Extended matter coupled to BF theory

Recently, a topological field theory of membrane-matter coupled to BF theory in arbitrary spacetime dimensions was proposed [1]. In this paper, we discuss various aspects of the four-dimensional theory. Firstly, we study classical solutions leading to an interpretation of the theory in terms of strings propagating on a flat spacetime. We also show that the general classical solutions of the theory are in one-to-one correspondence with solutions of Einstein's equations in the presence of distributional matter (cosmic strings). Secondly, we quantize the theory and present, in particular, a prescription to regularize the physical inner product of the canonical theory. We show how the resulting transition amplitudes are dual to evaluations of Feynman diagrams coupled to three-dimensional quantum gravity. Finally, we remove the regulator by proving the topological invariance of the transition amplitudes.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure

Navigability is a Robust Property

The Small World phenomenon has inspired researchers across a number of fields. A breakthrough in its understanding was made by Kleinberg who introduced Rank Based Augmentation (RBA): add to each vertex independently an arc to a random destination selected from a carefully crafted probability distribution. Kleinberg proved that RBA makes many networks navigable, i.e., it allows greedy routing to successfully deliver messages between any two vertices in a polylogarithmic number of steps. We prove that navigability is an inherent property of many random networks, arising without coordination, or even independence assumptions

Reducible quasi-periodic solutions for the Non Linear Schr\"odinger equation

The present paper is devoted to the construction of small reducible quasi--periodic solutions for the completely resonant NLS equations on a $d$--dimensional torus \T^d. The main point is to prove that prove that the normal form is reducible, block diagonal and satisfies the second Melnikov condition block wise. From this we deduce the result by a KAM algorithm.Comment: 48 page

An Algorithmic Theory of Integer Programming

We study the general integer programming problem where the number of variables $n$ is a variable part of the input. We consider two natural parameters of the constraint matrix $A$: its numeric measure $a$ and its sparsity measure $d$. We show that integer programming can be solved in time $g(a,d)\textrm{poly}(n,L)$, where $g$ is some computable function of the parameters $a$ and $d$, and $L$ is the binary encoding length of the input. In particular, integer programming is fixed-parameter tractable parameterized by $a$ and $d$, and is solvable in polynomial time for every fixed $a$ and $d$. Our results also extend to nonlinear separable convex objective functions. Moreover, for linear objectives, we derive a strongly-polynomial algorithm, that is, with running time $g(a,d)\textrm{poly}(n)$, independent of the rest of the input data. We obtain these results by developing an algorithmic framework based on the idea of iterative augmentation: starting from an initial feasible solution, we show how to quickly find augmenting steps which rapidly converge to an optimum. A central notion in this framework is the Graver basis of the matrix $A$, which constitutes a set of fundamental augmenting steps. The iterative augmentation idea is then enhanced via the use of other techniques such as new and improved bounds on the Graver basis, rapid solution of integer programs with bounded variables, proximity theorems and a new proximity-scaling algorithm, the notion of a reduced objective function, and others. As a consequence of our work, we advance the state of the art of solving block-structured integer programs. In particular, we develop near-linear time algorithms for $n$-fold, tree-fold, and $2$-stage stochastic integer programs. We also discuss some of the many applications of these classes.Comment: Revision 2: - strengthened dual treedepth lower bound - simplified proximity-scaling algorith

Puzzles of Quasi-Finite Type, Zeta Functions and Symbolic Dynamics for Multi-Dimensional Maps

We introduce "puzzles of quasi-finite type" which are the counterparts of our subshifts of quasi-finite type (Invent. Math. 159 (2005)) in the setting of combinatorial puzzles as defined in complex dynamics. We are able to analyze these dynamics defined by entropy conditions rather completely, obtaining a complete classification with respect to large entropy measures and a description of their measures with maximum entropy and periodic orbits. These results can in particular be applied to entropy-expanding maps like (x,y)-->(1.8-x^2+sy,1.9-y^2+sx) for small s. We prove in particular the meromorphy of the Artin-Mazur zeta function on a large disk. This follows from a similar new result about strongly positively recurrent Markov shifts where the radius of meromorphy is lower bounded by an "entropy at infinity" of the graph.Comment: accepted by Annales de l'Institut Fourier, final revised versio