which we therefore
also establish to be in NP, answering a question which has previously been
considered in several different settings. We also provide an O(log
n)-approximation algorithm for Homotopy Height on surfaces by adapting an
earlier algorithm of Har-Peled, Nayyeri, Salvatipour and Sidiropoulos in the
planar setting
From rubber bands to rational maps: A research report
This research report outlines work, partially joint with Jeremy Kahn and
Kevin Pilgrim, which gives parallel theories of elastic graphs and conformal
surfaces with boundary. One one hand, this lets us tell when one rubber band
network is looser than another, and on the other hand tell when one conformal
surface embeds in another.
We apply this to give a new characterization of hyperbolic critically finite
rational maps among branched self-coverings of the sphere, by a positive
criterion: a branched covering is equivalent to a hyperbolic rational map if
and only if there is an elastic graph with a particular "self-embedding"
property. This complements the earlier negative criterion of W. Thurston.Comment: 52 pages, numerous figures. v2: New example
Symmetric symplectic homotopy K3 surfaces
A study on the relation between the smooth structure of a symplectic homotopy
K3 surface and its symplectic symmetries is initiated. A measurement of
exoticness of a symplectic homotopy K3 surface is introduced, and the influence
of an effective action of a K3 group via symplectic symmetries is investigated.
It is shown that an effective action by various maximal symplectic K3 groups
forces the corresponding homotopy K3 surface to be minimally exotic with
respect to our measure. (However, the standard K3 is the only known example of
such minimally exotic homotopy K3 surfaces.) The possible structure of a finite
group of symplectic symmetries of a minimally exotic homotopy K3 surface is
determined and future research directions are indicated.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figure, with a slightly changed title. Accepted for
publication by the Journal of Topolog
An Invitation to Higher Gauge Theory
In this easy introduction to higher gauge theory, we describe parallel
transport for particles and strings in terms of 2-connections on 2-bundles.
Just as ordinary gauge theory involves a gauge group, this generalization
involves a gauge '2-group'. We focus on 6 examples. First, every abelian Lie
group gives a Lie 2-group; the case of U(1) yields the theory of U(1) gerbes,
which play an important role in string theory and multisymplectic geometry.
Second, every group representation gives a Lie 2-group; the representation of
the Lorentz group on 4d Minkowski spacetime gives the Poincar\'e 2-group, which
leads to a spin foam model for Minkowski spacetime. Third, taking the adjoint
representation of any Lie group on its own Lie algebra gives a 'tangent
2-group', which serves as a gauge 2-group in 4d BF theory, which has
topological gravity as a special case. Fourth, every Lie group has an 'inner
automorphism 2-group', which serves as the gauge group in 4d BF theory with
cosmological constant term. Fifth, every Lie group has an 'automorphism
2-group', which plays an important role in the theory of nonabelian gerbes. And
sixth, every compact simple Lie group gives a 'string 2-group'. We also touch
upon higher structures such as the 'gravity 3-group' and the Lie 3-superalgebra
that governs 11-dimensional supergravity.Comment: 60 pages, based on lectures at the 2nd School and Workshop on Quantum
Gravity and Quantum Geometry at the 2009 Corfu Summer Institut
Numerical algebraic geometry for model selection and its application to the life sciences
Researchers working with mathematical models are often confronted by the
related problems of parameter estimation, model validation, and model
selection. These are all optimization problems, well-known to be challenging
due to non-linearity, non-convexity and multiple local optima. Furthermore, the
challenges are compounded when only partial data is available. Here, we
consider polynomial models (e.g., mass-action chemical reaction networks at
steady state) and describe a framework for their analysis based on optimization
using numerical algebraic geometry. Specifically, we use probability-one
polynomial homotopy continuation methods to compute all critical points of the
objective function, then filter to recover the global optima. Our approach
exploits the geometric structures relating models and data, and we demonstrate
its utility on examples from cell signaling, synthetic biology, and
epidemiology.Comment: References added, additional clarification
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