2020 december - cim
TRANSCRIPT
ISSN 2183-8062 (print version)ISSN 2183-8070 (electronic version)
centro internacional de matemรกtica
2020 December .42
In March of 2020, a new direction board of CIM took office and the editorial board of the CIM bulletin was renewed. The editorial board is committed to continue the efforts of fulfilling the bulletinโs main goals of promoting Mathematics and especially mathematical research. The COVID-19 pandemic conditioned strongly CIMโs usual activities, which means that, contrary to previous issues, only one report of a scientific meeting supported by CIM is presented in the current issue. Nonetheless, we compensate this shortcoming with three articles regarding advances on the cutting edge of the discipline. Namely, we include an article concerning the topological properties of configuration spaces of points; an article considering stochastic processes modelling an interacting particle system, whose algebraic structure helps to analyse its macroscopic dynamics; and an article with an insightful introduction to analysis on graphs and, in particular, quantum graphs. Inserted in the cycle of historical articles, we feature an article dedicated to the work and life of Antรณnio Aniceto Monteiro, focusing, in particular, on his modernist essay about General Analysis, from 1939, which anticipated Bourbakiโs treaty published in the 1940s. We present an interview honouring Josรฉ Basto-Gonรงalves, who belonged to the first scientific committee of CIM, for his role in disseminating and stimulating mathematical research in the University of Porto. We also include an interview to Andrรฉ Neves, who was the distinguished mathematician invited to deliver this yearโs Pedro Nunesโ lecture, which is an emblematic initiative of CIM, counting with the support of SPM. We recall that the bulletin continues to welcome the submission of review, feature, outreach and research articles in Mathematics and its applications.
Ana Cristina Moreira FreitasFaculdade de Economia and Centro de Matemรกtica da Universidade do Portohttps://www.fep.up.pt/docentes/amoreira/
EditorialContents
02 Editorial by Ana Cristina Moreira Freitas
03 Antรณnio Monteiro and his Modernist Essay by Josรฉ Francisco Rodrigues
11 Where Lie Algebra meets Probability?! by Chiara Franceschini and Patrรญcia Gonรงalves
22 An Interview with Josรฉ Basto Gonรงalves by Helena Reis
26 Dynamical Aspects of Pseudo-Riemannian Geometry Report by Ana Cristina Ferreira and Helena Reis
29 An Introduction to Analysis on Graphs: what are Quantum Graphs and (why) are they Interesting? by James B. Kennedy
38 An Interview with Andrรฉ Neves by Carlos Florentino
41 Configuration Spaces of Points by Ricardo Campos
2
Antรณnio Monteiro And his Modernist essAy by Josรฉ Francisco Rodrigues*
The 1939 โensaio sobre os fundamentos da anรกlise geralโ (Essay on the foundations of General Analysis), by the Portuguese mathematician Antรณnio Aniceto Mon-teiro (1907โ1980), in spite of being awarded an import-ant prize by the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, has been unknown and ignored until its recent rediscover and its facsimile publication [AM1939]. The ensaio is a 130 pages typed monograph that introduces mathematical modernism and prepares a turning point in the mathe-matical activities in Portugal, preceding the creation of the Centro de Estudos Matemรกticos de Lisboa in 1940, the first Portuguese research centre, affiliated with the Faculdade de Ciรชncias of the Lisbon University and independently
* Universidade de Lisboa/Ciรชncias/CMAFcIO e Academia das Ciรชncias de Lisboa [email protected]
supported by the Instituto para a Alta Cultura, the incipi-ent national science foundation at the time [Ro].
Antรณnio Monteiro, Modernist and Mathematician
On the occasion of the centenary of his birth, the Portu-guese Mathematical Society (SPM) published in 2007 a remarkable photobiography [AM_Fb2007] and a spe-cial issue of its Bulletin [AM_B2007] with the proceed-ings of an International Colloquium at the University of Lisbon. In the presentation of his Works [AM_O2008],
CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 3
consisting of eight volumes of about 2800 pages, which does not include his 1939 Essay, Jean-Pierre Kahane, from the Paris Academy of Sciences, wrote
The works of Antรณnio A. Monteiro belong to the world history of mathematics. They cover a large variety of topics from clas-sical analysis to topology and from advanced algebra to logic in its more modern chapters. Some of them come from cours-es and synthetic presentations, but the majority of them are research papers. They are presented in different styles, occa-sionally handwritten, and also in different languages. Despite their intrinsic value, these works are a testimony of an age and of an exceptional life. They were written, in four different countries: France, Portugal, Brazil and Argentina. Monteiro was the founder of mathematical journals and various math-ematical institutions, first in Portugal, then in Latin America. He had to emigrate from Portugal because of Salazarโs regime and was also affected by the military dictatorship in Argenti-na. His life testifies the link between the struggle for science and the struggle for freedom.
Monteiro was born in Moรงรขmedes (Angola) in 1907, the son of a Portuguese colonial army officer, he came to Lisbon, already orphan, to attend the Military Col-lege in 1917 before his graduation in Mathematics in 1930, at the Faculdade de Ciรชncias, and his departure to Paris with a fellowship, where he followed courses at the Facultรฉ des Sciences and seminars at the Institut Hen-ri Poincarรฉ. In 1936, he presented his thesis, Sur lโaddi-
tivitรฉ des noyaux de Fredholm, at the University of Paris under Maurice Frรฉchet (1878โ1973) [AM_Fb2007] and [AM_O2008]. During his stay in Paris, Monteiro assumes also his mission of studying โthe organization of a Centre for Mathematical Studies which would have, among others, the objective of achieving the complete resurgence of Portuguese mathematical traditionsโ, and, in his correspondence, he even refers to the acquisition of books for the Instituto de Matemรกtica [AM_Bc2007]. After his return to Lisbon, he refused to sign a com-pulsory political statement in order to be integrated at the University โ Monteiro would have said: โI do not accept limitations on my intelligenceโ โ and he was thus unable to pursue in Portugal the career as a mathematician he developed in his exile in 1945 in Brazil and in Argenti-na from 1950 until his jubilation and removal, also for political reasons, from the Universidad Nacional del Sur in 1975, in Bahia Blanca, where he had been Professor Emeritus since 1972 and where he died in 1980 [Re]. Between 1937 and 1943, Monteiroโs scientific and academic activity in Lisbon was carried out as a precar-ious inventor of scientific libraries in Portugal. In spite of financial difficulties, he was a major participant of the brief decade of the Portuguese Mathematical Move-ment (1936โ1946), which began with the activities of
Figure 1. Cover of the photobiography [AM_Fb2007] Figure 2. Cover of [AM_Bc2007]
4
the Nรบcleo of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry at the end of 1936, with the founding, by Monteiro, of the journal Portugaliae Mathematica in 1937 (Fig.3), with the beginning of the Seminรกrio de Anรกlise Geral in 1939, the creation of the Centro de Estudos de Matemรกtica de Lis-boa (CEML), under his scientific direction, the Gazeta de
Matemรกtica and the Portuguese Mathematical Society, all in 1940. His remarkable qualities as researcher and professor were first developed in Lisbon with the orientation of young mathematicians in the first three years of the ac-tivity of the CEML, which were marked by the influence of the modernist ideas of the 1939โs โEnsaioโ and cul-minating in the visit of Maurice Frรฉchet in early 1942 (Fig.4), and the successive departure of the young grant-ees abroad, including the first two Portuguese disciples of Monteiro, Hugo Ribeiro for the ETH in Zurich and Josรฉ Sebastiรฃo e Silva for the University of Rome [AM_B2007]. He continued his activities at the Centro de Estudos de Matemรกtica do Porto, created in 1942 and affiliated with the Faculdade de Ciรชncias of the University of Por-to, where he had a third disciple, Alfredo Pereira Gomes who also began his academic career in France and Brazil, and where he was supported by the Junta de Investigaรงรฃo Matemรกtica (JIM). This remarkable association was cre-ated in 1943 and was sponsored by private funds during some years. JIM aimed to bring together almost all the (few) Portuguese researchers in the country, had as its primary objective โto promote the development of math-ematical researchโ and played a very important role in funding scientific publications, particularly, the journal Portugaliae Mathematica, after the government stopped the initial financial support. This support to Portugaliae Mathematica was accomplished in connection with the CEML, and was limited to the first three volumes.
Figure 3. Frontispiece of vol. 1 of Portugaliae Mathematica.
Figure 4. M. Frรฉchet, P. J. da Cunha and A. Monteiro at Faculdade de Ciรชncias de Lisboa in early 1942 ( [AM_Fb2007]).
CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 5
Between 1945 and 1948, Monteiro was professor of Anรกlise Superior at the University of Brazil, now the Uni-versidade Federal de Rio de Janeiro, where he had a strong in-fluence on young mathematicians. These include Maurรญcio Peixoto, who was his co-author, Maria Laura Lopes, whose thesis of 1949 solved a question raised by Monteiro, and also Leopoldo Nachbin, who succeeded him in directing the series of monographs Notas de Matemรกtica and was the author of its No. 4, the influential lectures notes on Espaรงos Vetoriais Topolรณgicos (1948). This series, which Monteiro had founded in 1948, was published in Rio de Janeiro until 1972 and included in its No. 5 the text on Rings of Continuous Functions by Marshal H. Stone. It was continued with volume 48 by North-Holland and reached in 2008, already with Elsevier, the number 208 of that well known collection of Mathematics Studies [Ro]. Appointed Professor at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, San Juan, Argentina, in 1950, Monteiro found-ed the Revista Matemรกtica Cuyana with M. Cotlar and E. Zarantonello, in 1955. Although he was invited to the University of Buenos Aires, Monteiro, with some of his new Argentine disciples, moved in 1957 to the recent-ly created Universidad Nacional del Sur, in Bahรญa Blanca, where he founded the Mathematical Institute, the Math-ematical Library, new series of monographs and devel-oped research on Algebraic Logic and Latices. In 1974 he was appointed an honorary member of Uniรณn Matemรกti-ca Argentina, due to his remarkable intellectual influence. According to the Argentine mathematician Eduardo Or-tiz, Monteiro belongs โto an old tradition of Argentin-ian progressive and independent thought to which the country owes some of its most valuable achievementsโ [AM_PM1980]. Although he spent a sabbatical year in Europe, during 1969โ1970, visiting several universities in France, Ro-mania, Belgium, Italy and England, he did not return to Lisbon until March 1977, with a scholarship of the Na-tional Institute of Scientific Research. There he resumed his research for about two years at the Centre for Math-ematics and Fundamental Applications (CMAF), the di-rect successor of the CEML he had directed thirty seven years ago. During this period, he supervised his fourth Portuguese disciple, M. Isabel Loureiro, and wrote the extensive work Sur les Algรจbres de Heyting Symรฉtriques, which, in 1979, was awarded the Gulbenkian Prize for Science and Technology and was published in Portugaliae Mathematica [AM_PM1980], in a volume posthumously dedicated to him. In a letter dated June 5, 1978 sent to Alfredo Pereira Gomes, his former disciple from Porto, then professor at the University of Lisbon, despite his state of health, Monteiro wrote โI am really satisfied with
the results of my scientific activity in Portugal. This is mainly due to the Centro de Matemรกtica (CMAF), which provided me with free time to studyโ [AM_PM1980]. On his return to Bahรญa Blanca, where he had residence with his family, Monteiro died on 29 October 1980 in the country of his second exile. In a letter to his Argen-tine friend he wrote: โThatโs life dear Ortiz. One uses and spends oneself on tasks that cannot be finished: and yet one begins with enthusiasm and dedication, because hopes and certainties are never lost. Sadnesses of Bahia Blanca! on the margins of the Napostรก; between winds and storms in which the earth drowns us, I see Lisbon distant - memories of my childhood!โ [AM_B2007].
The forerunner 1939โs โEnsaio sobre os fundamentos da anรกlise geralโ
In the Foreword of his Ensaio Monteiro wrote:
The General Analysis was founded at the beginning of this century by Maurice Frรฉchet, with the aim of generalising the differential and integral calculus for those functions where the independent variable โ and possibly the function itself โare elements of any nature (. . .) having as goal the study of the correspondences between variables of any nature.
In fact, Frรฉchet was a pioneer in proposing, in his 1906 thesis under the guidance of Jacques Hadamard (1865โ1963), an abstract approach to mathematical analysis based on general structures: class (L), spaces with con-vergence; class (E), spaces with รฉcart, i.e., with distance, renamed metric spaces by F. Hausdorff, in 1914, as a sub-class of topological spaces, and class (V), a generalization of spaces (E) provided with neighborhoods (voisinages). These notions were evolving and Frรฉchet set out his re-sults in the influential book Les Espaces Abstraits [F], which strongly marked Monteiroโs early mathematical activity and, in particular, his essay. Monteiro shared the view of Norbert Wiener (1894โ1964), who visited Frรฉchet in Strasburg in 1920 and later wrote about him: โmore than anyone else who had seen what was implied in the new mathematics of curves rather than points (โฆ) One of the specific things which attracted me in Frรฉchet was that the spirit of his work [spirit of abstract formalism]โ. The 1939 essay clearly reflects the โspirit of abstract formalismโ, which Monteiro absorbed from Frรฉchet and had anticipated Bourbaki in France, but unfortunately has remained unpublished and lost in the archives of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences until recently. It consists of four chapters: Abstract Set Theory (13 p.); Abstract Al-gebra (52 p.); Abstract Topology (26 p.) and Abstract Analysis or General Analysis (38 p.) and corresponds to
6
a programmatic plan, which was put into practice im-mediately by himself, with a Course in1939 and in the Seminar of General Analysis in 1940 (Fig. 5), already within the scope of the recently created Centro de Estudos Matemรกticos de Lisboa [Ro]. In the first chapter, considering the Set Theory as a chapter of General Analysis, Monteiro characterized it as the theory that โoccupies itself with the properties of the sets of points that remain invariant in relation to the group of biunivocal transformationsโ, such as Abstract Algebra,
โone of the most recent chapters of modern mathematicsโ, which deals with the properties โwhich remain invariant in relation to the group of isomorphisms (biunivocal cor-respondences which respect the operation considered)โ and, in the third chapter, Topology, also a chapter of the General Analysis, as the theory โwhich studies the prop-erties of the sets of points which remain invariant in re-lation to the group of bicontinuous transformations or homeomorphisms.โ Besides the influence of the French school, Monteiro, who had followed the Juliaโs seminars in Paris since 1933 until 1936 (on Groups and Algebras, Hilbert Spaces and Topology), was also well aware of the contemporary mathematical developments of the Polish and the Russian schools in Set Theory and Topology and of the German school in Algebra. Finally in the fourth and main chapter, Monteiro intro-duced โthe notion of algebraic-topological space โ which we can define as a space where there is simultaneously an algebra and a topologyโ, with the aim of dealing with the
โstudy of invariant properties for a topo-isomorphism, that is, by a biunivocal correspondence that is simulta-neously a homomorphism and an isomorphismโ, espe-cially in what he called โanalytical spacesโ, that is, those for which the algebraic operation is continuous. Among these, he introduced the perfectly decomposable abeli-an topological groups, for which he proved โa theorem
of structureโ, which, being โanalogous to Banachโs and Cantor-Bernsteinโs theoremsโ (about the equivalence of two sets with the same power), establishes, in particu-lar, that if two of those groups โhave the same algebraic dimension they are topo-isomorphicโ. The new notion of algebraic dimension is a generalization of the โlinear dimension of a (vector) space of type (F) recently intro-duced by Banachโ in his classic 1932 book on Thรฉorie des opรฉrations linรฉaires. Culminating a modern synthesis of some algebraic-topological structures, including topo-logical groups, normed rings and Banach spaces, Mon-teiro generalized the results of his thesis on the additivity of Fredholm kernels, obtaining necessary and sufficient conditions for the additivity of the resolvents within the rings of linear operators in Banach spaces (Fig. 6). The clarity and novelty with which the new abstract ideas are described and put into practice by Monteiro in his Ensaio is remarkable and it represents a significant progress, certainly independent and unknown to the collective of mathematicians who, under the name of N. Bourbaki, were creating the รlรฉments de Mathรฉmatique which would only start publishing a year later in Paris. In his autobiography, Andrรฉ Weyl (1906โ1998), one of the founders and most influential mathematicians of this collective, recorded the spirit of the time by writing [W, p.114]:
In establishing the tasks to be undertaken by Bourbaki, sig-nificant progress was made with the adoption of the notion of structure, and of the related notion of isomorphism. Retro-spectively these two concepts seem ordinary and rather short on mathematical content, unless the notions of morphism and category are added. At the time of our early work these notions cast new light upon subjects which were still shrouded in con-fusion: even the meaning of the term โisomorphismโ varied from one theory to another. That there were simple structures of group, of topological space, etc., and then also more com-plex structures, from rings to fields, had not to my knowledge
Figure 5. Announcements of the course and the seminar by A. Monteiro, already at the CEML, attached to the Faculdade de Ciรชncias of Lisbon [AM_Fb2007].
CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 7
been said by anyone before Bourbaki, and it was something that needed to be said.
That was relevant to be said, and Monteiro also knew it and wrote it very clearly not only in the Preface of his Ensaio, that he delivered the 4th February 1939 at the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, but also throughout its four chapters, which substantial contents coincide in great portions with those of the first four issues of Bourbakiโs treaty, published in Paris in 1940 and 1942. In fact, if the initial objective of those young math-ematicians from the รcole Normale Supรฉrieur of Paris, who founded the Bourbaki group in 1935, was to write a new course on Differential and Integral Calculus in the form of a modern treatise on Mathematical Analysis to replace the classical Cours dโanalyse of the old French school, they evolved into an axiomatic and abstract pre-sentation of โles structures fondamentales de lโanalyseโ. The first four fascicules begin the รlรฉments de Mathรฉma-tique: Livre I โ Thรฉorie des Ensembles (Fascicule de rรฉsultats), 1939; Livre II โ Algรจbre (Structures al-gรจbriques), 1942; Livre III โ Topologie Gรฉnerale (Chap.I, Structures topologiques; Chap.II, Structures uniformes), 1940; Livre III โ Topologie Gรฉnerale
(Chap.III, Groups topologiques; Chap.IV, Nombres rรฉels), 1942. The 45 pages booklet on Set Theory, although dated 1939, has the printing date of February 1940, and be-gins by explaining the โmode dโemploi de ce traitรฉโ, which
โtakes the mathematics at the beginning, gives complete demonstrations and, in principle, does not suppose any particular mathematical knowledge, but only a certain habit of mathematical reasoning and a certain power of abstractionโ. In the English translation of the 1970 pro-found and enlarged revision of the Set Theory fascicule, one can read: โthe axiomatic method allows us, when we are concerned with complex mathematical objects, to sep-arate their properties and regroup them around a small number of concepts: that is to say, using a word which will receive a precise definition later, to classify them ac-cording to the structures to which they belong.โ The sec-ond book, on Algebra, published in 1942, has about 160 pages and contains the first chapter of algebraic struc-tures. It is a synthesis of modern algebra which is con-sidered as a result โabove all of the work of the modern German schoolโ and recognizes the 1930 book by van der Waerden, also used by Monteiro in his 1939 Ensaio, as a source of inspiration.
Figure 6. Pages of the Essay with Monteiroโs original result [AM1939].
8
Bourbakiโs third book, dedicated to General Topology, is in fact the second to be published in 1940 and con-sists of two chapters dealing with structures of another kind which โgive a mathematical sense to the intuitive notions of limit, continuity and neighbourhoodโ. The Chapter I, on topological structures, begins with open sets, to define topological space, and bases the notion of convergence on the concept of filter, obtaining the com-plete equivalence between neighborhood, open set and the topology of convergence. The Chapter II deals with uniform structures, which makes it possible to extend the structure of the metric spaces introduced by Frรฉchet in 1906, and to generalise to the uniform spaces im-portant results, in particular of compactness and com-pleteness. Chapters III and IV of General Topology were published in 1942. Chapter III, starting with the defi-nition of a topological group, develops the theory based on filters and their convergences and on the properties of uniform structures, and concludes with some topics on topological rings and fields. Chapter IV introduces the group of the real numbers, proves the usual topological properties and basic results on series and on numerical functions, ending with an extensive and fairly complete twelve-page historical note. Those three chapters are
more innovative and have a broader scope then the cor-responding two last chapters od Monteiroโs Ensaio. However, comparing the structure of the four chapters and the respective sections of Antรณnio Monteiroโs essay, delivered on February 4, 1939 at the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, with the contents of these first four fascicules by Bourbaki, which are a work of another dimension and with another ambition, we are surprised by the coinci-dence of their sequencing and even by the overlapping of many of their contents. Naturally Monteiro absorbed in Paris, during his stay between 1931 and 1936, the new ideas and the most recent results of modern mathemat-ics. Monteiroยดs objectives had, in a completely different scale and context, some parallelism with the ambitious programme of the Bourbaki collective, but he could not know either the plans or the contents of the รlรฉments de Mathรฉmatiques. However, although Monteiro had never been a โbourbakistโ or revealed sympathies for the work of Bourbakiโs disciples, we dare to consider that his re-markable and forgotten Ensaio is, in fact, a forerunner of the great project of that collective author, which is also characterised by a remarkable modernism and structur-alism [Ro]. The influence of the contents of the Ensaio and its
CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 9
author is notorious. With the intense mathematical re-search activities with a small group of students during only three years at the CEML, in Lisbon, and about one year at the CEMP, in Porto, he started together an out-line of an ephemeral Portuguese School of General To-pology, which influence extended to Rio de Janeiro. In the classic 1955 book General Topology [K], the Ameri-can mathematician J. L. Kelley, in his Foreword, not only thanks Hugo Ribeiro, but also cites in his Bibliography three articles by him and two by Monteiro, all published in Portugaliae Mathematica between 1940 and 1945, a note to the C.R. Acad. Sc. Paris by A. Pereira Gomes and the monograph in Portuguese by L. Nachbin on Topo-logical Vector Spaces, both published in 1948 [Ro].
