This article examines large-time behaviour of finite-state mean-field interacting particle systems. Our first main result is a sharp estimate (in the exponential scale) of the time required for convergence of the empirical measure process of the N-particle system to its invariant measure; we show that when time is of the order $\exp\{N\Lambda\}$ for a suitable constant $\Lambda > 0$ , the process has mixed well and it is close to its invariant measure. We then obtain large-N asymptotics of the second-largest eigenvalue of the generator associated with the empirical measure process when it is reversible with respect to its invariant measure. We show that its absolute value scales as $\exp\{{-}N\Lambda\}$ . The main tools used in establishing our results are the large deviation properties of the empirical measure process from its large-N limit. As an application of the study of large-time behaviour, we also show convergence of the empirical measure of the system of particles to a global minimum of a certain ‘entropy’ function when particles are added over time in a controlled fashion. The controlled addition of particles is analogous to the cooling schedule associated with the search for a global minimum of a function using the simulated annealing algorithm.

In this paper, we consider an eigenvalue problem for ordinary differential equations of fourth order with a spectral parameter in the boundary conditions. The location of eigenvalues on real axis, the structure of root subspaces and the oscillation properties of eigenfunctions of this problem are investigated, and asymptotic formulas for the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions are found. Next, by the use of these properties, we establish sufficient conditions for subsystems of root functions of the considered problem to form a basis in the space $L_p,1 < p < \infty$.

If A is a real $2n \times 2n$ positive definite matrix, then there exists a symplectic matrix M such that $M^TAM=\text {diag}(D, D),$ where D is a positive diagonal matrix with diagonal entries $d_1(A)\leqslant \cdots \leqslant d_n(A).$ We prove a maxmin principle for $d_k(A)$ akin to the classical Courant–Fisher–Weyl principle for Hermitian eigenvalues and use it to derive an analogue of the Weyl inequality $d_{i+j-1}(A+B)\geqslant d_i(A)+d_j(B).$

Let $\Omega \subset \mathbb {R}^N$ , $N\geq 2$ , be an open bounded connected set. We consider the fractional weighted eigenvalue problem $(-\Delta )^s u =\lambda \rho u$ in $\Omega $ with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition, where $(-\Delta )^s$ , $s\in (0,1)$ , is the fractional Laplacian operator, $\lambda \in \mathbb {R}$ and $ \rho \in L^\infty (\Omega )$ .

We study weak* continuity, convexity and Gâteaux differentiability of the map $\rho \mapsto 1/\lambda _1(\rho )$ , where $\lambda _1(\rho )$ is the first positive eigenvalue. Moreover, denoting by $\mathcal {G}(\rho _0)$ the class of rearrangements of $\rho _0$ , we prove the existence of a minimizer of $\lambda _1(\rho )$ when $\rho $ varies on $\mathcal {G}(\rho _0)$ . Finally, we show that, if $\Omega $ is Steiner symmetric, then every minimizer shares the same symmetry.

We consider a class of Schrödinger operators on ${\open R}^N$ with radial potentials. Viewing them as self-adjoint operators on the space of radially symmetric functions in $L^2({\open R}^N)$, we show that the following properties are generic with respect to the potential:

1. (P1) the eigenvalues below the essential spectrum are nonresonant (i.e., rationally independent) and so are the square roots of the moduli of these eigenvalues;

2. (P2) the eigenfunctions corresponding to the eigenvalues below the essential spectrum are algebraically independent on any nonempty open set.

We obtain the representation of the backward shift operator on Chebyshev polynomials involving a principal value (PV) integral. Twice the backward shift on the space of square-summable sequences l2 displays chaotic dynamics, thus we provide an explicit form of a chaotic operator on L2 (−1, 1, (1−x2)–1/2) using Cauchy’s PV integral. We explicitly calculate the periodic points of the operator and provide examples of unbounded trajectories, as well as chaotic ones. Histograms and recurrence plots of shifts of random Chebyshev expansions display interesting behaviour over fractal measures.

We establish a spectral characterization theorem for the operators on complex Hilbert spaces of arbitrary dimensions that attain their norm on every closed subspace. The class of these operators is not closed under addition. Nevertheless, we prove that the intersection of these operators with the positive operators forms a proper cone in the real Banach space of hermitian operators.

The eigentime identity for one-dimensional diffusion processes on the halfline with an entrance boundary at ∞ is obtained by using the trace of the deviation kernel. For the case of an exit boundary at ∞, a similar eigentime identity is presented with the aid of the Green function. Explicit equivalent statements are also listed in terms of the strong ergodicity or the uniform decay for diffusion processes.

We consider uniformly elliptic operators with Dirichlet or Neumann homogeneous boundary conditions on a domain Ω in ℝN. We consider deformations ϕ(Ω) of Ω obtained by means of a locally Lipschitz homeomorphism ϕ and we estimate the variation of the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues upon variation of ϕ. We prove general stability estimates without assuming uniform upper bounds for the gradients of the maps ϕ. As an application, we obtain estimates on the rate of convergence for eigenvalues and eigenfunctions when a domain with an outward cusp is approximated by a sequence of Lipschitz domains.

We set up a framework for computing the spectral dimension of a class of one-dimensional self-similar measures that are defined by iterated function systems with overlaps and satisfy a family of second-order self-similar identities. As applications of our result we obtain the spectral dimension of important measures such as the infinite Bernoulli convolution associated with the golden ratio and convolutions of Cantor-type measures. The main novelty of our result is that the iterated function systems we consider are not post-critically finite and do not satisfy the well-known open set condition.

We investigate an inverse spectral problem for the singular rank-one perturbations of a Hill operator. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for a real sequence to be the spectrum of a singular rank-one perturbation of the Hill operator.

We derive the spectrum of the Laplace–Beltrami operator on the quotient orbifold of the nonhyperbolic triangle groups.

In this paper we discuss the asymptotic distribution of the approximation numbers of the finite sections for a Toeplitz operator $T(a) \in \mathcal{L}(\ell^{p,\mu}_N)$, $1 < p < \infty$ and $\mu \in \mathbb{R}$, with a continuous matrix-valued generating function $a$. We prove that the approximation numbers of the finite sections $T_n(a) = P_n T(a) P_n$ have the $k$-splitting property, provided $T(a)$ is a Fredholm operator on $\ell^{p,\mu}_N$.

The eigentime identity is proved for continuous-time reversible Markov chains with Markov generator L. When the essential spectrum is empty, let {0 = λ0 < λ1 ≤ λ2 ≤ ···} be the whole spectrum of L in L2. Then ∑ n≥1 λ n -1 < ∞ implies the existence of the spectral gap α of L in L∞. Explicit formulae are presented in the case of birth–death processes and from these formulae it is proved that ∑ n≥1 λ n -1 < ∞ if and only if α > 0.

A class of operators on a tensor product of separable Hilbert spaces is considered. It contains various traditional operators. Invertibility, positive invertibility conditions and estimates for the norm of the resolvents are established. In addition, bounds for the spectrum are suggested. Applications to partial integral and integro-differential operators are discussed.