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Terence Tao

Publications and source records attributed to Terence Tao.

At least 217 records · Page 12Linked to original sources

Global regularity for a logarithmically supercritical hyperdissipative Navier-Stokes equation

Let $d \geq 3$. We consider the global Cauchy problem for the generalised Navier-Stokes system \partial_t u + (u \cdot \nabla) u &= - D^2 u - \nabla p \nabla \cdot u &= 0 u(0,x) &= u_0(x) for $u: \R^+ \times \R^d \to \R^d$ and $p: \R^+ \times \R^d \to \R$, where $u_0: \R^d \to \R^d$ is smooth and divergence free, and $D$ is a Fourier multiplier whose symbol $m: \R^d \to \R^+$ is non-negative; the case $m(ξ) = |ξ|$ is essentially Navier-Stokes. It is folklore (see e.g. \cite{kp}) that one has global regularity in the critical and subcritical hyperdissipation regimes $m(ξ) = |ξ|^α$ for $α\geq \frac{d+2}{4}$. We improve this slightly by establishing global regularity under the slightly weaker condition that $m(ξ) \geq |ξ|^{(d+2)/4}/g(|ξ|)$ for all sufficiently large $ξ$ and some non-decreasing function $g: \R^+ \to \R^+$ such that $\int_1^\infty \frac{ds}{sg(s)^4} = +\infty$. In particular, the results apply for the logarithmically supercritical dissipation $m(ξ) := |ξ|^{\frac{d+2}{4}} / \log(2 + |ξ|)^{1/4}$.

math.AP↗

Operator splitting for the KdV equation

We provide a new analytical approach to operator splitting for equations of the type $u_t=Au+B(u)$ where $A$ is a linear operator and $B$ is quadratic. A particular example is the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation $u_t-u u_x+u_{xxx}=0$. We show that the Godunov and Strang splitting methods converge with the expected rates if the initial data are sufficiently regular.

math.AP↗

An equivalence between inverse sumset theorems and inverse conjectures for the U^3 norm

We establish a correspondence between inverse sumset theorems (which can be viewed as classifications of approximate (abelian) groups) and inverse theorems for the Gowers norms (which can be viewed as classifications of approximate polynomials). In particular, we show that the inverse sumset theorems of Freiman type are equivalent to the known inverse results for the Gowers U^3 norms, and moreover that the conjectured polynomial strengthening of the former is also equivalent to the polynomial strengthening of the latter. We establish this equivalence in two model settings, namely that of the finite field vector spaces F_2^n, and of the cyclic groups Z/NZ. In both cases the argument involves clarifying the structure of certain types of approximate homomorphism.

math.NT↗

A pseudoconformal compactification of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation and applications

We interpret the lens transformation (a variant of the pseudoconformal transformation) as a pseudoconformal compactification of spacetime, which converts the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLS) without potential with a nonlinear Schrödinger equation with attractive harmonic potential. We then discuss how several existing results about NLS can be placed in this compactified setting, thus offering a new perspective to view this theory.

math.AP↗

An inverse theorem for the uniformity seminorms associated with the action of $F^ω$

Let $\F$ a finite field. We show that the universal characteristic factor for the Gowers-Host-Kra uniformity seminorm $U^k(\X)$ for an ergodic action $(T_g)_{g \in \F^ω}$ of the infinite abelian group $\F^ω$ on a probability space $X = (X,\B,μ)$ is generated by phase polynomials $ϕ: X \to S^1$ of degree less than $C(k)$ on $X$, where $C(k)$ depends only on $k$. In the case where $k \leq \charac(\F)$ we obtain the sharp result $C(k)=k$. This is a finite field counterpart of an analogous result for $\Z$ by Host and Kra. In a companion paper to this paper, we shall combine this result with a correspondence principle to establish the inverse theorem for the Gowers norm in finite fields in the high characteristic case $k \leq \charac(\F)$, with a partial result in low characteristic.

math.DS↗

A quantitative formulation of the global regularity problem for the periodic Navier-Stokes equation