References
[AM_PM1980] Portugaliae Mathematica, vol. 39 (1980), Edition of Sociedade Portuguesa de Matemรกtica (1985), dedicated to A. A. Monteiro under the direction of Alfredo Pereira Gomes.[AM_Bc2007] Boletim da Sociedade Portuguesa de Matemรกtica, Nยบ Especial, Proceedings Centenary Conference, Faculdade de Ciรชncias da Universidade de Lisboa, June 2007, edited by Luรญs Saraiva.[AM_Fb2007] Antรณnio Aniceto Monteiro, uma fotobiografia a vรกrias vozes, Sociedade Portuguesa de Matemรกtica, Lisboa
2007, Editors: Jorge Rezende, Luiz Monteiro and Elza Amaral.[AM_O2008] The Works of Antรณnio A. Monteiro, Vol.s I-VIII, Edited by Eduardo L. Ortiz and Alfredo Pereira Gomes, Fundaรงรฃo Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon and The Humboldt Press, London 2008.[AM1939] Antรณnio Monteiro, โEnsaio sobre os Fundamentos da Anรกlise Geralโ, Memรณrias Academia das Ciรชncias de Lisboa , vol. XLVII n.2 (2020), 27โ169.[F] M. Frรฉchet, Les Espaces Abstraits et leur thรฉorie considรฉrรฉe comme Introduction ร lโAnalyse Gรฉnรฉrale, Gauthier-Villars, Paris, 1928.[K] J. L. Kelley, General Topology, Van Nostrand, New York, 1955.[Re] J. Rezende, Blogue <Antรณnio Aniceto Monteiro> http://antonioanicetomonteiro.blogspot.com/
[Ro] J. F. Rodrigues, O Ensaio de 1939 de Antรณnio Monteiro, O seu contexto e a sua importรขncia, Memรณrias Academia das Ciรชncias de Lisboa, vol. XLVII n.2 (2020), 9โ26.[W] A. Weil, The Apprenticeship of a Mathematician, Springer, Basel, 1992.
Figure 7. The study on Continuous Functions, published by the CEM of Porto in 1944.
Figure 8. A paper on general topology by A. Monteiro, published by CEM of Lisbon in Portugaliae Mathematica, 1 (1940), 333โ339, and cited in the Kelleyโs book [K].
10
Where Lie ALgebrA Meets ProbAbiLity?!
by Chiara Franceschini* and Patrรญcia Gonรงalves**
* Center for Mathematical Analysis Geometry and Dynamical Systems, Instituto Superior Tรฉcnico, Universidade de Lisboa [email protected]
** Center for Mathematical Analysis Geometry and Dynamical Systems, Instituto Superior Tรฉcnico, Universidade de Lisboa [email protected]
One of the biggest challenges in statistical physics is to understand phenomena out of equilibrium. A common setting to model non-equilibrium dynamics is to consider stochastic processes of Markovian type with an open boundary acting on the system at different values, thus creating a flux. In these notes, we consider an interacting particle system known in the literature as the symmetric simple exclusion process (SSEP) which is connected to two reservoirs. We show how the algebraic construction of such Markov jump processes helps in analyzing microscopic quantities used to derive macroscopic universal laws. In particular, we will characterize through its moments the non-equilibrium stationary measure.
1 INTRODUCTION
Microscopic dynamics of random walks interactingon a discrete space under some stochastic rules areknown as interacting particle systems (IPS) and wereintroduced in the mathematics community by Spitzerin 1970 (see [14]) but before were widely used byphysicists, see [15]. The idea of introducing such sysยญtems is that, as it often happens in mathematics andphysics, they can be used as toy models to describecomplex stochastic phenomena involving a large numยญber (typically of the order of the Avogadroโs number)of interrelated components. Regardless their simplerules at the microscopic level, IPS are often remarkยญably suitable models capable of capturing the sortof phenomena one is interested at the macroscopiclevel. Mathematically speaking, they are treated ascontinuous time Markov processes with a finite orcountable discrete state space. Typically, in the fieldof IPS one is interested in deriving the macroscopiclaws of some thermodynamical quantities by meansof a scaling limit procedure. The setting can be deยญscribed as follows. One considers a continuous space,which is called the macroscopic space. This space is
then discretized by a scaling parameter ๐๐ and time isspeeded up by a function of ๐๐. On the discrete spaceone considers a microscopic dynamics consisting ofthe infinitesimal evolution of particles according tosome stochastic law. The dynamics conserves one(or more) thermodynamical quantity and its (their)space/time evolution is the object of our interest. Themathematical rigorous derivation of the macroscopiclaws for such quantity, which can be a PDE or astochastic PDE, depending on whether one is at thelevel of the Law of Large Numbers or at the level ofthe Central Limit theorem, is a central problem in thefield of IPS. This derivation gives not only validity tothe equations obtained but also some physical motivaยญtion for their study. In these notes we present, as toymodel, the most classical IPS and our aim is, first, exยญplain how to rewrite the Markovian generator of theprocess in terms of the generators of a Lie algebra, thisis a known procedure in the literature. This techniqueallows to derive a dual process for our model, whosedynamics is simpler. It can be used to give relevant inยญformation about our original model; second, explainhow to extract from our random dynamics a solutionto a PDE, describing the spaceยญtime evolution of thedensity of our model.
1
CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 11
2 THE MODEL
To make our presentation simple, we consider asmacroscopic space the interval [0, 1]. Let ๐๐ be a scalยญing parameter, we split that continuous space into inยญtervals of size 1/๐๐.
To an interval of the form [๐ฅ๐ฅ/๐๐, ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ 1๐ฅ/๐๐๐ฅ we asยญsociate the microscopic position ๐ฅ๐ฅ and then we havea discrete space which is the microscopic space. Nowwe define the random dynamics. Among the simplestandmost widely studied IPS there is the SSEP, see e.g.[12], whose dynamics can be described as follows. Afยญter a certain random time, a particle decides to jumpto a position of the microscopic space. In SSEP, partiยญcles jump among sites under the exclusion rule, namelyeach site can accommodate at most one particle, thereยญfore, if a particle wants to jump to an occupied site,that jump is forbidden. Interactions are to nearestยญneighbors (and this is why the process coins the namesimple) and the jump rates to left and right are idenยญtical (symmetric). Our toy model is the SSEP with anopen boundary, namely we attach two reservoirs thatcan inject or remove particles from their neighbor poยญsitions. The time between jumps is exponentially disยญtributed, which guarantees that this process is Markoยญvian, therefore its evolution can be entirely describedvia its Markov generator. In the next subsection wedefine it rigorously.
2.1 PROBABILISTIC DESCRIPTION
Consider the microscopic space ฮฃ๐๐ โถ= {1, โฆ , ๐๐ ๐ 1๐,called bulk, which corresponds to the macroscopic inยญterval [0, 1]. The construction of the SSEP evolvingon ฮฃ๐๐ is done in the following way. To properly deยญfine the exchange dynamics, for each ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ ฮฃ๐๐, we call๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ the occupation variable at site ๐ฅ๐ฅ: if ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ = 0(resp. ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ = 1) it means that site ๐ฅ๐ฅ is empty (resp.occupied). With this restriction, the state space of ourMarkov process is ฮฉ๐๐ โถ= {0, 1๐ฮฃ๐๐ . We denote by๐๐ ๐ฅ ฮฉ๐๐ a configuration of particles. To each bondof the form {๐ฅ๐ฅ, ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ 1๐ with ๐ฅ๐ฅ = 1, โฆ , ๐๐ ๐ ๐ฅ, weassociate a Poisson process of parameter 1, that wedenote by ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ,๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ1๐ฅ๐ก๐ก๐ฅ. Now we describe the boundarydynamics. We artificially add the sites ๐ฅ๐ฅ = 0 and๐ฅ๐ฅ = ๐๐ that stand for the left and right reservoirs,respectively. We associate two independent PoissonProcesses to each bond {0, 1๐ and {๐๐ ๐ 1, ๐๐๐ in thefollowing way: ๐๐0,1๐ฅ๐ก๐ก๐ฅ (resp. ๐๐๐๐,๐๐๐1๐ฅ๐ก๐ก๐ฅ) with paramยญ
eter ๐ผ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐ (resp. ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐๐๐๐) and ๐๐1,0๐ฅ๐ก๐ก๐ฅ (resp. ๐๐๐๐๐1,๐๐๐ฅ๐ก๐ก๐ฅ)with parameter ๐พ๐พ๐๐๐๐๐ (resp. ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐๐). All the Poissonprocesses described above are independent, so thatthe probability that two of them take the same valueis equal to zero. This means that only one jump ocยญcurs whenever there is a possible transition. Beforewe proceed, we note that the role of the parameters๐ผ๐ผ, ๐พ๐พ, ๐ฝ๐ฝ, ๐ฟ๐ฟ ๐ผ 0 is to fix the reservoirsโ density/current,while the role of ๐๐ ๐ฅ โ is to tune the strength of thereservoirsโ according to the scale parameter ๐๐. Taking,for example, ๐๐ negative the reservoirs are strong andfor ๐๐ positive, they are weak and interactions betweenthe boundary and the bulk is weaker as the value of ๐๐increases.
We observe that given the initial configuration ofthe system plus the realization of all the Poisson proยญcesses, it is straightforward to obtain the whole evoluยญtion of the system. The role of the Poisson processesis to fix the random time between jumps. We showan example in figure 1 where we consider ๐๐ = ๐: aninitial condition is given namely ๐๐0 = ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฅ, ie the conยญfiguration with just a particle at site ๐ฅ, together withall the realizations of the Poisson processes.
In figure 2 we exhibit all the configurations that weobtained from the initial configuration ๐๐0 = ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฅ and allthe realizations of the Poisson processes given in figยญure 1.
Wewarn the reader that belowwe indexed the conยญfigurations in terms of the marks of the Poisson proยญcesses and not in time, since ourMarkov chain evolvesin continuous time.
We denote by ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ,๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ1 the configuration obtainedfrom ๐๐ by swapping the values ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ and ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ 1๐ฅ,that is ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ,๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ1๐ฅ๐ง๐ง๐ฅ = ๐ง๐งฮฃ๐๐โงต{๐ฅ๐ฅ,๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ1๐๐ฅ๐ง๐ง๐ฅ๐๐๐ฅ๐ง๐ง๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ง{๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ง๐ง๐ฅ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ1๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ง{๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ1๐๐ฅ๐ง๐ง๐ฅ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ. On the other hand, when we seea mark of a Poisson process from the boundary, forexample, ๐๐0,1๐ฅ๐ก๐ก๐ฅ (resp. ๐๐1,0), this means that we inยญject (resp. remove) a particle at the position ๐ฅ๐ฅ = 1,if this site is empty (resp. occupied), otherwise nothยญing happens. More precisely, ๐๐1 is the configurationobtained from ๐๐ by flipping the occupation variable at1, that is ๐๐1๐ฅ๐ง๐ง๐ฅ = ๐ง๐งฮฃ๐๐โงต{1๐๐ฅ๐ง๐ง๐ฅ๐๐๐ฅ๐ง๐ง๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ง{1๐๐ฅ๐ง๐ง๐ฅ๐ฅ1 ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ1๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ง
The exchange dynamics is described by the generยญator ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ, which acts on functions ๐๐ โถ ฮฉ๐๐ โ โ as๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ฅ = โ๐๐๐๐ฅ
๐ฅ๐ฅ=1 ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฅ๐ฅ,๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ1๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ฅ where๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฅ๐ฅ,๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ1๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ฅ = ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ,๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ1๐ฅ๐๐๐ฅ [๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ,๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ1๐ฅ ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ฅ] (2)
and the rates are
๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ,๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ1๐ฅ๐๐๐ฅ = {๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ1 ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ 1๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ 1๐ฅ๐ฅ1 ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ง
212
Figure 1.โ An initial configuration and marks of the Poisson clocks between each bond.
Figure 3.โSchematic description of dynamics of open SSEP.
Figure 2.โConfigurations evolving according to the marks of the Poisson processes.
The left reservoir generator acts on functions๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ โ โ as
๐ฟ๐ฟโ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ 1๐๐๐๐ {๐ผ๐ผ๐1 ๐ผ ๐๐๐1๐๐ ๐ผ ๐ผ๐ผ๐๐๐1๐๐ผ [๐๐๐๐๐1๐ ๐ผ ๐๐๐๐๐๐]
and the right reservoir๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐ is defined analogously, with1 replaced by ๐๐๐ผ1, ๐ผ๐ผ by ๐ฟ๐ฟ and ๐ผ๐ผ by ๐ฝ๐ฝ. Finally, the openSSEP dynamics is described by a superposition of thetwo dynamics described above, the exchange and the
flip dynamics, so that its full generator is given by
๐ฟ๐ฟSSEP ๐ ๐ฟ๐ฟโ ๐ผ ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐๐๐ ๐ผ ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐. (3)
Observe that the left and right reservoirs at differยญent densities (respectively ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ผ๐ผ๐ผ๐๐ผ๐ผ ๐ผ ๐ผ๐ผ๐ and ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ฝ๐ฝ ๐ผ ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐) impose a flux of particles throughout thesystem. See a picture below for an illustration of thedynamics just defined.
3CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 13
2.2 ALGEBRAIC DESCRIPTION
An interesting feature of some IPS is that their generยญators can be entirely described by the generators of asuitable algebra, for our toy model this will be the Liealgebra ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ. More of such constructions were introยญduced in [10] and further developed in [4]. The Liealgebra ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ is a 3ยญdimensional vector space of traceยญless matrices together with the bilinear map [โ , โ ] โถ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ called Lie bracket, which isantiยญsymmetric, i.e. [๐ฅ๐ฅ, ๐ฅ๐ฅ] = โ [๐ฅ๐ฅ, ๐ฅ๐ฅ] and satisfies theJacobi identity, i.e. [๐ฅ๐ฅ, [๐ฅ๐ฅ, ๐ฆ๐ฆ]]+[๐ฅ๐ฅ, [๐ฆ๐ฆ, ๐ฅ๐ฅ]]+[๐ฆ๐ฆ, [๐ฅ๐ฅ, ๐ฅ๐ฅ]] =0 for all ๐ฅ๐ฅ, ๐ฅ๐ฅ, ๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ. We equip ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ with the adยญjoint map โ โถ ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ, i.e. ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ฅโ such that(๐ฅ๐ฅโ)
โ = ๐ฅ๐ฅ and [๐ฅ๐ฅโ, ๐ฅ๐ฅโ] = [๐ฅ๐ฅ, ๐ฅ๐ฅ]โ. Usually a basis for๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ is given by the Pauli matrices,
๐๐1 = (0 11 0) , ๐๐๐ฐ = (
0 โ๐๐๐๐ 0 ) , ๐๐3 = (
1 00 โ1) ,
which are hermitian and unitary. Such matrices satยญisfy the following commutator and adjoint relations[๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐+1] = ๐ฐ๐๐๐๐๐๐+๐ฐ and ๐๐โ
๐๐ = ๐๐๐๐ for ๐๐ ๐ฅ โ ๐ฐmod 3๐ฐ.We also introduce the quadratic element calledCasimir (which does not belong to ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ) as ๐ถ๐ถ =๐๐๐ฐ
1 + ๐๐๐ฐ๐ฐ + ๐๐๐ฐ
3; it is central, i.e. it commutes with allthe elements of ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ and it is selfยญadjoint. For ourpurpose, it will be more convenient to introduce thebasis of real operators ๐ฝ๐ฝ 0, ๐ฝ๐ฝ + and ๐ฝ๐ฝ โ which we callgenerators of the Lie algebra ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ. They are givenby
๐ฝ๐ฝ โ โถ=๐๐1 โ ๐๐๐๐๐ฐ
๐ฐ, ๐ฝ๐ฝ + โถ=
๐๐1 + ๐๐๐๐๐ฐ๐ฐ
, ๐ฝ๐ฝ 0 โถ=๐๐3๐ฐ
,
and they satisfy the following commutation and adยญjoint relations [๐ฝ๐ฝ 0, ๐ฝ๐ฝ ยฑ] = ยฑ๐ฝ๐ฝ ยฑ, [๐ฝ๐ฝ +, ๐ฝ๐ฝ โ] = ๐ฐ๐ฝ๐ฝ 0 and๐ฐ๐ฝ๐ฝ 0๐ฐโ = ๐ฝ๐ฝ 0, ๐ฐ๐ฝ๐ฝ +๐ฐโ = ๐ฝ๐ฝ โ. The Casimir element in thissetting is ๐๐ = ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฝ๐ฝ 0๐ฐ๐ฐ + ๐ฝ๐ฝ +๐ฝ๐ฝ โ + ๐ฝ๐ฝ โ๐ฝ๐ฝ + . Besides thematrices representation, an equivalent representationis given by the action on functions ๐๐ โถ {0, 1} ๐ฐ โ as
โงโชโจโชโฉ
๐ฐ๐ฝ๐ฝ โ๐๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฐ = ๐ฐ1 โ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ + 1๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฝ๐ฝ +๐๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฐ = ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ โ 1๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฝ๐ฝ 0๐๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฐ = ๐ฐ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ โ 1/๐ฐ๐ฐ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฐ
where we made the convention ๐๐๐ฐโ1๐ฐ = ๐๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ = 0.The operators above are also known as angular moยญmentum operators. We now show how to write theopen SSEP dynamics in this context. In particular, itis verified that the exchange generator defined in (3)can be written as the tensor product of the Casimirelement. For sites ๐ฅ๐ฅ, ๐ฅ๐ฅ + 1 we get
๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฅ๐ฅ,๐ฅ๐ฅ+1 = ๐ฝ๐ฝ +๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฝ๐ฝ โ
๐ฅ๐ฅ+1 + ๐ฝ๐ฝ โ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฝ๐ฝ +
๐ฅ๐ฅ+1 + ๐ฐ๐ฝ๐ฝ 0๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฝ๐ฝ 0
๐ฅ๐ฅ+1 โ 1/๐ฐ , (4)
and then summing over ฮฃ๐๐ we obtain ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ.A similar description holds true for the generators
of the boundary reservoirs,
๐ฟ๐ฟโ = 1๐๐๐๐ {๐ผ๐ผ [๐ฝ๐ฝ โ
1 + ๐ฝ๐ฝ 01 โ 1
๐ฐ] + ๐พ๐พ [๐ฝ๐ฝ +1 โ ๐ฝ๐ฝ 0
1 โ 1๐ฐ]}
and similarly๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐ is obtained replacing the algebra genยญerators acting on site ๐๐ โ 1. Note that above the notaยญtion ๐ฝ๐ฝ ๐๐
๐ฅ๐ฅ for ๐๐ ๐ฅ {0, +, โ} means that the generator isacting on the occupation variable at site ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ ฮฃ๐๐. Whyis this algebraic description useful? In the next secยญtion we see that, whenever it is possible to describea Markov generator using an algebra representationthen a useful property, duality, can be derived.
3 DUALITY FOR MARKOV GENERATORS
The advantage of dealing with a stochastic evolutionlies in the possibility to use probabilistic techniqueswhich considerably simplify the analysis of the system.A powerful tool to deal with Markov processes is du-ality theory, see [13]. This theory allows several simยญplifications: in a nutshell, one can infer informationon a given process by using a simpler one, its dual.For our toy model, we will see how to relate the openSSEPwith a simpler systemwhere the open boundaryis turned into an absorbing boundary. Indeed, dualยญity in the context of IPS allows โreplacingโ boundaryreservoirs, modeling birth and death processes, withabsorbing reservoirs which, as time goes to infinity,will eventually absorb all the particles in the system. Itis due to this simplification that one can study properยญties such as the ๐๐โpoint correlation function of a nonยญequilibrium system using properties of a dual systemconsisting of only ๐๐ dual particles. The link betweenthese two processes, the original, denoted by ๐๐๐ก๐ก andwith state space ฮฉ, and its dual, denoted by ฬ๐๐๐ก๐ก andwith state space ฮฉฬ, is provided by a set of soยญcalledduality functions ๐ท๐ท โถ ฮฉ ๐ฐ ฮฉฬ ๐ฐ โ , i.e. a set of observยญables that are functions of both processes and whoseexpectations, with respect to the two randomness, satยญisfy the following relationship for all ๐ก๐ก ๐ก 0
๐ผ๐ผ๐๐[๐ท๐ท๐ฐ๐๐๐ก๐ก, ฬ๐๐๐ฐ] = ๏ฟฝฬ๏ฟฝ๐ผ ฬ๐๐[๐ท๐ท๐ฐ๐๐, ฬ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐ฐ] . (5)
Above ๐ผ๐ผ๐๐ (resp. ๏ฟฝฬ๏ฟฝ๐ผ ฬ๐๐) is the expectation with respect tothe law of the ๐๐๐ก๐ก process initialized at ๐๐ (resp. the ฬ๐๐๐ก๐กprocess initialized at ฬ๐๐). If the generators of the proยญcesses are explicit, denoting by โ the generator of ฬ๐๐๐ก๐กand by ฬโ the generator of its dual, ฬ๐๐๐ก๐ก, then a dualityrelation with duality function ๐ท๐ท translates in saying
414
that
(โ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท)๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท ๐( ๐ทโ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท ๐ท๐ท)๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ (6)
In other words, the action ofโ on the first variable of๐ท๐ท is equivalent to the action of ๐ทโ on the second variยญable of ๐ท๐ท. This is when the algebra comes in. Provยญing the above relation knowing just the definition ofthe original process ๐ท๐ท๐ก๐ก by its generator would be verycomplicated, however with the algebraic descriptionof ๐ท๐ท๐ก๐ก one can have a feeling of what to look for. Theidea is that we can decompose the Markov generatorusing the algebra generators as building blocks. Thissimplifies the analysis because instead of looking for aduality function, one looks for an intertwiner functionbetween two representations of the Lie algebra ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฐ๐ท.Such intertwiner function between the๐ฝ๐ฝ 0๐ท ๐ฝ๐ฝ โ๐ท ๐ฝ๐ฝ + repยญresentations yields the duality function. Given thespecial features of our toy model, the duality functionwill turn out to be product of indicator functions, forwhich the direct computation is not hard. Nevertheยญless, for more general dynamics which, for example,allows more than a particle per site, the duality funcยญtion has a more complicated form and the aforemenยญtioned decomposition brings advantages in the proofof the duality relationship.
