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1. Stable Big Bang formation for Einstein’s equations: The complete sub-critical regime

   https://doi.org/10.1090/jams/1015  

   Fournodavlos, Grigorios; Rodnianski, Igor; Speck, Jared (July 2023, Journal of the American Mathematical Society)

   For $(t,x)\in <\#comment/>(0,\mathrm{\infty <\#comment/>})\times <\#comment/>{\mathbb{T}}^{\mathfrak{D}}$, the generalized Kasner solutions (which we refer to as Kasner solutions for short) are a family of explicit solutions to various Einstein-matter systems that, exceptional cases aside, start out smooth but then develop a Big Bang singularity as $t\downarrow <\#comment/>0$, i.e., a singularity along an entire spacelike hypersurface, where various curvature scalars blow up monotonically. The family is parameterized by the Kasner exponents ${\stackrel{~<\#comment/>}{q}}_1,\cdots <\#comment/>,{\stackrel{~<\#comment/>}{q}}_{\mathfrak{D}}\in <\#comment/>\mathbb{R}$, which satisfy two algebraic constraints. There are heuristics in the mathematical physics literature, going back more than 50 years, suggesting that the Big Bang formation should be dynamically stable, that is, stable under perturbations of the Kasner initial data, given say at $\{t=1\}$, as long as the exponents are “sub-critical” in the following sense: $\underset{\begin{array}{c}I,J,B=1,\cdots <\#comment/>,\mathfrak{D}\\ I>J\end{array}}{max}\{{\stackrel{~<\#comment/>}{q}}_I+{\stackrel{~<\#comment/>}{q}}_J-<\#comment/>{\stackrel{~<\#comment/>}{q}}_B\}>1$. Previous works have rigorously shown the dynamic stability of the Kasner Big Bang singularity under stronger assumptions: (1) the Einstein-scalar field system with $\mathfrak{D}=3$and ${\stackrel{~<\#comment/>}{q}}_1\approx <\#comment/>{\stackrel{~<\#comment/>}{q}}_2\approx <\#comment/>{\stackrel{~<\#comment/>}{q}}_3\approx <\#comment/>1/3$, which corresponds to the stability of the Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker solution’s Big Bang or (2) the Einstein-vacuum equations for $\mathfrak{D}\ge <\#comment/>38$with $\underset{I=1,\cdots <\#comment/>,\mathfrak{D}}{max}|{\stackrel{~<\#comment/>}{q}}_I|>1/6$. In this paper, we prove that the Kasner singularity is dynamically stable forallsub-critical Kasner exponents, thereby justifying the heuristics in the literature in the full regime where stable monotonic-type curvature-blowup is expected. We treat in detail the $1+\mathfrak{D}$-dimensional Einstein-scalar field system for all $\mathfrak{D}\ge <\#comment/>3$and the $1+\mathfrak{D}$-dimensional Einstein-vacuum equations for $\mathfrak{D}\ge <\#comment/>10$; both of these systems feature non-empty sets of sub-critical Kasner solutions. Moreover, for the Einstein-vacuum equations in $1+3$dimensions, where instabilities are in general expected, we prove that all singular Kasner solutions have dynamically stable Big Bangs under polarized $U\left(1\right)$-symmetric perturbations of their initial data. Our results hold for open sets of initial data in Sobolev spaces without symmetry, apart from our work on polarized $U\left(1\right)$-symmetric solutions. Our proof relies on a new formulation of Einstein’s equations: we use a constant-mean-curvature foliation, and the unknowns are the scalar field, the lapse, the components of the spatial connection and second fundamental form relative to a Fermi–Walker transported spatial orthonormal frame, and the components of the orthonormal frame vectors with respect to a transported spatial coordinate system. In this formulation, the PDE evolution system for the structure coefficients of the orthonormal frame approximately diagonalizes in a way that sharply reveals the significance of the Kasner exponent sub-criticality condition for the dynamic stability of the flow: the condition leads to the time-integrability of many terms in the equations, at least at the low derivative levels. At the high derivative levels, the solutions that we study can be much more singular with respect to $t$, and to handle this difficulty, we use $t$-weighted high order energies, and we control non-linear error terms by exploiting monotonicity induced by the $t$-weights and interpolating between the singularity-strength of the solution’s low order and high order derivatives. Finally, we note that our formulation of Einstein’s equations highlights the quantities that might generate instabilities outside of the sub-critical regime. 

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2. Energy Harvesting Performance of a Flapping Foil with Leading Edge Motion

   Prier, M. (April 2019, Dissertation)

