Applied Mathematics Commons^™

Greedy Signal Recovery And Uncertainty Principles, Deanna Needell, Roman Vershynin

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

This paper seeks to bridge the two major algorithmic approaches to sparse signal recovery from an incomplete set of linear measurements – L1-minimization methods and iterative methods (Matching Pursuits). We find a simple regularized version of the Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (ROMP) which has advantages of both approaches: the speed and transparency of OMP and the strong uniform guarantees of the L1-minimization. Our algorithm ROMP reconstructs a sparse signal in a number of iterations linear in the sparsity, and the reconstruction is exact provided the linear measurements satisfy the Uniform Uncertainty Principle. In the case of inaccurate measurements and approximately sparse …

As Flat As Possible, Jon T. Jacobsen

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

How does one determine a surface which is as flat as possible, such as those created by soap film surfaces? What does it mean to be as flat as possible? In this paper we address this question from two distinct points of view, one local and one global in nature. Continuing with this theme, we put a temporal twist on the question and ask how to evolve a surface so as to flatten it as efficiently as possible. This elementary discussion provides a platform to introduce a wide range of advanced topics in partial differential equations and helps students …

Nonlinear Dynamics In Combinatorial Games: Renormalizing Chomp, Eric J. Friedman, Adam S. Landsberg

WM Keck Science Faculty Papers

We develop a new approach to combinatorial games that reveals connections between such games and some of the central ideas of nonlinear dynamics: scaling behaviors, complex dynamics and chaos, universality, and aggregation processes. We take as our model system the combinatorial game Chomp, which is one of the simplest in a class of "unsolved" combinatorial games that includes Chess, Checkers, and Go. We discover that the game possesses an underlying geometric structure that "grows" (reminiscent of crystal growth), and show how this growth can be analyzed using a renormalization procedure adapted from physics. In effect, this methodology allows one to …

Approximations Of Continuous Newton's Method: An Extension Of Cayley's Problem, Jon T. Jacobsen, Owen Lewis '05, Bradley Tennis '06

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Continuous Newton's Method refers to a certain dynamical system whose associated flow generically tends to the roots of a given polynomial. An Euler approximation of this system, with step size h=1, yields the discrete Newton's method algorithm for finding roots. In this note we contrast Euler approximations with several different approximations of the continuous ODE system and, using computer experiments, consider their impact on the associated fractal basin boundaries of the roots

Turing Patterns On Growing Spheres: The Exponential Case, Julijana Gjorgjieva, Jon T. Jacobsen

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

We consider Turing patterns for reaction-diffusion systems on the surface of a growing sphere. In particular, we are interested in the effect of dynamic growth on the pattern formation. We consider exponential isotropic growth of the sphere and perform a linear stability analysis and compare the results with numerical simulations.

Strings, Chains, And Ropes, Darryl H. Yong

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Following Antman [Amer. Math. Mon., 87 (1980), pp. 359–370], we advocate a more physically realistic and systematic derivation of the wave equation suitable for a typical undergraduate course in partial differential equations. To demonstrate the utility of this derivation, three applications that follow naturally are described: strings, hanging chains, and jump ropes.

How Effective Is Security Screening Of Airline Passengers?, Susan E. Martonosi, Arnold Barnett

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

With a simple mathematical model, we explored the antiterrorist effectiveness of airport passenger prescreening systems. Supporters of these systems often emphasize the need to identify the most suspicious passengers, but they ignore the point that such identification does little good unless dangerous items can actually be detected. Critics often focus on terrorists' ability to probe the system and thereby thwart it, but ignore the possibility that the very act of probing can deter attempts at sabotage that would have succeeded. Using the model to make some preliminary assessments about security policy, we find that an improved baseline level of screening …

Mean Field Effects For Counterpropagating Traveling Wave Solutions Of Reaction-Diffusion Systems, Andrew J. Bernoff, R. Kuske, B. J. Matkowsky, V. Volpert

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

In many problems, e.g., in combustion or solidification, one observes traveling waves that propagate with constant velocity and shape in the x direction, say, are independent of y and z and describe transitions between two equilibrium states, e.g., the burned and the unburned reactants. As parameters of the system are varied, these traveling waves can become unstable and give rise to waves having additional structure, such as traveling waves in the y and z directions, which can themselves be subject to instabilities as parameters are further varied. To investigate this scenario we consider a system of reaction-diffusion equations with a …

An Optimal Brain Can Be Composed Of Conflicting Agents, Adi Livnat, Nicholas Pippenger

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Many behaviors have been attributed to internal conflict within the animal and human mind. However, internal conflict has not been reconciled with evolutionary principles, in that it appears maladaptive relative to a seamless decision-making process. We study this problem through a mathematical analysis of decision-making structures. We find that, under natural physiological limitations, an optimal decision-making system can involve “selfish” agents that are in conflict with one another, even though the system is designed for a single purpose. It follows that conflict can emerge within a collective even when natural selection acts on the level of the collective only.