3.1 DUALITY FOR OPEN SSEP
In the following result we give all the ingredients tofind a duality relation for our model: it states that,the open SSEP is dual, via a moment duality function๐ท๐ท, to a Markov process with the same exclusion dyยญnamics inฮฃ๐๐ but with only absorbing reservoirs at theboundary.
THEOREM 1 (DUALITY FOR OPEN SSEP).โ For theopen SSEP with generator given in 3, the duality reยญlation in (6) is verified for ๐ท๐ท ๐ท ๐ท๐๐ ร ๐ท๐ท๐๐ โ โ givenby
๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท ๐ (๐๐๐๐)๐ท๐ท๐ท0
โ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅฮฃ๐๐
1{๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅโฅ ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ} (๐๐๐๐)๐ท๐ท๐ท๐๐ (7)
where ๐ท๐ท๐๐ ๐ท๐ โ0 ร ๐ท๐๐ ร โ0 and the dual generator๐ท๐ฟ๐ฟ ๐ ๐ท๐ฟ๐ฟโ + ๐ท๐ฟ๐ฟ0 + ๐ท๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐ acts on functions ๐๐ ๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐๐ โ โ as๐ท๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท ๐ โ๐๐โ๐ฐ
๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฅ ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ+๐ฅ๐๐๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท in the bulk, where๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ+๐ฅis as in (2); and
๐ท๐ฟ๐ฟโ๐๐๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท ๐ ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ ๐ท๐ผ๐ผ + ๐ผ๐ผ๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ท [๐๐๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ท โ ๐๐๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท]
and analogously for the right reservoir with ๐ผ๐ผ + ๐ผ๐ผ reยญplaced by ๐ฝ๐ฝ + ๐ฝ๐ฝ.
For the interested reader, a rigorous proof of this theยญorem (for ๐๐ ๐ 0) can be found in [5] and it is nothard to generalize it for any value of the parameter ๐๐.
Note that the action in the bulk of the dual generatorhas the same dynamics of the original one, while theboundary generators only absorb particles from sites๐ฅ and ๐๐ โ ๐ฅ. The plan is to describe the dual processwith another ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฐ๐ท and find the duality function asintertwiner function of the algebra generators. Thisis given by the following representation which act onthe same functions ๐๐ ๐ท {0๐ท ๐ฅ} โ โ as
โงโชโชโจโชโชโฉ
๐ท ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฝ โ๐๐๐ท๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท ๐ ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ โ ๐ฅ๐ท๐ท ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฝ +๐๐๐ท๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท ๐ ๐ท๐ฅ โ ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท๐๐ ๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ + ๐ฅ๐ท + ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ โ ๐ฅ๐ท๐๐๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท
โ ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ โ ๐ฅ๐ท๐ท ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฝ 0๐๐ ๐ท๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท ๐ ๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ โ ๐ฅ/๐ฐ๐ท๐๐๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท โ ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ โ ๐ฅ๐ท
where, again, ๐๐๐ทโ๐ฅ๐ท ๐ ๐๐๐ท๐ฐ๐ท ๐ 0. One can checkthat the above generators are a representation for theLie algebra ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฐ๐ท. Moreover, since the Casimir is irreยญducible in any representation we can describe the dualprocess in the same way as in equation (4). At thispoint one can see that
๐๐๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท ๐๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ!
๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ โ ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท!ฮ๐ท๐ฐ โ ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท1{๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅโฅ ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ}
satisfy๐ฝ๐ฝ ๐๐๐๐๐ท๐ท๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท ๐ ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฝ ๐๐๐๐๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท
for ๐๐ ๐ฅ {+๐ท โ๐ท 0}, i.e. ๐๐๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท intertwines two repreยญsentations of the ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฐ๐ท algebra. Note that since both๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ {0๐ท ๐ฅ} the above function correspond to theduality function in๐ท๐๐. For the left reservoir generator(the right is analogous) one has to check that
(๐ฟ๐ฟโ๐ท๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท) ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท ๐ ( ๐ท๐ฟ๐ฟโ๐ท๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท ๐ท๐ท) ๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ทnamely that
๐ผ๐ผ๐ท๐ฅ โ ๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ท๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ท๐ท๐ท0
๐๐ [1{๐ท๐ท๐ฅ+๐ฅโฅ ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ} โ 1{๐ท๐ท๐ฅโฅ ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ}]
โ๐ผ๐ผ๐ท๐ท๐ฅ
๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ท๐ท๐ท0๐๐ [1{๐ท๐ท๐ฅโ๐ฅโฅ ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ} โ 1{๐ท๐ท๐ฅโฅ ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ}]
๐๐ท๐ผ๐ผ + ๐ผ๐ผ๐ท ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ
๐๐๐๐ [๐๐ ๐ท๐ท๐ท0+๐ฅ๐๐ 1{๐ท๐ท๐ฅโฅ ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅโ๐ฅ} โ ๐๐ ๐ท๐ท๐ท0
๐๐ 1{๐ท๐ท๐ฅโฅ ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ}] ๐ท
which is verified since both ๐ท๐ท๐ฅ and ๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ฅ are either 0 or ๐ฅ.
4 STATIONARY PROBABILITY MEASUREAND CORRELATIONS VIA DUALITY
The open SSEP is an irreducible continuous timeMarkov process with finite state space, therefore, bya classical theoremwe know that there exists a uniquestationary measure, that we denote by ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ . When๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ the stationary measure of our proยญcess is an homogeneous product Bernoulli measurewith parameter ๐๐. Moreover, this measure is also reยญversible. Nevertheless, when the equality ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐
5CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 15
fails, the invariant measure is no longer of productform. Heuristically speaking, the density/current atthe reservoirs has a different intensity with respect toleft/right reservoirs intensity and, therefore, there isan induction of a current flow of particles in the sysยญtem. Take, for example, ๐ผ๐ผ ๐ผ ๐ผ๐ผ ๐ผ ๐ผ and ๐พ๐พ ๐ผ ๐พ๐พ ๐ผ ๐พ, sothat particles are injected in the system from the rightreservoir and only exit through the left one. Belowweexplain briefly how to get some information regardยญing this measure. Without loss of generality, in orderto get information about the stationarymeasure it willbe easier to consider the special case where the reserยญvoirsโ rates satisfy ๐พ๐พ ๐ผ ๐พ๐พ๐ผ๐ผ and ๐ผ๐ผ ๐ผ ๐พ๐พ๐พ๐พ. From herewe assume that this is the case. Under these condiยญtions the density of the reservoirs coincide with theirinjection rate.
4.1 APPLICATION OF DUALITY
The peculiarity of having a dual process where theboundary becomes only absorbing relies on the factthat, even if two extra sites are considered, the toยญtal mass of the dual process can only decrease duringthe time evolution. As time increases, the bulk willbecome empty and all the dual particles will eventuยญally stay either on the left or the right reservoirs. Inparticular, we now show how duality connects themoments of the initial process ๐๐ with the absorptionprobabilities of the dual process ฬ๐๐. This is done viathe following formula
๐ผ๐ผ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ [๐ท๐ท๐ท๐๐๐ท ฬ๐๐๐ท๐ท ๐ผ
๐๐
โ๐๐๐ผ๐ผ
๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐พ๐๐
๐๐ โ ฬ๐๐๐ท๐๐๐ท ๐ท (7)
where ๐๐ ๐ผ โ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ผ๐ผ ฬ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ is the total number of dual partiยญ
cles and โ ฬ๐๐๐ท๐๐๐ท is the probability that ๐๐ particles areabsorbed at the left reservoir (and the remaining ๐๐๐พ๐๐go to the right reservoir) starting from the configuraยญtion ฬ๐๐. The proof relies on the fact that, as ๐ก๐ก ๐ก ๐ก, allthe dual particles will be at sites ๐ผ or ๐๐. More detailscan be found in [5] and [6]. Indeed,
๐ผ๐ผ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ [๐ท๐ท๐ท๐๐๐ท ฬ๐๐๐ท๐ท ๐ผ ๐ท๐ท๐ท
๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ผ๐ผ๐๐[๐ท๐ท๐ท๐๐๐ก๐ก๐ท ฬ๐๐๐ท๐ท ๐ผ
๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก
๐ผ๐ผ ฬ๐๐[๐ท๐ท๐ท๐๐๐ท ฬ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐ท๐ท ๐ผ ๐ผ๐ผ ฬ๐๐๐๐ ฬ๐๐๐ก๐ท๐ผ๐ท๐๐ ๐๐ ฬ๐๐๐ก๐ท๐๐๐ท
๐๐ ๐ผ
๐๐
โ๐๐๐ผ๐ผ
๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐พ๐๐
๐๐ โ ฬ๐๐๐ท ฬ๐๐๐ก๐ท๐ผ๐ท ๐ผ ๐๐๐ท ฬ๐๐๐ก๐ท๐๐๐ท ๐ผ ๐๐ ๐พ ๐๐๐ท ๐
Suppose we start with a dual configuration ฬ๐๐ ๐ผ ๐พ๐พ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐พ+
๐พ๐พ๐ฅ๐ฅ2+โฆ ๐พ๐พ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐
, namely we choose to put a dual particle ineach site ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐พ๐ท ๐ฅ๐ฅ2๐ท โฆ ๐ท ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐. In this case equation (7) reads
as
๐ท๐ท๐ท๐๐๐ท ฬ๐๐๐ท ๐ผ๐๐
โ๐๐๐ผ๐พ
๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐ท
which is exactly the function of our interest for the iniยญtial process ๐๐๐ก๐ก. We now show how to find the 2ยญpointcorrelation function via the absorption probabilitiesof two dual exclusion particles. Note that equation(7) specialized for ๐๐ ๐ผ 2 and ฬ๐๐ ๐ผ ๐พ๐พ๐ฅ๐ฅ + ๐พ๐พ๐ฆ๐ฆ reads
๐ผ๐ผ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ [๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ท ๐ผ ๐๐2
๐๐โ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ท๐ผ๐ท+๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ท๐พ๐ท+๐๐2๐๐โ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ท2๐ท (8)
where โ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ท๐๐๐ท for ๐๐ ๐ผ ๐ผ๐ท ๐พ๐ท 2 is the probability that๐๐ particles are absorbed on the left reservoir startingwith a particle in ๐ฅ๐ฅ and a particle in ๐ฆ๐ฆ. Before goingto the two particlesโ problem we show how to solvethe absorption probabilities for just one particle in thesame setting.
4.2 ABSORPTION PROBABILITY FOR ONE DUALWALKER: DRUNKARDโS WALK
This is a common exercise in probability, known asthe drunkardโs walk. Recall our dual process, imagยญine that site ๐ผ is the drunk manโs house and site ๐๐ isa dangerous cliff. The man is at site ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐๐ and hetakes random steps to the left and to the right withthe same probability: what is his chance of escapingthe cliff? The house and the cliff are absorbing sitesin the sense that once he reaches one of them, he willstay there forever. The jump rates are described bythe dual generator ๏ฟฝฬ๏ฟฝ๐ฟSSEP. Let us call ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ โถ๐ผ โ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท๐พ๐ท theprobability that he reaches home starting at ๐ฅ๐ฅ. Thenobviously ๐๐๐ผ ๐ผ ๐พ and ๐๐๐๐ ๐ผ ๐ผ. For ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ2๐ท โฆ ๐ท ๐๐ ๐พ 2๐ฅthe probability of jumping right or left is the same,๐พ/2, while if he is in ๐พ (resp. ๐๐๐พ๐พ), goes to ๐ผ (resp. ๐๐)with probability ๐พ/๐ท๐๐๐๐ + ๐พ๐ท and to 2 (resp. ๐๐ ๐พ ๐) withthe complement probability, ๐๐๐๐/๐ท๐๐๐๐ + ๐พ๐ท. Mathematiยญcally we have to solve the following system, which isfound by conditioning on the first possible jump ofthe drunk man:
โงโชโจโชโฉ
๐๐๐พ ๐ผ ๐พ๐๐๐๐+๐พ
+ ๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐๐+๐พ๐๐2
๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ผ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐พ๐พ+๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ+๐พ2
for ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ2๐ท โฆ ๐ท ๐๐ ๐พ 2๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐พ๐พ ๐ผ ๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐๐+๐พ๐๐๐๐๐พ2 ๐
A simple computation shows that last identities canbe rewritten in such a way that ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ผ ๐๐๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท is the soluยญtion of ๐ทโฌ๐๐
๐๐ ๐๐๐ท๐ท๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ท ๐ผ ๐ผ, where the operator โฌ๐๐๐๐ acts on
616
functions ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ โ as
(โฌ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐ 1
2ฮ๐๐๐๐(๐๐๐๐ for ๐๐ ๐ฅ ๐2๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฅ 2๐๐
(โฌ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐(1๐ ๐ ๐๐2(๐๐(2๐ ๐ฅ ๐๐(1๐๐ ๐ ๐๐2
๐๐๐๐ (๐๐(๐๐ ๐ฅ ๐๐(1๐๐๐
(โฌ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐(๐๐๐ฅ1๐๐๐๐2(๐๐(๐๐๐ฅ2๐๐ฅ๐๐(๐๐๐ฅ1๐๐๐ ๐๐2
๐๐๐๐ (๐๐ (๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐(๐๐๐ฅ1๐๐ ๐
From this we know that, for ๐๐ ๐ฅ ๐2๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฅ 2๐, weare looking for an harmonic function of the one diยญmensional discrete laplacian. Therefore ๐๐๐๐ is a polyยญnomial in ๐๐, i.e. ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ด๐ด๐๐ ๐ ๐ด๐ด, for ๐ด๐ด๐ ๐ด๐ด ๐ฅ โ for๐๐ ๐ฅ ๐2๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฅ 2๐.
By using the boundary conditions, we find ๐ด๐ด ๐๐ฅ1/(๐๐ ๐ฅ 2 ๐ 2๐๐๐๐๐ and ๐ด๐ด ๐ (๐๐ ๐ฅ 1 ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐/(๐๐ ๐ฅ 2 ๐ 2๐๐๐๐๐,so that, for ๐๐ ๐ฅ ๐2๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฅ 2๐ we have
๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ฅ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฅ 2 ๐ 2๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฅ 1 ๐ ๐๐๐๐
๐๐ ๐ฅ 2 ๐ 2๐๐๐๐ (9)
We now turn to the absorption probabilities of twoexclusion processes.
4.3 ABSORPTION PROBABILITIES FOR TWO DUALWALKERS
The idea is the same as before, we condition on thefirst possible jump and we obtain a difference equaยญtionwhich is close to a two dimensional laplacianwithsome boundary conditions. Recall that โ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐๐, for๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ 1๐ 2 is the probability that ๐๐ particles are abยญsorbed on the left boundary starting from the configยญuration with one particle in ๐๐ and one particle in ๐ฅ๐ฅ. Tosimplify notation we use ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐๐ โ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐๐ and we neยญglect the dependence on ๐๐, ๐๐ and ๐๐. Conditioning onthe first jump we get the following identities
โงโชโชโชโชโชโชโชโชโจโชโชโชโชโชโชโชโชโฉ
๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ 14[๐๐๐๐๐ฅ1๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐1๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ1 ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐1]
for 1 โ ๐๐ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ โ ๐๐ ๐ฅ 1๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐1 ๐ 1
2[๐๐๐๐๐ฅ1๐๐๐๐1 ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐2]
for ๐๐ โ 1๐ ๐๐ ๐ฅ 2๐๐1๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐๐๐๐
1๐3๐๐๐๐ [๐๐2๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐๐1๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ1 ๐ ๐๐1๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐1]๐ 1
1๐3๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ for 2 < ๐ฅ๐ฅ < ๐๐ ๐ฅ 1๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ1 ๐ ๐๐๐๐
1๐3๐๐๐๐ [๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ2 ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฅ1๐๐๐๐ฅ1 ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐1๐๐๐๐ฅ1]๐ 1
1๐3๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ for 2 < ๐ฅ๐ฅ < ๐๐ ๐ฅ 1๐๐1๐๐๐๐ฅ1 ๐ 1
2๐2๐๐๐๐ [๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ1 ๐ ๐๐1๐๐๐] ๐๐๐๐
2๐2๐๐๐๐ [๐๐2๐๐๐๐ฅ1 ๐ ๐๐1๐๐๐๐ฅ2]๐๐1๐2 ๐ 1
1๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐2 ๐ ๐๐๐๐
1๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐1๐3
๐๐๐๐๐ฅ2๐๐๐๐ฅ1 ๐ 11๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฅ2๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐
1๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฅ3๐๐๐๐ฅ1๐(10)
We observe that the above identities do not dependon the choice of ๐๐, nevertheless, as we will see below,
the boundary conditions satisfied by ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ do dependon ๐๐.
As above, by introducing the operator ๐ช๐ช๐๐๐๐ , that
we define below, we can write the above system ina concise form. The operator acts on functions ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ โ in the following way: for๐๐ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐1๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฅ 1๐ we have
(๐ช๐ช๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฅ1๐๐(๐๐ ๐ฅ 1๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐๐(๐๐ ๐ 1๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐
๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐1๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ 1๐ ๐ ๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ 1๐๐ฅ (๐๐๐๐๐ฅ1 ๐ 2 ๐ฅ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐1๐๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐
and for ๐๐ ๐ฅ ๐1๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฅ 2๐ we have
(๐ช๐ช๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ 1๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฅ1๐๐(๐๐ ๐ฅ 1๐ ๐๐ ๐ 1๐
๐ ๐๐๐๐๐2๐๐(๐๐ ๐ฅ 1๐ ๐๐ ๐ 2๐๐ฅ (๐๐๐๐๐ฅ1 ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐2๐๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ 1๐๐
The coefficients satisfy ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ 1๐๐๐๐ , otherwise
๐๐๐๐ ๐ 1. We know that, conditioning on the fist jump,๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ satisfies (๐ช๐ช๐๐
๐๐ ๐๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐. The aboveequation tells us that we are looking for the harmonicfunction of a two dimensional laplacian which is reยญflected if ๐๐ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ and deformed by a factor that dependson ๐๐ if we are close to the boundary. A general soluยญtion for ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ 1๐ 2 is of the form ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐๐ ๐๐ด๐ด๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ด๐ด๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐. The twelve unknown conยญstants are found by using the boundary conditions,the law of total probability, some geometric symmeยญtries because thewalk gives symmetric jumps and alsothe previous result regarding the drunkardโswalk. For๐๐ ๐ 2, it is easy to deduce that ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(2๐ satisfies
โงโชโจโชโฉ
๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(2๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(1๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ1๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐ฅ2๐2๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐๐๐(2๐ ๐๐ 1๐๐๐๐๐๐๐(2๐ ๐๐ ๐
For ๐๐ ๐ ๐, it is easy to deduce that ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐ satisfies
โงโชโจโชโฉ
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ1๐๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐ฅ2๐2๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ๐๐ 1๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐ ๐๐ ๐
For ๐๐ ๐ 1, it is easy to deduce that ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(1๐ satisfies
โงโชโชโจโชโชโฉ
๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(1๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ1๐๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐ฅ2๐2๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐(1๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐(1๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ1๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐ฅ2๐2๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐๐๐๐(1๐ ๐๐ 1๐๐๐๐๐(1๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐(1๐ ๐๐ ๐
Where the ๐๐๐๐(1๐ is the probability found in the previยญous section and ๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ๐ 1 ๐ฅ ๐๐๐๐(1๐, its complement.Using the last three equations of (10) together withthe boundary conditions of each absorbed probability
7CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 17
we can write for all ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐, the probability ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐๐in terms of the ๐ถ๐ถ๐๐โs only. Now we consider the folยญlowing identity given by symmetry arguments
๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐which allows immediately to identify ๐ถ๐ถ ๐ถ๐ ๐ถ๐ถ๐ ๐ ๐ถ๐ถ๐.Using the law of total probability:
๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐ + ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐ + ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐ ๐ ๐we get ๐ถ๐ถ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ถ๐ถ . And, finally, using the conditionfor ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐:
๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ+๐(๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ+๐(๐๐ + ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ+๐(๐๐๐we find that ๐ถ๐ถ ๐ ๐
(๐๐๐๐+๐๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐๐๐+๐๐๐๐๐๐. For sake of comยญ
pleteness we write below the explicit values of thethree absorption probabilities.
๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐ ๐ (๐๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ + ๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ + ๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ๐ ๐ + ๐๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ๐ ๐ + ๐๐๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐ ๐ (๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ + ๐๐๐๐๐(๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ + ๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ๐ ๐ + ๐๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ๐ ๐ + ๐๐๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐ + ๐๐ + ๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐ ๐ ๐ + ๐๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ๐ ๐ + ๐๐๐๐๐๐
+ ๐(๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐(๐ + ๐๐ + ๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ๐ ๐ + ๐๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ๐ ๐ + ๐๐๐๐๐๐
.
At this point one can easily find the stationary correlaยญtion by plugging the above result into equation (8).All the computations presented above are in agreeยญment with those obtained by another method, calledthe matrix ansatz product [7], where the stationarycorrelations are also found, for details we refer thereader to [8]. An intuitive representation of the dyยญnamics of two dual exclusion particles on {๐๐ ๐๐ โฆ ๐ ๐๐๐is given in the picture below. This dynamics can alยญways be represented by the dynamics of a single parยญticle which is performing a symmetric random walkbut now evolving inside the two dimensional simplex.The red points are the traps where the random walkis absorbed forever. They represent the three possiยญble ways that two dual exclusion particles can be abยญsorbed in the boundary of the lattice {๐๐ ๐๐ โฆ ๐ ๐๐๐. Ifthe randomwalk reaches the vertical cathetus itmeansthe leftmost exclusion particle has been absorbed in ๐,while if it reaches the horizontal cathetus, the rightยญmost exclusion particle has been absorbed in ๐๐. Notethat one of these two events has to happen in orderthat the randomwalk hits one of the three traps. Oncethe random walk reaches one of the two cathetus itcannot leave that cathetus, since in the dynamics ofthe two exclusion one particle is already absorbed. Onthe cathethus the dynamics of the two dimensionalrandom walk is exactly the same as the one of the one
dimensional random walk with absorbing boundary,whose absorption probability is given by the drunkยญardโs walk. Note that since two exclusion particlescannot be on the same site, we removed the diagonal๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ, while the upper diagonal ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ + ๐ representsthe sites where the two exclusion particles are neighยญbors.
