Fillable contact structures on torus bundles over circles

We will construct an example of a strongly symplectically fillable contact structure on a torus bundle over the circle with parabolic monodromy.

     

Riemannian geometry on contact Lie groups

We investigate contact Lie groups having a left invariant Riemannian or pseudo-Riemannian metric with specific properties such as being bi-invariant, flat, negatively curved, Einstein, etc. We classify some of such contact Lie groups and derive some obstruction results to the existence of left invariant contact structures on Lie groups.      

A characterization of network representable polymatroids

Meggido [1974] showed that the maximum flow through sets of sources in a multiple sink flow network is a polymatroidal function. Recently, Federgruen and Groenevelt [1985], [1986] have considered polymatroids that can be represented by a multiple source flow network and have improved the runnung time of an important scheduling application.We give a characterization of network representability and relate representable polymatroids to the theory of gammoids.

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Zusammenfassung Meggido [1974] hat gezeigt, daß ein maximaler Fluß durch ein Netzwerk mit mehrfachen Senken eine polymatroidale Funktion beschreibt. Federgruen und Groenvelt [1985], [1986] haben kürzlich solche Polymatroide betrachtet, die durch Flüsse in derartigen Netzwerken repräsentiert werden können und haben so die Laufzeit einer wichtigen Schedulinganwendung verbessern können.Wir geben eine Charakterisierung von Funktionen, die durch derartige Netzflußnetzwerke realisierbar sind. Dabei stellen wir eine Verbindung her zwischen Repräsentierbarkeit und Gammoidtheorie.

     

A characterization of constant isotropic immersions by circles

Motivated by the well-known result of Nomizu and Yano [4], we provide a characterization of constant isotropic immersions into an arbitrary Riemannian manifold by circles on the submanifolds. As an immediate consequence of this result, we characterize Veronese imbeddings of complex projective spaces into complex projective spaces which are typical examples of Kähler immersions. Received: 11 January 2002     

A geometric interpretation of frictional contact mechanics

The work-conjugacy of pressures and tangential tractions with so-called “gap”and “stick” constraints is deduced in order to delineate a rigid-plastic model of a frictional interface. This is accomplished by pursuing a differential-geometric view of the two surfaces that comprise the frictional interface. Given that contact is described in the current configuration, Lie derivatives are shown to be the natural means of establishing the work-conjugacy between tractions and constraints.     

The characterizations of triangles using the nine-point circles

In this note, primarily intended for high school students and high school teachers, characterizations of a right triangle and an equilateral triangle in the Euclidean plane are presented using the nine-point circle of a given triangle. Geometrical applications are explored along with their possible uses in the teaching environment.     

A dynamical characterization of quasilinear means

The theory of dyadic iterations of two-variables continuous means is revised and extended in order to introduce the concept of base family of a continuous mean. Besides other results of interest, a new analytic characterization of quasilinear means is obtained by studying the means admitting a unique base mean.     

Polytopes passing through circles

Suppose a convex body wants to pass through a circular hole in a wall. Does its ability to do so depend on the thickness of the wall? In fact in most cases it does, and in this paper we present a sufficient criterion for a polytope to allow an affirmative answer to the question.     

Surfaces with high contact number and their characterization

The notion of contact number of a Euclidean submanifold was introduced in an earlier article (Proc. Edinb. Math. Soc. 47:69–100, 2004) as the highest order of contact of geodesics and normal sections on the submanifold. It was proved in (Proc. Edinb. Math. Soc. 47:69–100, 2004) that the contact number relates closely with the notions of isotropic submanifolds and holomorphic curves. One important problem concerning contact number is to construct Euclidean submanifolds with high contact number. The purpose of this article is thus to construct Euclidean surfaces with high contact number and to provide simple geometric characterization of such surfaces. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000) Primary 53C40, 53A10 Secondary 53B25, 53C42     

On contact tops and integrable tops

In this paper, we introduce a geometric structure called top, which is a trivialized bundle of plane pencils over a Riemannian 3-manifold, defined as the set of kernels of a circle of l-forms (e.g., of contact and integrable forms) with particular properties with respect to the metric. We classify the manifolds which admit tops and we describe the associated metrics.     

