Mathematics Commons^™

Intrinsic Tame Filling Functions And Other Refinements Of Diameter Functions, Andrew Quaisley

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Tame filling functions are quasi-isometry invariants that are refinements of the diameter function of a group. Although tame filling functions were defined in part to provide a proper refinement of the diameter function, we show that every finite presentation of a group has an intrinsic tame filling function that is equivalent to its intrinsic diameter function. We then introduce some alternative filling functions—based on concepts similar to those used to define intrinsic tame filling functions—that are potential proper refinements of the intrinsic diameter function.

Adviser: Susan Hermiller and Mark Brittenham

Prefix-Rewriting: The Falsification By Fellow Traveler Property And Practical Computation, Ash Declerk

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The word problem is one of the fundamental areas of research in infinite group theory, and rewriting systems (including finite convergent rewriting systems, automatic structures, and autostackable structures) are key approaches to working on the word problem. In this dissertation, we discuss two approaches to creating bounded regular convergent prefix-rewriting systems.

Groups with the falsification by fellow traveler property are known to have solvable word problem, but they are not known to be automatic or to have finite convergent rewriting systems. We show that groups with this geometric property are geodesically autostackable. As a key part of proving this, we …

Listening For Common Ground In High School And Early Collegiate Mathematics, Gail Burrill, Henry Cohn, Yvonne Lai, Dev P. Sinha, Ji Y. Son, Katherine F. Stevenson

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

Solutions to pressing and complex social challenges require that we reach for common ground. Only through cooperation among people with a broad range of backgrounds and expertise can progress be made on issues as challenging as improving student success in mathematics. In this spirit, the AMS Committee on Education held a forum in May 2022 entitled The Evolving Curriculum in High School and Early Undergraduate Mathematical Sciences Education.¹ This article is a report on that forum by the authors listed above, who were among the organizers and presenters.

Theory Of Invariant Manifold And Foliation And Uniqueness Of Center Manifold Dynamics, Bo Deng

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

Here we prove that the dynamics on any two center-manifolds of a fixed point of any C^k,1 dynamical system of finite dimension with k ≥ 1 are C^k-conjugate to each other. For pedagogical purpose, we also extend Perron’s method for differential equations to diffeomorphisms to construct the theory of invariant manifolds and invariant foliations at fixed points of dynamical systems of finite dimensions.

Nash Blowups Of Toric Varieties In Prime Characteristic, Daniel Duarte, Jack Jeffries, Luis Núñez-Betancourt

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

We initiate the study of the resolution of singularities properties of Nash blowups over fields of prime characteristic. We prove that the iteration of normalized Nash blowups desingularizes normal toric surfaces. We also introduce a prime characteristic version of the logarithmic Jacobian ideal of a toric variety and prove that its blowup coincides with the Nash blowup of the variety. As a consequence, the Nash blowup of a, not necessarily normal, toric variety of arbitrary dimension in prime characteristic can be described combinatorially.

Extremal Absorbing Sets In Low-Density Parity-Check Codes, Emily Mcmillon, Allison Beemer, Christine A. Kelley

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

Absorbing sets are combinatorial structures in the Tanner graphs of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes that have been shown to inhibit the high signal-to-noise ratio performance of iterative decoders over many communication channels. Absorbing sets of minimum size are the most likely to cause errors, and thus have been the focus of much research. In this paper, we determine the sizes of absorbing sets that can occur in general and left-regular LDPC code graphs, with emphasis on the range of b for a given a for which an (a, b)-absorbing set may exist. We identify certain cases of extremal …

Formal Conjugacy Growth In Graph Products I, Laura Ciobanu,, Susan Hermiller, Valentin Mercier

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

In this paper we give a recursive formula for the conjugacy growth series of a graph product in terms of the conjugacy growth and standard growth series of subgraph products. We also show that the conjugacy and standard growth rates in a graph product are equal provided that this property holds for each vertex group. All results are obtained for the standard generating set consisting of the union of generating sets of the vertex groups.

Using Game Theory To Model Tripolar Deterrence And Escalation Dynamics, Grace Farson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The study investigated how game theory can been utilized to model multipolar escalation dynamics between Russia, China, and the United States. In addition, the study focused on analyzing various parameters that affected potential conflict outcomes to further new deterrence thought in a tripolar environment.

