This dissertation considers certain issues in support vector machines (SVMs), including a description of their construction, aspects of certain exponential kernels used in some SVMs, and a presentation of an algorithm that computes the necessary elements of their operation with proof of convergence. In its first section, this dissertation provides a reasonably complete description of SVMs and their theoretical basis, along with a few motivating examples and counterexamples. This section may be used as an accessible, stand-alone introduction to the subject of SVMs for the advanced undergraduate. Its second section provides a proof of the positive-definiteness of a certain useful function here called E and dened as follows: Let V be a complex inner product space. Let N be a function that maps a vector from V to its norm. Let p be a real number between 0 and 2 inclusive and for any in V , let ( be N() raised to the p-th power. Finally, let a be a positive real number. Then E() is exp(()). Although the result is not new (other proofs are known but involve deep properties of stochastic processes) this proof is accessible to advanced undergraduates with a decent grasp of linear algebra. Its …

A steepest descent method is constructed for the general setting of a linear differential equation paired with uniqueness-inducing conditions which might yield a generally overdetermined system. The method differs from traditional steepest descent methods by considering the conditions when defining the corresponding Sobolev space. The descent method converges to the unique solution to the differential equation so that change in condition values is minimal. The system has a solution if and only if the first iteration of steepest descent satisfies the system. The finite analogue of the descent method is applied to example problems involving finite difference equations. The well-posed problems include a singular ordinary differential equation and Laplace’s equation, each paired with respective Dirichlet-type conditions. The overdetermined problems include a first-order nonsingular ordinary differential equation with Dirichlet-type conditions and the wave equation with both Dirichlet and Neumann conditions. The method is applied in an investigation of the Tricomi equation, a long-studied equation which acts as a prototype of mixed partial differential equations and has application in transonic flow. The Tricomi equation has been studied for at least ninety years, yet necessary and sufficient conditions for existence and uniqueness of solutions on an arbitrary mixed domain remain unknown. The domains …

In this thesis, we introduce a new space of Hermitian Jacobi forms, and we determine its structure. As an application, we study heat cycles of Hermitian Jacobi forms, and we establish a criterion for the existence of U(p) congruences of Hermitian Jacobi forms. We demonstrate that criterion with some explicit examples. Finally, in the appendix we give tables of Fourier series coefficients of several Hermitian Jacobi forms.