Papers

In the 1960s, Grünbaum and Loewner raised problems concerning the minimum possible number of hyperplane sections of a convex body in $R^n$ whose centroids coincide with the centroid of the body itself. By employing the hemispherical transform and Morse theory, we provide a complete solution to these problems.

Let $n_k$ denote the least integer $n>2k$ such that $(n-k)(n-k+1)\cdots(n-1)$ is not divisible by any prime in the interval $(k,2k)$. Confirming a conjecture of Erdős, we prove that, for all sufficiently large $k$, $$ n_k > e^{\frac{\log^2 k}{20 \log \log k}}. $$

Recent research on Doeblin coefficients has shed light on their usefulness as a multi-way generalization of the Dobrushin contraction coefficient for TV distance, in a separate vein from their classic role in the theory of Markov chain ergodicity. However, strong conditions, such as being bounded away from 0, are typically necessary for Doeblin coefficients to establish the existence of information contraction. Building on recently formulated concepts of nonlinear information contraction, we aim to propose a finer-grained Doeblin-based characterization of multi-way contraction behavior which yields non-vacuous contraction guarantees even for channels whose Doeblin coefficient is 0. To this end, we introduce the notion of a Doeblin curve – a nonlinear function which quantifies the contraction behavior of a Markov kernel on collections of input distributions at specific levels of divergence and power. Through the course of our analysis, we develop a new variational characterization of Doeblin coefficients, present several properties of Doeblin curves, define several versions of power-constrained Doeblin curves, and derive upper and lower bounds using our aforementioned variational characterization. We then utilize these results in diverse areas, including generalization bounds for noisy iterative optimization, error bounds for reliable computation with noisy circuits, and differential privacy guarantees for online iterative algorithms. In particular, we extend results in these areas to broader domains or group settings, leveraging Doeblin curves to reveal finer-grained contraction phenomena than Doeblin coefficients.

We define a mass invariant adapted to the spectral scalar curvature for asymptotically hyperbolic 3-manifolds with toroidal infinity and show its positivity under a lower bound on the spectral scalar curvature. In addition, we show a rigidity theorem and some band width estimates under similar assumptions.

This paper investigates the one-dimensional Fourier phase retrieval problem for indicator functions of finite unions of intervals. Specifically, we study the recovery of a set $\Omega = \bigcup_{j=1}^m I_j \subset\mathbb{R}$ from the magnitude of its Fourier transform $|\widehat{\mathbf{1}_\Omega}|$, where each $I_j \subset \mathbb{R}$ is a bounded interval. For $m\le 2$, we prove that $\Omega$ is uniquely determined by $ |\widehat{\mathbf{1}_\Omega}|$ up to the natural ambiguities of translation and reflection, and we further establish a stability result for this reconstruction. In contrast, for $m\ge 3$, uniqueness fails in general. More precisely, for every $m\ge 3$, we explicitly construct functions $f_m,g_m\in\mathcal{I}_m$ such that $|\widehat{f_m}|=|\widehat{g_m}|,$ while $f_m$ cannot be obtained from $g_m$ by any translation or reflection, where $\mathcal{I}_m$ denotes the class of indicator functions of unions of exactly $m$ intervals. Furthermore, building on the theory of the turnpike problem, in which a finite integer set is uniquely determined by its multiset of pairwise differences under a collision-free condition, we establish an analogous result for finite subsets of $\mathbb{R}$. This, in turn, yields a sufficient condition for recovering indicator functions of finite unions of intervals. These results provide a complete characterization of the Fourier phase retrieval problem for indicator functions of finite unions of intervals and offer new insights into Fourier phase retrieval for indicator functions of more general domains in higher dimensions.

Keevash and Michaeli recently proved that, under the robustness assumption that \(G\) is an \(s\)-connector (i.e. \(\overline G\) is \(K_{s,s}\)-free), \(G\) has essentially the same multicolour Ramsey matching properties as complete graphs, with an additive error \(O(qs)\), where \(q\) is the number of colours. They asked whether the dependence on \(q\) can be removed. We answer this question in a stronger exact form. For \({\bf t}=(t_1,\ldots,t_q)\in\mathbb N_+^q\), let \(R_s({\bf t})\) be the smallest integer \(N\) such that every \(N\)-vertex \(s\)-connector \(G\) satisfies \( G\to (t_1K_2,\ldots,t_qK_2). \) We determine the exact value \[ R_s({\bf t})=\sum_{j\in[q]}(t_j-1)+ \max\left\{2s,\ s+\max_{j\in[q]}t_j\right\}. \] While Keevash and Michaeli's proof uses a compression algorithm based on the Gallai–Edmonds decomposition to reduce the colouring to a structured form, our proof is a direct minimal-counterexample argument together with a new counting method for monochromatic matchings which can be applied to \(s\)-connectors.