Diffeomorphisms taking lines to circles, and quaternionic Hopf fibrations

We list all diffeomorphisms between an open subset of the four-dimensional projective space and an open subset of the four-dimensional sphere that take all line segments to arcs of round circles. These diffeomorphisms are restrictions of quaternionic Hopf fibrations and radial projections from hyperplanes to spheres.     

Quasi-periodic bifurcations of invariant circles in low-dimensional dissipative dynamical systems

This paper first summarizes the theory of quasi-periodic bifurcations for dissipative dynamical systems. Then it presents algorithms for the computation and continuation of invariant circles and of their bifurcations. Finally several applications are given for quasiperiodic bifurcations of Hopf, saddle-node and period-doubling type.     

A dynamical characterization of evolutionarily stable states

Evolutionary stability, the central solution concept in evolutionary game theory, is closely related to local asymptotic stability in a certain nonlinear dynamical system operating on the state space, the so-called "replicator dynamics". However, a purely dynamical characterization of evolutionary stability is not available in an elementary manner. This characterization can be achieved by investigating so-called "derived games" which consist of mixed strategies corresponding to successful states in the original game. Using well-known facts, several characterization results are obtained within this context. These also may shed light on the extremality properties of evolutionary stability.     

A contact problem in generalized thermoelasticity

In this work we study a one-dimensional contact problem in generalized thermoelasticity under the Green-Lindsay theory. Unilateral contact with an elastic obstacle is assumed. We consider the quasi-static and the fully dynamic situations. We prove existence and uniqueness results and propose finite element approximations in space with backward Euler discretization in time. Stability results are given and some numerical experiments reported. The second sound effect of heat conduction is observed in the simulations.     

Stability of contact discontinuity for the Boltzmann equation

The Boltzmann equation which describes the time evolution of a large number of particles through the binary collision in statistics physics has close relation to the systems of fluid dynamics, that is, Euler equations and Navier-Stokes equations. As for a basic wave pattern to Euler equations, we consider the nonlinear stability of contact discontinuities to the Boltzmann equation. Even though the stability of the other two nonlinear waves, i.e., shocks and rarefaction waves has been extensively studied, there are few stability results on the contact discontinuity because unlike shock waves and rarefaction waves, its derivative has no definite sign, and decays slower than a rarefaction wave. Moreover, it behaves like a linear wave in a nonlinear setting so that its coupling with other nonlinear waves reveals a complicated interaction mechanism. Based on the new definition of contact waves to the Boltzmann equation corresponding to the contact discontinuities for the Euler equations, we succeed in obtaining the time asymptotic stability of this wave pattern with a convergence rate. In our analysis, an intrinsic dissipative mechanism associated with this profile is found and used for closing the energy estimates.     

Optimal packings of two to four equal circles on any flat torus

We find explicit formulas for the radii and locations of the circles in all the optimally dense packings of two, three or four equal circles on any flat torus, defined to be the quotient of the Euclidean plane by the lattice generated by two independent vectors. We prove the optimality of the arrangements using techniques from rigidity theory and topological graph theory.     

Invariant circles for homogeneous polynomial vector fields on the 2-dimensional sphere

LexX be a homogeneous polynomial vector field of degreen≥3 on S² having finitely many invariant circles. Then, for such a vector fieldX we find upper bounds for the number of invariant circles, invariant great circles, invariant circles intersecting at a same point and parallel circles with the same director vector. We give examples of homogeneous polynomial vector fields of degree 3 on S² having finitely many invariant circles which are not great circles, which are limit cycles, but are not great circles and invariant great circles that are limit cycles. Moreover, for the casen=3 we determine the maximum number of parallel invariant circles with the same director vector. The authors are partially supported by a MCYT grant BFM2002-04236-C02-02 and by a CIRIT grant number 2001SGR 00173.