We observe that these arguments can be exยญtended to higher point correlations functions like๐ผ๐ผ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐
[๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐โฏ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐
] and also to higher dimensions, but forthe purposes of this article we decide to present onlythe oneยญdimensional case and the twoยญpoint correlaยญtion function.
5 THE EVOLUTION OF DENSITY
The dynamics described above in different ways, ifnot in the presence of stochastic reservoirs, would conยญserve one quantity: the number of particles. More preยญcisely, starting from a configuration ๐๐๐ with ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐particles, at any time ๐ก๐ก we would see exactly the samenumber of particles on ๐๐๐ก๐ก. Adding the stochastic reserยญvoirs, this conservation law is destroyed and the goalis to see the effect at the macroscopic level of addingreservoirs to the system. We define then a randommeasure ๐๐๐๐ that gives weight ๐/๐๐ to each particle as
๐๐๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐
๐๐๐๐
โ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐
๐๐(๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ/๐๐(๐๐๐๐๐
which is a positive measure with total mass boundedby ๐. We assume that we start our process ๐๐๐ก๐ก froma measure ๐๐๐๐ for which the following result is true:๐๐๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ converges, as ๐๐ ๐ +๐, to the measure๐๐(๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐(๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ where ๐๐ ๐ถ [๐๐ ๐] ๐ โ is a meaยญsurable function. Observe that ๐๐๐๐ is a random meaยญsure while ๐๐ is deterministic. The above convergenceis in the weak sense and, by the randomness of ๐๐๐๐,it is also in probability with respect to ๐๐๐๐, more preยญcisely, ๐๐๐๐ is such that, for any ๐๐ ๐ฟ ๐ and any function๐๐ ๐ ๐ถ๐ถ([๐๐ ๐]๐ it holds
lim๐๐
๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ๐ถ |๐๐๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐| ๐ฟ ๐๐) ๐ ๐. (11)
Above ๐โ ๐ โ ๐ denotes the inner product in ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐[๐๐ ๐] and๐๐๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ๐ denotes the integral of ๐๐ with respect tothe measure ๐๐๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐. The goal is then to show thatthe same result holds true at any later time ๐ก๐ก, but thelimit measure is given by ๐๐๐ก๐ก(๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐(๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, wherethe density ๐๐(๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ is the solution of a PDE. This resultis known in the literature as hydrodynamic limit andthe PDE is the hydrodynamic equation. In the case of
818
the open SEEP we have the following result.
THEOREM 2 (HYDRODYNAMICS FOR SSEP).โStarting from ๐๐๐๐ as described above i.e. satisfying(11) for a certain measurable function ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ โ;the trajectory of random measures ๐๐๐๐
๐ก๐ก (๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐2 ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ conยญverges, as ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐, to the trajectory of determinยญistic measures given by ๐๐๐ก๐ก(๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐(๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, where๐๐(๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ is the unique weak solution of the heat equaยญtion ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐(๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐2
๐๐๐๐(๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ starting from ๐๐ and with:
โข Dirichlet boundary conditions ๐๐(๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ and๐๐(๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐, for any ๐ก๐ก ๐ก ๐, when ๐๐ ๐ ๐;
โข Robin boundary conditions ๐๐๐๐๐๐(๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐ ๐ (๐๐ ๐๐พ๐พ๐(๐๐(๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐๐พ๐๐๐๐๐ and ๐๐๐๐๐๐(๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐ ๐ (๐๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐๐๐๐พ๐๐(๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐๐,for any ๐ก๐ก ๐ก ๐, when ๐๐ ๐ ๐;
โข Neumann boundary conditions ๐๐๐๐๐๐(๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐(๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐, for any ๐ก๐ก ๐ก ๐, when ๐๐ ๐ก ๐.
The proof of the previous theorem, by using the enยญtropy method developed in [11], can be seen in [1] forthe regime ๐๐ ๐ ๐ and in [2] for the regime ๐๐ ๐ ๐. Weobserve that above the time scale has been reยญscaledto ๐ก๐ก๐๐2, which is the time scale for which the evolutionof the density is nonยญ trivial, known as diffusive timescale. What if one takes shorter time scales of the form๐๐๐ ๐ with ๐ ๐ ๐ 2? Then we do not see any space/timeevolution of ๐๐(๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐๐๐ As a consequence of the previousresult we see that on a strong action regime of thereservoir dynamics, the density profile is fixed at theboundary; while on the weak action regime, the spacederivative (current) of the profile becomes fixed.
6 HYDROSTATICS AND CORRELATIONFUNCTIONS
The reader now might ask about the stationary meaยญsure. Can we obtain the previous result starting fromthe measure ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ? This result is know in the literatureas hydrostatic limit and to recover it from last theoremone just has to derive (11) for a certain function ๐๐. Thecandidate is exactly the stationary solution of the corยญresponding PDE, which in the cases above is of theform ฬ๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐, where ๐๐ and ๐๐ are fixed by theboundary conditions. To prove the result we need twothings:
1. Define for ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐๐ the discrete profile ๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ก (๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐
๐ผ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐2(๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ and extend it to the boundary by setยญ
ting ๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ก (๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐
๐ก๐ก (๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐. Taking ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐
we need to know that the stationary discrete proยญfile ๐๐๐๐(๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ is close to ฬ๐๐( ๐ฅ๐ฅ
๐๐๐. One way to do it is
fromKolmogorovโs equation, inwhich one findsthat it solves the equation
๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ก (๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ (๐ฅ๐๐
๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ก ๐(๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐ ๐ก๐ก ๐ ๐
where the operator ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ was defined in previยญ
ously.
Observe that the above equation is closed interms of ๐๐๐๐
๐ก๐ก (โ ๐, this is a consequence of the factthat the generator of the dynamics does not inยญcrease the degree of functions. A simple compuยญtation allows to derive the stationary solution ofthe previous equation and to show that it is closeto ฬ๐๐(โ ๐. Alternatively, we could use the results weobtained by duality which give
๐ผ๐ผ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐(๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐โ๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐โ๐ฅ๐ฅ(๐๐๐ (12)
From (9) we conclude that
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ (๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐พ ๐๐
2๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐พ 2๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ ๐พ ๐๐
2๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐พ 2(๐๐๐๐๐พ๐๐๐๐๐๐
(13)from where we can easily check that
lim๐๐๐๐๐
max๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐
|๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ (๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐พ ฬ๐๐(๐ฅ๐ฅ
๐๐๐| ๐ ๐๐
2. We need to study the behavior of the twoยญpointcorrelation function defined generally by
๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ก (๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐ผ๐ผ๐๐๐๐
๐ ฬ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐2(๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ฬ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐2(๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐where ฬ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐2(๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐2(๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐พ ๐๐๐๐
๐ก๐ก (๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ and show that,for ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ , it vanishes as ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐. As for thediscrete profile, we can also apply Kolmogorovโsequation and derive a discrete equation for theevolution of this function and then obtain its staยญtionary solution. Alternatively, we could use theresults we obtained by duality from where wecan get the explicit expression for the stationarycorrelations. A simple, but long, computationshows that
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ (๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐ผ๐ผ๐๐
๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ฬ๐๐(๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ฬ๐๐(๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐
๐พ (๐๐ ๐พ ๐๐๐2(๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐พ ๐๐(๐๐ ๐พ ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐พ ๐๐(2๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐พ 2๐2(2๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐พ ๐๐
from where we conclude that
max๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ
|๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ (๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐| ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐
Even if for hydrostatics it is enough to know the orderof decay of ๐๐๐๐
๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ (๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐, thanks to the approach shownabove we were able to write the actual form of thetwo point correlation function. We note that from theprevious identity we can obtain the following relationยญ
9CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 19
ship
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ (๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ (๐ฝ๐ฝ ๐ฅ ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ฅ2
2๐๐๐๐ + ๐๐ ๐ฅ ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(0๐ฅ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(1๐ฅ
where ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ(1๐ฅ is given in (9). We also note that for๐๐ ๐ฅ 0 the above identity becomes
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ (๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ(๐ฝ๐ฝ ๐ฅ ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ฅ2
๐๐ ๐ฅ 1๐บ๐บDir
(๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐
๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐)
where๐บ๐บDir(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข(1๐ฅ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ is theGreen function of the2ยญdimensional laplacian on {(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข 0 ๐ข ๐ข๐ข ๐ข ๐ข๐ข ๐ข 1๐ข๐ฅreflected on the line ๐ข๐ข ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข and with homogeneousDirichlet boundary conditions, that is ๐บ๐บDir(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ is thesolution of
ฮ๐ ๐ ๐บ๐บDir(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ข๐ข๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ข
where for ๐ข๐ข ๐ข ๐ข๐ข,ฮ๐ ๐ ๐บ๐บDir(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข2
๐ข๐ข๐บ๐บDir(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ + ๐ข๐ข2๐ข๐ข๐บ๐บDir(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ
and for ๐ข๐ข ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข,ฮ๐ ๐ ๐บ๐บDir(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ข๐ข๐บ๐บDir(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ข๐ข๐บ๐บDir(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ
and ๐บ๐บDir(0๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐บ๐บDir(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ 1๐ฅ ๐ฅ 0. We get the scalingform
lim๐๐๐+๐
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ (๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ(๐ฝ๐ฝ ๐ฅ ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ฅ2๐บ๐บDir(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ
for the continuous correspondents ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐
๐ ๐ข๐ข and ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐
๐ ๐ข๐ข.We now see what happens for the cases when ๐๐ ๐ข 0.For 0 < ๐๐ < 1, a simple computation shows that thelimit above also holds. For ๐๐ ๐ฅ 1 we get
lim๐๐๐+๐
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ (๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ(๐ฝ๐ฝ ๐ฅ ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ฅ2
9๐บ๐บRob(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ
where ๐บ๐บRob(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฅ 1๐(๐ข๐ข + 1๐ฅ(2 ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ and corresponds
to the Green function of the 2ยญdimensional laplaciandefined above, but with homogeneous Robin boundยญary conditions given by ๐ข๐ข๐ข๐ข๐บ๐บRob(0๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐บ๐บRob(0๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ and๐ข๐ข๐ข๐ข๐บ๐บRob(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ 1๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐บ๐บRob(๐ข๐ข๐ฅ 1๐ฅ. Finally, for ๐๐ ๐ 1, if weuse the same scaling as above, we see that
lim๐๐๐+๐
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ (๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ 0๐ฅ
Nevertheless, a simple computation shows that
lim๐๐๐+๐
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ (๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ(๐ฝ๐ฝ ๐ฅ ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ฅ2
8(๐ข๐ข + 1๐ฅ(1 ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ข๐ฅ
for the continuous correspondents ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ข๐ข and๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ข๐ข; and this is the correct order to see a nonยญtrivial limit in the case of very slow boundary. Forhigher point correlation functions, we can use exactlythe same argument as above in order to obtain theexact rates of convergence of the corresponding staยญtionary correlations. Moreover, we conjecture that wecan write the stationary ๐๐ยญth point correlation funcยญtion๐๐๐๐
๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ (๐ฅ๐ฅ1๐ฅ โฆ ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐ฅ as a product between a scaling facยญ
tor and the absorption probabilities of ๐๐ independentoneยญdimensional random walks. We also believe thatthis argument could be extended to other models forwhich duality is known but all this is left for a futurework.
Recently, it has been developed a method in [9] toderive the hydrodynamic and the hydrostatic limits inpresence of duality for a similar model called the symยญmetric inclusion process, wheremany particles can ocยญcupy the same site and show a preference of layingtogether. The macroscopic behavior for this processis the same as the one described above, but the proofnow boils down to the sole use of duality.
We conclude by saying that there are many othermodels for which one has to explore the notion of duยญality, specially for asymmetric models where the equaยญtions for correlation functions are no longer closed.There is a long and standing work to develop aroundthese problems and here we just collected some niceand simple results for a toy model where Lie algebraand, consequently, duality allows getting a lot of releยญvant information about our model.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors thank FCT/Portugal for support throughthe project UID/MAT/04459/2013. This project hasreceived funding from the European Research Counยญcil (ERC) under the European Unionโs Horizon 2020research and innovative programme (grant agreeยญment no715734).
REFERENCES
[1] Baldasso, R., Menezes, O., Neumann, A., Souza,R. R. Exclusion process with slow boundยญary. Journal of Statistical Physics, 167(5):1112โ1142, 2017.
[2] Bernardin, C., Gonรงalves, P., JimรฉnezยญOviedo,B. Slow to fast infinitely extended reservoirsfor the symmetric exclusion process with longjumps. Markov Processes and Related Fields, (25):217โ274, 2019.
[3] Bernardin, C., Gonรงalves, P., JimรฉnezยญOviedo,B. A microscopic model for a one parameยญter class of fractional laplacians with dirichletboundary conditions. to appear in ARMA, 2020+,
1020
CIMโs new direction board
Treasurer
Joรฃo Gouveia Univ. Coimbra
Vice-President
Ana Cristina Moreira FreitasUniv. Porto
Secretary
Ana Luรญsa Custรณdio New Univ. Lisboa
Vice-President
Antรณnio Caetano Univ. Aveiro
President
Isabel Narra FigueiredoUniv. Coimbra
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007 /s00205-020-01549-9.
[4] Carinci, G., Franceschini, C., Giardinร , C.,Groenevelt, W., Redig, F. Orthogonal dualยญities of Markov processes and unitary symmeยญtries. SIGMA. Symmetry, Integrability and Geom-etry: Methods and Applications, 15(5):, 2019.
[5] Carinci, G., Giardinร , C., Giberti, C., Redig, F.Duality for stochastic models of transport. Jour-nal of Statistical Physics, 152(4):657โ697, 2013.
[6] Carinci, G., Giardinร , C., Redig, F. Consistentparticle systems and duality. arXiv:1907.10583,2019.
[7] Derrida, B., Evans, M. R., Hakim, V. andPasquier, V. Exact solution of a 1ยญd asymmetยญric exclusion model using a matrix formulation.Journal of Physics: A Mathematical and GeneralPhysics, 1993.
[8] De Paula, R. Porous Medium Model in conยญtact with Reservoirs. PUCยญRio Master Thesisin Mathematics, 2017.
[9] Franceschini, C., Gonรงalves, P., Sau, F.Symmetric inclusion process with slowboundary: hydrodynamics and hydrostatยญics. arXiv:2007.11998, 2020.
[10] Giardinร , C., Kurchan, J., Redig, F., Vafayi, K.Duality and hidden symmetries in interactingparticle systems. Journal of Statistical Physics, 135(1):25โ55, 2009.
[11] Guo, M. Z., Papanicolaou, G. C., Varadhan, S.R. S. Nonlinear diffusion limit for a systemwith nearest neighbor interactions. Comm.Math.Phys. 118 (1) 31โ59, 1988.
[12] C. Kipnis and C. Landim. Scaling limits of inter-acting particle systems. SpringerยญVerlag, 1999.
[13] T. Liggett. Interacting Particle Systems. SpringerยญVerlag, 1985.
[14] F. Spitzer. Interaction of markov processes. Ad-vances in Mathematics, 5:246โ290, 1970.
[15] H. Spohn. Large scale Dynamics of Interacting Par-ticles. SpringerยญVerlag, 1991.
11CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 21
an interview with
Josรฉ Basto Gonรงalves
* Centro de Matemรกtica e Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto [[email protected]]
by Helena Reis*
Josรฉ Agostinho Basto Gonรงalves (born 28 January 1952) graduated in Mathematics at the University of Porto in 1975 and in 1981 he received his PhD degree in Mathematics from the University of Warwick. He returned to Porto and played a massive role in the creation of a scientific culture in the Math. Department, helping to instill a research-oriented mentality in several generations of students.His main research work lies in the scope of control theory and of the geometric theory of differential equations. He became Full Professor of the University of Porto in 1991 and he retired in 2008. Over the course of his career, he has supervised two PhD theses and has mentored a number of Master and undergraduate students. He was member of the first Scientific Committee of CIM (1996-2000) and member of the Statutory Audit Committee from 2000 to 2004. He has also been president of the northern regional direction of SPM.
Photo by Isabel Labouriau
22
Can you tell us in which moment you realized that you wanted to be a Mathematician and also let us know how this happened?I did not think about it, but had always assumed, even as a child, that my work would be computations or something similar, and without a fixed timetable. I was very fortunate to get all that! I initially entered an Engineering course, thinking that the Maths course was only for high school teachers, and Engineering was the course with more Maths in it. But after two years I changed to Mathematics.
You have graduated from Warwick. What were your reasons to choose this university? Also, was Warwick your first choice or have you considered other universities as well?I attended a course at ICTP (Trieste) organized by prof. Markus from Minnesota and Warwick and prof. Olec from the Academy of Sciences (I think) in Czechoslovakia, and met prof. Pritchard from Warwick. Also, my friends Luisa Magalhรฃes and Eugenia Sรก were doing their Ph.D. at Warwick so . . .
You were one of the first people in Porto to have gone to Warwick for graduate school and since then, many others have followed this path some of them under your recommendation. Do you somehow feel to have a scouting job for Warwick?Perhaps I was enthusiastic about my time at Warwick, it had been extraordinary for me; also it was easier to recommend people, and I knew well the conditions there. I always thought that it would be better if people went to different universities, but the knowledge of previous students is very important for the decision to leave Porto and study abroad.
Did you return to Porto immediately after defending your Phd thesis in Warwick? Can you describe the situation of the research in Mathematics in Portugal โ and more precisely in the north region โ at that time?I returned to Porto in 1981 after 4 years at Warwick. As far as I remember there were no scientific papers in Mathematics published in Porto before 74, but when I came back the level of teaching was very different from my experience before leaving (I was in engineering for two years and then did Applied Mathematics). Before I left, the Applied Mathematics group was at best very old fashioned. At the end of the 70โs, the presence of Ricardo Lima was very influential at the group, and later in
the University, through new people that studied for a Ph.D. thanks to him. He taught interesting courses, talked about research and helped former students to obtain contacts abroad and financial support. In 81 the ambient in Applied Mathematics was very good: Manuel Rogรฉrio Silva, Teresa e Pedro Lago had already returned, there was no great interest in proper Mathematics but things were moving, research was being done and there was enthusiasm. In Pure Mathematics there was no published research in the beginning of the 80โs, but the teaching was up to date. I think that this was already a fact even before 1974. Certainly, anyone studying now (or since the end of the 80โs) in Porto for a degree should be able to finish a Ph.D. anywhere. I was very fortunate in many aspects: I was in engineering to begin with, I learned a lot more physics than is now common (I did not like that at the time but it was useful!), I studied topics In Mathematics courses that were old fashioned then, but were very considered later, and my final year in the Mathematics degree was 74/75 when the list of courses had a great change.
By the time you returned to Portugal, other young Portuguese mathematicians were also returning home from graduate school. How did you get organized to foster the creation of culture of research with high standards around this time? For example, you used to have local collaborators in research or have you actually put direct effort into interacting with other colleagues from Portuguese universities?There was no organization but certainly a mutual interest: discovering the others and discussing the new results and topics. Our research budget in 1982 was something like 150 euros, the Fundaรงรฃo Calouste Gulbenkian and the director Alberto Amaral were an important help, later JNICT and then INIC had a complete change: we had a project with the money to invite very good mathematicians to give two-week courses, had a very generous budget to get equipment and to face the daily expenses and a number of young beginner mathematicians.
At the University of Porto, mathematicians are spread around several faculties, how does this affect research and teaching, and how have you dealt with this?I have studied Applied Mathematics and always worked in the department of Applied Math; it was much improved with time due to the efforts of its members. But the University
CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 23
had and has more than a dozen departments (or similar structures) responsible for Mathematics classes, and the Science Faculty had a Pure Mathematics department as well. I never liked this situation, even when personally very convenient. We have tried to encourage collaboration within the university and endeavoured to surpass the inconveniences this causes, first in CMAUP, then in CMUP, after the two centres merged, by having all mathematicians together at the same research centre; the two departments in the Science Faculty are now just one department, but the problem persists at the University and it should not.
How easy was it in the โ70s and โ80s to get a grant to study/travel abroad? When and how did this change?In 1975 the number of grants was very small, INIC and Gulbenkian and NATO altogether had fewer than 100 for all sciences and humanities (or at least this was commonly said) at Ph.D. level. The situation with Mariano Gago as head of
JNICT was completely changed: now FCT has more than 1500 grants for Ph.D.
How did you obtain funding for research through your career? How important was it for your research?I studied for a Ph.D. in England with a Gulbenkian grant. The first budget I had from INIC after returning was less than 200 euros a year, that when everything was missing in the department (books, journals etc.); at that time Gulbenkian was a great help, with money for books, journals, for attending conferences. The community of active Portuguese mathematicians was very small, travelling was expensive and to stay abroad was even more expensive, all communications were done by letter through standard post service, there was still no e-mail or internet . . . Young people could get a job and work with us (now is a lot harder) but then everything was missing: there were very few books or journals, first we shared a personal computer bought with University research money, then two
Photo by Isabel Labouriau
24
computers . . . We were a small group, six or seven, but we also shared with other people in the University. Again this was completely changed still in the 80โs, first with INIC and afterwards with Luis Magalhรฃes at FCT. We were able to invite scientists for giving courses lasting one or two weeks, everybody could go to a conference per year, our library was quite good, we had computers and printers, and there was very little bureaucracy. A paradise! Funding was a constant worry in the beginning of the 80โs, but that did not affect research much: with money the effort was less, there were more people involved, for me it just was easier but for younger people good funding was fundamental.
You were member of the first Scientific Committee of CIM (1996-2000) whose goal was to develop and promote the mathematical research in Portugal. What was the role of CIM in those years and how were the measures implemented?I had not a clear idea of what should be the role of CIM, but I thought it was a good idea and could be developed without a lot of money (that of course did not exist).
What sort of progress have you detected/felt? Were they clear right from the beginning or they gradually become clear in the years to come?I am not a big believer in the power of an institution. Having a permanent teaching/research staff is of course not indispensable but not having it does not help.
