We analyse Jim Propp's $P$-machine, a simple deterministic process that simulates a random walk on ${\mathbb Z}^d$ to within a constant. The proof of the error bound relies on several estimates in the theory of simple random walks and some careful summing. We mention three intriguing conjectures concerning sign-changes and unimodality of functions in the linear span of $\{p(\cdot,{\bf x}) : {\bf x} \in {\mathbb Z}^d\}$, where $p(n,{\bf x})$ is the probability that a walk beginning from the origin arrives at ${\bf x}$ at time $n$.

This paper is devoted to an online variant of the minimum spanning tree problem in randomly weighted graphs. We assume that the input graph is complete and the edge weights are uniformly distributed over [0,1]. An algorithm receives the edges one by one and has to decide immediately whether to include the current edge into the spanning tree or to reject it. The corresponding edge sequence is determined by some adversary. We propose an algorithm which achieves $\mathbb{E}[ALG]/\mathbb{E}[OPT]=O(1)$ and $\mathbb{E}[ALG/OPT]=O(1)$ against a fair adaptive adversary, i.e., an adversary which determines the edge order online and is fair in a sense that he does not know more about the edge weights than the algorithm. Furthermore, we prove that no online algorithm performs better than $\mathbb{E}[ALG]/\mathbb{E}[OPT]=\Omega(\log n)$ if the adversary knows the edge weights in advance. This lower bound is tight, since there is an algorithm which yields $\mathbb{E}[ALG]/\mathbb{E}[OPT]=O(\log n)$ against the strongest-imaginable adversary.

We show that if a graph contains few copies of a given graph, then its edges are distributed rather unevenly.

In particular, for all $\varepsilon > 0$ and $r\geq2$, there exist $\xi =\xi (\varepsilon,r) > 0$ and $k=k (\varepsilon,r)$ such that, if $n$ is sufficiently large and $G=G(n)$ is a graph with fewer than $\xi n^{r}$$r$-cliques, then there exists a partition $V(G) =\cup_{i=0}^{k}V_{i}$ such that \[ \vert V_{i}\vert =\lfloor n/k\rfloor \quad \text{and} \quad e(W_{i}) <\varepsilon\vert V_{i}\vert ^{2}\] for every $i\in [k]$.

We deduce the following slightly stronger form of a conjecture of Erdős.

For all $c>0$ and $r\geq3$, there exist $\xi=\xi (c,r) >0$ and $\beta=\beta(c,r)>0$ such that, if $n$ is sufficiently large and $G=G(n,\lceil cn^{2} \rceil)$ is a graph with fewer than $\xi n^{r}$$r$-cliques, then there exists a partition $V(G) =V_{1}\cup V_{2}$ with $ \vert V_{1} \vert = \lfloor n/2 \rfloor $ and $\vert V_{2} \vert = \lceil n/2 \rceil $ such that \[ e(V_{1},V_{2}) > (1/2+\beta) e (G).\]

We study negative dependence properties of a sampling process due to Srinivasan to produce distributions on level sets with given marginals. We give a simple proof that the distribution satisfies negative association. We also show that under a linear match schedule it satisfies the stronger condition of conditional negative association via a non-trivial application of the Feder–Mihail theorem. This method involves the notion of a variable of positive influence. We give some results and related counter-examples which might shed some light on its role in a theory of negative dependence.

A simple first moment argument shows that in a randomly chosen $k$-SAT formula with $m$ clauses over $n$ boolean variables, the fraction of satisfiable clauses is $1-2^{-k}+o(1)$ as $m/n\rightarrow\infty$ almost surely. In this paper, we deal with the corresponding algorithmic strong refutation problem: given a random $k$-SAT formula, can we find a certificate that the fraction of satisfiable clauses is $1-2^{-k}+o(1)$ in polynomial time? We present heuristics based on spectral techniques that in the case $k=3$ and $m\geq\ln(n)^6n^{3/2}$, and in the case $k=4$ and $m\geq Cn^2$, find such certificates almost surely. In addition, we present heuristics for bounding the independence number (resp. the chromatic number) of random $k$-uniform hypergraphs from above (resp. from below) for $k=3,4$.

