The strength of the Weak Lefschetz Property

We study a number of conditions on the Hilbert function of a level artinian algebra which imply the Weak Lefschetz Property (WLP). Possibly the most important open case is whether a codimension 3 SI-sequence forces the WLP for level algebras. In other words, does every codimension 3 Gorenstein algebra have the WLP? We give some new partial answers to this old question: we prove an affirmative answer when the initial degree is 2, or when the Hilbert function is relatively small. Then we give a complete answer to the question of what is the largest socle degree forcing the WLP.Comment: A few minor corrections; to appear in the Illinois J. Mat

Electron-phonon coupling close to a metal-insulator transition in one dimension

We consider a one-dimensional system of electrons interacting via a short-range repulsion and coupled to phonons close to the metal-insulator transition at half filling. We argue that the metal-insulator transition can be described as a standard one dimensional incommensurate to commensurate transition, even if the electronic system is coupled to the lattice distortion. By making use of known results for this transition, we prove that low-momentum phonons do not play any relevant role close to half-filling, unless their coupling to the electrons is large in comparison with the other energy scales present in the problem. In other words the effective strength of the low-momentum transferred electron-phonon coupling does not increase close to the metal-insulator transition, even though the effective velocity of the mobile carriers is strongly diminished.Comment: 20 pages, REVTEX styl

A New Approach to Equations with Memory

In this work, we present a novel approach to the mathematical analysis of equations with memory based on the notion of a state, namely, the initial configuration of the system which can be unambiguously determined by the knowledge of the future dynamics. As a model, we discuss the abstract version of an equation arising from linear viscoelasticity. It is worth mentioning that our approach goes back to the heuristic derivation of the state framework, devised by L.Deseri, M.Fabrizio and M.J.Golden in "The concept of minimal state in viscoelasticity: new free energies and applications to PDEs", Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal., vol. 181 (2006) pp.43-96. Starting from their physical motivations, we develop a suitable functional formulation which, as far as we know, is completely new.Comment: 39 pages, no figur

On the degree two entry of a Gorenstein hh-vector and a conjecture of Stanley

In this note we establish a (non-trivial) lower bound on the degree two entry $h_2$ of a Gorenstein $h$-vector of any given socle degree $e$ and any codimension $r$. In particular, when $e=4$, that is for Gorenstein $h$-vectors of the form $h=(1,r,h_2,r,1)$, our lower bound allows us to prove a conjecture of Stanley on the order of magnitude of the minimum value, say $f(r)$, that $h_2$ may assume. In fact, we show that $$\lim_{r\to \infty} {f(r)\over r^{2/3}}= 6^{2/3}.$$ In general, we wonder whether our lower bound is sharp for all integers $e\geq 4$ and $r\geq 2$.Comment: A few minor changes. To appear in Proc. of the AM

Entire slice regular functions

Entire functions in one complex variable are extremely relevant in several areas ranging from the study of convolution equations to special functions. An analog of entire functions in the quaternionic setting can be defined in the slice regular setting, a framework which includes polynomials and power series of the quaternionic variable. In the first chapters of this work we introduce and discuss the algebra and the analysis of slice regular functions. In addition to offering a self-contained introduction to the theory of slice-regular functions, these chapters also contain a few new results (for example we complete the discussion on lower bounds for slice regular functions initiated with the Ehrenpreis-Malgrange, by adding a brand new Cartan-type theorem). The core of the work is Chapter 5, where we study the growth of entire slice regular functions, and we show how such growth is related to the coefficients of the power series expansions that these functions have. It should be noted that the proofs we offer are not simple reconstructions of the holomorphic case. Indeed, the non-commutative setting creates a series of non-trivial problems. Also the counting of the zeros is not trivial because of the presence of spherical zeros which have infinite cardinality. We prove the analog of Jensen and Carath\'eodory theorems in this setting

Bounds and asymptotic minimal growth for Gorenstein Hilbert functions

We determine new bounds on the entries of Gorenstein Hilbert functions, both in any fixed codimension and asymptotically. Our first main theorem is a lower bound for the degree $i+1$ entry of a Gorenstein $h$-vector, in terms of its entry in degree $i$. This result carries interesting applications concerning unimodality: indeed, an important consequence is that, given $r$ and $i$, all Gorenstein $h$-vectors of codimension $r$ and socle degree $e\geq e_0=e_0(r,i)$ (this function being explicitly computed) are unimodal up to degree $i+1$. This immediately gives a new proof of a theorem of Stanley that all Gorenstein $h$-vectors in codimension three are unimodal. Our second main theorem is an asymptotic formula for the least value that the $i$-th entry of a Gorenstein $h$-vector may assume, in terms of codimension, $r$, and socle degree, $e$. This theorem broadly generalizes a recent result of ours, where we proved a conjecture of Stanley predicting that asymptotic value in the specific case $e=4$ and $i=2$, as well as a result of Kleinschmidt which concerned the logarithmic asymptotic behavior in degree $i= \lfloor \frac{e}{2} \rfloor$.Comment: Several minor changes; to appear in J. Algebr

A characterization of Gorenstein Hilbert functions in codimension four with small initial degree

The main goal of this paper is to characterize the Hilbert functions of all (artinian) codimension 4 Gorenstein algebras that have at least two independent relations of degree four. This includes all codimension 4 Gorenstein algebras whose initial relation is of degree at most 3. Our result shows that those Hilbert functions are exactly the so-called {\em SI-sequences} starting with (1,4,h_2,h_3,...), where $h_4 \leq 33$. In particular, these Hilbert functions are all unimodal. We also establish a more general unimodality result, which relies on the values of the Hilbert function not being too big, but is independent of the initial degree.Comment: A few changes. Final version, to appear in Math. Res. Let

Sequential multi-photon strategy for semiconductor-based terahertz detectors

A semiconductor-based terahertz-detector strategy, exploiting a bound-to-bound-to-continuum architecture, is presented and investigated. In particular, a ladder of equidistant energy levels is employed, whose step is tuned to the desired detection frequency and allows for sequential multi-photon absorption. Our theoretical analysis demonstrates that the proposed multi-subband scheme could represent a promising alternative to conventional quantum-well infrared photodetectors in the terahertz spectral region.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Applied Physic