A preliminary game theoretic model was created to model and analyze escalation dynamics. The model was built upon framework presented by Zagare and Kilgour in their work ‘Perfect Deterrence’. The model is based on assumptions and rules set prior to game play. The model was then analyzed based upon these assumptions using a form of mathematical …

Bernstein-Sato Theory For Singular Rings In Positive Characteristic, Jack Jack, Luis Núñez-Betancourt, Eamon Quinlan-Gallego

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

The Bernstein-Sato polynomial is an important invariant of an element or an ideal in a polynomial ring or power series ring of characteristic zero, with interesting connections to various algebraic and topological aspects of the singularities of the vanishing locus. Work of Mustaţă, later extended by Bitoun and the third author, provides an analogous Bernstein-Sato theory for regular rings of positive characteristic.

In this paper, we extend this theory to singular ambient rings in positive characteristic. We establish finiteness and rationality results for Bernstein-Sato roots for large classes of singular rings, and relate these roots to other classes of numerical …

Tri-Plane Diagrams For Simple Surfaces In S4, Manuel Aragón, Zack Dooley, Alexander Goldman, Yucong Lei, Isaiah Martinez, Nicholas Meyer, Devon Peters, Scott Warrander, Ana Wright, Alex Zupan

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

Meier and Zupan proved that an orientable surface K in S⁴ admits a tri-plane diagram with zero crossings if and only if K is unknotted, so that the crossing number of K is zero. We determine the minimal crossing numbers of nonorientable unknotted surfaces in S⁴, proving that c(P^n,m) = max{1, |n−m|}, where P^n,m denotes the connected sum of n unknotted projective planes with normal Euler number +2 and m unknotted projective planes with normal Euler number −2. In addition, we convert Yoshikawa’s table of knotted surface ch-diagrams to tri-plane …

Decomposition Rate As An Emergent Property Of Optimal Microbial Foraging, Stefano Manzoni, Arjun Chakrawal, Glenn Ledder

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

Decomposition kinetics are fundamental for quantifying carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Several theories have been proposed to construct process-based kinetics laws, but most of these theories do not consider that microbial decomposers can adapt to environmental conditions, thereby modulating decomposition. Starting from the assumption that a homogeneous microbial community maximizes its growth rate over the period of decomposition, we formalize decomposition as an optimal control problem where the decomposition rate is a control variable. When maintenance respiration is negligible, we find that the optimal decomposition kinetics scale as the square root of the substrate concentration, resulting …

Modeling And Analyzing Homogeneous Tumor Growth Under Virotherapy, Chayu Yang, Jin Wang

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

We present a mathematical model based on ordinary differential equations to investigate the spatially homogeneous state of tumor growth under virotherapy. The model emphasizes the interaction among the tumor cells, the oncolytic viruses, and the host immune system that generates both innate and adaptive immune responses. We conduct a rigorous equilibrium analysis and derive threshold conditions that determine the growth or decay of the tumor under various scenarios. Numerical simulation results verify our analytical predictions and provide additional insight into the tumor growth dynamics.

Minimizers Of Nonlocal Polyconvex Energies In Nonlocal Hyperelasticity, José C. Bellido, Javier Cueto, Carlos Mora-Corral

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

We develop a theory of existence of minimizers of energy functionals in vectorial problems based on a nonlocal gradient under Dirichlet boundary conditions. The model shares many features with the peridynamics model and is also applicable to nonlocal solid mechanics, especially nonlinear elasticity. This nonlocal gradient was introduced in an earlier work, inspired by Riesz’ fractional gradient, but suitable for bounded domains. The main assumption on the integrand of the energy is polyconvexity. Thus, we adapt the corresponding results of the classical case to this nonlocal context, notably, Piola’s identity, the integration by parts of the determinant and the weak …

Bounds On Cohomological Support Varieties, Benjamin Briggs, Eloisa Grifo, Josh Pollitz

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

Over a local ring R, the theory of cohomological support varieties attaches to any bounded complex M of finitely generated R-modules an algebraic variety VR(M) that encodes homological properties of M. We give lower bounds for the dimension of VR(M) in terms of classical invariants of R. In particular, when R is Cohen-Macaulay and not complete intersection we find that there are always varieties that cannot be realized as the cohomological support of any complex. When M has finite projective dimension, we also give an upper bound for dimVR(M) in terms of the dimension of the radical of the homotopy …

Computing Rational Powers Of Monomial Ideals, Pratik Dongre, Benjamin Drabkin, Josiah Lim, Ethan Partida, Ethan Roy, Dylan Ruff, Alexandra Seceleanu, Tingting Tang

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

This paper concerns fractional powers of monomial ideals. Rational powers of a monomial ideal generalize the integral closure operation as well as recover the family of symbolic powers. They also highlight many interesting connections to the theory of convex polytopes. We provide multiple algorithms for computing the rational powers of a monomial ideal. We also introduce a mild generalization allowing real powers of monomial ideals. An important result is that given any monomial ideal I, the function taking a real number to the corresponding real power of I is a step function which is left continuous and has rational …

Duality For Asymptotic Invariants Of Graded Families, Michael Dipasquale, Thái Thành Nguyễn, Alexandra Seceleanu

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

The starting point of this paper is a duality for sequences of natural numbers which, under mild hypotheses, interchanges subadditive and superadditive sequences and inverts their asymptotic growth constants.

