Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

Consider a general linear Hamiltonian system u_t = JLu in a Hilbert space X, called the energy space. We assume that R(L) is closed, L induces a bounded and symmetric bi-linear form on X, and the energy functional has only finitely many negative dimensions n(L). There is no restriction on the anti-selfadjoint operator J except \ker L \subset D(J), which can be unbounded and with an infinite dimensional kernel space. Our first result is an index theorem on the linear instability of the evolution group e^{tJL}. More specifically, we obtain some relationship between n(L) and the dimensions of generalized eigenspaces of eigenvalues of JL, some of which may be embedded in the continuous spectrum. Our second result is the linear exponential trichotomy of the evolution group e^{tJL}. In particular, we prove the nonexistence of exponential growth in the finite co-dimensional center subspace and the optimal bounds on the algebraic growth rate there. This is applied to construct the local invariant manifolds for nonlinear Hamiltonian PDEs near the orbit of a coherent state (standing wave, steady state, traveling waves etc.). For some cases (particularly ground states), we can prove orbital stability and local uniqueness of center manifolds. We will discuss applications to examples including dispersive long wave models such as BBM and KDV equations, Gross-Pitaevskii equation for superfluids, 2D Euler equation for ideal fluids, and 3D Vlasov-Maxwell systems for collisionless plasmas. This work will be discussed in two talks. In the first talk, we will motivate the problem by several Hamiltonian PDEs, describe the main results, and demonstrate how they are applied. In the second talk, some ideas of the proof will be given.

(continuation of last week's seminar): We will discuss KAM results for symplectic and presymplectic maps. Firstly, we will study geometric properties of a symplectic dynamical system which will allow us to prove a KAM theorem in a-posteriori format. Then, a corresponding theorem for a parametric family of symplectic maps will be presented. Finally, using similar method, we will extend the theorems to presymplectic maps. These results appear in the work of Alishah, de la Llave, Gonzalez, Jorba and Villanueva.

We investigate the existence of quasi-periodic solutions for state-dependent delay differential equationsusing the parameterization method, which is different from the usual way-working on the solution manifold. Under the assumption of finite-time differentiability of functions and exponential dichotomy, the existence and smoothness of quasi-periodic solutions are investigated by using contraction arguments We also develop a KAM theory to seek analytic quasi-periodic solutions. In contrast with the finite differentonable theory, this requires adjusting parameters. We prove that the set of parameters which guarantee the existence of analytic quasi-periodic solutions is of positive measure. All of these results are given in an a-posterior form. Namely, given a approximate solution satisfying some non-degeneracy conditions, there is a true solution nearby.

Approximate separable representation of the Green’s functions for differential operators is a fundamental question in the analysis of differential equations and development of efficient numerical algorithms. It can reveal intrinsic complexity, e.g., Kolmogorov n-width or degrees of freedom of the corresponding differential equation. Computationally, being able to approximate a Green’s function as a sum with few separable terms is equivalent to the existence of low rank approximation of the discretized system which can be explored for matrix compression and fast solution techniques such as in fast multiple method and direct matrix inverse solver. In this talk, we will mainly focus on Helmholtz equation in the high frequency limit for which we developed a new approach to study the approximate separability of Green’s function based on an geometric characterization of the relation between two Green's functions and a tight dimension estimate for the best linear subspace approximating a set of almost orthogonal vectors. We derive both lower bounds and upper bounds and show their sharpness and implications for computation setups that are commonly used in practice. We will also make comparisons with other types of differential operators such as coercive elliptic differential operator with rough coefficients in divergence form and hyperbolic differential operator. This is a joint work with Bjorn Engquist.

A set F of graphs has the Erdos-Posa property if there exists a function f such that every graph either contains k disjoint subgraphs each isomorphic to a member in F or contains at most f(k) vertices intersecting all such subgraphs. In this talk I will address the Erdos-Posa property with respect to three closely related graph containment relations: minor, topological minor, and immersion. We denote the set of graphs containing H as a minor, topological minor and immersion by M(H),T(H) and I(H), respectively. Robertson and Seymour in 1980's proved that M(H) has the Erdos-Posa property if and only if H is planar. And they left the question for characterizing H in which T(H) has the Erdos-Posa property in the same paper. This characterization is expected to be complicated as T(H) has no Erdos-Posa property even for some tree H. In this talk, I will present joint work with Postle and Wollan for providing such a characterization. For immersions, it is more reasonable to consider an edge-variant of the Erdos-Posa property: packing edge-disjoint subgraphs and covering them by edges. I(H) has no this edge-variant of the Erdos-Posa property even for some tree H. However, I will prove that I(H) has the edge-variant of the Erdos-Posa property for every graph H if the host graphs are restricted to be 4-edge-connected. The 4-edge-connectivity cannot be replaced by the 3-edge-connectivity.

We consider the first-passage percolation model defined on the square lattice Z^2 with nearest-neighbor edges. The model begins with i.i.d. nonnegative random variables indexed by the edges. Those random variables can be viewed as edge lengths or passage times. Denote by T_n the length (i.e. passage time) of the shortest path from the origin to the boundary of the box [-n,n] \times [-n,n]. We focus on the case when the distribution function of the edge weights satisfies F(0) = 1/2. This is sometimes known as the "critical case" because large clusters of zero-weight edges force T_n to grow at most logarithmically. We characterize the limit behavior of T_n under conditions on the distribution function F. The main tool involves a new relation between first-passage percolation and invasion percolation. This is joint work with Michael Damron and Wai-Kit Lam.

A graph is a minor of another graph if the former can be obtained from a subgraph of the latter by contracting edges. We prove that for every graph H, if H is not a minor of a graph G, then V(G) can be 3-colored such that the subgraph induced by each color class has no component with size greater than a function of H and the maximum degree of G. This answers a question raised by Esperet and Joret, generalizes their result for 3-coloring V(G) for graphs G embeddable in a fixed surface, and improves a result of Alon, Ding, Oporowski and Vertigan for 4-coloringing V(G) for H-minor free graphs G. As a corollary, we prove that for every positive integer t, if G is a graph with no K_{t+1} minor, then V(G) can be 3t-colored such that the subgraph induced by each color class has no component with size larger than a function of t. This improves a result of Wood for coloring V(G) by 3.5t+2 colors. This work is joint with Sang-il Oum.

I will find upper and lower bounds for the mixing time as well as the likelihood order after sufficient time of the following involution walk on the symmetric group. Consider 2n cards on a table. Pair up all the cards. Ignore each pairing with probability $p \geq 1/2$. For any pair not being ignored, pick up the two cards and switch their spots. This walk is generated by involutions with binomially distributed two cycles. The upper bound of $\log_{2/(1+p)}(n)$ will result from spectral analysis using a combination of a series of monotonicity relations on the eigenvalues of the walk and the character polynomial for the representations of the symmetric group. A lower bound of $\log_{1/p}$ differs by a constant factor from the upper bound. This walk was introduced to study a conjecture about a random walk on the unitary group from the information theory of black holes.

I will describe several recent results with N. Nadirashvili where we construct extremal metrics for eigenvalues on riemannian surfaces. This involves the study of a Schrodinger operator. As an application, one gets isoperimetric inequalities on the 2-sphere for the third eigenvalue of the Laplace Beltrami operator.