The Motion Of A Thin Liquid Film Driven By Surfactant And Gravity, Michael Shearer, Rachel Levy

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

We investigate wave solutions of a lubrication model for surfactant-driven flow of a thin liquid film down an inclined plane. We model the flow in one space dimension with a system of nonlinear PDEs of mixed hyperbolic-parabolic type in which the effects of capillarity and surface diffusion are neglected. Numerical solutions reveal distinct patterns of waves that are described analytically by combinations of traveling waves, some with jumps in height and surfactant concentration gradient. The various waves and combinations are strikingly different from what is observed in the case of flow on a horizontal plane. Jump conditions admit new shock …

Communicating Applied Mathematics: Four Examples, Daniel E. Finkel, Christopher Kuster, Matthew Lasater, Rachel Levy, Jill P. Reese, Ilse C. F. Ipsen

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Communicating Applied Mathematics is a writing- and speaking-intensive graduate course at North Carolina State University. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief description of the course objectives and the assignments. Parts A–D of of this article represent the class projects and illustrate the outcome of the course:

• The Evolution of an Optimization Test Problem: From Motivation to Implementation, by Daniel E. Finkel and Jill P. Reese

• Finding the Volume of a Powder from a Single Surface Height Measurement, by Christopher Kuster

• Finding Oscillations in Resonant Tunneling Diodes, by Matthew Lasater

• …

Optimal Therapy Regimens For Treatment-Resistant Mutations Of Hiv, Weiqing Gu, Helen Moore

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

In this paper, we use control theory to determine optimal treatment regimens for HIV patients, taking into account treatment-resistant mutations of the virus. We perform optimal control analysis on a model developed previously for the dynamics of HIV with strains of various resistance to treatment (Moore and Gu, 2005). This model incorporates three types of resistance to treatments: strains that are not responsive to protease inhibitors, strains not responsive to reverse transcriptase inhibitors, and strains not responsive to either of these treatments. We solve for the optimal treatment regimens analytically and numerically. We find parameter regimes for which optimal dosing …

Lower Bounds For Simplicial Covers And Triangulations Of Cubes, Adam Bliss '03, Francis E. Su

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

We show that the size of a minimal simplicial cover of a polytope P is a lower bound for the size of a minimal triangulation of P, including ones with extra vertices. We then use this fact to study minimal triangulations of cubes, and we improve lower bounds for covers and triangulations in dimensions 4 through at least 12 (and possibly more dimensions as well). Important ingredients are an analysis of the number of exterior faces that a simplex in the cube can have of a specified dimension and volume, and a characterization of corner simplices in terms of their …

A Mathematical Model For Treatment-Resistant Mutations Of Hiv, Helen Moore, Weiqing Gu

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

In this paper, we propose and analyze a mathematical model, in the form of a system of ordinary differential equations, governing mutated strains of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and their interactions with the immune system and treatments. Our model incorporates two types of resistant mutations: strains that are not responsive to protease inhibitors, and strains that are not responsive to reverse transcriptase inhibitors. It also includes strains that do not have either of these two types of resistance (wild-type virus) and strains that have both types. We perform our analysis by changing the system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to …

A Liouville-Gelfand Equation For K-Hessian Operators, Jon T. Jacobsen

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

In this paper we establish existence and multiplicity results for a class of fully nonlinear elliptic equations of k-Hessian type with exponential nonlinearity. In particular, we characterize the precise dependence of the multiplicity of solutions with respect to both the space dimension and the value of k. The choice of exponential nonlinearity is motivated by the classical Liouville-Gelfand problem from combustible gas dynamics and prescribed curvature problems.