Going back to the question about sending students abroad, I am aware that you consider important โ if not absolutely indispensable โ for young mathematicians to acquire international experience (by the way, as your former student, I remember to have my โwrists slappedโ for staying in Portugal for graduate school).
The mathematical community was very small, the number of research papers was almost zero in Porto, it was important for the students to have a different view and contact with much better research environment.
Do you think nonetheless that acquiring this international experience used to be more important years ago and/or consider that significant changes have occurred and that nowadays this type of experience is somehow less relevant?Now the number of people involved, in Portugal, is completely changed, the international relations exist and
work, it is not as necessary to go abroad to change. However, doing everything, first degree to PhD in the same place is still not a good idea.
Besides the scientific connection with England, you also have many contacts in Brazil, where several Portuguese mathematicians, especially from Porto, have obtained their Phd degrees . . . Would you comment on the role the collaboration with Brazil played in your career as well as in the evolution of the research at CMUP?I learned a lot in USP โ S. Carlos, and (very) slowly moved from Control to more standard mathematics; this was only possible thanks to people from all the world I met there at the Sรฃo Carlos Workshops on Singularities (every two years) and at the university. And I have made very good friends . . .
Today CMUP is a top center for Mathematics recognized both at international and national levels. What is the feeling that such an evolution brings to you and the colleagues from your generation given that you have been the initial promoters of the culture of research? Are you especially proud of the work accomplished?I am very happy seeing that the new normal was almost unthinkable when I began. Like a coach, I expect the new ones to do better than I did!
Our research centre CMAUP went from good to excellent, many students finished their Ph.D. here or abroad, CMUP is now excellent, things are much better than they were.
Do you have hobbies or other regular interests outside the academic community?I should have thought about that long ago . . .
I would like to close the interview with a comment rather than with a question. I would like to make clear that Professor Josรฉ Basto played an important role in my Mathematical education. Namely, you were the instructor of 5 courses I have enrolled in over my undergraduate and Master courses. In addition, you have supervised my Master dissertation as well as my Phd thesis. I am very much indebted with you for everything I have learned and I also thank you for having persuaded me (finally after my thesis defenses) to go abroad for a post-doc in France . . . it certainly was very important in my life.
CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 25
report
by Ana Cristina Ferreira* and Helena Reis**
Dynamical Aspects ofPseudo-Riemannian Geometry
* Centro de Matemรกtica e Escola de Ciรชncias da Universidade do Minho [[email protected]]** Centro de Matemรกtica e Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto [[email protected]]
The conference Dynamical Aspects of Pseudo-Riemannian Geometry was held at the School of Sciences of the University of Minho from 2 through 6 March 2020. The event has received financial support from the following institutions: Centro de Matemรกtica da Universidade do Minho (CMAT), Centro de Matemรกtica da Universidade do Porto (CMUP), Centro Internacional de Matemรกtica (CIM), Fundaรงรฃo Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento (FLAD), Fundaรงรฃo para a Ciรชncia e Tecnologia (FCT), Institut de Mathรฉmatiques de Toulouse (IMT)and Universitรฉ of Luxembourg (UNI.LU).
26
Mini-Courses
Franรงois Bรฉguin (Univ. Paris 13)Geometry and dynamics of spatially homogeneous spacetimes
Joรฃo Pimentel Nunes (IST)Quantization and Kahler Geometry
Abdelghani Zeghib (CNRS - ENS Lyon)Configuration spaces: Geometry, Topology, Dynamics, Physics and Technology
The event consisted of an international conference revolving around dynamical systems naturally arising in important problems belonging to the field of pseudo-Riemannian geometry and, in particular, of Lorentzian geometry. In this way, the conference has attracted interest from experts in dynamical systems and geometry as well as from certain physicists. The conference has brought together more than 40 experts in the mentioned areas coming from various countries and including several field leaders for a
program consisting of 3 advanced mini-courses, 12 invited talks and a poster session. The program also included some exercise sessions, related to the material covered in the mini-courses, and an open problem session. For further information check the link https://cmup.fc.up.pt/Pseudo-Riemannian-Geometry/ Thanks to the generous support provided by our sponsors, several graduate students and post-docs were able to attend the conference and the mini-courses.
CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 27
Scientific Committee
Ana Cristina FerreiraCentro de Matemรกtica & Escola de Ciรชncias da Universidade do Minho
Julio RebeloInstitut de Mathรฉmatiques de Toulouse
Helena ReisCentro de Matemรกtica & Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto
Jean-Marc SchlenkerUniversitรฉ du Luxembourg
Abdelghani ZeghibCentre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) & ENS-Lyon
Organizers
Ana Cristina FerreiraCentro de Matemรกtica & Escola de Ciรชncias da Universidade do Minho
Helena ReisCentro de Matemรกtica & Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto
Invited Speakers
Ilka Agricola (Univ. Marburg)Einstein manifolds with skew torsion
Thierry Barbot (Univ. Avignon)Conformally flat Lorentzian spacetimes and Anosov representations
Alexey Bolsinov (Univ. Loughborough)Integrable dynamical systems on Lie algebras and their applications in pseudo-Riemannian geometry
Marie-Amelie Lawn (Imperial College London)Translating solitons in Lorentzian manifolds
Daniel Monclair (Univ. Paris-Sud)Gromov-Thuston spacetimes
Vicent Pecastaing (Univ. Luxembourg)Pseudo-Riemannian conformal dynamics of higher-rank lattices
Miguel Sanchez (Univ. Granada)Lorentzian vs Riemannian completeness and Ehlers-Kundt conjecture
Andrea Seppi (Univ. Grenoble)Examples of four-dimensional geometric transition
Rym Smai (Univ. Avignon)Anosov representations and conformally flat spacetimes
Peter Smillie (Caltech PMA)Hyperbolic planes in Minkowski 3-space
Andrea Tamburelli (Univ. Rice)Polynomial maximal surfaces in pseudo-hyperbolic spaces
Jรฉrรฉmy Toulisse (Univ. Nice)Maximal surfaces in the pseudo-hyperbolic space
28
An introduction to AnALysis on grAPhs: WhAt Are QuAntuM grAPhs And (Why) Are they interesting?
by James B. Kennedy*
* Departamento de Matemรกtica and Grupo de Fรญsica Matemรกtica, Faculdade de Ciรชncias, Universidade de Lisboa [email protected]
Part of the work of the author relevant to this topic was supported by the Fundaรงรฃo para a Ciรชncia e a Tecnologia, Portugal, via the program Investigador FCT, reference IF/01461/2015, and project PTDC/MAT-CAL/4334/2014, as well as by the Center for Inter-disciplinary Research (ZiF) in Bielefeld, Germany, in the framework of the cooperation group on Discrete and continuous models in the theory of networks.
๐ฃ๐ฃ1
๐ฃ๐ฃ2
๐ฃ๐ฃ3
๐ฃ๐ฃ4 ๐ฃ๐ฃ5
๐๐1
๐๐2
๐๐3 ๐๐4
๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ1)
๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ2)
๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ3)
๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ4) ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ5)
๐๐1
๐๐2
๐๐3 ๐๐4 ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฆ
[0, โ1]
[0, โ4][0, โ3]
[0, โ2]
Figure 1: A simple graph on 5 vertices and 4 edges (left); to define a function ๐๐ on a discrete realisation of the graphwe specify the values at the vertices โ this also gives rise naturally to difference operators (centre); one may insteadidentify each edge ๐๐๐๐ with an interval [0, โ๐๐] โ โ (or a halfยญline [0, +โ)), and โglue togetherโ the intervals at theirendpoints in the right way, to form a metric graph (right). Here a path between two points ๐ฅ๐ฅ and ๐ฆ๐ฆ is marked inred.
X
X
Figure 2: The Cheeger cut of a graph with 20 vertices.
1 INTRODUCTION: TWO COMPLEMENTARYTYPES OF GRAPHS
Probably everyone has at least an intuitive notion ofwhat a graph is: a collection of vertices, or nodes,joined by edges. Most mathematicians, perhaps evensome nonยญmathematicians, probably have some ideaof the role that graphs play in modelling phenomenaas diverse as fine structures such as crystals and carยญbon nanostructures, social networks, the PageRankalgorithm, data processing and machine learning, โฆ,but may not be so familiar with the details.
Generally speaking, at amathematical level, we areinterested in some process taking place on the graph,such as described by a difference or differential equaยญtion. The mathematics behind such equations comยญbines ideas from graph theory (obviously), linear alยญgebra, functional analysis and the theory of differยญential equations, operator theory, and mathematicalphysics; yet many of the details seem to be largely unยญknown to the wider mathematical community. As atest: do you know what quantum graphs are?
Our goal here is to give somewhat uneven introยญduction to analysis on graphs: we first describe, inhopefully accessible terms, what this is: how to deยญfine functions and difference and differential operaยญ
tors on graphs, and study them โ and in particularwhat are quantum graphs. Our starting point is thatthere are (at least) two natural, somewhat parallel, noยญtions of graphs: discrete and metric graphs; the forยญmer give rise to difference operators, the latter to difยญferential operators. We will first discuss the construcยญtion of these graphs, and then introduce prototypicaldifference and differential operators, principally realiยญsations of the Laplacian, on each.
But our second goal is to highlight some of theparallels between the two kinds of graphs: indeed,one speaks of Laplacians in both the discrete and themetric case, nomenclature which is justified for varยญious reasons, as we shall see. Finally, we will turnto quantum graphs, which in simple terms are metricgraphs equipped with differential operators. We willdescribe a number of areas of current interest, espeยญcially within (parts of ) themathematical physics comยญmunity. The list of topics we have selected is someยญwhat idiosyncratic; we include a brief mention of, andreferences to the literature for, a variety of others. Thereader interested in discoveringmore is referred to thebook [BK13], considered a standard reference in thearea, the recent survey paper [BK20], the elementaryintroduction [Ber17], and the somewhat older volume[EKKST08], which contains a large number of stilluseful review articles.
1
We give a gentle introduction to analysis on graphs. We focus on the construction of prototypical difference operators on dis-crete graphs, differential operators on metric graphs, and the parallels between the two. The latter lead naturally to quantum graphs, metric graphs on which a Schrรถdinger-type differential operator acts, for which we finish by discussing a number of recent applications and ongoing areas of investigation. These are drawn mostly, but not exclusively, from mathematical physics.
CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 29
1.1 DISCRETE GRAPHS
In the case of discrete graphs we are more interestedin the vertices and consider the edges as relations beยญtween the vertices, without necessarily having anydirect physical meaning. More formally, a discretegraph ๐ฆ๐ฆ is a pair (๐ต๐ต๐ต ๐ต๐ต๐ต, where the vertex set ๐ต๐ต isany countable (in practice usually finite) set and eachedge ๐พ๐พ in the edge set ๐ต๐ต may be regarded as a pair ofvertices, that is, ๐ต๐ต may be identified with a subset of๐ต๐ต๐ต๐ต๐ต. Already herewehave a further decision tomake:whether to treat the edges ๐พ๐พ ๐พ (๐พ๐พ๐ต ๐พ๐พ๐ต, ๐พ๐พ๐ต ๐พ๐พ ๐ ๐ต๐ต asordered or unordered pairs; we speak of directed edges(also called bonds in some circles) and undirected edges,respectively. In the case of directed edges ๐พ๐พ ๐พ (๐พ๐พ๐ต ๐พ๐พ๐ต,wemay distinguish between the initial vertex ๐พ๐พ and theterminal vertex ๐พ๐พ.
Many social networks may be modelled in thisframework; for example, Facebook is a network inwhich each person (or entity) represents a vertex,and being (Facebook) friends corresponds to an undiยญrected edge between the two vertices. Twitter, on theother hand, is directed, if one considers the edge (๐พ๐พ๐ต ๐พ๐พ๐ตto mean ๐พ๐พ is a follower of ๐พ๐พ โ as is the internet itselfwith links being edges between the pages representedby vertices. More generally, any model of a networkin which there is no natural distance between vertices,nor physical bond linking them, is likely to fit into theframework of discrete graphs. This is of course a conยญsiderable simplification; for example, one may assigna weight function to the edges of a discrete graph togive a notion of the proximity of the respective verยญtices.
To do any sort of analysis, of course we need todefine functions on our graph. In the case of discretegraphs, this is easy: if functions live on the vertices,then the space of all functions may be identified withโ|๐ต๐ต| or โ|๐ต๐ต|. Some care must be taken if the vertexset ๐ต๐ต is infinite; it becomes natural to work with โ๐๐ยญspaces.
1.2 METRIC GRAPHS
Metric graphs, on the other hand, focus attention onthe edges, and are thus more suited to modellingactual physical networks, or fine ramified structuressuch as nanostructures. We will write ๐ข๐ข ๐พ (๐ข๐ข ๐ต ๐ข๐ตfor a metric graph, where now each edge ๐๐ ๐ ๐ข isidentified with a closed interval which may be finite,of some given length โ(๐๐๐ต ๐ ๐, i.e. ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ต โ(๐๐๐ต๐ ๐ โ,or a halfยญline, ๐๐๐ต +โ๐ต. Care must obviously be taken
with the latter, so here we will restrict ourselves tocompact intervals.
In order to encode the topological structure of thegraph, or equivalently to create ametric, one identifiesall interval endpoints which correspond to a given verยญtex. While intuitively this is very simple, formally itis somewhat fiddly and may be done in a number ofways: for example:
โข identify equivalence classes of endpoints, or
โข define the underlying metric directly by declarยญing that the distance between two different inยญterval endpoints corresponding to the same verยญtex is zero, thus allowing the construction pathsbetween any two points on different edges, oralternatively
โข work directly at the level of continuous funcยญtions.
For more details we refer to [BK13, Section 1.3],[Mug19] and [KKLM20, Section 2].
At any rate, this gives rise naturally to a metricspace; the distance between two given points is the(Euclidean) distance of the shortest path betweenthem. Technically the metric is a pseudometric, as itmay take the value +โ if there is no path between agiven pair of points, but it becomes a metric if andonly if the graph is connected.
When it comes to defining spaces of functions,metric graphs are, unsurprisingly, more interestingthan their discrete counterparts, albeit not yet at thelevel of ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐ยญspaces: we may simply define, for a graph๐ข๐ข ๐พ (๐ข๐ข ๐ต ๐ข๐ต with a finite edge set ๐ข ,
๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐(๐ข๐ข ๐ต ๐พ โจ๐๐๐๐ข
๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐(๐๐๐ต ๐ โจ๐๐๐๐ข
๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐(๐๐ต โ(๐๐๐ต๐ต
(each edge being prototypically equipped withLebesgue measure on the interval ๐๐๐ต โ(๐๐๐ต๐); indeed,๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐ยญfunctions will never see the vertices as the latterform a set of measure zero. Correspondingly, to inยญtegrate a function over the graph we integrate overeach edge and sum the result. The structure of thegraph is only encoded at the level of continuous funcยญtions: ๐ถ๐ถ(๐ข๐ข ๐ต will consist of those functions which arecontinuous on every edge, such that their values at allendpointsmeeting at a vertex should agree. These areof course exactly the functions which are continuouswith respect to the metric.
To define differentiable functions becomes morechallenging because of the issue of defining the derivaยญtive across the vertices; instead, it becomes more natยญ
230
[1] This condition is sometimes loosely called a flow in equals flow out condition, although this expression must obviously be interpreted with care, depending on the kind of flow one is imagining.
๐ฃ๐ฃ1
๐ฃ๐ฃ2
๐ฃ๐ฃ3
๐ฃ๐ฃ4 ๐ฃ๐ฃ5
๐๐1
๐๐2
๐๐3 ๐๐4
๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ1)
๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ2)
๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ3)
๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ4) ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ5)
๐๐1
๐๐2
๐๐3 ๐๐4 ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฆ
[0, โ1]
[0, โ4][0, โ3]
[0, โ2]
Figure 1: A simple graph on 5 vertices and 4 edges (left); to define a function ๐๐ on a discrete realisation of the graphwe specify the values at the vertices โ this also gives rise naturally to difference operators (centre); one may insteadidentify each edge ๐๐๐๐ with an interval [0, โ๐๐] โ โ (or a halfยญline [0, +โ)), and โglue togetherโ the intervals at theirendpoints in the right way, to form a metric graph (right). Here a path between two points ๐ฅ๐ฅ and ๐ฆ๐ฆ is marked inred.
X
X
Figure 2: The Cheeger cut of a graph with 20 vertices.
1 INTRODUCTION: TWO COMPLEMENTARYTYPES OF GRAPHS
Probably everyone has at least an intuitive notion ofwhat a graph is: a collection of vertices, or nodes,joined by edges. Most mathematicians, perhaps evensome nonยญmathematicians, probably have some ideaof the role that graphs play in modelling phenomenaas diverse as fine structures such as crystals and carยญbon nanostructures, social networks, the PageRankalgorithm, data processing and machine learning, โฆ,but may not be so familiar with the details.
Generally speaking, at amathematical level, we areinterested in some process taking place on the graph,such as described by a difference or differential equaยญtion. The mathematics behind such equations comยญbines ideas from graph theory (obviously), linear alยญgebra, functional analysis and the theory of differยญential equations, operator theory, and mathematicalphysics; yet many of the details seem to be largely unยญknown to the wider mathematical community. As atest: do you know what quantum graphs are?
Our goal here is to give somewhat uneven introยญduction to analysis on graphs: we first describe, inhopefully accessible terms, what this is: how to deยญfine functions and difference and differential operaยญ
tors on graphs, and study them โ and in particularwhat are quantum graphs. Our starting point is thatthere are (at least) two natural, somewhat parallel, noยญtions of graphs: discrete and metric graphs; the forยญmer give rise to difference operators, the latter to difยญferential operators. We will first discuss the construcยญtion of these graphs, and then introduce prototypicaldifference and differential operators, principally realiยญsations of the Laplacian, on each.
But our second goal is to highlight some of theparallels between the two kinds of graphs: indeed,one speaks of Laplacians in both the discrete and themetric case, nomenclature which is justified for varยญious reasons, as we shall see. Finally, we will turnto quantum graphs, which in simple terms are metricgraphs equipped with differential operators. We willdescribe a number of areas of current interest, espeยญcially within (parts of ) themathematical physics comยญmunity. The list of topics we have selected is someยญwhat idiosyncratic; we include a brief mention of, andreferences to the literature for, a variety of others. Thereader interested in discoveringmore is referred to thebook [BK13], considered a standard reference in thearea, the recent survey paper [BK20], the elementaryintroduction [Ber17], and the somewhat older volume[EKKST08], which contains a large number of stilluseful review articles.
1
Figure 1. A simple graph on 5 vertices and 4 edges (left); to define a function f on a discrete realisation of the graph we specify the values at the vertices โ this also gives rise naturally to difference operators (centre); one may instead identify each edge ei with an interval [0,๐i] โ โ$ (or a half-line [0,+โ)), and glue together the intervals at their endpoints in the right way, to form a metric graph (right). Here a path between two points x and y is marked in red.
ural to speak of vertex conditions which the functionsshould satisfy (such as continuity at the vertices, asimposed in ๐ถ๐ถ๐ถ๐ถ๐ถ ๐ถ). Two of the most natural suchconditions to satisfy are the Dirichlet, or zero, condiยญtion, and the Kirchhoff condition, where the sum ofinwardยญpointing derivatives at a vertex equals zero.[1]
In practice, one usually works with Sobolevspaces of weakly differentiable functions; for examยญple, ๐ป๐ป1๐ถ๐ถ๐ถ ๐ถ is defined as those functions which areedgewise ๐ฟ๐ฟ2ยญintegrable with edgewise ๐ฟ๐ฟ2ยญintegrableweak derivative, and which are continuous across thevertices. This makes sense since by standard Sobolevembedding theorems oneยญdimensional ๐ป๐ป1ยญfunctionsare continuous and thus, up to choosing the correctrepresentative, defined pointwise.
Three final observations are in order: firstly, thusdefined, our graphs are not considered to be embedยญded in Euclidean space; there is no curvature of theedges or angle between them. Secondly, by labellingone vertex of an edge ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ถ๐๐๐ถ๐ as ๐ and the otheras ๐๐ถ๐๐๐ถ ๐ ๐, we are implicitly (or explicitly) imposingan orientation. However, for many practical purposesthis orientation is irrelevant; the differential operatorswe shall define in the sequel are independent of thischoice up to unitary equivalence. Thirdly, in the caseof metric graphs it is easy to allow multiple edges beยญtween vertices, as well as loops (edges which beginand end at the same vertex); in the case of discretegraphs this is a bit more complicated and we will tacยญitly assume that our graphs are free of such features,even thoughmost of what we discuss will remain trueeven with multiple parallel edges and loops.
2 DIFFERENCE AND DIFFERENTIALOPERATORS
We see immediately that on discrete graphs, since thefunctions are identifiable with vectors, difference opยญerators (or more generally matrices) will arise; whileon metric graphs we may define (ordinary) differenยญtial expressions on the edges. In the latter case thepoint of interest becomes specifying the vertex condiยญtions, or equivalently the domain of definition of thedifferential operator; a metric graph is essentially asmooth oneยญdimensional manifold with isolated sinยญgularities (the vertices). In both cases we will illusยญtrate this via a prototypical operator, the Laplacian;note that here, in both cases, our edges will be undiยญrected.
Let us start with metric graphs, as here we arecloser to the traditional Laplacian from the theory ofPDEs. In fact, we start with the differential expresยญsion โ๐๐ โณ on each edge. It is natural to impose contiยญnuity at all vertices, as this is essentially the minimalrequirement for the functions to see the graph. Addiยญtionally imposing the Kirchhoff condition, which wemay write as
โ๐๐ adjacent to ๐ฃ๐ฃ
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
๐ถ๐ฃ๐ฃ๐ถ ๐ฃ ๐๐
that is, the sum of the derivatives of ๐๐ at the endpointof each edge ๐๐ directed into the vertex ๐ฃ๐ฃ, gives rise tothe Laplacian with vertex conditions variously knownas standard, natural, continuityยญKirchhoff, and evenNeumannยญKirchhoff (if the vertex has degree one, i.e.,
3CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 31
only one edge attached, then this reduces to the Neuยญmann condition. Roughly speaking, in many waysthe Laplacianwith standard conditions behaves someยญwhat like the Neumann Laplacian on domains, orthe LaplaceยญBeltrami operator on manifolds withoutboundary). For the Dirichlet condition at a vertex๐ฃ๐ฃ, instead of the Kirchhoff condition we require that๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ๐ ๐ ๐.