We show that a general nonlinearly perturbed Maxwell theory of electromagnetism possesses three universal fundamental properties: (i) A finite-energy electric point charge. (ii) Exclusion of finite-energy magnetic monopoles and dually charged dyons. (iii) Arbitrary smallness of the effective radius of a point electric charge and the associated local undetectedness of the electric charge and energy. In particular, this last property offers a classical explanation for the invisibility of the electron, as a point electric charge, in accordance with the smallness of its effective radius. This nonlinear theory of electromagnetism has the feature that it minimally perturbs the Maxwell theory with a nonlinearity profile that is as general as possible such that the three universal properties stated above are all maintained.

We prove several results about Stiefel-Whitney Classes (SWCs) $w_k(\pi)$ of representations $\pi$ of $S_n$. First, each SWC is polynomial in the character values of $\pi$ at involutions. Next, for a fixed $k$, the proportion of irreducible $\pi$ for which $w_k(\pi)=0$ approaches $100\%$ as $n \to \infty$. A similar result holds for the top SWCs. We also provide a simple criterion which determines the first nonvanishing SWC for a representation. The first four SWCs are computed explicitly. Finally, we give analogues for alternating groups.

In this paper, we are concerned with the optimal dimension-dependent $\ell^p$ norm of the discrete Riesz Transforms $R_{\text{dis}}^{(k)}$ on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ given by the singular convolution kernel $K_k(m)=c_d m_k/|m|^{d+1}$, where $c_d=\Gamma(\frac{d+1}{2})/\pi^{(d+1)/2}$ . We show that for fixed $1<p<\infty$, when $d\to \infty$ $$\|R_{dis}^{\left( k \right)}\|_{\ell ^p\left( \mathbb{Z}^d \right) \rightarrow \ell ^p\left( \mathbb{Z}^d \right)}=2c_d\left( 1+\frac{\left( \sqrt{2}+o\left( 1 \right) \right) d}{2^{\frac{d}{2}}} \right) .$$ The operator norm of $R_{\text{dis}}^{(k)}$ grows super-exponentially as $d\to\infty$ since $c_d\sim(\frac{d-1}{2e\pi})^{\frac{d-1}{2}}\sqrt{\frac{d-1}{\pi}}$ by Stirling's formula, which gives a negative answer to the conjecture proposed by Bañuelos, Kim and Kwaśnicki in \cite{BKK}. The optimal dimension-dependent $\ell^{1,\infty}$ estimate of $R_{\text{dis}}^{(k)}$ is also established.

Dense Eisenstein–Jacobi (EJ) networks are degree-six algebraic interconnection networks whose finite quotient geometry is naturally represented by a hexagonal axial-coordinate ball. This paper studies non-redundant one-to-all broadcast repair in the dense EJ network generated by $\alpha=(t+1)+t\omega$, where $t$ is the network diameter. We propose EJ-MOEM, a multi-orientation edge-minimum repair method that evaluates a constant-size family of hexagonal broadcast-tree orientations, selects a fault-aware candidate, contracts the fault-pruned tree into healthy components, and reconnects these components using external component-crossing repair edges. The resulting structure is a rooted spanning tree of the healthy subgraph: every healthy node receives the message exactly once, no faulty node is used, and the original healthy tree components are preserved. We prove that, for a chosen orientation whose fault-pruned component graph is connected, exactly $c-1$ external repair edges are necessary and sufficient, where $c$ is the number of healthy components. We also prove a depth-certificate theorem for EJ coordinate-reduction trees: every one-fault placement admits a repair of depth at most $t+1$, and every two-fault placement admits a repair of depth at most $t+2$. The proof uses the three-strip representation of EJ hexagons, a sector-suffix attachment lemma, a non-adjacent-sector separation lemma, and a six-direction shielding classification for paired cuts. Extended validation includes exhaustive one- and two-fault enumeration for $t=2,\ldots,12,14,16,18$ (up to $N=1027$ and 525,825 two-fault placements at $t=18$), structured theorem-critical tests through $t=30$, and large random tests through $t=200$, all with 100% success and no violation of the theorem.