We are motivated to explore this sequence duality since it arises naturally in at least two important algebraic-geometric contexts. The first context is Macaulay- Matlis duality, where the sequence of initial degrees of the family of symbolic powers of a radical ideal is dual to the sequence of Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity values of a quotient by ideals generated by powers of linear forms. This philosophy is drawn from an influential paper of …

Lorentzian Polynomials, Higher Hessians, And The Hodge-Riemann Property For Codimension Two Graded Artinian Gorenstein Algebras, Pedro Macias-Marques, Chris Mcdaniel, Alexandra Seceleanu, Junzo Watanabe

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

We study the Hodge-Riemann property (HRP) for graded Artinian Gorenstein (AG) algebras. We classify AG algebras in codimension two that have HRP in terms of higher Hessian matrices and positivity of Schur functions associated to certain rectangular partitions.

In this paper we introduce the Hodge Riemann property (HRP) on an arbitrary graded oriented Artinian Gorenstein (AG) algebra defined over R, and we give a criterion on the higher Hessian matrix of its Macaulay dual generator (Theorem 3.1). AG algebras can be regarded as algebraic analogues of cohomology rings (in even degrees) of complex manifolds, and the HRP is analogous to …

Polynomial Growth Of Betti Sequences Over Local Rings, Luchezar L. Avramov, Alexandra Seceleanu, Zheng Yang

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

We study sequences of Betti numbers (β^R_i (M)) of finite modules M over a complete intersection local ring, R. It is known that for every M the subsequence with even, respectively, odd indices i is eventually given by some polynomial in i. We prove that these polynomials agree for all R-modules if the ideal I^☐ generated by the quadratic relations of the associated graded ring of R satisfies height I^☐ ≥ codim R − 1, and that the converse holds when R is homogeneous and when codim R ≤ 4. Avramov, …

Low-Gain Integral Control For A Class Of Discrete-Time Lur’E Systems With Applications To Sampled-Data Control, Chris Guiver, Richard Rebarber, Stuart Townley

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

We study low-gain (P)roportional (I)ntegral control of multivariate discrete-time, forced Lur’e systems to solve the output-tracking problem for constant reference signals. We formulate an incremental sector condition which is sufficient for a usual linear low-gain PI controller to achieve exponential disturbance-to-state and disturbance-to-tracking-error stability in closed-loop, for all sufficiently small integrator gains. Output tracking is achieved in the absence of exogenous disturbance (noise) terms. Our line of argument invokes a recent circle criterion for exponential incremental input-to-state stability. The discrete-time theory facilitates a similar result for a continuous-time forced Lur’e system in feedback with sampled-data low-gain integral control. The theory …

Symbolic Power Containments In Singular Rings In Positive Characteristic, Eloísa Grifo, Linquan Ma, Karl Schwede

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

The containment problem for symbolic and ordinary powers of ideals asks for what values of a and b we have I(a)⊆Ib. Over a regular ring, a result by Ein-Lazarsfeld-Smith, Hochster-Huneke, and Ma-Schwede partially answers this question, but the containments it provides are not always best possible. In particular, a tighter containment conjectured by Harbourne has been shown to hold for interesting classes of ideals - although it does not hold in general. In this paper, we develop a Fedder (respectively, Glassbrenner) type criterion for F-purity (respectively, strong F-regularity) for ideals of finite projective dimension over F-finite Gorenstein rings and use …

Bridge Trisections And Classical Knotted Surface Theory, Jason Joseph, Jeffrey Meier, Maggie Miller, Miller Zupan

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

We seek to connect ideas in the theory of bridge trisections with other wellstudied facets of classical knotted surface theory. First, we show how the normal Euler number can be computed from a tri-plane diagram, and we use this to give a trisection-theoretic proof of the Whitney–Massey theorem, which bounds the possible values of this number in terms of the Euler characteristic. Second, we describe in detail how to compute the fundamental group and related invariants from a tri-plane diagram, and we use this, together with an analysis of bridge trisections of ribbon surfaces, to produce an infinite family of …