If the graph ๐ข๐ข has finite total length, then suchoperators are selfยญadjoint, semiยญbounded from below,and have compact resolvent; thus they behave exactlylike Laplacians or Schrรถdinger operators on boundeddomains and manifolds. Generalisations, such asadding a potential to each edge, are easy to incorpoยญrate in this framework.
All this is perhaps more naturally seen at thelevel of forms/weak solutions: the associated positive,symmetric sesquilinear form reads
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ โซ๐ข๐ข๐๐ โฒ โ ๐๐โฒ d๐ฅ๐ฅ
with form domain exactly ๐ป๐ป1๐๐ข๐ข ๐ in the case of thestandard Laplacian; if Dirichlet conditions are imยญposed at one or more vertices then the functionsshould additionally take on the value ๐ there. (Allthis is a short exercise in integration by parts.) Theeigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the Laplacian adยญmit the usual minยญmax variational characterisation;for example, the smallest eigenvalue can be obtainedby minimising ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ among all ๐๐ ๐ ๐ป๐ป1๐๐ข๐ข ๐ whose๐ฟ๐ฟ2ยญnorm is 1.
On discrete graphs, the (discrete or combinatorial)Laplacian is defined purely in terms of the graph strucยญture. We suppose ๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ ๐๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ to be a discrete graphwith finite vertex set ๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ ๐ต๐ต๐ต1๐ โฆ ๐ ๐ต๐ต๐๐} and finite edgeset ๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ ๐ต๐ค๐ค1๐ โฆ ๐ ๐ค๐ค๐๐}. We take as a starting point thefollowing matrices:
โข the adjacency matrix, the symmetric matrixwhose ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ยญentry is 1 if ๐ต๐ต๐๐ and ๐ต๐ต๐๐ share an edge,or ๐ otherwise (in the case of directed edges thismatrix can still be defined but will no longer besymmetric);
โข the degree matrix, the diagonal matrix whose๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ยญentry is the degree of ๐ต๐ต๐๐, i.e., the numberof edges emanating from ๐ต๐ต๐๐.
The (discrete) Laplacian is the difference operator corยญresponding to the symmetric, positive semidefinitematrix ๐ฟ๐ฟ ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฟ๐ฟ ๐ฟ ๐ฟ๐ฟ. For example, for the graph deยญpicted in Figure 1, with the order of vertices as speciยญ
fied there, the Laplacian would be
๐ฟ๐ฟ ๐
โโโโโโ
1 ๐ฟ1 ๐ ๐ ๐๐ฟ1 3 ๐ฟ1 ๐ฟ1 ๐๐ ๐ฟ1 1 ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฟ1 ๐ 2 ๐ฟ1๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ฟ1 1
โโโโโโ
.
The fact that this is a plausible discrete version of theLaplacian may be recognised in (at least) two ways:
โข vectors ๐ฅ๐ฅ satisfying ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ have the mean valueproperty, as can be checked with the above examยญple: since the sum of each row of ๐ฟ๐ฟ is zero, thevalue of ๐ฅ๐ฅ at a vertex is equal to the sum of thevalues at the surrounding vertices โ just as harยญmonic functions inโ๐๐ , solutions ofฮ๐๐ ๐ ๐, satยญisfy the (continuous) mean value property;
โข at the level of forms: ๐ฟ๐ฟ is associated with thepositive, symmetric sesquilinear form
๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ โ๐ค๐ค๐๐ฆ๐ฆ
๐โ ๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐ค๐ค๐๐โ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ค๐ค๐๐
where โ ๐ โ๐๐๐๐๐ is the soยญcalled (signed) inci-dence matrix encoding which vertices are the terยญminal and initial endpoints of which edges; infact ๐ฟ๐ฟ may also be represented as ๐ฟ๐ฟ ๐ โ โ ๐๐ ,and we may intuitively think of โ as a discretecounterpart of the divergence operator.
A word of caution: there is a common, normalisedvariant, namely
๐ฟ๐ฟnorm ๐ฟ๐ Id ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฟ1/2๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฟ1/2
(that is, we normalise the operator by the degree ofthe vertices); its |๐ฆ๐ฆ| eigenvalues (counting multiplicยญities) always lie in the interval [๐๐ 2]. The standardreference on the topic is [Chu97]; see also [Mug14,Chapter 2] for the construction of all these matricesas well as their directed counterparts.
A strong mathematical parallel between the stanยญdard Laplacian on a metric graph and the normalisedLaplacian on the corresponding discrete graph wasestablished by von Below in 1985 [Bel85]. Namely,if all the edges of the metric graph have length 1,and we denote by ๐๐๐๐ the ordered eigenvalues of thestandard Laplacian, then, up to certain special cases(corresponding to the normalised Laplacian eigenvalยญues ๐ and 2) the eigenvalues of ๐ฟ๐ฟnorm are given by1 ๐ฟ cos๐โ๐๐๐๐๐; the values of the eigenvectors correยญspond to the values of the eigenfunctions at the verยญtices. Thus, at least for this special class of equilateralmetric graphs, the standard Laplacian as a differentialoperator is essentially determined by the corresponding
4
32
discrete (normalised) Laplacian. Such connectionsbetween discrete and continuous versions have natuยญrally been explored further over the last 30ยญodd years;see [LP16] and the references therein.
2.1 SO WHAT ARE QUANTUM GRAPHS?
We can now finally answer the first question posed inthe title. By a quantum graph we understand a metยญric graph on which acts a differential operator, mostoften (but not necessarily) some kind of Schrรถdingeroperator orHamiltonian [Ber17, BK13]; of course thisincludes various realisations of the Laplacian.
While differential operators onmetric graphs havebeen studied for a long timeโ theywere actively studยญied in the 1980s, often under the name ๐๐2-networks(e.g., [Bel85, Nic87]), and there are applications goยญing back much further [RS53] โ the name quantumgraph is generally considered [Ber17] to trace back tothe article Quantum Chaos on Graphs [KS97] from1997, possibly as a contraction of the title.
3 A CORNUCOPIA OF APPLICATIONS
We finish with a discussion of some current topics ofinterest in the community, as an answer to the secยญond question posed in the title: we wish to give someidea of the variety of problems and applications whicharise in the context of quantum graphs. One maybroadly and imperfectly group the applications intomodels where it is intrinsically sensible to considerramified structures (atomic or crystalline structures,honeycombs, ramified traps,โฆ) and those where thegraph represents a toymodel used to studymathematยญical or quantum physical phenomena: graphs are simยญple oneยญdimensional objects which often display comยญplex behaviour typical of higherยญdimensional probยญlems.
In the following list no claim is made to completeยญness, either in the list of topics or in the referencesgiven, which largely reflect the authorโs personal tasteand prejudices. Where possible we have tried to proยญvide some of the most recent references available toact as a starting point for a further literature search.
In keepingwith these prejudices, aswell as the genยญeral focus of the quantum graph community, we willmostly be interested in differential operators such asthe Laplacian and Schrรถdinger operators, and theirspectra. This is natural since by the spectral theorem
the spectrum completely determines such selfยญadjointoperators.
3.1 APPROXIMATION OF, OR BY,HIGHERยญDIMENSIONAL OBJECTS
There are two senses in which graphs, be they disยญcrete or metric, can be related to higherยญdimensionaldomains or manifolds: one can consider a (metric)graph as the limit of a sequence of thin branching doยญmains (shrinking tubes, or fattened graphs), or one cantry and approximate a domain ormanifold as the limitof as sequence of graphs. In the latter case one usuallytakes discrete graphs as the approximating objects, asa kind of discretisation of the domain or manifold.
Needless to say, there is an extensive literature onboth. The latter is sometimes used to extend resultsfrom discrete graphs to manifolds (as in [LLPO15],see also Section 3.3). The former provides a justificaยญtion for using quantum graphs to study phenomenalike waveguides, be they acoustic, quantum or elecยญtromagnetic, thin superยญconducting structures and soon; here we will follow, and refer to, [BK13, Secยญtion 7.5]. Another standard reference for shrinkingtubes is the review paper [Gri08] contained in the volยญume [EKKST08]. Typical questions include whetherthe solutions of differential equations in the thin doยญmains converge to the solution of some differentialequation on the graph, and if so, what vertex condiยญtions the problem in the limit satisfies. (More techยญnically, we are interested in convergence of the resolยญvents of the operators in various norms, as well as ofthe operator eigenvalues and eigenfunctions.)
The precise results depend very much on the naยญture of the approximation, but in perhaps the simยญplest and most important case of Schrรถdinger operaยญtors inNeumann tubes (thin perfectly insulated tubes)shrinking uniformly, one does at least have converยญgence of the eigenvalues to the eigenvalues, in the corยญrect order, of the Schrรถdinger operator on the graphwith standard vertex conditions, and where the elecยญtric potential is, roughly speaking, the restriction ofthe potential on the thin domain to the graph it conยญtains. Work is still ongoing to establish other kindsof convergence, in particular under different kinds ofdomain convergence.
In this case the limit object, the quantum graphwith its Schrรถdinger operator, forgets many geometยญric features of the domains, such as angles betweenbranches, curvature of edges and so on. If one alยญlows the Neumann tubes to shrink in a wilder, nonยญ
5CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 33
uniform fashion, then one may obtain more interestยญing limit quantum graphs, including where the opยญerators satisfy other vertex conditions than the stanยญdard/Kirchhoff ones.
3.2 SPECTRAL GEOMETRY
We have seen that discrete Laplacians may be defineddirectly in terms of the structure (topology) of a disยญcrete graph, and that at least at the spectral level thiscan be transferred to equilateral metric graphs via vonBelowโs formula. Can we say something about (nonยญequilateral) metric graphs, where we have to contendwith both the topology and the edge length?
In the case of domains and manifolds a groupof questions revolves around understanding how theeigenvalues and eigenfunctions depend on the geomยญetry of the underlying domain or manifold. The clasยญsical example is the theorem of FaberยญKrahn from the1920s, based on an earlier conjecture of LordRayleigh,that among all domains of given volume the ball isthe one whose first Dirichlet Laplacian eigenvalue issmallest. This is an analytic translation of the geometยญric isoperimetric inequality, that the ball minimisessurface area for given volume; the first (nonzero)eigenvalue is of particular interest because it controlsthe rate of heat loss in the heat equation, the lowest freยญquency of the object, and so on. We refer to [Pay67]for a (classical) introduction and [Hen06, Hen17] formore modern surveys of the area of shape optimisationand spectral theory. The corresponding inverse probยญlem, determining the domain/manifold based on thespectrum of a differential operator on it, correspondsto the question made famous by Mark Kac, โcan onehear the shape of a drum?โ; see [LR15].
On metric graphs the equivalent of the theoremof FaberยญKrahn states that the smallest nonzero eigenยญvalue of the Laplacianwith standard vertex conditionsisminimisedwhen the graph is an interval of the samelength; this theorem first appeared around 30 yearsago [Nic87]. It turns out that graphs are far moreamenable to this kind of analysis than domains; see[BL17, BKKM19, KKMM16]. A surprisingly subtlequestion is which (geometric or topological) properยญties of a graph are sufficient to bound its eigenvaluesand which are not. For example, fixing the diameยญter ๐ท๐ท (length of the longest path within the graph)alone places no control on the smallest nonzero stanยญdard Laplacian eigenvalue: it may be arbitrarily largeor small [KKMM16]; however, if we restrict to trees,graphs without cycles, then it cannot exceed ๐๐2/๐ท๐ท2,
the corresponding eigenvalue of an interval of length๐ท๐ท.
Work has also been done on isospectral graphs,quantum graphs which are different but have thesame Laplacian spectra. On graphs the problem canbe given a new twist since one has more chance of deยญscribing the corresponding eigenfunctions: one conยญsiders the soยญcalled nodal count, the number of nodaldomains, which are by definition the connected comยญponents of the set where the eigenfunction is nonzero.See [BK13, Section 7.1].
3.3 CLUSTERING AND PARTITIONS
A major preoccupation in applied graph theory is todetect the presence of clusters in a (usually discrete)graph. One might ask whether a given social networksuch as Facebook tends to be divided into groups ofhig hly interconnected individuals with few links beยญtween the groups, thus creating the infamous echochambers. Alternatively, one might wish to identify,say, weaknesses in a road network or an electricitygrid: if the power lines here go down, does half thecountry lose power?
There are various ways to measure this. One natuยญral way is the notion of Cheeger constants and Cheegercuts borrowed from geometric analysis, originally inยญtroduced for manifolds. Say we wish to cut the graph๐ฆ๐ฆ into two pieces ๐๐ and ๐๐๐๐ = ๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ฆ ๐๐, which we do bycutting through edges. Then for each possible cut welook at the ratio
|๐๐๐๐|min{|๐๐|๐ |๐๐๐๐|}
of edges cut |๐๐๐๐| to the smaller of the two sets ๐๐ e ๐๐๐๐,as measured by the number of vertices in the set.
The infimum of this quotient over all possible cutsis the Cheeger constant; the smaller the constant, theeasier it is to cut the graph into two (the traditionalimage for this is the dumbbell manifold, cut throughits thin handle).
Figure 2 gives an example on graphs: on this graphof 20 vertices, there is a way to make just two cutsto separate the graph into two groups of 10 verticeseach, labelled as blue and red; this is in fact the optiยญmal cut. One might imagine a social network wherethe vertices represent users; the blue users tend onlyto have friends with other blue users, while the redusers likewise stay amongst themselves. In this casethe Cheeger constant will be 2/ min{10๐ 10} = 1/5,which may be considered small (the number has noabsolute meaning but should be viewed in conjuncยญ
634
tion with the total number of vertices and edges).
One can also consider higher order Cheeger conยญstants, which partition the graph into more than twopieces, and in fact estimating these constants, in parยญticular in terms of Laplacian eigenvalues, is one inยญstance where results were first proved on discretegraphs and then transferred to manifolds [LLPO15].Cheeger constants have also been introduced on metยญric graphs, with the numerator remaining the sameand the denominator becoming the total length (sumof edge lengths) of each piece [KM16, Nic87].
The Cheeger constant corresponds to the firsteigenvalue of the soยญcalled 1ยญLaplacian, i.e., the ๐๐ยญLaplacian when ๐๐ ๐ 1; the eigenvector/eigenfunctionhas two nodal domains which correspond to theCheeger cut. This operator is singular, its eigenvalยญues lack the easy๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐ยญvariational characterisation of the๐๐ยญLaplacian eigenvalues, and actually calculating theconstant of a large graph becomes a computationallyhard problem.
Thus one can use the (2ยญ)Laplacian (say, withstandard vertex conditions) as a natural proxy, as itsvariational structure makes determining the eigenvalยญues and eigenfunctions much easier, both analyticallyand computationally. Ideally one would use the nodaldomains of the ๐๐ยญth eigenvalue as an โoptimalโ partiยญtion into ๐๐ pieces, but in general there is no simple reยญlationship between the number of nodal domains ofan eigenfunction and its number in the sequence. Anatural alternative is to consider spectral minimal par-titions, whereby one looks to minimise a functional ofthe eigenvalues over all partitions; prototypically thisproblem might take the form
inf๐ซ๐ซ
max๐๐๐1๐๐๐๐๐
๐๐1(ฮฉ๐๐)๐
where the infimum is taken over all partitions๐ซ๐ซ of theobject (domain, graph, โฆ) into ๐๐ pieces ฮฉ1๐ ๐ ๐ ฮฉ๐๐,and ๐๐1(ฮฉ๐๐) is the first nontrivial eigenvalue of a suitยญable Laplacian onฮฉ๐๐; one could equally take a ๐๐ยญnormof the eigenvalues in place of theโยญnorm. Such probยญ
lems were originally considered, and have been studยญied intensively, on domains and some manifolds; see[Hen17, Chapter 10] for a survey.
On metric graphs this topic is new: the first sysยญtematic study of spectral minimal partitions was unยญdertaken in [KKLM20]. As is the case for spectral geยญometry, and actually for many problems consideredhere, one can say far more on metric graphs than ondomains. Here, far more functionals can be meanยญingfully defined on the former than the latter, includยญing more exotic combinations of eigenvalues (suchas maxยญmin rather than minยญmax problems). Underยญstanding how these optimal partitions differ andwhatthey reveal about the structure of the graph will be atopic of interest in the next few years.
3.4 NONLINEAR SCHRรDINGER EQUATIONS
Until now we have always considered linear differยญential operators, as has historically usually been thecase on metric graphs. There is, however, a notablefamily of exceptions, first considered just a few yearsago [AST15a]. This principally involves studying exยญistence, or nonexistence, of certain solutions of staยญtionary nonlinear Schrรถdinger equations on metricgraphs (NLSE for short). A stationaryNLSE typicallytakes the form
โฮ๐ข๐ข ๐ข ๐ข๐ข(๐ข๐ข) ๐ ๐๐๐ข๐ข๐ (1)
where in place of the usual potential term ๐๐ ๐ข๐ข a nonยญlinearity ๐ข๐ข(๐ข๐ข) is introduced; here, as in the literature,we will consider the prototypical power nonlinearity๐ข๐ข(๐ข๐ข) ๐ ๐๐ข๐ข๐๐๐โ1๐ข๐ข. These equations, a bedrock of theCalculus of Variations literature, are most commonlystudied in ๐๐ยญdimensional space, see [Caz03] for anintroduction, but a number of applications, such asBoseยญEinstein condensates in traps or optical fibres[AST15a], make it reasonable to consider NLSE inramified structures, that is, on metric graphs, mostcommonly and naturally with standard vertex condiยญ
7
๐ฃ๐ฃ1
๐ฃ๐ฃ2
๐ฃ๐ฃ3
๐ฃ๐ฃ4 ๐ฃ๐ฃ5
๐๐1
๐๐2
๐๐3 ๐๐4
๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ1)
๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ2)
๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ3)
๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ4) ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ5)
๐๐1
๐๐2
๐๐3 ๐๐4 ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฆ
[0, โ1]
[0, โ4][0, โ3]
[0, โ2]
Figure 1: A simple graph on 5 vertices and 4 edges (left); to define a function ๐๐ on a discrete realisation of the graphwe specify the values at the vertices โ this also gives rise naturally to difference operators (centre); one may insteadidentify each edge ๐๐๐๐ with an interval [0, โ๐๐] โ โ (or a halfยญline [0, +โ)), and โglue togetherโ the intervals at theirendpoints in the right way, to form a metric graph (right). Here a path between two points ๐ฅ๐ฅ and ๐ฆ๐ฆ is marked inred.
X
X
Figure 2: The Cheeger cut of a graph with 20 vertices.
1 INTRODUCTION: TWO COMPLEMENTARYTYPES OF GRAPHS
Probably everyone has at least an intuitive notion ofwhat a graph is: a collection of vertices, or nodes,joined by edges. Most mathematicians, perhaps evensome nonยญmathematicians, probably have some ideaof the role that graphs play in modelling phenomenaas diverse as fine structures such as crystals and carยญbon nanostructures, social networks, the PageRankalgorithm, data processing and machine learning, โฆ,but may not be so familiar with the details.
Generally speaking, at amathematical level, we areinterested in some process taking place on the graph,such as described by a difference or differential equaยญtion. The mathematics behind such equations comยญbines ideas from graph theory (obviously), linear alยญgebra, functional analysis and the theory of differยญential equations, operator theory, and mathematicalphysics; yet many of the details seem to be largely unยญknown to the wider mathematical community. As atest: do you know what quantum graphs are?
Our goal here is to give somewhat uneven introยญduction to analysis on graphs: we first describe, inhopefully accessible terms, what this is: how to deยญfine functions and difference and differential operaยญ
tors on graphs, and study them โ and in particularwhat are quantum graphs. Our starting point is thatthere are (at least) two natural, somewhat parallel, noยญtions of graphs: discrete and metric graphs; the forยญmer give rise to difference operators, the latter to difยญferential operators. We will first discuss the construcยญtion of these graphs, and then introduce prototypicaldifference and differential operators, principally realiยญsations of the Laplacian, on each.
But our second goal is to highlight some of theparallels between the two kinds of graphs: indeed,one speaks of Laplacians in both the discrete and themetric case, nomenclature which is justified for varยญious reasons, as we shall see. Finally, we will turnto quantum graphs, which in simple terms are metricgraphs equipped with differential operators. We willdescribe a number of areas of current interest, espeยญcially within (parts of ) themathematical physics comยญmunity. The list of topics we have selected is someยญwhat idiosyncratic; we include a brief mention of, andreferences to the literature for, a variety of others. Thereader interested in discoveringmore is referred to thebook [BK13], considered a standard reference in thearea, the recent survey paper [BK20], the elementaryintroduction [Ber17], and the somewhat older volume[EKKST08], which contains a large number of stilluseful review articles.
1
Figure 2. The Cheeger cut of a graph whith 20 vertices.
CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 35
tions. Ofmost interest are the ground states, minimisยญers of the energy functional for which 1 is the EulerยญLagrange equation:
๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ ๐ธ 12
โ๐ธ๐ธโฒโ22 โ 1
๐๐โ๐ธ๐ธโ๐๐
๐๐,
where โ โ โ2 and โ โ โ๐๐ are, respectively, the ๐ฟ๐ฟ2ยญ and๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐ยญnorms, here on some graph ๐ข๐ข . Here one usuยญally considers unbounded graphs, with a finite numยญber of edges but where some of them are halfยญlines(๐ข๐ข ๐ธ โ itself is a prototype, being two halfยญlinesglued together at the origin), as well as the subcriticalcase 2 < ๐๐ < ๐, which guarantees the Sobolev embedยญding ๐ป๐ป1 โช ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐ in dimension 1.