The global regularity problem for the periodic Navier-Stokes system asks whether to every smooth divergence-free initial datum $u_0: (\R/\Z)^3 \to \R^3$ there exists a global smooth solution u. In this note we observe (using a simple compactness argument) that this qualitative question is equivalent to the more quantitative assertion that there exists a non-decreasing function $F: \R^+ \to \R^+$ for which one has a local-in-time \emph{a priori} bound $$ \| u(T) \|_{H^1_x((\R/\Z)^3)} \leq F(\|u_0\|_{H^1_x((\R/\Z)^3)})$$ for all $0 < T \leq 1$ and all smooth solutions $u: [0,T] \times (\R/\Z)^3 \to \R^3$ to the Navier-Stokes system. We also show that this local-in-time bound is equivalent to the corresponding global-in-time bound.

math.AP↗

On the testability and repair of hereditary hypergraph properties

Recent works of Alon-Shapira and Rödl-Schacht have demonstrated that every hereditary property of undirected graphs or hypergraphs is testable with one-sided error; informally, this means that if a graph or hypergraph satisfies that property "locally" with sufficiently high probability, then it can be perturbed (or "repaired") into a graph or hypergraph which satisfies that property "globally". In this paper we make some refinements to these results, some of which may be surprising. In the positive direction, we strengthen the results to cover hereditary properties of multiple directed polychromatic graphs and hypergraphs. In the case of undirected graphs, we extend the result to continuous graphs on probability spaces, and show that the repair algorithm is "local" in the sense that it only depends on a bounded amount of data; in particular, the graph can be repaired in a time linear in the number of edges. We also show that local repairability also holds for monotone or partite hypergraph properties (this latter result is also implicitly in work of Ishigami). In the negative direction, we show that local repairability breaks down for directed graphs, or for undirected 3-uniform hypergraphs. The reason for this contrast in behavior stems from (the limitations of) Ramsey theory.

math.CO↗

The Kakeya set and maximal conjectures for algebraic varieties over finite fields

Using the polynomial method of Dvir \cite{dvir}, we establish optimal estimates for Kakeya sets and Kakeya maximal functions associated to algebraic varieties $W$ over finite fields $F$. For instance, given an $n-1$-dimensional projective variety $W \subset ¶^n(F)$, we establish the Kakeya maximal estimate $$ \| \sup_{γ\ni w} \sum_{v \in γ(F)} |f(v)| \|_{\ell^n(W)} \leq C_{n,W,d} |F|^{(n-1)/n} \|f\|_{\ell^n(F^n)}$$ for all functions $f: F^n \to \R$ and $d \geq 1$, where for each $w \in W$, the supremum is over all irreducible algebraic curves in $F^n$ of degree at most $d$ that pass through $w$ but do not lie in $W$, and with $C_{n,W,d}$ depending only on $n, d$ and the degree of $W$; the special case when $W$ is the hyperplane at infinity in particular establishes the Kakeya maximal function conjecture in finite fields, which in turn strengthens the results of Dvir.

math.CO↗

Random matrices: Universality of ESDs and the circular law

Given an $n \times n$ complex matrix $A$, let $$μ_{A}(x,y):= \frac{1}{n} |\{1\le i \le n, \Re λ_i \le x, \Im λ_i \le y\}|$$ be the empirical spectral distribution (ESD) of its eigenvalues $λ_i \in \BBC, i=1, ... n$. We consider the limiting distribution (both in probability and in the almost sure convergence sense) of the normalized ESD $μ_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} A_n}$ of a random matrix $A_n = (a_{ij})_{1 \leq i,j \leq n}$ where the random variables $a_{ij} - \E(a_{ij})$ are iid copies of a fixed random variable $x$ with unit variance. We prove a \emph{universality principle} for such ensembles, namely that the limit distribution in question is {\it independent} of the actual choice of $x$. In particular, in order to compute this distribution, one can assume that $x$ is real of complex gaussian. As a related result, we show how laws for this ESD follow from laws for the \emph{singular} value distribution of $\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} A_n - zI$ for complex $z$. As a corollary we establish the Circular Law conjecture (in both strong and weak forms), that asserts that $μ_{\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} A_n}$ converges to the uniform measure on the unit disk when the $a_{ij}$ have zero mean.