Polyhedral embeddings of cubic graphs by means of certain operations are studied. It is proved that some known families of snarks have no (orientable) polyhedral embeddings. This result supports a conjecture of Grünbaum that no snark admits an orientable polyhedral embedding. This conjecture is verified by computer for all snarks having fewer than 30 vertices. On the other hand, for every non-orientable surface $S$, there exists a non-3-edge-colourable graph which polyhedrally embeds in $S$.

We generalize and unify results on parametrized and coloured Tutte polynomials of graphs and matroids due to Zaslavsky, and Bollobás and Riordan. We give a generalized Zaslavsky–Bollobás–Riordan theorem that characterizes parametrized contraction–deletion functions on minor-closed classes of matroids, as well as the modifications necessary to apply the discussion to classes of graphs. In general, these parametrized Tutte polynomials do not satisfy analogues of all the familiar properties of the classical Tutte polynomial. We give conditions under which they do satisfy corank-nullity formulas, and also conditions under which they reflect the structure of series-parallel connections.

A cylinder graph is the graph Cartesian product of a path and a cycle. In this paper we investigate the length of a minimal spanning tree of a cylinder graph whose edges are assigned random lengths according to independent and uniformly distributed random variables. Our work was inspired by a formula of J. Michael Steele which shows that the expected length of a minimal spanning tree of a connected graph can be calculated through the Tutte polynomial of the graph. First, using transfer matrices, we show how to calculate the Tutte polynomials of cylinder graphs. Second, using Steele's formula, we tabulate the expected lengths of the minimal spanning trees for some cylinder graphs. Third, for a fixed cycle length, we show that the ratio of the expected length of a minimal spanning tree of a cylinder graph to the length of the cylinder graph converges to a constant; this constant is described in terms of the Perron–Frobenius eigenvalue of the accompanying transfer matrix. Finally, we show that the length of a minimal spanning tree of a cylinder graph satisfies a strong law of large numbers.

A one-dimensional model of clarifier-thickener units in engineering applications can be expressed as a conservation law with a flux that is discontinuous with respect to the spatial variable. This model also includes a singular feed source. In this paper, the clarifier-thickener model studied in a previous paper (Numer. Math.97 (2004) 25–65) is extended by a singular sink through which material is extracted from the unit. A difficulty is that in contrast to the singular source, the sink term cannot be incorporated into the flux function; rather, the sink is represented by a new non-conservative transport term. To focus on the new analytical difficulties arising due to this non-conservative term, a reduced problem is formulated, which contains the new sink term of the extended clarifier-thickener model, but not the source term and flux discontinuities. The paper is concerned with numerical methods for both models (extended and reduced) and with the well-posedness analysis for the reduced problem. For the reduced problem, a definition of entropy solutions, based on Kružkov-type entropy functions and fluxes, is provided. Jump conditions are derived and uniqueness of the entropy solution is shown. Existence of an entropy solution is shown by proving convergence of a monotone difference scheme. Two variants of the numerical scheme are introduced. Numerical examples illustrate that all three variants converge to the entropy solution, but introduce different amounts of numerical diffusion.

We study the heat flow projected on a manifold M ⊂ L2(Ω). This manifold is defined by the condition that the integrals ∫Ωuk (t,x) dx, k = 1,…,N, are constants of motion. We show that solutions to this problem converge to a steady state as time tends to +∞. We use in an essential way a variant of the Łojasiewicz inequality.

We show that every orthogonality-preserving linear map between normed spaces is a scalar multiple of an isometry. Using this result, we generalize Uhlhorn's version of Wigner's theorem on symmetry transformations to a wide class of Banach spaces.

Let Ω be a bounded Lipschitz domain in R2, let H be a 2 × 2 diagonal matrix with det(H) = 1. Let ε > 0 and consider the functionalover AF ∩ W2,1(Ω), where AF is the class of functions from Ω satisfying affine boundary condition F. It can be shown by convex integration that there exists F ∉ SO(2) ∪ SO(2)H and u ∈ AF with I0(u) = 0. Let 0 < ζ1 < 1 < ζ2 < ∞,.