It turns out that the existence or nonยญexistence ofground states on such graphs depends heavily on thetopology of the graph, as shown in a series of landยญmark papers [AST15a, AST15b, AST16, AST17]. Furยญther research, including into stability of solutions andstanding waves, other types of metric graphs, otherrestrictions on the parameters, and other equationsis ongoing; see, for example, [DST20, Hof19, NP20]and the references therein.
3.5 FINAL REMARKS
The above list excludes a huge and growing numยญber of topics from various areas of mathematics.We could mention quantum chaos (the presumablesource of the name quantum graph, as discussed inSection 2.1; see also [BK13, Chapter 6]), as well asvarious other applications in mathematical physicssuch as scattering and inverse scattering, the BetheยญSommerfeld property on the gap structure of the specยญtrum of periodic objects [ET17], Anderson localisaยญtion [DFS, DS19], the spectra of graphene and carยญbon nanotubes, BoseยญEinstein condensates, and thequantumHall effect. Differential equations on metricgraphs also feature in other areas ofmathematics as diยญverse as neural networks andmodels of population dyยญnamics [DLPZ20, SCA14]. Surveys of many of theseand further applications in mathematical physics maybe found in [BK20], [BK13, Chapter 7] and the collecยญtion [EKKST08].
REFERENCES
[AST15a] R. Adami, E. Serra and P. Tilli, Lack ofground state for NLSE on bridge type graphs,Mathematical Technology of Networks, 1โ11,
Springer Proc. Math. Stat., vol. 128, Springer,Cham, 2015.
[AST15b] R. Adami, E. Serra and P. Tilli,NLS groundstates on graphs, Calc. Var. Partial DifferentialEquations 54 (2015), 743โ761.
[AST16] R. Adami, E. Serra and P. Tilli, Thresholdphenomena and existence results for NLS groundstates on metric graphs, J. Funct. Anal. 271(2016), 201โ223.
[AST17] R. Adami, E. Serra and P. Tilli, Negative en-ergy ground states for the ๐ฟ๐ฟ2-critical NLSE onmetric graphs, Comm.Math. Phys. 352 (2017),387โ406.
[BL17] R. Band and G. Lรฉvy, Quantum graphs whichoptimize the spectral gap, Ann. Henri Poincarรฉ18 (2017), 3269โ3323.
[Bel85] J. von Below, A characteristic equation associ-ated to an eigenvalue problem on ๐๐2-networks,Linear Algebra Appl. 71 (1985), 309โ325.
[Ber17] G. Berkolaiko, An elementary introduction toquantum graphs, Geometric and computaยญtional spectral theory 700 (2017), 41โ72.
[BKKM19] G. Berkolaiko, J. B. Kennedy, P. KurasovandD.Mugnolo, Surgery principles for the spec-tral analysis of quantum graphs, Trans. Amer.Math. Soc. 372 (2019), 5153โ5197.
[BK13] G. Berkolaiko and P. Kuchment, Introductionto quantum graphs, Mathematical Surveys andMonographs, vol. 186, American Mathematiยญcal Society, Providence, RI, 2013.
[BK20] J. Bolte and J. Kerner,Many-particle quantumgraphs: a review, pp. 29โ66 in F. M. Atay etal (eds.), Discrete and Continuous Models inthe Theory of Networks, Operator Theory:Advances and Applications 281, Birkโ๏ฟฝhauser,Cham, 2020.
[Caz03] T. Cazenave, Semilinear Schrรถdinger equa-tions, Courant Lecture Notes in Mathematยญics, vol. 10, American Mathematical Society,Providence, RI, 2003.
[Chu97] F.R.K. Chung, Spectral graph theory, CBMSRegional Conference Series in Mathematยญics, vol. 92, American Mathematical Society,Providence, RI, 1997.
8
36
[DFS] D. Damanik, J. Fillman and S. Sukhtaiev, Lo-calization for Anderson models on metric and dis-crete tree graphs, Math. Ann. 376 (2020), 1337โ1393.
[DS19] D. Damanik, S. Sukhtaiev, Anderson localiza-tion for radial tree graphs with random branchingnumbers, J. Funct. Anal. 277 (2019), 418โ433.
[DST20] S. Dovetta, E. Serra and P. Tilli, Unique-ness and non-uniqueness of prescribed mass NLSground states on metric graphs, Adv. Math. 374(2020), 107352, 41 pp.
[DLPZ20] Y. Du, B. Lou, R. Peng and M. Zhou, TheFisher-KPP equation over simple graphs: variedpersistence states in river networks, J.Math. Biol.80 (2020), 1559โ1616.
[EKKST08] P. Exner, J. Keating, P. Kuchment,T. Sunada and A. Teplyaev (eds.), Analysis ongraphs and its applications. Proc. Sympos. PureMath., vol. 77, American Mathematical Sociยญety, Providence, RI, 2008.
[ET17] P. Exner and O. Turek, Periodic quantumgraphs from the Bethe-Sommerfeld perspective, J.Phys. A 50 (2017), 455201, 32 pp.
[Gri08] D. Grieser, Thin tubes in mathematical physics,global analysis and spectral geometry, Analysison graphs and its applications, 565โ593, Proc.Sympos. PureMath., vol. 77, AmericanMathยญematical Society, Providence, RI, 2008.
[Hen06] A. Henrot, Extremum problems for eigenval-ues of elliptic operators, Frontiers in Mathematยญics, BirkhรคuserยญVerlag, Basel, 2006.
[Hen17] A. Henrot (ed.), Shape optimization and spec-tral theory, De Gruyter Open, Warsaw, 2017.
[Hof19] M. Hofmann, An existence theory for nonlin-ear equations on metric graphs via energy meth-ods, preprint (2019), arXiv:1909.07856.
[KKLM20] J. B. Kennedy, P. Kurasov, C. Lรฉnaand D. Mugnolo, A theory of spectral par-titions of metric graphs, preprint (2020),arXiv:2005.01126.
[KKMM16] J. B. Kennedy, P. Kurasov, G. Malenovรกand D. Mugnolo,On the spectral gap of a quan-tum graph, Ann. Henri Poincarรฉ 17 (2016),2439โ2473.
[KM16] J. B Kennedy and D. Mugnolo, The Cheegerconstant of a quantum graph, PAMM Proc.Appl. Math. Mech. 16 (2016), 875โ876.
[KS97] T. Kottos and U. Smilansky, Quantum chaoson graphs, Phys. Rev. Lett. 79 (1997), 4794โ4797.
[LLPO15] C. Lange, S. Liu, N. Peyerimhoff andO. Post, Frustration index and Cheeger inequal-ities for discrete and continuous magnetic Lapla-cians, Calc. Var. 54 (2015), 4165โ4196.
[LP16] D. Lenz and K. Pankrashkin,New relations be-tween discrete and continuous transition opera-tors on (metric) graphs, Integral Equations Opยญerator Theory 84 (2016), 151โ181.
[LR15] Z. Lu and J. Rowlett, The sound of symmetry,Amer. Math. Monthly 122 (2015), 815โ835.
[Mug14] D. Mugnolo, Semigroup methods for evo-lution equations on networks, UnderstandingComplex Systems, Springer, Cham, 2014.
[Mug19] D. Mugnolo, What is actually a metricgraph?, preprint (2019), arXiv:1912.07549.
[Nic87] S. Nicaise, Spectre des rรฉseaux topologiques fi-nis, Bull. Sci. Math. (2) 111 (1987), 401โ413.
[NP20] D. Noja and D. E. Pelinovsky, Standing wavesof the quintic NLS equation on tadpole graphs,Calc. Var. Partial Differential Equations 59(2020), 173.
[Pay67] L. E. Payne, Isoperimetric inequalities and theirapplications, SIAM Rev. 9 (1967), 453โ488.
[RS53] K. Ruedenberg and C. W. Scherr,Free๏ฟฝelectron network model for conjugatedsystems. I. Theory, J. Chem. Phys. 21 (1953),1565โ1581.
[SCA14] J. Sarhad, R. Carlson and C. E. Anderson,Population persistence in river networks, J.Math.Biol. 69 (2014), 401โ448.
9CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 37
an interview with
Andrรฉ Neves
* Departamento de Matemรกtica, Faculdade de Ciรชncias, Univ. de Lisboa, Edf. C6, Campo Grande 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal [email protected]
by Carlos Florentino*
Andrรฉ Neves is an outstanding portuguese mathematician working in the U.S.A. He has held research and professorship positions at Princeton University, at the Imperial College of London and at the University of Chicago, where he is based now. He obtained his undergraduate degree in 1999, at Instituto Superior Tรฉcnico, in Lisbon, and the Ph.D. in 2005 at Stanford University, under the supervision of Richard Schoen. He works on Differential Geometry and Analysis of Partial Differential Equations. Among several distinctions and awards, he was invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul (2014) and was awarded a New Horizons in Mathematics Prize in 2015 for โoutstanding contributions to several areas of differential geometry, including work on scalar curvature, geometric flows, and his solution (with Codรกยท Marques) of the 50-year-old Willmore Conjecture.โ He also received the Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry in 2016 (conferredby the American Mathematical Society), and was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Andrรฉ Neves was the lecturer of this yearโs Pedro Nunes Lectures, with a seminar entitled: Counting minimal surfaces in negatively curved 3-manifolds, the first of this series which took place online. As in previous editions, we took this opportunity for a short interview.
38
Let us start by talking about your early years. In School/High School, was Mathematics your favorite subject? What other subjects captured your interest?I always loved Mathematics. My fondest memories from High School are of being alone in my room studying Mathematics, while listening to music.
Can you tell us about your decision to study at Instituto Superior Tรฉcnico (IST)? What made you choose the undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Computation?It was non-linear, I am afraid. I first chose to pursue an Engineering degree because I could not imagine that one could be a mathematician. I literally thought that all Mathematics had been done by Cauchy, Bolzano, and Weierstrass. Only when I took an ODEโs class with Professor Josรฉ Sousa Ramos I realized that there was a whole world out there to be explored. I then changed my major from Engineering to Mathematics.
Can you describe the study environment at IST during your time there, in particular the role of your professors and colleagues in your Mathematics background, and in your path to become a researcher?I loved it! It was a very small group and I had the good fortune of being taught by several young mathematicians that had just finished their Ph.D.โs and returned from abroad (mostly from the United States). They would teach Mathematics that seemed very original, sophisticated, and it was truly inspiring.
It is clear that your Ph.D. at Stanford University was a fundamental step in your career. Can you also describe the academic environment there, in particular how you came to work on the interface between Geometry and Analysis, and the role of Prof. Richard Schoen, your advisor?On my first year, I took a course in Riemannian Geometry that was taught by Rick Schoen. I loved the class and the subject and decided to pursue my Ph.D. in that area. Rick was the first outstanding mathematician I met, and he has served as a role model since. He was not afraid of pursuing hard questions and if he felt he had a good idea, he would fiercely pursue it. Most importantly, I understood that there is always a good reason for an idea to work, and that trying things just for the sake of it rarely works. He shaped my mathematical career.
Other key moments in your career were the Postdoc at Princeton, the position at Imperial College and the award of an ERC (European Research Council) grant. Can you tell us about those periods?The time at Princeton was a bit stressful because one of the hardest periods in a mathematics career is the transition from Postdoc to mathematician. There is a tension that
comes from the fact that, on one hand, we have to come up with our own problems and carve our own way of doing Mathematics, but on the other hand we also have the pressure to have papers published, because we will be applying for tenure-track jobs soon. At Imperial College, I had a tenured job and so the pressure of publishing decreased. I was freer to pursue other directions in Mathematics and to tackle problems in which I had to start from scratch. The ERC grant helped me because it reduced my administrative duties and allowed me to hire postdocs, some of which became good collaborators of mine.
You have established many research collaborations, but the one with Fernando Codรก Marques is noteworthy. Can you summarize the story of how you became collaborators and friends?We met at Princeton and became friends as we were one of the few Portuguese speaking people at the Mathematics Department. We were working on the same field and so we kept discussing mathematics problems on a regular basis. For the first years not much happened, but after a while we were able to look at some old problems with a new point of view and then our mathematics collaborations started.
Some mathematicians follow mostly one problem or guiding principle in their research, others keep changing fields and exploring different topics. Do you have a main philosophical guiding principle?It is hard for me to answer because I literally pursue the questions that interest me at any given time. As I have become more confident, I have learned that if there is some phenomenon I donโt understand, then it is probably worthwhile to pursue that.
You are probably the portuguese mathematician that received more international prizes and awards. What do you think are the most important qualities a researcher must have to achieve such success at the international level?
Being courageous and bold in the sense of not being afraid of addressing problems that are perceived as being hard is a good quality to have, in my opinion.
You have worked both in Europe and in the United States. Do you think there are key differences in the ways Mathematics is viewed by academic departments, and their approaches to research training and funding?In the U.S. the grants tend to be smaller, but more mathematicians are funded. In Europe, the grants are higher but less mathematicians are funded. I think that is partly because the University Departments in the U.S. fund the postdocs and the students, and so less funding is needed at the individual level. That being said, I am not sure that has
CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 39
any effect in the quality of research. Both continents have stellar mathematicians.
Even though the World today is facing many crisis, and the areas of research and development are constantly evolving, many European countries have recently invested in Pure Mathematics, by creating Research Institutes in which Fundamental Mathematics form a central part, such as the ICMAT (Instituto de Ciencias Matemรกticas, Madrid, Spain) or the IST Austria (Institute of Science and Technology Austria). Do you feel that the establishment of such a Research Institute in Portugal is crucial to promote research in Fundamental Science?Of course! It would be wonderful if Portugal had a Research Institute in Mathematics like it has in other fields, for instance the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown or the Gulbenkian Institute of Science.
Research today in Mathematics is being influenced and shifted by the rise of neighbouring disciplines, such as Data Science, Machine Learning, Quantum Computing, Mathematical Biology, etc, and there is a big pressure to give most of the funds to Applicable Mathematics. Do you think Pure Mathematics can continue itโs path as before or, in order to strive and be funded, has to stay in close daily contact with Applied Sciences?I think it is important for Mathematics to be in contact with Applied Sciences for two reasons. One, of course, is the funding issue. The other is more philosophical and is related with the fact that if we work with physical quantities that are governed by fundamental principles, then the mathematical research arising from that tends to reach several fields of Mathematics and Applied Sciences.
For instance, the fact that minimal surfaces are physical objects (i.e., they can be observed) is one of the reasons that minimal surfaces are found across several fields of Mathematics (Geometry, Relativity, Algebraic Geometry, Dynamical Systems, etc). For instance, I ask questions and talk to colleagues of mine working in Materials Science to have a better idea of how minimal surfaces should distribute themselves in space (they call them gyroids).
What excites you most in mathematics research, and what makes you pursue problem after problem, even after solving already many famous ones? Do you want to tell us about your future projects?I have always been attracted by simple questions that an undergraduate can understand, but that in order to be solved one needs sophisticated mathematics. As for the problems that I pursue, it is a mix. Some of them I am motivated because the problems are spin-offs from a larger question that I cannot answer. Other times, I hear about some theorem or conjecture which I find fascinating and so I try to see if I can explain that to myself using the tools that I know. Most of the times I donโt, and that means I now have a new direction of research.
You often mention your interest in following portuguese mathematics. Do you see yourself returning to Portugal and establishing a new research group here?Of course. I would love to have the opportunity to establish a research group in Portugal and help the young undergraduates pursue a career in Mathematics, in the same way that people helped me when I was an undergraduate.
40
configurAtion sPAces of Points
by Ricardo Campos*
* IMAG, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier, France. [email protected]
Given a topological space, one can consider its configuration space of n pairwise distinct points. We study the topological prop-erties of such configuration spaces and address question of homotopy invariance.
1 CONFIGURATION SPACES ANDDEFINITIONS
Let ๐๐ be a topological space and ๐๐ ๐ ๐ be an integer.The configuration space of ๐๐ (non-overlapping) points on๐๐ is the set
Conf๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐ ๐(๐๐1, โฆ , ๐๐๐๐๐ โ ๐๐๐๐ | ๐๐๐๐ โ ๐๐๐๐ if ๐๐ โ ๐๐๐๐
1โข
2โขโข3 โ Conf3(Torus๐
Notice that being a subset of ๐๐๐๐, the configurationspace Conf๐๐(๐๐๐ is itself a topological space. Configuยญration spaces describe the state of an entire system asa single point in a higher dimensional space.
It is clear that many situations can be expressed interms of configuration spaces. For instance, in meยญchanics, where objects can often be assumed to bepoints and are not allowed to take the same place, theconfiguration of the system is a point on the configuยญration space.
What might be less clear is why we should be inยญterested in Conf๐๐(๐๐๐ not just as a set, but also as atopological space, and in its homotopical properties.
Here are some examples where the topology ofconfiguration spaces appear:
โข Imagine you have ๐๐ small robots on a plane
with obstacles. The surface of movement ๐๐ cantypically be represented as the complement ofthe obstacles. If we approximate the robots bypoints, their movement corresponds to a pathin Conf๐๐(๐๐๐. Turning the problem around,we can consider the path space on Conf๐๐(๐๐๐,Map([๐, 1], Conf๐๐(๐๐๐๐ with the two projections
๐๐๐ Map([๐, 1], Conf๐๐(๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ Conf๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐ Conf๐๐(๐๐๐
given by the initial and final configuration. Amotion planning algorithm is essentially a secยญtion of the map ๐๐. Unless the configurationspace is contractible (which is almost never thecase) such a section does not exist globally. Thetopological complexity (surveyed in last yearsBulletin [11]) is a homotopy invariant that alยญlows us to construct notยญveryยญdiscontinuous secยญtions.
โข In knot theory one wishes to classify all knotsup to ambient isotopy, which corresponds to theconnected components of the space of smoothembeddings Emb(๐๐1, โ3๐. As a first approxiยญmation of the knot one can discretise the knotinto many points, which gives a particular kindof configuration on โ3. In fact, a drastic genยญeralisation of this problem is the goal of unยญderstanding the homotopy type of the embedยญding space Emb(๐๐, ๐๐๐ between two smooth
1
CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 41
manifolds. Notice that such an embedding๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ induces amap at the level of configยญuration spaces ๐๐๐๐ ๐ Conf๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐ Conf๐๐(๐๐๐ byevaluation pointwise. Under good conditions,the GoodwillieยญWeiss embedding calculus [2]tells us that we can recover (up to homotopy)the embedding space Emb(๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ from the dataof all the ๐๐๐๐ together with some additional algeยญbraic structure.
โข The pure braid group on ๐๐ strands, denoted PB๐๐is the group whose elements are ๐๐ braids (up toambient isotopy), and whose group operation iscomposition of braids.
The pure braid group PB๐๐ is isomorphic to thefundamental group of the configuration space of๐๐ points on the plane ๐๐1(Conf๐๐(โ2๐๐.
โข In quantum field theory, namely in ChernยญSiยญmons theory, one can construct invariants offramed smoothmanifolds via integrals over conยญfiguration spaces [3].
We point out that some authors would call this thespace of ordered configurations. The unordered config-uration space (or configurations of indistinguishablepoints) can be seen as the quotient space of Conf๐๐(๐๐๐by the action of the symmetric group๐๐๐๐ which acts bypermuting the ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐โs.
In some sense unordered configuration spacescontain less information than ordered configurationspaces: as long as we can keep track of the symmetricgroup action, we can always recover the first from thelatter.
2 EXAMPLES
Configuration spaces are very simple to define, butsurprisingly hard to understand. Compare themwith๐๐๐๐ which we could call the configuration space of ๐๐ pos-sibly overlapping points on ๐๐. In practice, most invariยญants (such as the Euler characteristic, fundamentalgroup, cohomology over a field) of ๐๐๐๐ can be comยญputed from the same invariant on ๐๐.
It is very instructive to see some examples to geta feel on configuration spaces. Notice that the babycases ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ 1 give us in all generality Conf๐(๐๐๐ ๐ ๐and Conf1(๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐, but this is essentially all we cansay for an arbitrary topological space.
1. For the configuration of two points in theeuclidean space, there is an identification
Conf2(โ๐๐๐ ๐ โ๐๐ ร ๐๐๐๐๐1 ร โ>๐. This followsfrom the fact the position of the two points canbe fully determined by first giving the positionof the first point, then determining the vectorthe first point makes with the second one. Onecan picture the (๐๐ ๐ 1๐ยญdimensional sphere ๐๐๐๐๐1
as a the angle the points make with one another.Under this identification, the ๐๐2 action maps apoint in ๐๐๐๐๐1 to its antipode. Notice that in parยญticular the unordered configuration space willbe nonยญorientable for odd ๐๐.
2. If we consider the graph given by connectingthree vertices to a fourth vertex, its configuraยญtion space Conf2( ๐ is the following space
Notice that in dimension 1 there is a pheยญnomenon of nonยญlocality, in which even if twoof the points are close, it might be difficult forthem to exchange positions.
3. On the interval ๐ผ๐ผ ๐ (๐๐ 1๐, the configurationspace of ๐๐ points has ๐๐๐ connected components,corresponding to all possible ways to order ๐๐points. All of these components are homeomorยญphic to the open ๐๐ยญsimplex
{(๐ฅ๐ฅ1๐ โฆ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐ | ๐ < ๐ฅ๐ฅ1 < โฏ < ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ < 1}.
3 HOMOTOPY TYPE
This last example 3 is the simplest example of a topoยญlogical invariant (connected components) on the conยญfiguration space that cannot be deduced just fromthe invariant on the base space. While one could betempted to dismiss it as trivial, since it can only hapยญpen in dimension 1, it is actually a shadow of a moregeneral problem.
Indeed, these issues are related with the nonยญfunctoriality of
Conf๐๐ ๐ Top. Spaces โถ Top. Spaces.
242
If a map ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ is not injective, the induced map๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ will not restrict to the respective conยญfiguration spaces.
