Papers

In this paper we study the summability of solutions of some general forms of singularly perturbed linear ordinary differential and moment differential equations. We conclude that under some assumptions solutions of these equations are summable. The type of this summability depends on the specific equation. We also show the connection between some singularly perturbed moment ordinary differential equations and some linear moment partial differential equations. We apply this connection to describe summable and multisummable formal solutions of these singularly perturbed moment ordinary differential equations. Main techniques used to show these conclusions are based on Borel transforms, properties of solutions of moment partial differential equations and on the Cauchy integral formula together with integral representations of solutions of such equations.

This monograph provides an introduction to mean field reinforcement learning through the lens of Markov decision processes arising from large-population stochastic control with mean field interactions and common noise. Starting from the connection between multi-agent reinforcement learning and mean field control, it develops the probabilistic, mathematical, and control-theoretic framework needed to formulate representative-agent learning problems, analyze their relationship with finite-population systems, and study both general and linear-quadratic models. The presentation includes dynamic programming principles, propagation-of-chaos limits, and theoretical analyses of tabular Q-learning and policy-gradient methods. It also discusses numerical implementations, including tabular schemes and deep reinforcement learning methods such as deep deterministic policy gradient. The goal is to give readers a coherent bridge between mean field control theory and reinforcement learning methodology, emphasizing the mathematical structure of the problems and the design of tractable learning approaches for large stochastic populations.

This paper proposes a general framework for flexible and reliable network design problems (FR-NDPs). The framework enables planners to change infrastructure investments in response to realized uncertainties, while ensuring desired levels of reliability. Motivated by emerging transportation services such as shared autonomous vehicle (SAV) systems, where historical data are scarce and technological developments uncertain, FR-NDPs integrate strategic investment decisions with operational control. We formulate the FR-NDPs as risk-averse multi-stage stochastic problems to be solvable by stochastic dual dynamic programming (SDDP) and establish sufficient conditions under which strategic and operational subproblems converge to the global optimum. We illustrate applications to SAV capacity expansion and integrated SAV-BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) route design, and numerical experiments on a Midtown Manhattan network highlight three key findings: (i) flexibility and reliability act complementarily to hedge against severe scenarios while mitigating the loss of expected performance; (ii) flexibility in investment planning allows dynamic risk hedging, with risk-averse planners reducing early-stage investments to preserve adaptability; and (iii) differences in operational flexibility between SAV and BRT systems are reflected in strategic decisions, with risk-averse planners tending to refrain investment in transport modes with lower operational flexibility.

We consider the problem of synthesizing robust feedback controllers for discrete-time linear systems that ensure the satisfaction of context-dependent linear temporal logic specifications in the presence of additive bounded disturbances. Building on existing results that reduce context-triggered temporal logic synthesis to the realization of context-dependent reach-avoid-stay (cRAS) objectives, we focus on the corresponding low-level control synthesis problem. We first employ certificate-based conditions for the almost-sure satisfaction of RAS specifications. Based on these conditions, we propose a switching control architecture that combines robust model predictive control (MPC) with a local invariant controller, and show that the resulting MPC value function serves as a reachability certificate while avoidance is enforced through robust constraints and the stay is enforced via the local controller. To obtain computationally tractable formulations for the resulting robust optimizations, we employ convex duality to reformulate the robust constraints into equivalent deterministic optimization problems, yielding convex quadratic and second-order cone programs for relevant geometric settings. The proposed framework is demonstrated on a robot navigation problem with context-triggered logical switches in both static and moving environments. The results show significantly larger feasible sets than Lyapunov-based approaches, while naturally accommodating dynamic environments and online task reconfiguration.

This article provides a proof of a previously unknown case of Toda's $\chi$-independence conjecture by reduction to non-archimedean local fields. Our strategy is based on a novel comparison of Frobenius-traces for BPS sheaves on moduli spaces of objects in 2-Calabi-Yau categories and the integral of the complex-exponentiated Hasse invariant of the obstruction gerbe. This result applies to many cases of interest, including Nakajima quiver varieties, moduli of Higgs bundles and moduli of sheaves on K3 surfaces. Along the way, we describe the local structure of these moduli stacks and spaces over a base of large mixed characteristic.

