Characterization of weak convergence of Birkhoff sums for Gibbs-Markov maps

We investigate limit theorems for Birkhoff sums of locally H\"older functions under the iteration of Gibbs-Markov maps. Aaronson and Denker have given sufficient conditions to have limit theorems in this setting. We show that these conditions are also necessary: there is no exotic limit theorem for Gibbs-Markov maps. Our proofs, valid under very weak regularity assumptions, involve weak perturbation theory and interpolation spaces. For L^2 observables, we also obtain necessary and sufficient conditions to control the speed of convergence in the central limit theorem.Comment: 35 pages v2: minor modifications, clarified titl

The discovery of superfluidity

Superfluidity is a remarkable manifestation of quantum mechanics at the macroscopic level. This article describes the history of its discovery, which took place at a particularly difficult period of the twentieth century. A special emphasis is given to the role of J.F. Allen, D. Misener, P. Kapitza, F. London, L. Tisza and L.D. Landau. The nature and the importance of their respective contributions are analyzed and compared. Of particular interest is the controversy between Landau on one side, London and Tisza on the other, concerning the relevance of Bose-Einstein condensation to the whole issue, and also on the nature of thermal excitations in superfluid helium 4. In order to aid my understanding of this period, I have collected several testimonies which inform us about the work and attitude of these great scientists.Comment: 30 page

Chiral symmetry and spectrum of Euclidean Dirac operator

After recalling some connections between the Spontaneous Breakdown of Chiral Symmetry (SBChS) and the spectrum of the Dirac operator for Euclidean QCD on a torus, we use this tool to reconsider two related issues : the Zweig rule violation in the scalar channel and the dependence of SBChS order parameters on the number N_f of massless flavours. The latter would result into a great variety of SBChS patterns in the (N_f,N_c) plane, which could be studied through so-called Leutwyler-Smilga sum rules in association with lattice computations of the Dirac spectrum.Comment: 6 pages, no figure, class file included. Talk given at the XVII International School of Physics "QCD: Perturbative or Nonperturbative", Lisbon, Portugal, 29 September - 4 October 1999, to appear in the Proceeding

Mathematical and numerical analysis of a model for anti-angiogenic therapy in metastatic cancers

We introduce and analyze a phenomenological model for anti-angiogenic therapy in the treatment of metastatic cancers. It is a structured transport equation with a nonlocal boundary condition describing the evolution of the density of metastasis that we analyze first at the continuous level. We present the numerical analysis of a lagrangian scheme based on the characteristics whose convergence establishes existence of solutions. Then we prove an error estimate and use the model to perform interesting simulations in view of clinical applications.Comment: Nombre de pages : 2