http://hdl.handle.net/1842/2284 Wed, 22 May 2013 19:29:13 GMT 2013-05-22T19:29:13Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6250 Title: Homeomorphisms, homotopy equivalences and chain complexes Authors: Adams-Florou, Spiros; Florou, Spiros Adams Abstract: This thesis concerns the relationship between bounded and controlled topology and in particular how these can be used to recognise which homotopy equivalences of reasonable topological spaces are homotopic to homeomorphisms. Let f : X → Y be a simplicial map of finite-dimensional locally finite simplicial complexes. Our first result is that f has contractible point inverses if and only if it is an ε- controlled homotopy equivalences for all ε > 0, if and only if f × id : X × R → Y × R is a homotopy equivalence bounded over the open cone O(Y +) of Pedersen and Weibel. The most difficult part, the passage from contractible point inverses to bounded over O(Y +) is proven using a new construction for a finite dimensional locally finite simplicial complex X, which we call the fundamental ε-subdivision cellulation X'ε. This whole approach can be generalised to algebra using geometric categories. In the second part of the thesis we again work over a finite-dimensional locally finite simplicial complex X, and use the X-controlled categories A*(X), A*(X) of Ranicki and Weiss (1990) together with the bounded categories CM(A) of Pedersen and Weibel (1989). Analogous to the barycentric subdivision of a simplicial complex, we define the algebraic barycentric subdivision of a chain complex over that simplicial complex. The main theorem of the thesis is then that a chain complex C is chain contractible in ( A*(X) A*(X) if and only if “C ¤ Z” 2 (A*(X × R) A*(X × R) is boundedly chain contractible when measured in O(X+) for a functor “ − Z” defined appropriately using algebraic subdivision. In the process we prove a squeezing result: a chain complex with a sufficiently small chain contraction has arbitrarily small chain contractions. The last part of the thesis draws some consequences for recognising homology manifolds in the homotopy types of Poincare Duality spaces. Squeezing tells us that a PL Poincare duality space with sufficiently controlled Poincare duality is necessarily a homology manifold and the main theorem tells us that a PL Poincare duality space X is a homology manifold if and only if X × R has bounded Poincare duality when measured in the open cone O(X+). Mon, 25 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6250 2012-06-25T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6230 Title: Moduli of Bridgeland-Stable objects Authors: Meachan, Ciaran Abstract: In this thesis we investigate wall-crossing phenomena in the stability manifold of an irreducible principally polarized abelian surface for objects with the same invariants as (twists of) ideal sheaves of points. In particular, we construct a sequence of fine moduli spaces which are related by Mukai flops and observe that the stability of these objects is completely determined by the configuration of points. Finally, we use Fourier-Mukai theory to show that these moduli are projective. Mon, 25 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6230 2012-06-25T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6218 Title: On conformal submersions and manifolds with exceptional structure groups Authors: Reynolds, Paul Abstract: This thesis comes in three main parts. In the first of these (comprising chapters 2 - 6), the basic theory of Riemannian and conformal submersions is described and the relevant geometric machinery explained. The necessary Clifford algebra is established and applied to understand the relationship between the spinor bundles of the base, the fibres and the total space of a submersion. O'Neill-type formulae relating the covariant derivatives of spinor fields on the base and fibres to the corresponding spinor field on the total space are derived. From these, formulae for the Dirac operators are obtained and applied to prove results on Dirac morphisms in cases so far unpublished. The second part (comprising chapters 7-9) contains the basic theory and known classifications of G2-structures and Spin+ 7 -structures in seven and eight dimensions. Formulae relating the covariant derivatives of the canonical forms and spinor fields are derived in each case. These are used to confirm the expected result that the form and spinorial classifications coincide. The mean curvature vector of associative and Cayley submanifolds of these spaces is calculated in terms of naturally-occurring tensor fields given by the structures. The final part of the thesis (comprising chapter 10) is an attempt to unify the first two parts. A certain `7-complex' quotient is described, which is analogous to the well-known hyper-Kahler quotient construction. This leads to insight into other possible interesting quotients which are correspondingly analogous to quaternionic-Kahler quotients, and these are speculated upon with a view to further research. Mon, 25 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6218 2012-06-25T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/5883 Title: Top-percentile traffic routing problem Authors: Yang, Xinan Abstract: Multi-homing is a technology used by Internet Service Provider (ISP) to connect to the Internet via multiple networks. This connectivity enhances the network reliability and service quality of the ISP. However, using multi-networks may imply multiple costs on the ISP. To make full use of the underlying networks with minimum cost, a routing strategy is requested by ISPs. Of course, this optimal routing strategy depends on the pricing regime used by network providers. In this study we investigate a relatively new pricing regime – top-percentile pricing. Under top-percentile pricing, network providers divide the charging period into several fixed length time intervals and calculate their cost according to the traffic volume that has been shipped during the θ-th highest time interval. Unlike traditional pricing regimes, the network design under top-percentile pricing has not been fully studied. This paper investigates the optimal routing strategy in case where network providers charge ISPs according to top-percentile pricing. We call this problem the Top-percentile Traffic Routing Problem (TpTRP). As the ISP cannot predict next time interval’s traffic volume in real world application, in our setting up the TpTRP is a multi-stage stochastic optimisation problem. Routing decisions should be made at the beginning of every time period before knowing the amount of traffic that is to be sent. The stochastic nature of the TpTRP forms the critical difficulty of this study. In this paper several approaches are investigated in either the modelling or solving steps of the problem. We begin by exploring several simplifications of the original TpTRP to get an insight of the features of the problem. Some of these allow analytical solutions which lead to bounds on the achievable optimal solution. We also establish bounds by investigating several “naive” routing policies. In the second part of this work, we build the multi-stage stochastic programming model of the TpTRP, which is hard to solve due to the integer variables introduced in the calculation of the top-percentile traffic. A lift-and-project based cutting plane method is investigated in solving the SMIP for very small examples of TpTRP. Nevertheless it is too inefficient to be applicable on large sized instances. As an alternative, we explore the solution of the TpTRP as a Stochastic Dynamic Programming (SDP) problem by a discretization of the state space. This SDP model gives us achievable routing policies on small size instances of the TpTRP, which of course improve the naive routing policies. However, the solution approach based on SDP suffers from the curse of dimensionality which restricts its applicability. To overcome this we suggest using Approximate Dynamic Programming (ADP) which largely avoids the curse of dimensionality by exploiting the structure of the problem to construct parameterized approximations of the value function in SDP and train the model iteratively to get a converged set of parameters. The resulting ADP model with discrete parameter for every time interval works well for medium size instances of TpTRP, though it still requires too long to be trained for large size instances. To make the realistically sized TpTRP problem solvable, we improve on the ADP model by using Bezier Curves/Surfaces to do the aggregation over time. This modification accelerates the efficiency of parameter training in the solution of the ADP model, which makes the realistically sized TpTRP tractable. Mon, 25 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/5883 2012-06-25T00:00:00Z