We consider the one-dimensional cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation with a non-generic real-valued external potential $V$. We prove almost global-in-time quantitative bounds for small solutions. More precisely, small initial data of size $\varepsilon$ in a weighted Sobolev space give rise to solutions with the sharp decay rate $t^{-1/2}$ in $L^{\infty}_x$ up to time $\exp(\frac{1}{c\varepsilon^{2}})$. The main novelty of our result is that no additional symmetry assumption is imposed on $V$. First, we use a modification of the standard distorted Fourier transform basis to resolve the possible discontinuity at zero energy due to the presence of a resonance. Then, following the work of Chen and Pusateri, we use smoothing estimates in the setting of non-generic potentials to analyze the low frequency structure of the (modified) nonlinear spectral distribution. A key novel ingredient is a Fourier restriction type inequality that handles low frequency contributions not amenable to the approach of Chen and Pusateri, and which is central to establishing the quantitative bounds.

We study the relation between uniformly positive entropy and uniformly positive mean dimension at the level of fixed open covers. To a symbolic system X, we associate a hub-and-spoke system Spoke(X), obtained by replacing each symbol by a one-dimensional spoke attached to a common hub. We prove that if X admits a shift-invariant measure of full support, then Spoke(X) has completely positive mean dimension. We also prove that if X has uniformly positive entropy, then Spoke(X) has uniformly positive mean dimension. Finally, using symbolic codings of irrational rotations on tori, we construct hub-and-spoke systems with completely positive mean dimension but without uniformly positive mean dimension or uniformly positive entropy. The examples are nondegenerate: the relevant covers have zero mean dimension and zero entropy, but when refined by iterating under the dynamics the corresponding covering numbers are unbounded.

We refine the method by Greenfeld and Lev for the product spectral set problem and generalize the theorem to a singular measure setting. Furthermore, we establish a new class of spectral unions of intervals for which the product spectral set question has a positive answer. More precisely, if $A$ is a subset of the natural numbers such that $A\oplus B = \{0,1,\cdots, N-1\}$ for some $B\subset \mathbb N$ and $N>1$ then the product measure $\mathcal{L}|_{A+[0,1]}\times \nu$ is a spectral measure (that may be singular) if and only if $\nu$ is a spectral measure.

A Lax pair $(L,P)$ is sometimes thought of as a structural certificate, in that the spatial operator $L$ carries the spectral data of an integrable system, and its isospectral evolution under $\partial_t L = [L,P]$ encodes the nonlinear dynamics. Yet, experience shows that the correspondence between equations and Lax pairs is much more nuanced than this picture suggests. Equations can admit Lax pairs that fail to encode the expected integrable structure. This paper probes that anomalous corner of the Lax pair landscape through five case studies (the Euler top, the free Schrödinger equation, the inviscid Burgers equation, the shallow water system, and the Korteweg–de Vries equation), each illustrating a different way the link to integrability can be distorted. The approach combines analytical calculations with the Sparse Identification of Lax Operators (SILO) framework, which proved useful throughout, in some cases confirming the textbook pair and in others surfacing alternatives worth understanding on their own terms. The recurring lesson across the five cases is that compatibility underdetermines the Lax representation, so that anomalous pairs are regular features of the landscape rather than pathologies. Notably, we show that a spectrally degenerate Korteweg–de Vries Lax pair, classified as fake by standard criteria, still generates the full conservation hierarchy through its operator algebra, which shows that a blunt dichotomy between true and fake Lax pairs can be too reductive.

We study admission control and capacity design for automated parcel lockers with multiple parcel and locker sizes. A smaller parcel can use a larger locker, but doing so may block a future larger parcel whose rejection is more costly. We formulate the admission problem as a finite-state, infinite-horizon average-cost Markov decision process and solve small instances exactly by relative value iteration. We analyze the always-accept (AA) policy, which admits every feasible parcel into the remaining compatible capacity, and give a sufficient condition for its optimality. Across two-, three-, and four-size experiments, AA is optimal in fast-pickup regimes and nearly optimal when holding times are longer; observed optimality gaps are negligible even when AA is not optimal. We then study the locker-assortment problem, which minimizes facility cost plus optimal expected rejection cost. We give an exact bound-and-enumerate algorithm for moderate-size instances. Although the objective is not discrete convex, exchange-neighborhood local search finds the certified optimum in every instance for which exact certification is computationally tractable, and it scales as a heuristic to larger systems.