math.PR↗

An inverse theorem for the bilinear $L^2$ Strichartz estimate for the wave equation

A standard bilinear $L^2$ Strichartz estimate for the wave equation, which underlies the theory of $X^{s,b}$ spaces of Bourgain and Klainerman-Machedon, asserts (roughly speaking) that if two finite-energy solutions to the wave equation are supported in transverse regions of the light cone in frequency space, then their product lies in spacetime $L^2$ with a quantitative bound. In this paper we consider the \emph{inverse problem} for this estimate: if the product of two waves has large $L^2$ norm, what does this tell us about the waves themselves? The main result, roughly speaking, is that the lower-frequency wave is dispersed away from a bounded number of light rays. This result will be used in a forthcoming paper \cite{tao:heatwave4} of the author on the global regularity problem for wave maps.

math.AP↗

The Power of Convex Relaxation: Near-Optimal Matrix Completion

This paper is concerned with the problem of recovering an unknown matrix from a small fraction of its entries. This is known as the matrix completion problem, and comes up in a great number of applications, including the famous Netflix Prize and other similar questions in collaborative filtering. In general, accurate recovery of a matrix from a small number of entries is impossible; but the knowledge that the unknown matrix has low rank radically changes this premise, making the search for solutions meaningful. This paper presents optimality results quantifying the minimum number of entries needed to recover a matrix of rank r exactly by any method whatsoever (the information theoretic limit). More importantly, the paper shows that, under certain incoherence assumptions on the singular vectors of the matrix, recovery is possible by solving a convenient convex program as soon as the number of entries is on the order of the information theoretic limit (up to logarithmic factors). This convex program simply finds, among all matrices consistent with the observed entries, that with minimum nuclear norm. As an example, we show that on the order of nr log(n) samples are needed to recover a random n x n matrix of rank r by any method, and to be sure, nuclear norm minimization succeeds as soon as the number of entries is of the form nr polylog(n).

cs.IT↗

Random matrices: The distribution of the smallest singular values

Let $\a$ be a real-valued random variable of mean zero and variance 1. Let $M_n(\a)$ denote the $n \times n$ random matrix whose entries are iid copies of $\a$ and $σ_n(M_n(\a))$ denote the least singular value of $M_n(\a)$. ($σ_n(M_n(\a))^2$ is also usually interpreted as the least eigenvalue of the Wishart matrix $M_n M_n^{\ast}$.) We show that (under a finite moment assumption) the probability distribution $n σ_n(M_n(\a))^2$ is {\it universal} in the sense that it does not depend on the distribution of $\a$. In particular, it converges to the same limiting distribution as in the special case when $a$ is real gaussian. (The limiting distribution was computed explicitly in this case by Edelman.) We also proved a similar result for complex-valued random variables of mean zero, with real and imaginary parts having variance 1/2 and covariance zero. Similar results are also obtained for the joint distribution of the bottom $k$ singular values of $M_n(\a)$ for any fixed $k$ (or even for $k$ growing as a small power of $n$) and for rectangular matrices. Our approach is motivated by the general idea of "property testing" from combinatorics and theoretical computer science. This seems to be a new approach in the study of spectra of random matrices and combines tools from various areas of mathematics.

math.PR↗

The sum-product phenomenon in arbitrary rings

The \emph{sum-product phenomenon} predicts that a finite set $A$ in a ring $R$ should have either a large sumset $A+A$ or large product set $A \cdot A$ unless it is in some sense "close" to a finite subring of $R$. This phenomenon has been analysed intensively for various specific rings, notably the reals $\R$ and cyclic groups $\Z/q\Z$. In this paper we consider the problem in arbitrary rings $R$, which need not be commutative or contain a multiplicative identity. We obtain rigorous formulations of the sum-product phenomenon in such rings in the case when $A$ encounters few zero-divisors of $R$. As applications we recover (and generalise) several sum-product theorems already in the literature.