Examples Of Cayley 4-Manifolds, Weiqing Gu, Christopher Pries '03

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

We determine several families of so-called Cayley 4-dimensional manifolds in the real Euclidean 8-space. Such manifolds are of interest because Cayley 4-manifolds are supersymmetric cycles that are candidates for representations of fundamental particles in String Theory. Moreover, some of the examples of Cayley manifolds discovered in this paper may be modified to construct explicit examples in our current search for new holomorphic invariants for Calabi-Yau 4-folds and for the further development of mirror symmetry.

We apply the classic results of Harvey and Lawson to find Cayley manifolds which are graphs of functions from the set of quaternions to itself. We …

Semilinear Equations With Discrete Spectrum, Alfonso Castro

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

This is an overview of the solvability of semilinear equations where the linear part has discrete spectrum. Semilinear elliptic and hyperbolic equations, as well as Hammerstein integral equations, are used as motivating examples. The presentation is intended to be accessible to non experts.

An Existence Result For A Class Of Sublinear Semipositone Systems, Alfonso Castro, C. Maya, Ratnasingham Shivaji

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

We consider the existence of positive solutions for the system

-Δu_i = λ[f_i(u₁,u₂,...,u_m) - h_i]; Ω

u_i = 0; ∂Ω

where λ > 0 is a parameter, Δ is the Laplacian operator, Ω is a bounded domain in Rⁿ; n ≥ 1 with a smooth boundary ∂Ω, f_i are C¹ functions satisfying f₁(0,0,...,0) = 0, lim z→∞ f_i(z,z,...,z) = ∞ and lim z→∞ f_i(z,z,...,z)/z = 0, and h_i are nonnegative continuous functions in Ω for i = 1,2,...,m. …

Solitary Waves In Layered Nonlinear Media, Randall J. Leveque, Darryl H. Yong

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

We study longitudinal elastic strain waves in a one-dimensional periodically layered medium, alternating between two materials with different densities and stress-strain relations. If the impedances are different, dispersive effects are seen due to reflection at the interfaces. When the stress-strain relations are nonlinear, the combination of dispersion and nonlinearity leads to the appearance of solitary waves that interact like solitons. We study the scaling properties of these solitary waves and derive a homogenized system of equations that includes dispersive terms. We show that pseudospectral solutions to these equations agree well with direct solutions of the hyperbolic conservation laws in the …

The Effect Of The Domain Topology On The Number Of Minimal Nodal Solutions Of An Elliptic Equation At Critical Growth In A Symmetric Domain, Alfonso Castro, Mónica Clapp

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

We consider the Dirichlet problem Δu + λu + |u|^2*−2u = 0 in Ω, u = 0 on ∂Ω where Ω is a bounded smooth domain in R^N, N≥4, and 2* = 2N/(N−2) is the critical Sobolev exponent. We show that if Ω is invariant under an orthogonal involution then, for λ>0 sufficiently small, there is an effect of the equivariant topology of Ω on the number of solutions which change sign exactly once.

The Liouville-Bratu-Gelfand Problem For Radial Operators, Jon T. Jacobsen, Klaus Schmitt

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

We determine precise existence and multiplicity results for radial solutions of the Liouville–Bratu–Gelfand problem associated with a class of quasilinear radial operators, which includes perturbations of k-Hessian and p-Laplace operators.

Analysis Of The N-Card Version Of The Game Le Her, Arthur T. Benjamin, Alan J. Goldman

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

We present a complete solution to a card game with historical origins. Our analysis exploits the convexity properties in the payoff matrix, allowing this discrete game to be resolved by continuous methods.

Nonlinear Dynamics Of Mode-Locking Optical Fiber Ring Lasers, Kristin M. Spaulding, Darryl H. Yong, Arnold D. Kim, J Nathan Kutz

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

We consider a model of a mode-locked fiber ring laser for which the evolution of a propagating pulse in a birefringent optical fiber is periodically perturbed by rotation of the polarization state owing to the presence of a passive polarizer. The stable modes of operation of this laser that correspond to pulse trains with uniform amplitudes are fully classified. Four parameters, i.e., polarization, phase, amplitude, and chirp, are essential for an understanding of the resultant pulse-train uniformity. A reduced set of four coupled nonlinear differential equations that describe the leading-order pulse dynamics is found by use of the variational nature …

Mixed Partial Derivatives And Fubini's Theorem, Asuman Güven Aksoy, Mario Martelli

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

A most fascinating aspect of calculus is its power to surprise even an experienced mathemat ician. Just when it appears that all ideas, results and connections have been discovered and thorough ly analyzed, the horizon suddenly broadens and somebody cries the familiar "eureka". The reason could be either a new result, a simpler way to prove an existing theorem, or a previously missed connection between different ideas. This potential for enrichment is second to none, and it reaffirms the unparalleled educational value of this area of mathematics.