Classically, the Pontryagin-Thom isomorphism asserts that the multiplicative cohomology theory given by (structured) geometric cobordism is isomorphic to the cohomology theory determined by an associated Thom spectrum. We construct a presentably symmetric monoidal stable $\infty$-category of homotopy invariant sheaves with transfers on smooth manifolds whose unit is precisely (structured) geometric cobordism. We show the endomorphism ring of the unit can be canonically identified with the associated $\mathbb{E}_\infty$-Thom ring spectrum, i.e., we provide an $\mathbb{E}_\infty$-lift of the Pontryagin-Thom isomorphism.

We measured quantization-induced decision-boundary changes using local logit-margin radii, first-order boundary displacement, normal variation, slice-boundary Jaccard distance, grid prediction changes, multiclass junction counts, and low-margin boundary-band flips. On the digits benchmark, 8-bit weight quantization preserved all test labels while producing boundary-mask Jaccard \(0.428\) on the PCA slice; at 4 bits, accuracy remained \(0.9733\), while boundary Jaccard rose to \(0.970\) and median local boundary shift reached \(0.0290\). Interpolation between adjacent quantization levels localized the visible reconfigurations at multiclass junctions, with 12, 34, and 17 triple-junction cells in the selected transitions. Calibration-to-test stopping reduced the digits held-out flip rate from \(0.0094\) to \(0.0022\) and boundary Jaccard from \(0.825\) to \(0.524\); the same stopping rule also reduced flips on MNIST and Fashion-MNIST. On official CIFAR-10 subsets, PTQ-W selected by accuracy gave 6-bit flip \(0.0367\) and boundary Jaccard \(0.184\), whereas boundary-aware stopping selected 8-bit flip \(0.0083\) and boundary Jaccard \(0.048\). On full CIFAR-10 with three seeds, 6-bit PTQ-W lost \(0.0029\) accuracy relative to float, changed \(5.3\%\) of held-out decisions, and changed \(24.5\%\) of low-margin boundary-band decisions. A fixed-bit boundary-gap rounding term changed the trade-off at 4 bits by reducing boundary Jaccard from \(0.457\) to \(0.435\) and boundary-band pair-order flip from \(0.3600\) to \(0.3558\), with an accuracy trade-off; the 3-bit stress test exposed the tuning limit of this surrogate. Calibration boundary Jaccard predicted held-out boundary Jaccard across PTQ-W and optimized rounding variants with \(r=0.947\)–\(0.994\).

We derive an extended wave action model for equatorial chorus waves, identifying a wave activity index (a version of the Benjamin-Feir index, BFI) which indicates non-Gaussian frequency spectra emerge when BFI$>$0.5. Global maps of this index indicate the night and dawn sectors ($0<{\rm MLT}<9)$ of the magnetosphere as the primary region for non-Gaussian wave statistics to emerge. Comparisons with events measured by the Van Allen probe A demonstrate good qualitative agreement whilst identifying key aspects for model refinement. A key strength of our model that our work highlights is its ability to account for the asymmetric frequency spectra characteristic of non-Gaussian chorus. This work ultimately establishes the first wave activity index that distinguishes Gaussian and non-Gaussian wave scenarios from first principles, providing the groundwork for a threshold-based quantification for use in space weather modelling.

We show that there is no real or complex indecomposable Banach space with the primary factorisation property (PFP). We relate the PFP of a Banach space $E$ to ring-theoretic infiniteness of $\mathcal{B}(E)$ and of $\mathcal{B}(E)/\mathcal{M}_E$, where $\mathcal{M}_E$ denotes the set of operators not factoring the identity on $E$, in the case it is the unique maximal ideal of $\mathcal{B}(E)$. For complex $E$ with the PFP, this quotient is purely infinite exactly when it is not scalar. We isolate the quantitative gap relevant to ultrapowers, identify classical sequence spaces as positive non-scalar cases, and show that Read's space $E_{\operatorname{R}}$ does not have the uniform PFP.

In this paper we study two variants of the generalized coupon collector's problem, where our collector receives at each run d distinct coupons and keeps all the new observed coupons (Problem I), while he chooses the least–collected coupon at each run (Problem II). In both cases we derive explicit formulae for the average of the random variable denoting the number of trials for a complete set of N different types of coupons, which are uniformly distributed. In both cases we present the asymptotic expansion up to the fourth term including the corresponding error term. Then, for both problems we derive the full asymptotic expansion as N\rightarrow \infty. We further obtain the leading-order behaviour of the variance, showing that in both problems \mathrm{Var}\sim \frac{\pi^2}{6}\frac{N^2}{d^2}, and we establish a rate of convergence to the limiting law. Our analysis is based on the Nørlund–Rice integral method applied to an alternating binomial sum and classical tools from asymptotic analysis. The leading asymptotic term for Problem II was obtained by W. Xu and A. K. Tang [J. Appl. Probab. 48 (2011), 1081–1094]. Finally, for both problems, we derive the limiting distribution under the appropriate normalization. As expected, the limit is standard Gumbel; however, the normalization differs between Problems I and II. As an application, we show that Problem~I describes exactly the sequencing-coverage process in combinatorial motif-based DNA data storage, and our expansions yield closed-form coverage estimates for that setting.

