arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Liviu I. Nicolaescu.
We investigate the Cesaro and Abel sums of divergent series of the form $\sum_{n\geq 0} a_n T^nP(x)$, where $P$ is a real polynomial and $T$ is a translation invariant operator on the space of real polynomials.
We analyze a bead sliding game and relate it to some classical convex inequalities.
We define the total curvature of a semialgebraic embedding of a graph in the 3-dimensional Euclidean space. We prove that it satisfies a Chern-Lashof type inequality and we describe when the equality holds. We also prove a generalization of a classical result of Fary and Milnor stating that certain graphs cannot be knotted if they are not too curved. The techniques employed are Morse theoretic.
We investigate the poset of strata of a Schubert-like stratification of certain natural compactification of the space of hermitian $n\times n$ matrices. We prove that this poset is a modular ortholattice, we compute its Möbius function and we describe the topology of its order intervals.
The grassmannian of hermitian lagrangian spaces in $\mathbb{C}^n\oplus \mathbb{C}^n$ is a natural compactification of the space of hermitian $n\times n$ matrices. We describe a Schubert-like, Whitney regular stratification on this space which has a Morse theoretic origin. We prove that these strata define closed subanalytic currents à la R. Hardt, generating the integral homology of this space, we investigate their intersection theoretic properties, and we prove certain odd (in K-theoretic sense) Thom-Porteous type theorems.
The tame flows are ``nice'' flows on ``nice'' spaces. The nice (tame) sets are the pfaffian sets introduced by Khovanski, and a flow $Φ: \mathbb{R}\times X\to X$ on pfaffian set $X$ is tame if the graph of $Φ$ is a pfaffian subset of $\mathbb{R}\times X\times X$. Any compact tame set admits plenty tame flows. We prove that the flow determined by the gradient of a generic real analytic function with respect to a generic real analytic metric is tame. The typical tame gradient flow satisfies the Morse-Smale condition, and we prove that in the tame context the Morse-Smale condition is equivalent to the fact that the stratification by unstable manifolds is Verdier and Whitney regular. We explain how to compute the Conley indices of isolated stationary points of tame flows in terms of their unstable varieties, and then use this technology to produce a Morse theory on posets generalizing R. Forman's discrete Morse theory. Finally, we use the Harvey-Lawson finite volume flow technique to produce a homotopy between the DeRham complex of a smooth manifold and the simplicial chain complex associated to a triangulation.
We answer a question of V.I. Arnold concerning the growth rate of the number of Morse functions on the two sphere.
This paper was motivated by work of Arnold where he explains how to count "snakes", i.e. Morse functions on the real axis with prescribed behavior at infinity. This leads immediately to a count of excellent Morse functions on the circle, where following Thom's terminology, excellent means that no two critical points lie on the same level set. We explain how to count equivalence classes of excellent Morse functions on the 2-sphere. We consider two equivalence relations. The geometric relation (two functions are equivalent if one can be obtained from the other via compositions with an orientation preserving diffeomorphism of the sphere and an orientation preserving diffeomorphism of the real axis) and the homology relation (two functions are equivalent if the Betti numbers of the sublevel sets undergo similar changes when crossing a critical value).
We use a probabilistic approach to describe the behavior as $n -> \infty$ of the Laplace transforms of $P^n$, where $P$ a fixed complex polynomial. As a consequence we obtain a new elementary proof of an result of Gillis-Ismail-Offer in the combinatorial theory of derangements.
We verify the conjecture formulated in math.AG/0111298 for suspension singularities of type $g(x,y,z)= f(x,y)+z^n$, where $f$ is an irreducible plane curve singularity. More precisely, we prove that the modified Seiberg-Witten invariant of the link $M$ of $g$, associated with the canonical $spin^c$ structure, equals $-σ(F)/8$, where $σ(F)$ is the signature of the Milnor fiber of $g$. In order to do this, we prove general splicing formulae for the Casson-Walker invariant and for the sign refined Reidemeister-Turaev torsion (in particular, for the modified Seiberg-Witten invariant too). These provide results for some cyclic covers as well. As a by-product, we compute all the relevant invariants of $M$ in terms of the Newton pairs of $f$ and the integer $n$.
This is a continuation of our paper math.AG/0111298. We prove an explicit formula for the geometric genus p_g of a quasihomogeneous isolated surface singularity in terms of the Seiberg-Witten invariant of the link and other topological data which can be read from a resolution graph of the singularity. Moreover, we also determine all the Reidemeister-Turaev sign-refined torsion of the link (associated with any spin^c structure) in terms of the Seifert invariants.
We prove that the Seiberg-Witten invariants of a rational homology sphere are determined in a very explicit fashion by the Casson-Walker invariant and the Reidemeister torsion
We construct several natural connections and Dirac type operators on a general metric contact manifold which are more sensitive to the geometric background. In the special case of CR manifolds these connections are also compatible with the CR structure and include among them the Webster connection. We also describe several Weitzenbock type formulae. Our method is based on work of P. Gauduchon applied to two almost complex manifolds naturally associated to a given metric contact manifold.
We prove that the mod Z reduction of the torsion of a rational homology 3-sphere is completely determined by three data: a certain canonical spin^c structure, the linking form and a Q/Z-valued constant c. This constant is a new topological invariant of the rational homology sphere. Experimentations with lens spaces suggest this constant may be as powerful an invariant as the torsion itself.
We describe two topologies on the space of unbounded Fredholm operators and we explain their K-theoretic relevance. In the process we also prove a very general result concerning the continuity of families of first order, elliptic boundary value problems.
Suppose G is a compact Lie group and N is a closed normal subgroup of G acting freely on a smooth manifold X. The Cartan theorem alluded to in the title postulates the existence of a natural isomorphism between the G-equivariant cohomology X and the G/N-equivariant cohomology of X/N. In this note we use J. Kalkman's explicit isomorphism between the Cartan and Weil models of equivariant cohomology to show that 1) Cartan's theorem is a simple consequence of Chern-Weil's transgression formula and 2) explicitly describe this isomorphism at the cochain level.
We describe an effective algorithm for computing Seiberg-Witen invariants of lens spaces. We apply it to two problems: (i) to compute the Froyshov invariants of a large family of lens spaces; (ii) to show that the knowledge of the Seiberg-Witten invariants of lens spaces is topologically equivalent to the knowledge of its Casson-Walker invariant and of its Milnor-Turaev torsion. We also use the results in problem (i) to derive several topological results concerning the negative definite manifolds bounding a given lens space.
We compute eta invariants of various Dirac type operators on circle bundles over Riemann surfaces via two approaches: an adiabatic approach based on the results of Bismut-Cheeger-Dai and a direct elementary one. These results, coupled with some delicate spectral flow computations are then used to determine the virtual dimensions of Seiberg-Witten finite energy moduli spaces on any 4-manifold bounding unions of circle bundles. This belated paper should be regarded as the analytical backbone of dg-ga/9711006. There, we indicated only what changes are needed to extend the methods of the present paper to Seifert fibrations and we focused only to topological and number theoretic aspects related to Froyshov invariants