Many Cliques In Bounded-Degree Hypergraphs, Rachel Kirsch, J. Radcliffe

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

Recently Chase determined the maximum possible number of cliques of size t in a graph on n vertices with given maximum degree. Soon afterward, Chakraborti and Chen answered the version of this question in which we ask that the graph have m edges and fixed maximum degree (without imposing any constraint on the number of vertices). In this paper we address these problems on hypergraphs. For s-graphs with s ≥ 3 a number of issues arise that do not appear in the graph case. For instance, for general s-graphs we can assign degrees to any i-subset of the vertex set …

Mentoring Undergraduate Research In Mathematical Modeling, Glenn Ledder

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

In writing about undergraduate research in mathematical modeling, I draw on my 31 years as a mathematics professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where I mentored students in honors’ theses, REU groups, and research done in a classroom setting, as well as my prior experience. I share my views on the differences between research at the undergraduate and professional levels, offer advice for undergraduate mentoring, provide suggestions for a variety of ways that students can disseminate their research, offer some thoughts on mathematical modeling and how to explain it to undergraduates, and discuss the challenges involved in broadening research participation …

Mentoring Undergraduate Research In Mathematical Modeling, Glenn Ledder

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

In writing about undergraduate research in mathematical modeling, I draw on my 31 years as a mathematics professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where I mentored students in honors’ theses, REU groups, and research done in a classroom setting, as well as my prior experience. I share my views on the differences between research at the undergraduate and professional levels, offer advice for undergraduate mentoring, provide suggestions for a variety of ways that students can disseminate their research, offer some thoughts on mathematical modeling and how to explain it to undergraduates, and discuss the challenges involved in broadening research participation …

Differential Operators On Classical Invariant Rings Do Not Lift Modulo P, Jack Jeffries, Anurag K. Singh

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

Levasseur and Stafford described the rings of differential operators on various classical invariant rings of characteristic zero; in each of the cases that they considered, the differential operators form a simple ring. Towards an attack on the simplicity of rings of differential operators on invariant rings of linearly reductive groups over the complex numbers, Smith and Van den Bergh asked if differential operators on the corresponding rings of positive prime characteristic lift to characteristic zero differential operators. We prove that, in general, this is not the case for determinantal hypersurfaces, as well as for Pfaffian and symmetric determinantal hypersurfaces. We …

Extremal Problems In Graph Saturation And Covering, Adam Volk

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation considers several problems in extremal graph theory with the aim of finding the maximum or minimum number of certain subgraph counts given local conditions. The local conditions of interest to us are saturation and covering. Given graphs F and H, a graph G is said to be F-saturated if it does not contain any copy of F, but the addition of any missing edge in G creates at least one copy of F. We say that G is H-covered if every vertex of G is contained in at least one copy of H. In the former setting, we …

Remotely Close: An Investigation Of The Student Experience In First-Year Mathematics Courses During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sawyer Smith

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The realm of education was shaken by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It had drastic effects on the way that courses were delivered to students, and the way that students were getting their education at the collegiate level. At the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, the pandemic dramatically changed the way that first-year mathematics courses looked for students. By Spring 2021, students had the opportunity to take their first-year math courses either in-person or virtually. This project sought to identify differences between the two methods of course delivery during the Spring 2021 semester, regarding interaction with peers …

A Uniform Chevalley Theorem For Direct Summands Of Polynomial Rings In Mixed Characteristic, Alessandro De Stefani, Eloisa Grifo, Jack Jeffries

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

We prove an explicit uniform Chevalley theorem for direct summands of graded polynomial rings in mixed characteristic. Our strategy relies on the introduction of a new type of differential powers that does not require the existence of a p-derivation on the direct summand.

Exploration Of Piccirillo's Trick On Low Crossing Number Knots, Gabriel Adams

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Piccirillo recently discovered a process that can be applied to an unknotting number one knot to convert it into a different knot called a Piccirillo dual. Piccirillo duals have been shown to have the same n-trace and the same sliceness. However, exploration and knowledge of this process is limited. We were able to generate the Piccirillo duals for several low-crossing number knots. We offer the foundation for and explain how to follow the Piccirillo process and generate Piccirillo duals. This talk assumes little knowledge of knot theory and concisely gives newcomers a clear introduction to get started working with Piccirillo …

Application Of Linear Algebra Within The High School Curriculum: Designing Activities To Stimulate An Interest In Upper-Level Math, Shelby Castle

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This senior project outlines potential lecture activities for a guest speaker or teacher in a high school classroom to present interesting applications of linear algebra. These applications are meant to be pertinent to things students at this age level are already learning or are interested in. The activities are designed such that the ideas of upper-level math are introduced in a very guided and non-intense way. The intent of the activities is mostly applications and interesting results rather than mathematical lecturing or instruction.

The high school level courses explored in this project are chemistry, economics, and health/physical education. For these …