We prove a sharp lower bound for the cardinality of sumsets of subsets of $\mathbb{Z}^d$ confined to a hypercube, resolving in strong form a conjecture that was made explicit by Becker, Ivanisvili, Krachun and Madrid and had circulated in the folklore of the field for some time. Specifically, for sets $A_j\subseteq \{0,1,2,\dots,m\}^d$ we show that \[|A_1+\dots+A_n|\;\geq\; (|A_1|\cdots|A_n|)^{1/p},\qquad p=\frac{n\log(m+1)}{\log(nm+1)},\] with the exponent best possible. The only previously known sharp cases were $A_j\subseteq \{0,1\}^d$, for all $n\ge1$, and $A_j\subseteq \{0,1,2\}^d$ for $n=2$. We also prove a sharp inequality in the case when $A_j\subseteq\{0,1,\dots,m_j\}^d$ for different $m_j$. We obtain the above inequality as a corollary of a stronger result on sup-convolution of functions on $\mathbb{Z}^d$, whose proof is based on a novel mixed volume representation of a lattice path norm, together with a sharp one-dimensional functional inequality.

Classical models of opinion dynamics represent individual opinions as scalar or vector values governed by the classical probability theory, either as deterministic quantities or random variables. This framework does not account for empirically observed phenomena such as cognitive ambivalence (where an individual simultaneously holds conflicting views) and order effects (where survey responses depend on the order in which questions are asked). We propose a quantum model of opinion dynamics in which each agent's cognitive state is represented by a density matrix that encodes both the expressed opinion and cognitive ambivalence. Survey questions become non-commuting self-adjoint operators, which provides a principled explanation for order effects. Our model also identifies quantities without classical counterparts, including quantum coherence and pairwise opinion covariances. Under a product state approximation, the quantum model reduces to the classical Friedkin–Johnsen opinion model. We test the framework on synthetic and real-world networks and observe that pairwise correlations follow network-dependent transient dynamics but converge to the same steady state regardless of the network, and that quantum coherence decays exponentially at a rate independent of the network.

We investigate the interaction of small-amplitude waves called phonons, with an initially static kink in an exceptional discretization of the $\phi^4$ model that is free of the Peierls-Nabarro potential. Phonons are generated by a localized harmonic source and scattered from one side of the kink. By computing the transmission and reflection coefficients over the entire phonon band, we demonstrate that the scattering properties depend strongly on the lattice spacing. In the weak-discreteness regime ($h<1$), the kink is nearly transparent and phonons are transmitted through it over most of the phonon spectrum. In contrast, for strong discreteness ($h>1$), significant reflection emerges even though the corresponding continuum $\phi^4$ kink is reflectionless. We further show that depending on the frequency of the incoming phonons, the kink experiences negative radiation pressure and is accelerated toward the incoming phonons for all lattice spacings considered, and this effect is much stronger for the strong discretness. The frequency dependence of the kink velocity and energy transfer is explained in terms of resonances associated with Doppler-shifted phonon frequencies and extrema of the phonon group velocity. Our results reveal that strong lattice discreteness can qualitatively modify phonon-kink interactions even in systems where the static Peierls-Nabarro potential is absent.

We propose a novel hybrid neural architecture, the Geometry-aware R-Structured Kolmogorov-Arnold Network (GRS-KAN), which integrates V.L.Rvachev's R-functions into the Kolmogorov-Arnold Network (KAN) framework. The proposed approach combines two complementary modeling mechanisms: smooth nonlinear structure is learned by KAN branches, while known geometric or logical constraints are encoded analytically using differentiable R-functions. This enables explicit representation of discontinuities, feasible regions, and implicit geometric boundaries within a trainable neural architecture. The framework implements differentiable logical operations through R-conjunctions and R-disjunctions, allowing complex geometric supports to be represented analytically and incorporated directly into regression models. Several GRS-KAN variants are introduced, including additive, multiplicative, and agnostic branch-weighted architectures. The method is demonstrated on regression problems involving discontinuities with circular and rectangular supports. Numerical experiments show that explicit geometric encoding substantially improves predictive accuracy and boundary localization compared with standard KANs. In the considered benchmarks, geometry-aware GRS-KAN models reduce test RMSE by up to 67% while simultaneously improving interpretability through explicit analytical representation of the learned geometric structure. The agnostic variant further demonstrates the ability to automatically determine whether geometric priors are beneficial for a given learning task.