Recall that two spaces ๐๐ and ๐๐ are said to be ho-motopy equivalent, denoted ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ , if there are maps๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ and ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ such that ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ is homoยญtopic to the identity id๐๐ in the sense that there existsa map โ๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ such that โ(๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ ๐๐ฆ ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ฆ andโ(๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ ๐๐ฆ ๐ฆ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐(๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฆ, and similarly for ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ . When wetalk about the homotopy type of ๐๐, we mean the equivยญalence class of all spaces homotopy equivalent to ๐๐.
Typically, invariants we study (and all those menยญtioned in this survey) of topological spaces dependonly on the homotopy type. The natural question thatone is led to ask is whether the homotopy type is preยญserved by taking configuration spaces, i.e., whether๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ will guarantee that Conf๐๐(๐๐๐ฆ ๐ Conf๐๐(๐๐ ๐ฆ.This sounds very implausible given the preceding disยญcussion. Also, out of a homotopy equivalence beยญtween๐๐ and ๐๐ , there seems to be no way to constructa single map relating their configuration spaces.
In fact, the very first example 1 provides already aplethora of counterยญexamples, since regardless of thedimension, all Euclidean spaces are contractible (andhence homotopy equivalent), but Conf2(โ๐๐๐ฆ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐
and no two different dimensional spheres have thesame homology, cohomology or homotopy groups.
Given this, one might be surprised that the nextopen question is believed to be true.
CONJECTURE 1.โ For simply connected compactmanifolds without boundary, the homotopy type ofConf๐๐(๐๐๐ฆ only depends on the homotopy type of ๐๐ .
The more general conjecture for nonยญsimply conยญnected spaces was only disproved in 2005, when Lonยญgoni and Salvatore were able to show that the lensspaces ๐ฟ๐ฟ7๐2 and ๐ฟ๐ฟ7๐๐ provide a counterยญexample bycomputing the Massey products on the universal covยญers of the respective configuration spaces of 2 points[8].
In the last section I will try to provide some eviยญdence for this conjecture in the form of Theorem 7.From now on, we will restrict our study to the case ofsmooth manifolds.
4 COMPACT VERSION OF CONFIGURATIONSPACES
Suppose that ๐๐ is a compact smooth manifold. Evenif ๐๐ is compact, the configuration space Conf๐๐(๐๐๐ฆ
is not compact when ๐๐ ๐ 2, since a sequence of twopoints moving into the same place does not converge.This is an unfortunate property to lose: For instance,in situations where one wishes to consider integralsover configuration spaces (as in quantum field theยญory), one has to deal with issues of convergence.
A neat way to address this issue is to work inยญstead with a suitable compactification of Conf๐๐(๐๐๐ฆ.The most natural one is perhaps to consider ๐๐๐๐, butthis could of course lose all homotopy informationas in the case of โ๐๐. The strategy is instead to emยญbed Conf๐๐(๐๐๐ฆ ๐ ๐๐ in some compact manifold withboundary ๐๐ , such that Conf๐๐(๐๐๐ฆ sits in ๐๐ as its inยญterior, since manifolds with boundary are homotopyequivalent to their interiors.
The construction of such manifold is due to Axยญelrod and Singer but is usually called the Fulton-MacPherson compactification of Conf๐๐(๐๐๐ฆ, as it isa real analog of an iterated blowยญup constructionfrom algebraic geometry. This manifold is denotedFM๐๐(๐๐๐ฆ and admits a very visual description. Inยญtuitively, instead of allowing two points moving toยญwards each other tomeet, we allow them to be infinites-imally close together, but still retaining the informationof the direction in which they collided (i.e. they canstill move around each other along a sphere of dimenยญsion dim ๐๐ ๐ ๐).
โข โข๐ 2
โข3 โ FM3(Torus๐ฆ
In the case where there are only two points, indeedFM2(๐๐๐ฆ will be a manifold with boundary, but othยญerwise one needs to distinguish different situationswhen more than two points collide, so in generalFM๐๐(๐๐๐ฆ will be a compact smooth manifold with cornerswhose interior is Conf๐๐(๐๐๐ฆ.
In the figure above, fixing points ๐ and 2, thereare three possible cases when moving point 3 closeto ๐ and 2: (A) Point 3 stays at the same โinfinitesiยญmality stratumโ; (B) Point 3 furthermore approachesinfinitesimally point ๐, even from the perspective ofpoint 2; (C) Similar but point 3 approaches point 2.
โข๐3โข
3โข๐โข
2โขโข2(๐ด๐ด๐ฆ (๐ถ๐ถ๐ฆ
For details and a nice exposition see [9].
3CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 43
5 THE COHOMOLOGY OF Conf๐๐(โ๐๐)
So far we have considered configuration spaces of afixed number of points ๐๐, but given the same basemanifold ๐๐ , there are obvious relations between conยญfigurations of different number of points. Namely,given 1 โค ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ โค ๐๐, there are projectionmaps
๐๐๐๐๐๐ โถ Conf๐๐(๐๐) ๐ Conf2(๐๐)๐ (1)
given by forgetting the position of all points but the๐๐th and ๐๐th one.
These projection maps provide us with an attemptto inductively try to understand configurations of alarge number of points from a smaller one. To illusยญtrate this idea, let us consider in more detail the caseof configurations of points in โ๐๐, where we can get afull description of the cohomology ring of Conf๐๐(โ๐๐).For concreteness, let us denote by ๐ป๐ปโข(๐๐) the coยญhomology ring of ๐๐ with real coefficients. SinceConf๐๐(๐๐) is a smooth manifold, we will interpretthis graded commutative โยญalgebra as the cohomolยญogy of de Rham algebra of differential forms, denotedฮฉโข(Conf๐๐(๐๐)).
From our previous example 1 we deduce that๐ป๐ปโข(Conf2(โ๐๐)) = ๐ป๐ปโข(๐๐๐๐๐1) = โ1โโ๐๐, where ๐๐ isa degree ๐๐ ๐ 1 element representing the cohomologyclass of the volume form on ๐๐๐๐๐1.
THEOREM 2 (ARNOLD [1] AND COHEN [5]).โ Thecohomology โยญalgebra ๐ป๐ปโข(Conf๐๐(โ๐๐)) is given by
๐ด๐ด๐๐๐๐๐ =Sym(๐๐๐๐๐๐)1โค๐๐๐๐๐โค๐๐
(๐๐๐๐๐๐ = (๐1)๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐2๐๐๐๐ = 0๐Arnold)
(2)
where ๐๐๐๐๐๐ are elements of degree ๐๐ ๐ 1, Sym deยญnotes the symmetric algebra and the Arnold relationis ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ + ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ + ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ = 0.
Heuristically, ๐๐๐๐๐๐ represents the interaction beยญtween the points ๐๐ and ๐๐, while the Arnold relaยญtions represent threeยญpoint interactions. The theoremstates that these relations generate all existing relaยญtions.
PROOF (SKETCH).โ The first step is to construct themap ๐ด๐ด๐๐๐๐๐ โ ๐ป๐ปโข(Conf๐๐(โ๐๐)). We interpret ๐๐๐๐๐๐ asan element of ๐ป๐ปโข(Conf๐๐(โ๐๐)) by pulling back alongthe projection ๐๐๐๐๐๐ from equation (1) into the (๐๐ ๐ 1)ยญsphere: ๐๐๐๐๐๐ โ ๐๐โ
๐๐๐๐๐๐.The relation ๐๐2
๐๐๐๐ = 0 holds since it holds for ๐๐ ๐ฮฉ๐๐๐1(๐๐๐๐๐1). Switching the indices in๐๐๐๐๐๐ correspondsto applying the antipodal map in ๐๐๐๐๐1, which has adegree opposite to the dimension of the sphere, fromwhere it follows that ๐๐๐๐๐๐ = (๐1)๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐.
There are various short proofs of the Arnoldrelation, none of them completely immediate.It can be deduced by analysing the fibration๐๐12 โถ Conf3(โ๐๐) โ Conf2(โ๐๐). Alternatively, onecan explicitly find a form ๐๐ such that ๐๐๐๐ = Arnoldconstructed as a fiber integral ๐๐ = โซ4 ๐๐14๐๐24๐๐34, aswe will see in the final section.
Now that we have established maps
๐ด๐ด๐๐๐๐๐ โ ๐ป๐ปโข(Conf๐๐(โ๐๐))๐we need to show that they are isomorphisms, whichcan be done by induction on ๐๐. For this, we observethat the map Conf๐๐(โ๐๐) โ Conf๐๐๐1(โ๐๐) forgettingthe last point is a fibration whose fiber is homotopyequivalent to a wedge sum of spheres โ๐๐๐1
๐๐=1 ๐๐๐๐๐1 andthen apply the Serre spectral sequence. โ
6 RATIONAL HOMOTOPY THEORY
Let us step back from configuration spaces for a moยญment to consider the general problem of understandยญing the homotopy type of spaces via some algebraicinvariant.
The main issue is that invariants such as the cohoยญmology ring of a space do not capture the homotopytype sufficiently faithfully. A potentially strongerinvariant is given by the higher homotopy groups๐๐๐๐, since Whitehead theorem guarantees that a mapof CWยญcomplexes ๐๐ โ ๐๐ inducing isomorphisms๐๐๐๐(๐๐) โ ๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ) is a homotopy equivalence. Thisnot only does not completely solve our problem, sinceCWยญcomplexes might still have the same homotopygroups without having a map inducing an isomorยญphism, but it also has the additional issue that higherhomotopy groups are extremely difficult to computedue to their torsion parts. Rational homotopy theoryprovides a good way to address both issues, if we arewilling to work modulo torsion:
DEFINITION 3.โ We say that a map of simply conยญnected spaces๐๐ โ ๐๐ is a rational homotopy equivalenceif the induced map
๐๐๐๐(๐๐) ๐โค โ โ ๐๐๐๐(๐๐ ) ๐โค โis an isomorphism for all ๐๐. Equivalently, ๐๐ โ ๐๐is a rational homotopy equivalence if ๐ป๐ป๐๐(๐๐ ๐ โ) โ๐ป๐ป๐๐(๐๐๐ โ) is an isomorphism for all ๐๐.
Sullivan [10] associated to a space ๐๐ a differentialgraded (dg) commutative algebra๐ด๐ดโข
๐๐ ๐๐(๐๐) of piecewiselinear differential forms ๐๐, which the reader can thinkof as the de Rham algebra for nonยญmanifolds (and
444
over โ instead of โ), or alternatively as the singuยญlar โยญcochains on ๐๐, ๐ถ๐ถโข(๐๐๐ โ) (except that the cupproduct is not commutative before passing to cohoยญmology). The cohomology of the dg algebra ๐ด๐ดโข
๐๐ ๐๐(๐๐)is the graded algebra ๐ป๐ปโข(๐๐๐ โ).
In the category of rational dg commutative alยญgebras, one considers the corresponding notion ofhomotopy equivalence, which is the one of a quasi-isomorphism. These are morphisms of dg commutaยญtive algebras ๐ด๐ดโข โ ๐ต๐ตโข such that the induced map incohomology ๐ป๐ปโข(๐ด๐ด) โ ๐ป๐ปโข(๐ต๐ต) is an isomorphism.
The main result of Sullivan is that this construcยญtion captures faithfully the rational homotopy type ofspaces.
CAVEAT 4.โ Unlike ordinary homotopy equivaยญlences, having a rational homotopy equivalence ๐๐ โ๐๐ does not imply the existence of a rational homoยญtopy equivalence ๐๐ โ ๐๐. We say that ๐๐ and ๐๐ arerational homotopy equivalent and we write ๐๐ ๐โ ๐๐if there is a zigยญzag of rational homotopy equivalences
๐๐ ๐๐๐๐1 ๐โ โฏ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐โ๐๐Similarly, quasiยญisomorphisms of dg commutative alยญgebras are not invertible so the same remark holds.
There is a general construction in category theory:Given a category ๐๐ with some set of homotopy equiva-lences ๐ป๐ป ๐ป Morphisms(๐๐ ), one can construct the hoยญmotopy category of ๐๐ , denoted ๐๐ ๐๐ป๐ปโ1], which posยญsesses the same objects as ๐๐ , but where we formallyinvert the maps in ๐ป๐ป , such that they become isomorยญphisms in ๐๐ ๐๐ป๐ปโ1].
THEOREM 5 ([10]).โ The construction ๐ด๐ด๐๐ ๐๐ estabยญlishes an equivalence of categories
๐ด๐ด๐๐ ๐๐ โถ scSpaces๐r.h.e.โ1] โ โ โ DGCA>1๐q.i.โ1]from the category of simply connected topologicalspaces of finite type up to rational homotopy equivยญalence, to the category of dg commutative โยญalgebrasof finite type concentrated in degrees > 1 up to quasiยญisomorphism.
In practice, this result allows us to study topologycompletely via (differential graded) algebraic methยญods. Any dg commutative algebra quasiยญisomorphicto ๐ด๐ด๐๐ ๐๐(๐๐) is therefore called a rational model of ๐๐.A classical question in rational homotopy theory iswhether one can find a small model for ๐๐. The smallยญest possible candidate to be a model of ๐๐ would be itscohomology โยญalgebra, but in general it is not truethat ๐ป๐ปโข(๐๐๐ โ) ๐โ ๐ด๐ด๐๐ ๐๐(๐๐). If that happens to be the
case, we say that ๐๐ is formal.
It should be pointed out that in the context of Sulliยญvanโs theorem there is nothing special about โ exceptthat it is a field of characteristic 0. Replacing it withโ we would talk about the real homotopy type of ๐๐ inยญstead.
7 MODELS FOR CONFIGURATION SPACES
In this final section we will see how one can constructa nice model of the real homotopy type of configuraยญtion spaces using graphs. This will in particular allowus to prove the real version of Conjecture 1, see Theoยญrem 7.
THEOREM 6 ([4]).โ Let ๐๐ be a compact smoothmanifold without boundary and ๐๐ ๐ โ. There exยญists a nice dg commutative โยญalgebra spanned by acertain type of graphs Graphs๐๐(๐๐) modeling the realhomotopy type of Conf๐๐(๐๐). This is expressed by adirect quasiยญisomorphism of algebras into the algebraof semiยญalgebraic forms1 of FM๐๐(๐๐):
Graphs๐๐(๐๐) ๐ ๐(FM๐๐(๐๐))๐ (4)
Even though โ๐๐ is not a compact manifold, it is stillinstructive to go back to Theorem 2 and start by unยญderstanding how one could try to obtain a model ofConf๐๐ (โ๐๐) out of the computation of its cohomology.
The only reasonably natural attempt of estabยญlishing a quasiยญisomorphism ๐ป๐ปโข(Conf๐๐ (โ๐๐)) into๐(FM๐๐(โ๐๐)) would involve mapping ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ด๐ด๐๐๐๐๐ intothe volume form of the spheres ๐๐๐๐โ1. However, sincethe Arnold relations are not satisfied at the level of difยญferential forms this cannot produce a map compatiblewith the product.
While such a quasiยญisomorphism of algebras canยญnot be directly constructed, Kontsevich [7] showedthat configuration spaces in โ๐๐ are formal by estabยญlishing a zigยญzag passing by an algebra of graphs.
Notice that one can identify the algebra ๐ด๐ด๐๐๐๐๐ witha graded vector space given by โยญlinear combinationsof graphs on ๐๐ vertices, where an edge between thevertices ๐๐ and ๐๐ corresponds to ๐๐๐๐๐๐ .
1 2 3๐
โท ๐๐12๐๐13
To be precise, depending on the parity of ๐๐, edgesshould be oriented or ordered, and changing orienยญtation or order (by an odd permutation) produces aminus sign, but from now on we will work up to sign.
1Pretend it is the de Rham complex. This is a minor technicality due to the lack of smoothness of forgetting points near the corners.
5CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 45
Under this identification, edges have degree ๐๐๐๐ andthe commutative product on graphs is given by superยญposition of vertices and taking the union of edges.
The idea now is to attempt to resolve ๐ด๐ด๐๐๐๐๐ byadding a new kind of vertices, thatwouldmimic phanยญtom points moving freely in the configuration space.Concretely, one can define a dg commutative algebraGraphs๐๐(โ๐๐), spanned by graphs with ๐๐ labeled verยญtices as before and a arbitrary number of unlabeledvertices which now are of degree ๐๐๐.
The differential of a graph ฮ โ Graphs๐๐(โ๐๐) isgiven by summing all ways of contracting an unlaยญbeled vertex in ฮ along an edge. Here is an exampleexhibiting the Arnold relation as a coboundary:
๐๐๐
2
3=
๐
2
3+
๐
2
3+
๐
2
3โ Graphs3(โ๐๐).
Notice that the differential kills an unlabeled verยญtex and an edge so it is indeed of degree+๐ and (beingcareful with signs) it squares to zero. The product isstill given by superposition of labeled vertices (in parยญticular it adds the number of unlabeled vertices).
We can now produce a map into the algebra offorms
Graphs๐๐(โ๐๐) โถ ฮฉ(FM๐๐(โ๐๐))given by โmapping edges ๐๐ ๐๐ to the volume formof the sphere ๐๐๐๐๐๐
2 and integrating out the unlabeledverticesโ. In particular, the graph above yielding theArnold relation is mapped to
๐๐ = โซFM4โFM3
๐๐๐4๐๐24๐๐34.
The only nonยญimmediate thing that needs to bechecked is the compatibility with the differential,which follows mostly from the Stokes theorem formanifolds with corners.
In fact, to prove the formality of configurationspaces in โ๐๐, one just needs to show that the proยญjection into graphs with no unlabeled vertices is aquasiยญisomorphism, which can be achieved by a specยญtral sequence inductive argument.
While other configuration spaces over a compactmanifold๐๐ will not be formal (and there is no analogof Theorem 2), stretching a bit the notion of graphsone can use similar ideas to construct the dg commuยญtative โยญalgebra Graphs๐๐(๐๐) as follows:
As a vector space, Graphs๐๐(๐๐) is spanned bygraphs with ๐๐ labelled vertices, some unlabeled verยญtices and vertices can be decorated by (possibly repeatยญing) reduced cohomology classes in ๏ฟฝฬ๏ฟฝ๐ปโข(๐๐).
๐ 2 3 4
๐๐๐ ๐๐๐
๐๐2 ๐๐3
๐๐3
โ Graphs4(๐๐)๐
The product is still given by superposition of labeledvertices. Following heuristically Kontsevich, we wishto send such graphs to differential forms in FM๐๐(๐๐)in a way that integrates out unlabeled vertices andsending cohomology classes in ๐ป๐ปโข(๐๐) to represenยญtatives in ฮฉ(FM๐(๐๐)). To establish the map in (4),there are three main pieces:
(i) In the case of โ๐๐, FM2(โ๐๐) is essentially a sphere,so edges can be sent to volume forms. To whichform in ฮฉdim ๐๐๐๐(FM2(๐๐)) will edges be sentto?
(ii) What kind of differential mustGraphs๐๐(๐๐) havesuch that (4) is compatible with differentials?
(iii) How to make this map a quasiยญisomorphism?
We will not address the third point and without getยญting into details, let us just say that the first point isaddressed by mapping edges to what in mathematicalphysics is called a propagator [3].
The second point is the trickiest: As far asGraphs๐๐(๐๐) has been described, it only depends onthe cohomology of๐๐ , so it has no chance of even capยญturing the real homotopy type of๐๐ , let alone the conยญfiguration space. All this is hidden in the differential,which splits into three pieces ๐๐ = ๐๐contr.+๐๐Poinc.+๐๐๐๐๐๐
.A first piece ๐๐contr. which contracts edges as in the โ๐๐
case, a second piece ๐๐Poinc. which uses the Poincarรฉ duยญality pairing on ๐ป๐ปโข(๐๐) to split edges into two decoยญrations
ฮ ๐๐ . = โ๐๐๐๐โ๐ป๐ปโข(๐๐) ๐๐๐๐
๐๐โ๐๐
๐๐ .
and a third piece ๐๐๐๐๐๐acting only on subgraphs conยญ
sisting of unlabeled vertices which depends on thepartition function ๐๐๐๐ of the universal perturbativeAKSZ topological field theory on ๐๐ . We interpret๐๐๐๐ as a map from vacuum graphs (fully unlabeledgraphs in Graphs0(๐๐)) into real numbers.
THEOREM 7 ([4, 6]).โ Let๐๐ be a simply connectedsmooth compact manifold without boundary. The
2Abusing the notation denoting by ๐๐๐๐๐๐ both the form and its class in cohomology.
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Editor-in-ChiefAna Cristina Moreira Freitas [[email protected]]
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The CIM Bulletin is published once a year. Material intended for publication should be sent to one of the editors. The Bulletin is available at www.cim.pt. The CIM acknowledges the financial support of FCTโFundaรงรฃo para a Ciรชncia e Tecnologia.
real homotopy type of ๐๐ determines the real homoยญtopy type of its configuration space of points.
๐๐ ๐โ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐๐ ๐โ ๐๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ โ.
PROOF (SKETCH).โ Notice that since ๐๐ is simplyconnected ๐ป๐ป1(๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ and therefore decorations ofgraphs in Graphs๐๐(๐๐๐ have degree at least 2. Furtherยญmore we can assume that ๐ท๐ท ๐ ๐ท๐ท๐ท ๐๐ ๐ท ๐ท by thePoincarรฉ conjecture.
All pieces of the defining data of Graphs๐๐(๐๐๐ deยญpend only on the real homotopy type of ๐๐ , with thepossible exception of ๐๐๐๐๐๐
.One can show that ๐๐๐๐๐๐
depends only on the valueof ๐๐๐๐ on graphs consisting only of degree ๐ unlaยญbeled vertices with valence ๐ท 3 (decorations count asvalence).
The proof of the theorem now follows from thefollowing purely combinatorial statement: Using thatdecorations have degree at least 2, vertices have degreeโ๐ท๐ท and edges have degree ๐ท๐ท โ 1, the only ๐ท 3ยญvalentgraphs of degree ๐ are trees.
It turns out that the values of ๐๐๐๐ on trees deยญpend only on the real homotopy type of ๐๐ . It folยญlows that Graphs๐๐(๐๐๐ and therefore ๐๐๐๐๐๐(๐๐๐ alsodepends only on the real homotopy type of ๐๐ . โ
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7CIM Bulletin December 2020.42 47
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