In this paper we begin the study of the asymptotics of mε ≔ infBF∩W2,1Iε for such F. This is one of the simplest minimization problems involving surface energy for which we can hope to see the effects of convex integration solutions. The only known lower bounds are lim infε→0mε/ε = ∞.

We link the behaviour of mε to the minimum of I0 over a suitable class of piecewise affine functions. Let {τi} be a triangulation of Ω by triangles of diameter less than h and let denote the class of continuous functions that are piecewise affine on a triangulation {τi}. For the function u ∈ BF let be the interpolant, i.e. the function we obtain by defining ũ⌊τi to be the affine interpolation of u on the corners of τi. We show that if for some small ω > 0 there exists u ∈ BF ∩ W2,1 withthen, for h = ε(1+6399ω)/3201, the interpolant satisfies I0(ũ) ≤ h1−cω.

Note that it is trivial that , so we reduce the problem of non-trivial (scaling) lower bounds on mε/ε to the problem of non-trivial lower bounds on .

We consider composite media made of homogeneous inclusions with C1,α,boundaries. Our goal is to compare the potential uε in a perfectly periodic composite with the potential uε,d, of a perturbed periodic medium, where the periodicity defects consist of misplaced inclusions. We give an asymptotic expansion of the difference uε,d − uε away from the defects and show that, to first order, a misplaced inclusion manifests itself via a polarization tensor, which is characterized.

To understand the heterogeneous spatial effect on predator–prey models, we study the behaviour of the positive steady states of a predator–prey model as certain parameters are small or large. We compare the case when the model has a spatial degeneracy with the case when it does not have such a degeneracy. Our results show that the effect of the degeneracy can be clearly observed in one limiting case, but not in the others.

We prove the uniqueness of positive solutions for a class of second-order nonlinear elliptic boundary-value problems with sublinear nonlinearities.

In this note we give a complete description of the composition algebras A over fields of characteristic ≠ 2, 3 in the following cases: if A has an anisotropic norm and x2x = xxx2 for every element; when A has a unitary central idempotent, it satisfies the identity (x2x2)x2 = x2(x2x2), and A is of finite dimension or has anisotropic norm. As a consequence, we obtain the existence, up to an isomorphism, of only seven absolute-valued algebras with a non-zero central idempotent where the last identity holds. This result completes the study of the absolute-valued algebras of this kind that was initiated by El-Mallah and Agawany.

We also introduce the class of e-quadratic algebra, which contains the quadratic algebras, but also includes large classes of composition and absolute-valued algebras. Many results on composition, absolute-valued and e-quadratic algebras are shown, and new proofs of some well-known theorems are given.

The Cauchy problem for semi-linear heat equations with singular initial datais studied, where N > 2, p > (N + 2)/N, and l > 0 is a parameter. We establish the existence and multiplicity of positive self-similar solutions for the problem by applying the ordinary differential equation shooting method to the corresponding spatial profile problem.

In this short note we prove that the functional I : W1,p(J;R) → R defined byis sequentially weakly lower semicontinuous in W1,p(J,R) if and only if the symmetric part W+ of W is separately convex. We assume that W is real valued, continuous and bounded below by a constant, and that J is an open subinterval of R. We also show that the lower semicontinuous envelope of I cannot in general be obtained by replacing W by its separately convex hull Wsc.

For a large class of functions f, we consider the nonlinear biharmonic eigenvalue problemWe describe the behaviour of the branch of solutions emanating from an eigenvalue of odd multiplicity below the essential spectrum of the linearized problem. The discussion is based on the degree theory for C2 proper Fredholm maps developed by Fitzpatrick, Pejsachowicz and Rabier.

We discuss the spectral properties of a class of sequences of what we call ‘spectral’ type. We introduce an effective method to calculate the zeta invariants for this type of sequence. Such invariants are given in terms of some new and old special functions, and we consider a number of examples in which we study the properties of these special functions.