We study a small-denominator mechanism in weakly nonlinear dispersive dynamics. After Fourier decomposition, a nonlinear dispersive equation becomes an infinite system of weakly coupled oscillators. Higher-order correction terms may then contain infinite families of nonresonant Fourier interactions whose detunings tend to zero. Such families do not produce exact secular terms, but their accumulated contribution may grow as a power of time. We call this effect subresonant accumulation. The rigorous part of the paper is the analysis of a model forced oscillator and of an abstract subresonant Duhamel sum. If the detuning and coefficients have the form $\Delta_n\sim c n^{-p}$ and $B_n\sim b n^{-\kappa}$, then the accumulated contribution grows as $t^{1-\alpha}$, where $\alpha=(\kappa-1)/p$. We then show how this mechanism appears in a quartic Fourier family for the Klein–Gordon dispersion law. For the full nonlinear partial differential equation we formulate a conditional approximation result: provided that all remaining resonant and almost resonant interactions are controlled, the subresonant term gives the leading long-time correction.

Matrix product states (MPS) are quintessential examples of frustration-free gapped ground states of local interactions called parent Hamiltonians. In this work, we investigate parent Hamiltonians for a class of ergodic matrix product states (EMPS), which are MPS defined by site-dependent random tensors $\{X_j^{[k]}\}_{j=1}^D$ which are homogeneously distributed at every site $k$ in the spin chain. Here, the EMPS are not translation-invariant but rather statistically translation-invariant. Under a mild injectivity assumption, we show the thermodynamic limit of an EMPS is the unique frustration-free ground state of a parent Hamiltonian on the whole spin chain, which, depending on the statistical properties of the EMPS, may or may not be finite-range. In contrast to the translation-invariant regime, these Hamiltonians need not be gapped. Nevertheless, applying the martingale method while keeping track of local statistics gives conditions for a gap, in addition to pointing towards why there need not be a gap in general. We include examples of EMPS both with and without spectral gaps to illustrate our results.

Let $G$ be a finite simple graph. The annihilation number $a(G)$ is an efficiently computable upper bound on the independence number $\alpha(G)$. We develop a sharp matching-number theory for the gap $a(G)-\alpha(G)$. The strongest general theorem is the exact closed form \[a(G)-\alpha(G)\leq 2\mu(G)+1- \lceil \sqrt{6 \mu(G)} \rceil \qquad(\mu(G)\geq 1), \] and the bound is attained for every prescribed matching number. We also prove sharp matching-dependent bounds for forests, bipartite graphs, and König-Egerváry graphs, with equality constructions, equality certificates, and equality criteria. Finally, we treat a TxGraffiti output as a machine-conjecture case study. Using annihilating decompositions together with the classical Havel-Hakimi residue inequality $res(G)\leq \alpha(G)$, we give an independent proof of the TxGraffiti annihilation-residue inequality \[ \alpha(G)\geq \frac{a(G)+res(G)}{\Delta(G)} \] for every connected graph $G$ of order at least three, show that both hypotheses are necessary, and compare this proof with a recent Caro-Wei approach. We also refine the Caro-Wei annihilation estimate by an explicit nonnegative slack term, identify its equality cases in degree-sequence form, and combine the refinement with our exact matching-number bound to obtain a combined computable bracket for the independence number and a Gupta-residue bound for the annihilation gap.

In arbitrary characteristic, we determine the maximum number of general points through which a rational curve of degree $d$ in $\mathbb{P}^r$ passes, subject to an additional secancy condition along a linear space. We consider the cases both where the points on the curve are unprescribed and prescribed, which amount to the determination of the normal and restricted tangent bundles of a general rational curve in $\mathsf{Bl}_{\mathbb{P}^s}\mathbb{P}^r$, respectively. In the appendix, we enumerate the interpolating curves in the case of prescribed points on the curve.

