Jürgen Jost

Spectral properties and synchronization in coupled map lattices

Spectral properties of coupled map lattices are described. Conditions for the stability of spatially homogeneous chaotic solutions are derived using linear stability analysis. Global stability analysis results are also presented. The analytical results are supplemented with numerical examples. The quadratic map is used for the site dynamics with different coupling schemes such as global coupling, nearest neighbor coupling, intermediate range coupling, random coupling, small world coupling and scale free coupling.

Delays, connection topology, and synchronization of coupled chaotic maps.

We consider networks of coupled maps where the connections between units involve time delays. We show that, similar to the undelayed case, the synchronization of the network depends on the connection topology, characterized by the spectrum of the graph Laplacian. Consequently, scale-free and random networks are capable of synchronizing despite the delayed flow of information, whereas regular networks with nearest-neighbor connections and their small-world variants generally exhibit poor synchronization. On the other hand, connection delays can actually be conducive to synchronization, so that it is possible for the delayed system to synchronize where the undelayed system does not. Furthermore, the delays determine the synchronized dynamics, leading to the emergence of a wide range of new collective behavior which the individual units are incapable of producing in isolation.

Equilibrium maps between metric spaces

We show the existence of harmonic mappings with values in possibly singular and not necessarily locally compact complete metric length spaces of nonpositive curvature in the sense of Alexandrov. As a technical tool, we show that any bounded sequence in such a space has a subsequence whose mean values converge. We also give a general definition of harmonic maps between metric spaces based on mean value properties andΓ-convergence.

Existence results for mean field equations

Abstract Let Ω be an annulus. We prove that the mean field equation −δψ= e −βψ ∫ Ω e−βψ in Ω ψ=0 on ∂Ω admits a solution for β ∈ (−16π, −8π). This is a supercritical case for the Moser-Trudinger inequality.

Compact Riemann Surfaces

This book is novel in its broad perspective on Riemann surfaces: the text systematically explores the connection with other fields of mathematics. The book can serve as an introduction to contemporary mathematics as a whole, as it develops background material from algebraic topology, differential geometry, the calculus of variations, elliptic PDE, and algebraic geometry. The book is unique among textbooks on Riemann surfaces in its inclusion of an introduction to Teichmuller theory. For this new edition, the author has expanded and rewritten several sections to include additional material and to improve the presentation.

Synchronization of discrete-time dynamical networks with time-varying couplings

We study the local complete synchronization of discrete-time dynamical networks with time-varying couplings. Our conditions for the temporal variation of the couplings are rather general and include variations in both the network structure and the reaction dynamics; the reactions could, for example, be driven by a random dynamical system. A basic tool is the concept of the Hajnal diameter, which we extend to infinite Jacobian matrix sequences. The Hajnal diameter can be used to verify synchronization, and we show that it is equivalent to other quantities which have been extended to time-varying cases, such as the projection radius, projection Lyapunov exponents, and transverse Lyapunov exponents. Furthermore, these results are used to investigate the synchronization problem in coupled map networks with time-varying topologies and possibly directed and weighted edges. In this case, the Hajnal diameter of the infinite coupling matrices can be used to measure the synchronizability of the network process. As ...

Quantifying unique information

We propose new measures of shared information, unique information and synergistic information that can be used to decompose the mutual information of a pair of random variables (Y, Z) with a third random variable X. Our measures are motivated by an operational idea of unique information, which suggests that shared information and unique information should depend only on the marginal distributions of the pairs (X, Y) and (X,Z). Although this invariance property has not been studied before, it is satisfied by other proposed measures of shared information. The invariance property does not uniquely determine our new measures, but it implies that the functions that we define are bounds to any other measures satisfying the same invariance property. We study properties of our measures and compare them to other candidate measures.

Geometrische Methoden zur Gewinnung von A-Priori-Schranken für harmonische Abbildungen

In this paper, we prove a-priori estimates for harmonic mappings between Riemannian manifolds which solve a Dirichlet problem. These estimates employ geometrical methods and depend only on geometric quantities, namely curvature bounds, injectivity radii, and dimensions. An essential tool is the introduction of almost linear functions on Riemannian manifolds. Furthermore, we show the existence of almost linear and harmonic coordinates on fixed (curvature controlled) balls. These coordinates possess better regularity properties than Riemannian normal coordinates.

Ollivier’s Ricci Curvature, Local Clustering and Curvature-Dimension Inequalities on Graphs

In this paper, we explore the relationship between one of the most elementary and important properties of graphs, the presence and relative frequency of triangles, and a combinatorial notion of Ricci curvature. We employ a definition of generalized Ricci curvature proposed by Ollivier in a general framework of Markov processes and metric spaces and applied in graph theory by Lin–Yau. In analogy with curvature notions in Riemannian geometry, we interpret this Ricci curvature as a control on the amount of overlap between neighborhoods of two neighboring vertices. It is therefore naturally related to the presence of triangles containing those vertices, or more precisely, the local clustering coefficient, that is, the relative proportion of connected neighbors among all the neighbors of a vertex. This suggests to derive lower Ricci curvature bounds on graphs in terms of such local clustering coefficients. We also study curvature-dimension inequalities on graphs, building upon previous work of several authors.

Nonlinear methods in Riemannian and Kählerian geometry

1. Geometric preliminaries.- 2. Some principles of analysis.- 3. The heat flow on manifolds. Existence and uniqueness of harmonic maps into nonpositively curved image manifolds.- 4. The parabolic Yang-Mills equation.- 5. Geometric applications of harmonic maps.- Appendix: Some remarks on notation and terminology.