   F or c e d at a f or a fl a p pi n g f oil e n er g y h ar v e st er wit h a cti v e l e a di n g e d g e m oti o n o p er ati n g i n t h e l o w r e d u c e d fr e q u e n c y r a n g e i s c oll e ct e d t o d et er mi n e h o w l e a di n g e d g e m oti o n aff e ct s e n er g y h ar v e sti n g p erf or m a n c e. T h e f oil pi v ot s a b o ut t h e mi dc h or d a n d o p er at e s i n t h e l o w r e d u c e d fr e q u e n c y r a n g e of 𝑓𝑓 𝑓𝑓 / 𝑈𝑈 ∞ = 0. 0 6 , 0. 0 8, a n d 0. 1 0 wit h 𝑅𝑅 𝑅𝑅 = 2 0 ,0 0 0 − 3 0 ,0 0 0 , wit h a pit c hi n g a m plit u d e of 𝜃𝜃 0 = 7 0 ∘ , a n d a h e a vi n g a m plit u d e of ℎ 0 = 0. 5 𝑓𝑓 . It i s f o u n d t h at l e a di n g e d g e m oti o n s t h at r e d u c e t h e eff e cti v e a n gl e of att a c k e arl y t h e str o k e w or k t o b ot h i n cr e a s e t h e lift f or c e s a s w ell a s s hift t h e p e a k lift f or c e l at er i n t h e fl a p pi n g str o k e. L e a di n g e d g e m oti o n s i n w hi c h t h e eff e cti v e a n gl e of att a c k i s i n cr e a s e d e arl y i n t h e str o k e s h o w d e cr e a s e d p erf or m a n c e. I n a d diti o n a di s cr et e v ort e x m o d el wit h v ort e x s h e d di n g at t h e l e a di n g e d g e i s i m pl e m e nt f or t h e m oti o n s st u di e d; it i s f o u n d t h at t h e m e c h a ni s m f or s h e d di n g at t h e l e a di n g e d g e i s n ot a d e q u at e f or t hi s p ar a m et er r a n g e a n d t h e m o d el c o n si st e ntl y o v er pr e di ct s t h e a er o d y n a mi c f or c e s. 

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3. Degenerate linear parabolic equations in divergence form on the upper half space

   https://doi.org/10.1090/tran/8892  

   Dong, Hongjie; Phan, Tuoc; Tran, Hung (June 2023, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society)

   We study a class of second-order degenerate linear parabolic equations in divergence form in ( − ∞ , T ) × R + d (-\infty , T) \times {\mathbb {R}}^d_+ with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition on ( − ∞ , T ) × ∂ R + d (-\infty , T) \times \partial {\mathbb {R}}^d_+ , where R + d = { x ∈ R d : x d > 0 } {\mathbb {R}}^d_+ = \{x \in {\mathbb {R}}^d: x_d>0\} and T ∈ ( − ∞ , ∞ ] T\in {(-\infty , \infty ]} is given. The coefficient matrices of the equations are the product of μ ( x d ) \mu (x_d) and bounded uniformly elliptic matrices, where μ ( x d ) \mu (x_d) behaves like x d α x_d^\alpha for some given α ∈ ( 0 , 2 ) \alpha \in (0,2) , which are degenerate on the boundary { x d = 0 } \{x_d=0\} of the domain. Our main motivation comes from the analysis of degenerate viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equations. Under a partially VMO assumption on the coefficients, we obtain the well-posedness and regularity of solutions in weighted Sobolev spaces. Our results can be readily extended to systems. 

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4. On homogeneous Newton-Sobolev spaces of functions in metric measure spaces of uniformly locally controlled geometry

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00229-025-01656-5  

   Gibara, Ryan; Kangasniemi, Ilmari; Shanmugalingam, Nageswari (July 2025, Manuscripta mathematica)

   We study the large-scale behavior of Newton-Sobolev functions on complete, connected, proper, separable metric measure spaces equipped with a Borel measure μ with μ(X) = ∞ and 0 < μ(B(x, r)) < ∞ for all x ∈ X and r ∈ (0, ∞). Our objective is to understand the relationship between the Dirichlet space D^(1,p)(X), defined using upper gradients, and the Newton-Sobolev space N^(1,p)(X)+ℝ, for 1 ≤ p < ∞. We show that when X is of uniformly locally p-controlled geometry, these two spaces do not coincide under a wide variety of geometric and potential theoretic conditions. We also show that when the metric measure space is the standard hyperbolic space ℍⁿ with n ≥ 2, these two spaces coincide precisely when 1 ≤ p ≤ n-1. We also provide additional characterizations of when a function in D^(1,p)(X) is in N^(1,p)(X)+ℝ in the case that the two spaces do not coincide. 

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5. Learning in the Presence of Low-dimensional Structure: A Spiked Random Matrix Perspective

   Ba, Jimmy; Erdogdu, Murat A; Suzuki, Taiji; Wang, Zhichao; Wu, Denny (December 2023, Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 36 (NeurIPS 2023))

   Oh, A; Naumann, T; Globerson, A; Saenko, K; Hardt, M; Levine, S (Ed.)

   We consider the problem of learning a single-index target function f∗ : Rd → R under the spiked covariance data: f∗(x) = σ∗   √ 1 1+θ ⟨x,μ⟩   , x ∼ N(0, Id + θμμ⊤), θ ≍ dβ for β ∈ [0, 1), where the link function σ∗ : R → R is a degree-p polynomial with information exponent k (defined as the lowest degree in the Hermite expansion of σ∗), and it depends on the projection of input x onto the spike (signal) direction μ ∈ Rd. In the proportional asymptotic limit where the number of training examples n and the dimensionality d jointly diverge: n, d → ∞, n/d → ψ ∈ (0,∞), we ask the following question: how large should the spike magnitude θ be, in order for (i) kernel methods, (ii) neural networks optimized by gradient descent, to learn f∗? We show that for kernel ridge regression, β ≥ 1 − 1 p is both sufficient and necessary. Whereas for two-layer neural networks trained with gradient descent, β > 1 − 1 k suffices. Our results demonstrate that both kernel methods and neural networks benefit from low-dimensional structures in the data. Further, since k ≤ p by definition, neural networks can adapt to such structures more effectively. 

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