Circulant interconnection networks provide symmetric addressing, compact generator descriptions, and uniform local connectivity. This paper maps a degree–redundancy landscape for a fault-tolerant two-hop primitive in directed circulants: given $n$ nodes and degree budget $m$, how large can the worst-case shared-relay multiplicity $R(n,m)$ be? A node is a shared relay for an ordered terminal pair if it has outgoing links to both terminals; an $f$-relay-fault-tolerant circulant requires at least $f+1$ such relays for every pair. The underlying feasibility condition is a cyclic difference-multiplicity condition, which we use as a mathematical tool rather than claim as a new object. The contribution is the network-design framework around this tool: the parameters $R(n,m)$ and $D_f(n)$, a negative theorem for interval circulants, relay-table preprocessing and lookup algorithms, adversarial and random failure guarantees, load-balance scope, certified upper-bound interpretation of heuristic designs, exact small-$n$ calibration, a software lookup-versus-search microbenchmark, and a reproducible study of 526,539 generator sets. The results show that generator choice critically determines worst-case relay survivability: optimized threshold designs achieve $f$-relay-fault tolerance within about $1.16$–$1.63$ of the counting lower bound, while standard interval generators can fail structurally even at much larger degrees.

Six-regular simple Eisenstein–Jacobi (EJ) networks are degree-six quotient-lattice interconnection networks. This paper gives a ratio-independent decomposition of every six-regular simple non-axis EJ network into three edge-disjoint Hamiltonian cycles using a canonical ordered local-switch model based on unit-parallelogram exchanges. The admitted $d=1$ branch needs no switches; $d=2$ has optimal total cost four; and for $d=3$ and $d\ge4$ both modified factors attain the component-counting lower bound $d-1$. Factor-local switches commute, so chronological interleaving does not alter the final factors or cost within the model. Orbit normalization identifies the exact domain and excludes the unique normalized non-axis norm-three degeneration. For $d\ge4$, an equal-coordinate alternating lift removes reduced-ratio dependence from the fine diagonal coordinate. A block-chain invariant, exhaustive interior-template lemma, and parity-specific successor permutations certify the unused complement: rank advances by one modulo $4d-6$, and arc and connector bijections prove complete coverage. The certificate uses $O(d)$ seed records and expands to the full edge lists in $O(N)$ time. Deterministic symbolic and full-quotient audits, including a dictionary-free fine-incidence check for every $4\le d\le201$, are provided in the accompanying reproducibility package and are not proof premises.

The clique adjacency polynomial (CAP), introduced by Soicher (2015), provides a powerful method for bounding the clique numbers of edge-regular graphs. In this paper, we extend the CAP framework to arbitrary finite graphs by expressing the relevant parameters in terms of average vertex degree and average edge-degree over potential cliques. This leads to a generalised CAP bound and an associated clique existence polynomial (CEP), which removes the dependence on an auxiliary integer variable and facilitates computation. We compare the resulting bounds with classical spectral and linear programming bounds, including those of Delsarte, Hoffman, and Haemers. We show that the generalised CAP improves upon these bounds for several families of graphs. In particular, we identify infinite families of edge-regular graphs arising from projective geometry for which the CAP outperforms the Delsarte bound, as well as families of regular and non-regular graphs where the generalised CAP improves upon the Hoffman and Haemers bounds. We also develop techniques for bounding feasible parameter regions, enabling practical application of the method to both structured and unstructured graphs.

Efficient and provably accurate partitioned methods for fluid-poroelastic structure interaction remain challenging because explicit treatment of the Stokes-Biot interface coupling condition can compromise stability. In this work, we develop and analyze a fully discrete, second-order, explicit splitting scheme for the time-dependent Stokes-Biot problem on fixed domains. The method combines BDF2 time stepping with second-order Adams-Bashforth extrapolation of interface data through a Robin reformulation, yielding a partitioned algorithm in which the Stokes and Biot subproblems are solved independently and in parallel at each time step. The main analytical contribution is a rigorous stability and error analysis for this second-order explicit coupling strategy. Using BDF2 energy identities, a sharp decomposition of the extrapolated interface terms, and discrete trace estimates, we prove a closed stability bound under a parabolic CFL condition. We then derive an a priori error estimate through a projection-based framework using a Fortin projection for the fluid variables and Ritz-type projections for the poroelastic variables. The analysis identifies consistency defects from BDF2 time discretization, Adams-Bashforth interface extrapolation, and the projected kinematic relation. It shows that the total errors in fluid velocity, structure velocity, pore pressure, and elastic displacement are bounded by C times the sum of the kth power of the mesh size and the square of the time step, for k from 1 to 3, in bulk energy norms. Numerical experiments with manufactured solutions confirm second-order temporal convergence and optimal-order spatial convergence. We also include a moving-domain example with Navier-Stokes fluid flow, demonstrating applicability beyond the fixed-domain Stokes-Biot setting analyzed.