math.CO↗

Global existence and uniqueness results for weak solutions of the focusing mass-critical non-linear Schrödinger equation

We consider the focusing mass-critical NLS $iu_t + Δu = - |u|^{4/d} u$ in high dimensions $d \geq 4$, with initial data $u(0) = u_0$ having finite mass $M(u_0) = \int_{\R^d} |u_0(x)|^2 dx < \infty$. It is well known that this problem admits unique (but not global) strong solutions in the Strichartz class $C^0_{t,\loc} L^2_x \cap L^2_{t,\loc} L^{2d/(d-2)}_x$, and also admits global (but not unique) weak solutions in $L^\infty_t L^2_x$. In this paper we introduce an intermediate class of solution, which we call a \emph{semi-Strichartz class solution}, for which one does have global existence and uniqueness in dimensions $d \geq 4$. In dimensions $d \geq 5$ and assuming spherical symmetry, we also show the equivalence of the Strichartz class and the strong solution class (and also of the semi-Strichartz class and the semi-strong solution class), thus establishing ``unconditional'' uniqueness results in the strong and semi-strong classes. With these assumptions we also characterise these solutions in terms of the continuity properties of the mass function $t \mapsto M(u(t))$.

math.AP↗

The high exponent limit $p \to \infty$ for the one-dimensional nonlinear wave equation

We investigate the behaviour of solutions $ϕ= ϕ^{(p)}$ to the one-dimensional nonlinear wave equation $-ϕ_{tt} + ϕ_{xx} = -|ϕ|^{p-1} ϕ$ with initial data $ϕ(0,x) = ϕ_0(x)$, $ϕ_t(0,x) = ϕ_1(x)$, in the high exponent limit $p \to \infty$ (holding $ϕ_0, ϕ_1$ fixed). We show that if the initial data $ϕ_0, ϕ_1$ are smooth with $ϕ_0$ taking values in $(-1,1)$ and obey a mild non-degeneracy condition, then $ϕ$ converges locally uniformly to a piecewise limit $ϕ^{(\infty)}$ taking values in the interval $[-1,1]$, which can in principle be computed explicitly.

math.AP↗

Two remarks on the generalised Korteweg de-Vries equation

We make two observations concerning the generalised Korteweg de Vries equation $u_t + u_{xxx} = μ(|u|^{p-1} u)_x$. Firstly we give a scaling argument that shows, roughly speaking, that any quantitative scattering result for $L^2$-critical equation ($p=5$) automatically implies an analogous scattering result for the $L^2$-critical nonlinear Schrödinger equation $iu_t + u_{xx} = μ|u|^4 u$. Secondly, in the defocusing case $μ> 0$ we present a new dispersion estimate which asserts, roughly speaking, that energy moves to the left faster than the mass, and hence strongly localised soliton-like behaviour at a fixed scale cannot persist for arbitrarily long times.

math.AP↗

From the Littlewood-Offord problem to the Circular Law: universality of the spectral distribution of random matrices

The famous \emph{circular law} asserts that if $M_n$ is an $n \times n$ matrix with iid complex entries of mean zero and unit variance, then the empirical spectral distribution (ESD) of the normalized matrix $\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} M_n$ converges almost surely to the uniform distribution on the unit disk $\{z \in \C: |z| \leq 1 \}$. After a long sequence of partial results that verified this law under additional assumptions on the distribution of the entries, the full circular law was recently established in \cite{TVcir2}. In this survey we describe some of the key ingredients used in the establishment of the circular law, in particular recent advances in understanding the Littlewood-Offord problem and its inverse.

math.PR↗

On the singularity probability of random Bernoulli matrices

Let $n$ be a large integer and $M_n$ be a random $n$ by $n$ matrix whose entries are i.i.d. Bernoulli random variables (each entry is $\pm 1$ with probability 1/2). We show that the probability that $M_n$ is singular is at most $(3/4 +o(1))^n$, improving an earlier estimate of Kahn, Komlós and Szemerédi, as well as earlier work by the authors. The key new ingredient is the applications of Freiman type inverse theorems and other tools from additive combinatorics.

math.CO↗