241 research outputs found
The max-plus finite element method for solving deterministic optimal control problems: basic properties and convergence analysis
We introduce a max-plus analogue of the Petrov-Galerkin finite element method
to solve finite horizon deterministic optimal control problems. The method
relies on a max-plus variational formulation. We show that the error in the sup
norm can be bounded from the difference between the value function and its
projections on max-plus and min-plus semimodules, when the max-plus analogue of
the stiffness matrix is exactly known. In general, the stiffness matrix must be
approximated: this requires approximating the operation of the Lax-Oleinik
semigroup on finite elements. We consider two approximations relying on the
Hamiltonian. We derive a convergence result, in arbitrary dimension, showing
that for a class of problems, the error estimate is of order or , depending on the
choice of the approximation, where and are respectively the
time and space discretization steps. We compare our method with another
max-plus based discretization method previously introduced by Fleming and
McEneaney. We give numerical examples in dimension 1 and 2.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figure
Tropical polyhedra are equivalent to mean payoff games
We show that several decision problems originating from max-plus or tropical
convexity are equivalent to zero-sum two player game problems. In particular,
we set up an equivalence between the external representation of tropical convex
sets and zero-sum stochastic games, in which tropical polyhedra correspond to
deterministic games with finite action spaces. Then, we show that the winning
initial positions can be determined from the associated tropical polyhedron. We
obtain as a corollary a game theoretical proof of the fact that the tropical
rank of a matrix, defined as the maximal size of a submatrix for which the
optimal assignment problem has a unique solution, coincides with the maximal
number of rows (or columns) of the matrix which are linearly independent in the
tropical sense. Our proofs rely on techniques from non-linear Perron-Frobenius
theory.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures; v2: updated references, added background
materials and illustrations; v3: minor improvements, references update
Energy flow lines and the spot of Poisson-Arago
We show how energy flow lines answer the question about diffraction phenomena
presented in 1818 by the French Academy: "deduce by mathematical induction, the
movements of the rays during their crossing near the bodies". This provides a
complementary answer to Fresnel's wave theory of light. A numerical simulation
of these energy flow lines proves that they can reach the bright spot of
Poisson-Arago in the shadow center of a circular opaque disc. For a
monochromatic wave in vacuum, these energy flow lines correspond to the
diffracted rays of Newton's Opticks
Projet d'équipement et friche urbaine, un exemple : la rocade L.2 à Marseille
International audienc
Reachability problems for products of matrices in semirings
We consider the following matrix reachability problem: given square
matrices with entries in a semiring, is there a product of these matrices which
attains a prescribed matrix? We define similarly the vector (resp. scalar)
reachability problem, by requiring that the matrix product, acting by right
multiplication on a prescribed row vector, gives another prescribed row vector
(resp. when multiplied at left and right by prescribed row and column vectors,
gives a prescribed scalar). We show that over any semiring, scalar reachability
reduces to vector reachability which is equivalent to matrix reachability, and
that for any of these problems, the specialization to any is
equivalent to the specialization to . As an application of this result and
of a theorem of Krob, we show that when , the vector and matrix
reachability problems are undecidable over the max-plus semiring
. We also show that the matrix, vector, and scalar
reachability problems are decidable over semirings whose elements are
``positive'', like the tropical semiring .Comment: 21 page
Semiring and semimodule issues in MV-algebras
In this paper we propose a semiring-theoretic approach to MV-algebras based
on the connection between such algebras and idempotent semirings - such an
approach naturally imposing the introduction and study of a suitable
corresponding class of semimodules, called MV-semimodules.
We present several results addressed toward a semiring theory for
MV-algebras. In particular we show a representation of MV-algebras as a
subsemiring of the endomorphism semiring of a semilattice, the construction of
the Grothendieck group of a semiring and its functorial nature, and the effect
of Mundici categorical equivalence between MV-algebras and lattice-ordered
Abelian groups with a distinguished strong order unit upon the relationship
between MV-semimodules and semimodules over idempotent semifields.Comment: This version contains some corrections to some results at the end of
Section
Large Scale Cross-Correlations in Internet Traffic
The Internet is a complex network of interconnected routers and the existence
of collective behavior such as congestion suggests that the correlations
between different connections play a crucial role. It is thus critical to
measure and quantify these correlations. We use methods of random matrix theory
(RMT) to analyze the cross-correlation matrix C of information flow changes of
650 connections between 26 routers of the French scientific network `Renater'.
We find that C has the universal properties of the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble
of random matrices: The distribution of eigenvalues--up to a rescaling which
exhibits a typical correlation time of the order 10 minutes--and the spacing
distribution follow the predictions of RMT. There are some deviations for large
eigenvalues which contain network-specific information and which identify
genuine correlations between connections. The study of the most correlated
connections reveals the existence of `active centers' which are exchanging
information with a large number of routers thereby inducing correlations
between the corresponding connections. These strong correlations could be a
reason for the observed self-similarity in the WWW traffic.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, final versio
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