We provide a partial answer to Problems 1 and 2 raised in the recent article by Blaschke et al., concerning the analytic continuation of weighted $H$-harmonic Bergman spaces. These are spaces of functions annihilated by the Möbius-invariant Laplacian on the unit ball. More precisely, we identify some of the discrete Wallach sets and show, among others, that structure depends on the parity of the dimension.

We prove that the top wedge power of the Ricci form of a complete non-compact Kähler manifold with positive sectional curvature has finite integral. Using a result of Chen-Zhu, an immediate consequence is the quasiprojectivity of such manifolds under the assumption of bounded sectional curvature. A key new idea to prove Bézout estimates along with a Lipschitz weight with finite Monge-Ampère mass is used in the proof of the main result.

Our goal is to survey the development of positive mass theorem and the Yamabe equation on CR manifolds in recent years. We introduce the notion of the mass in several complex variables or CR geometry. We then consider the Yamabe problem on CR manifolds to find a minimizer for the CR-Sobolev quotient. The positive mass theorem plays a key role in finding a solution to the Yamabe equation with minimum energy for the positive curvature case. We mainly focus on the team works in the following three papers [CMY17], [CMY23] and [CC22], on a positive mass theorem in 3-dimensional CR geometry, the CR-Sobolev quotient of Rossi spheres, and the 5-dimensional situation, respectively.

For a broad class of Delone sets in $\mathbb{R}^n$ that are of significance in both mathematics and physics, we prove a non-uniform Balian-Low type theorem and settle the converse problem on the existence of Gabor frames, for arbitrary dimension $n$. To this end, we introduce a class of Gabor frames, termed full Gabor frames, and prove that the existence of such a frame on the Delone set with Schwartz window functions is equivalent to the condition that the lower Beurling density be strictly greater than one. In fact, the usual Balian-Low direction using window functions from the Feichtinger's algebra can be proven for arbitrary point sets, thereby improving an earlier density theorem by Christensen, Deng, and Heil. The corresponding dual result for Riesz sequences is also obtained. The main technical tools employed in this paper are tiling groupoid constructions and $C^*$-algebraic methods. As a byproduct, we resolve an open question from Ito's thesis concerning the bounded dynamical asymptotic dimension of tiling groupoids. Furthermore, this result allows us to extend the classification theorem of Ito, Whittaker, and Zacharias to the twisted case.

Introduced by Ballantine, Beck, and Merca, the elementary symmetric partition function $\mathrm{pre}_k$, defined on the set of partitions with at least $k$ parts, has been a topic of recent interest. We prove that $\mathrm{pre}_k$ is injective on the set of $m$-ary partitions for positive integers $m \ge k$, generalizing the binary $k = 2$ result of Ballantine, Beck, and Merca, and complementing a result of Hadelyn, Niergarth, Li and Li showing that, for each $k \ge 3$, $\mathrm{pre}_k$ is not injective on partitions of $n$ with length $2k$ for infinitely many $n$. We introduce the skew Schur partition function $\mathrm{prs}_{\lambda'/\mu'}$, prove injectivity results for particular choices of $\lambda',\mu'$, and describe an application to representation theory.

We study dynamic resource allocation in a multicore computing system with a fixed number of processing cores and a stream of malleable jobs. Each job may adjust its level of parallelism during execution, allowing adaptive redistribution of resources across concurrently active jobs. Jobs belong to one of two observable classes, each characterized by a distinct speed-up function with unknown parameters. The objective is to learn a core-allocation policy that minimizes the long-run mean number of jobs in the system, equivalently the mean response time in steady state. \noindent To address this uncertainty, we develop an iterative learning-and-control framework. The system alternates between estimating the unknown speed-up parameters from observed job completions and solving the associated Markov decision process (MDP) to update the allocation policy. Within each job class, cores are shared equally among active jobs; the fraction of capacity assigned to each class is obtained from the MDP formulation of \cite{berg2017}, evaluated at the current parameter estimates. We construct a maximum likelihood estimator based on state-dependent inter-departure times and prove its strong consistency under a fixed allocation policy. We further propose two learning algorithms that combine this estimation step with dynamic programming-based policy updates, and illustrate their through numerical experiments.