We demonstrate an improved explicit upper bound of $|\zeta(1+it)|$ for $3 \leq t \leq 10^9$ using smoothing techniques. Our method sharpens previous bounds relying on the Riemann–Siegel formula and the triangle inequality. In particular, we prove that for $t\geq 3$, \begin{align*} |\zeta(1+it)| \leq \frac{1}{2}\log t + 1.57 \end{align*} and for $t \geq 10^8$, \[ |\zeta(1+it)|\leq \frac{1}{3}\log t + 2\log \log t -1.16 . \]

We present a list of 3028 obstructions to knotless embedding. We survey recent work in this area including: 1) A bibliography of graphs proven to be intrinsically knotted without relying on computers; 2) An updated listing of obstructions in $\nabla\mathrm{Y}$ families including two new large families; 3) Connections with the Colin de Verdière's invariant including a new obstruction with $\mu = 6$; and 4) Connectivity of obstructions and their structure near vertices of degree three or four. We address questions raised in earlier work, (re)state several conjectures, and propose new questions.

We prove a general theorem giving constraints on maps from certain topological groups to inverse limits of bounded torsion groups. From this we obtain some automatic continuity and ultraproduct results. For example, every homomorphism from a Polish group to a countable torsion-free residually finite group has open kernel. Also, the Grigorchuk group is a homomorphic image of a nonprincipal ultraproduct of groups if and only if there exists a measurable cardinal.

We give an operator-theoretic interpretation of unsteady Kutta selection in trailing-edge acoustic receptivity. The inviscid acoustic–wake problem leaves one outgoing wake amplitude undetermined. We show that, under explicit structural hypotheses, this amplitude is the same scalar obtained from three representations: cancellation of the inverse-square-root edge singularity, Fredholm compatibility of the viscous lower-deck problem, and the residue of the Kutta-normalized transform solution at the downstream wake pole: $\displaystyle A = -\frac{C_-^{(0)}}{C_-^{(KH)}} = -\frac{\langle \mathbf F_{\rm inc},\Psi^\ast\rangle}{\langle \mathbf F_{KH},\Psi^\ast\rangle} = i\operatorname*{Res}_{\alpha=\alpha_{KH}}\mathcal M(\alpha)$. The inner Fredholm–edge mechanism is verified exactly in a linear-shear lower-deck model, where the primal shear and adjoint velocity are Airy fields and the edge concomitant is nonzero outside a discrete resonance set.

In this paper, motivated by singularity formation in gauge theory, we study the local third Chern class contribution carried by isolated point singularities of rank-two torsion-free sheaves on complex threefolds. In the local rank-two setting considered here, the invariant is defined in terms of finite-length local algebraic data at the singular point. We prove that it can be computed from data on the total family; in particular, it is deformation invariant. We also prove that its parity recovers a topological invariant of the underlying smooth complex rank-two vector bundle on the boundary sphere. We then give a relative K-theoretic interpretation: a self-dual complex naturally associated with the sheaf defines a local $K$-theoretic charge, and this charge is equal to the local third Chern class. For rank-two reflexive sheaves, we relate the same invariant to several classical algebraic quantities, including the Fitting scheme and the Buchsbaum-Rim multiplicity. We also discuss applications to the boundary of moduli spaces of Hermitian-Yang-Mills connections.

The nonholonomic integrator is a famous example in feedback design - although it is small-time locally controllable to the origin, no continuous feedback law exists. Therefore, any stabilizing feedback laws must be either time-varying or discontinuous. A previously studied discontinuous feedback law stabilizes initial conditions lying between two paraboloids and has a sliding mode on the $xy$-plane. We investigate the effect of introducing delays into this discontinuous feedback law. To a first-order analysis, the lag causes the sliding mode of the $xy$-plane to bifurcate into two switching regions where the resulting dynamics can be interpreted as a hybrid dynamical system with hysteresis. Counterintuitively, the presence of a delay can actually have a positive effect on both the size of the basin of attraction and the convergence rate of the controller. We also consider the natural generalization of the nonholonomic integrator to higher dimensions.

We introduce a generalization of the Jones polynomial for classical and virtual knots and links using colorings by a permutation $\sigma:X\to X$ of a finite set $X$. For $X=\{1\}$ and for classical knots, the invariant is equivalent to the usual Jones polynomial; for $X$ with cardinality greater than 1 the invariant expresses distinct information from the Jones polynomial or virtual knots and for classical and virtual links. We establish some properties of the new invariants and compute the polynomials for classical and virtual knots and links of small crossing number for a few small permutations.