Scroll Waves In The Presence Of Slowly Varying Anisotropy With Application To The Heart, S. Setayeshgar, Andrew J. Bernoff

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

We consider the dynamics of scroll waves in the presence of rotating anisotropy, a model of the left ventricle of the heart in which the orientation of fibers in successive layers of tissue rotates. By choosing a coordinate system aligned with the fiber rotation and studying the phase dynamics of a straight but twisted scroll wave, we derive a Burgers’ equation with forcing associated with the fiber rotation rate. We present asymptotic solutions for scroll twist, verified by numerics, using a realistic fiber distribution profile. We make connection with earlier numerical and analytical work on scroll dynamics.

Modeling Control Of Hiv Infection Through Structured Treatment Interruptions With Recommendations For Experimental Protocol, Shannon Kubiak, Heather Lehr, Rachel Levy, Todd Moeller, Albert Parker, Edward Swim

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART) of HIV infection has significantly reduced morbidity and mortality in developed countries. However, since these treatments can cause side effects and require strict adherence to treatment protocol, questions about whether or not treatment can be interrupted or discontinued with control of infection maintained by the host immune system remain to be answered. We present sensitivity analysis of a compartmental model for HIV infection that allows for treatment interruptions, including the sensitivity of the compartments themselves to our parameters as well as the sensitivity of the cost function used in parameter estimation. Recommendations are made about …

Monotone Solutions Of A Nonautonomous Differential Equation For A Sedimenting Sphere, Andrew Belmonte, Jon T. Jacobsen, Anandhan Jayaraman

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

We study a class of integrodifferential equations and related ordinary differential equations for the initial value problem of a rigid sphere falling through an infinite fluid medium. We prove that for creeping Newtonian flow, the motion of the sphere is monotone in its approach to the steady state solution given by the Stokes drag. We discuss this property in terms of a general nonautonomous second order differential equation, focusing on a decaying nonautonomous term motivated by the sedimenting sphere problem

Stability Of Self-Similar Solutions For Van Der Waals Driven Thin Film Rupture, Thomas P. Witelski, Andrew J. Bernoff

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Recent studies of pinch-off of filaments and rupture in thin films have found infinite sets of first-type similarity solutions. Of these, the dynamically stable similarity solutions produce observable rupture behavior as localized, finite-time singularities in the models of the flow. In this letter we describe a systematic technique for calculating such solutions and determining their linear stability. For the problem of axisymmetric van der Waals driven rupture (recently studied by Zhang and Lister), we identify the unique stable similarity solution for point rupture of a thin film and an alternative mode of singularity formation corresponding to annular “ring rupture.”

Model Updating By Adding Known Masses And Stiffnesses, Philip D. Cha, Lisette G. De Pillis

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

New approaches are developed to update the analytical mass and stiffness matrices of a system. By adding known masses to the structure of interest, measuring the modes of vibration of this mass-modified system, and finally using this set of new data in conjunction with the initial modal survey, the mass matrix of the structure can be corrected. A similar approach can also be used to update the stiffness matrix of the system by attaching known stiffnesses. Manipulating the mass and stiffness correction matrices into vector forms, the connectivity information can be enforced, thereby preserving the physical configuration of the system, …

Onset Of Superconductivity In Decreasing Fields For General Domains, Andrew J. Bernoff, Peter Sternberg

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Ginzburg–Landau theory has provided an effective method for understanding the onset of superconductivity in the presence of an external magnetic field. In this paper we examine the instability of the normal state to superconductivity with decreasing magnetic field for a closed smooth cylindrical region of arbitrary cross-section subject to a vertical magnetic field. We examine the problem asymptotically in the boundary layer limit (i.e., when the Ginzburg–Landau parameter, k, is large). We demonstrate that instability first occurs in a region exponentially localized near the point of maximum curvature on the boundary. The transition occurs at a value of the …