Given a complex reductive group $G$, a representation $V$ of $G$ and a Borel-stable subspace $M \subset V$, we consider the associated Steinberg-type variety $Z$. We prove that, under a certain condition on $(V,M)$, called gluability, the equivariant Borel-Moore homology or $K$-theory of $Z$, equipped with the convolution product, is obtained as the intersection of two copies of the nil-Hecke algebra inside its localization. We also provide a description of these new algebras in terms of poles and residues. Similar results are obtained when $G$ is replaced by its loop group. This generalizes results of Ginzburg, Kapranov and Vasserot describing the affine Hecke algebra and DAHA, as well as a result of Teleman and Gannon–Webster that realizes certain Coulomb branches by gluing two copies of the universal centralizer.

Patterson–Sullivan measures encode the distribution of orbits of discrete group actions near the boundary. We prove a global shadow lemma for Patterson–Sullivan measures associated to relatively Morse subgroups of higher-rank semisimple Lie groups. The estimate is uniform for shadows centered at arbitrary points in a Gromov model, including points deep in the cuspidal part, and expresses the contribution of each cusp in terms of peripheral growth. This extends the global shadow lemma of Stratmann–Velani for geometrically finite real hyperbolic groups. As applications, we establish local doubling and reverse doubling. Under Zariski density, we give necessary and sufficient criteria for Patterson–Sullivan measures to agree with the associated Hausdorff measures and to be Ahlfors regular. For symmetric linear forms, these criteria hold without Zariski density. We verify the criteria explicitly for cusped Hitchin representations and real-hyperbolic self-joinings.

We propose a signature-based method to solve the optimal market-making problem under a mean-variance criterion. By exploiting signature linearization techniques, we reduce the market-making problem to a pseudo-linear optimization over the expected signature of an augmented market path, and we develop a signature algorithm named Sig-REINFORCE to learn the optimal bid and ask quotes. We test our method in two scenarios, in which market-order arrivals follow either a Poisson or a self-exciting Hawkes process, and we benchmark it against a Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) baseline.

We introduce a second-order approximation to the compressible atmospheric Euler equations with gravity that is invariant domain preserving and well-balanced with respect to stratified rest states, including isentropic and isothermal equilibria. The approximation is built upon discrete auxiliary states derived from a hydrostatic reconstruction of the density and potential temperature. These auxiliary states, together with an affine shift of the numerical state, provide local bounds needed for maintaining well-balancing and invariant domain preserving properties of the method. The numerical method is then verified and validated with analytic solutions, well-balancing tests, and typical benchmark problems for atmospheric flows.

We prove an optimal dimension-free sparsification theorem for suprema of centered Gaussian processes. Given a bounded set $T\subseteq\mathbb{R}^n$, we show that the supremum of the canonical Gaussian process on $T$ can be $L^2$-approximated by the supremum of a shifted subprocess indexed by only $\exp(O(1/\varepsilon^2))$ points, with error at most $\varepsilon$ times the Gaussian width of $T$. In particular, the size of the approximating process is independent of both the ambient dimension and the cardinality of the original index set. This improves a recent sparsification theorem of De, Nadimpalli, O'Donnell, and Servedio (2026) by an exponential factor, and we show that the dependence on $\varepsilon$ is tight up to constants in the exponent. As consequences, we obtain an exponentially improved junta theorem for norms over Gaussian space and sharpen results on learning, property testing, and polyhedral approximation of convex sets under the Gaussian measure. The proof is based on an interpolation argument that combines Sudakov's minoration with the Brascamp–Lieb inequality.

