Renormalization : A number theoretical model

We analyse the Dirichlet convolution ring of arithmetic number theoretic functions. It turns out to fail to be a Hopf algebra on the diagonal, due to the lack of complete multiplicativity of the product and coproduct. A related Hopf algebra can be established, which however overcounts the diagonal. We argue that the mechanism of renormalization in quantum field theory is modelled after the same principle. Singularities hence arise as a (now continuously indexed) overcounting on the diagonals. Renormalization is given by the map from the auxiliary Hopf algebra to the weaker multiplicative structure, called Hopf gebra, rescaling the diagonals.Comment: 15 pages, extended version of talks delivered at SLC55 Bertinoro,Sep 2005, and the Bob Delbourgo QFT Fest in Hobart, Dec 200

Coefficients of Wronskian Hermite polynomials

We study Wronskians of Hermite polynomials labeled by partitions and use the combinatorial concepts of cores and quotients to derive explicit expressions for their coefficients. These coefficients can be expressed in terms of the characters of irreducible representations of the symmetric group, and also in terms of hook lengths. Further, we derive the asymptotic behavior of the Wronskian Hermite polynomials when the length of the core tends to infinity, while fixing the quotient. Via this combinatorial setting, we obtain in a natural way the generalization of the correspondence between Hermite and Laguerre polynomials to Wronskian Hermite polynomials and Wronskians involving Laguerre polynomials. Lastly, we generalize most of our results to polynomials that have zeros on the p‐sta

Put to the Test: For a New Sociology of Testing

In an age defined by computational innovation, testing seems to have become ubiquitous, and tests are routinely deployed as a form of governance, a marketing device, an instrument for political intervention, and an everyday practice to evaluate the self. This essay argues that something more radical is happening here than simply attempts to move tests from the laboratory into social settings. The challenge that a new sociology of testing must address is that ubiquitous testing changes the relations between science, engineering and sociology: Engineering is today in the very stuff of where society happens. It is not that the tests of 21st Century engineering occur within a social context but that it is the very fabric of the social that is being put to the test. To understand how testing and the social relate today, we must investigate how testing operates on social life, through the modification of its settings. One way to clarify the difference is to say that the new forms of testing can be captured neither within the logic of the field test nor of the controlled experiment. Whereas tests once happened inside social environments, today’s tests directly and deliberately modify the social environment

RWPRI and (rm2T)1(rm 2T)_1 flag-transitive linear spaces

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

RWPRI and (2T)1 Flag-transitive Linear Spaces

Abstract. The classification of finite flag-transitive linear spaces is almost complete. For the thick case, this result was announced by Buekenhout, Delandtsheer, Doyen, Kleidman, Liebeck and Saxl, and in the thin case (where the lines have 2 points), it amounts to the classification of 2-transitive groups, which is generally considered to follow from the classification of finite simple groups. These two classifications actually leave an open case, which is the so-called 1-dimensional case. In this paper, we work with two additional assumptions. These two conditions, namely (2T)1 and RWPri, are taken from another field of study in Incidence Geometry and allow us to obtain a complete classification, which we present at the end of this paper. In particular, for the 1-dimensional case, we show that the only (2T)1 flag-transitive linear spaces are AG(2, 2) and AG(2, 4), with AΓL(1, 4) and AΓL(1, 16) as respective automorphism groups. 1

On the number of eigenvalues of modified permutation matrices in mesoscopic intervals

International audienceWe are interested in two random matrix ensembles related to permutations: the ensemble of permutation matrices following Ewens' distribution of a given parameter $\theta >0$, and its modification where entries equal to $1$ in the matrices are replaced by independent random variables uniformly distributed on the unit circle. For the elements of each ensemble, we focus on the random numbers of eigenvalues lying in some specified arcs of the unit circle. We show that for a finite number of fixed arcs, the fluctuation of the numbers of eigenvalues belonging to them is asymptotically Gaussian. Moreover, for a single arc, we extend this result to the case where the length goes to zero sufficiently slowly when the size of the matrix goes to infinity. Finally, we investigate the behaviour of the largest and smallest spacing between two distinct consecutive eigenvalues