We present a machine-checked completeness theorem, in Lean 4, for the hybrid logic $L(\forall)$: propositional modal logic with nominals, the satisfaction-style binder $\forall$, and the box modality. (Machine-checked completeness for basic hybrid logic, without binders, was pioneered by Asta Halkjær From in Isabelle/HOL.) We build on Alex Oltean's 2023 Lean 4 formalization, which mechanized the syntax, semantics, Hilbert-style proof system, and soundness following Blackburn's Hybrid Completeness (1998), but left completeness unfinished. Finishing it requires manufacturing fresh names at two structurally different points, and our central finding is that they call for two different tools. (1) The root witnessed maximal consistent set, built by an extended Lindenbaum construction, needs at each step a nominal fresh for the whole set; the right tool is structural freshness: extend the language so an infinite supply of nominals is reserved by construction. We survey the design space (Oltean's odd/even encoding inside $\mathbb{N}$, the disjoint-sum $N \oplus \mathbb{N}$ parameterization suggested by Bud Mishra, and From's synthetic-completeness frameworks) and explain the encoding we adopt. (2) The witnessed $\Diamond$-successor of a maximal consistent set cannot be obtained this way: its canonical box-reduct provably mentions every nominal, so no reserved name is fresh. Here the right tool is one Oltean chose but left incomplete: an existence-lemma Henkin construction drawing each witness from the predecessor's witnessedness through a fresh state variable; we complete it with a data-carrying witness accumulator and a compactness argument. The theorem $\Gamma \models \varphi \to \Gamma \vdash \varphi$ is fully formalized: the development is sorry-free, and #print axioms reports only propext, Classical.choice, and Quot.sound. We port the development to Lean v4.30.0 / mathlib v4.30.0.

Partial differential equations (PDEs) play a central role in modeling complex physical, biological, and engineering systems. While traditional numerical solvers are robust, they often incur prohibitive computational costs due to mesh dependencies, whereas recent Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) offer a mesh-free alternative but frequently suffer from slow convergence and optimization instability. To bridge this gap, this article proposes the Physics-Informed Broad Learning System (PIBLS), a novel backpropagation-free framework that reformulates PDE solving as a direct least-squares optimization. We improved an algorithm within this framework to handle nonlinear PDEs efficiently and provide a rigorous mathematical proof establishing the universal approximation property of PIBLS for these equations. Experiments on linear and nonlinear PDEs demonstrate that PIBLS is one to three orders of magnitude faster than conventional PINNs while achieving significantly higher solution accuracy. This framework provides a computationally efficient paradigm for scientific machine learning, offering a practical, high-speed alternative for real-time simulation and design optimization tasks.

DeQL (Decision Query Language) extends SQL to express decision queries: given options drawn from relational data, constraints from policy, and a measurable objective, a DeQL query computes the best course of action. Two constructs carry the core of the extension: CREATE CANDIDATES, which defines the space of options from relational sources, and DECIDE, which declares decision variables, named constraints, and an objective over them. The design follows SQL's principles: the user states what to optimize while the engine chooses how to solve it, every query consumes and produces relations, and the structure of a problem stays visible to the engine. This document specifies the language: its design principles, syntax, formal grammar, and execution model. The examples span subset selection, allocation, assignment, scheduling, and decisions at multiple levels of aggregation. The specification also covers extensions for optimization under uncertainty, inline model scoring, and time- and quality-bounded solving. It is an early version of the specification; the language is under active development, and this version fixes the core constructs on which later revisions will build.

For a finite simplicial complex on $[n]$, the combinatorial Hodge Laplacian splits as $L_k=L_k^{\mathrm{up}}+L_k^{\mathrm{down}}$, and Duval and Reiner showed that $\lambda_{\max}(L_k^{\mathrm{up}})\le n$ in every dimension. We conjecture that $\lambda_{\max}(L_k^{\mathrm{up}})$ is in fact non-increasing in $k$, equivalently that $\sigma_{\max}(\partial_{k+1})\le\sigma_{\max}(\partial_k)$, and prove this unconditionally in two cases: when every missing $(k+1)$-face has at most $k+1$ missing facets, and for shifted complexes, where we also identify the extremal eigenvalue exactly, as the number of vertices lying in a $(k+1)$-face. In general we prove \[ \lambda_{\max}\big(L_k^{\mathrm{up}}\big)\ \le\ \nu_{k-1}+\tfrac1{k+2}\big(n-\nu_{k-1}\big), \qquad \nu_{k-1}=\lambda_{\max}\big(L_{k-1}^{\mathrm{up}}\big), \] refining that ceiling. The proofs run through a localization on the cycle space $\ker\partial_k$, which turns the comparison into a statement about the complement. In dimension one the complex is the clique complex of a graph, $L_1$ is its Helmholtzian, the conjecture is a question of Lu, Shi, Stanić, Wang and Wang, and the first case reads $\alpha(G)\le2$. We also characterize the connected graphs of order at least seven with $\lambda_2(L_1)\le 3$ as the firefly graphs.

The paper extends previous results on the nth root problem to a large class of Hilbert-space operators, namely, the class of all normaloid operators with normaloid parts, which includes the paranormal operators, and also the $k$-paranormal operators. It is shown that if a normaloid operator with normaloid parts has a normal nth power, then it is normal.