The Global Structure of Iterated Function Systems (open access)

The Global Structure of Iterated Function Systems

I study sets of attractors and non-attractors of finite iterated function systems. I provide examples of compact sets which are attractors of iterated function systems as well as compact sets which are not attractors of any iterated function system. I show that the set of all attractors is a dense Fs set and the space of all non-attractors is a dense Gd set it the space of all non-empty compact subsets of a space X. I also investigate the small trans-finite inductive dimension of the space of all attractors of iterated function systems generated by similarity maps on [0,1].
Date: May 2009
Creator: Snyder, Jason Edward
System: The UNT Digital Library
A New Algorithm for Finding the Minimum Distance between Two Convex Hulls (open access)

A New Algorithm for Finding the Minimum Distance between Two Convex Hulls

The problem of computing the minimum distance between two convex hulls has applications to many areas including robotics, computer graphics and path planning. Moreover, determining the minimum distance between two convex hulls plays a significant role in support vector machines (SVM). In this study, a new algorithm for finding the minimum distance between two convex hulls is proposed and investigated. A convergence of the algorithm is proved and applicability of the algorithm to support vector machines is demostrated. The performance of the new algorithm is compared with the performance of one of the most popular algorithms, the sequential minimal optimization (SMO) method. The new algorithm is simple to understand, easy to implement, and can be more efficient than the SMO method for many SVM problems.
Date: May 2009
Creator: Kaown, Dougsoo
System: The UNT Digital Library
Urysohn ultrametric spaces and isometry groups. (open access)

Urysohn ultrametric spaces and isometry groups.

In this dissertation we study a special sub-collection of Polish metric spaces: complete separable ultrametric spaces. Polish metric spaces have been studied for quite a long while, and a lot of results have been obtained. Motivated by some of earlier research, we work on the following two main parts in this dissertation. In the first part, we show the existence of Urysohn Polish R-ultrametric spaces, for an arbitrary countable set R of non-negative numbers, including 0. Then we give point-by-point construction of a countable R-ultra-Urysohn space. We also obtain a complete characterization for the set R which corresponding to a R-Urysohn metric space. From this characterization we conclude that there exist R-Urysohn spaces for a wide family of countable R. Moreover, we determine the complexity of the classification of all Polish ultrametric spaces. In the second part, we investigate the isometry groups of Polish ultrametric spaces. We prove that isometry group of an Urysohn Polish R-ultrametric space is universal among isometry groups of Polish R-ultrametric spaces. We completely characterize the isometry groups of finite ultrametric spaces and the isometry groups of countable compact ultrametric spaces. Moreover, we give some necessary conditions for finite groups to be isomorphic to some isometry …
Date: May 2009
Creator: Shao, Chuang
System: The UNT Digital Library
On the density of minimal free subflows of general symbolic flows. (open access)

On the density of minimal free subflows of general symbolic flows.

This paper studies symbolic dynamical systems {0, 1}G, where G is a countably infinite group, {0, 1}G has the product topology, and G acts on {0, 1}G by shifts. It is proven that for every countably infinite group G the union of the minimal free subflows of {0, 1}G is dense. In fact, a stronger result is obtained which states that if G is a countably infinite group and U is an open subset of {0, 1}G, then there is a collection of size continuum consisting of pairwise disjoint minimal free subflows intersecting U.
Date: August 2009
Creator: Seward, Brandon Michael
System: The UNT Digital Library
Level Curves of the Angle Function of a Positive Definite Symmetric Matrix (open access)

Level Curves of the Angle Function of a Positive Definite Symmetric Matrix

Given a real N by N matrix A, write p(A) for the maximum angle by which A rotates any unit vector. Suppose that A and B are positive definite symmetric (PDS) N by N matrices. Then their Jordan product {A, B} := AB + BA is also symmetric, but not necessarily positive definite. If p(A) + p(B) is obtuse, then there exists a special orthogonal matrix S such that {A, SBS^(-1)} is indefinite. Of course, if A and B commute, then {A, B} is positive definite. Our work grows from the following question: if A and B are commuting positive definite symmetric matrices such that p(A) + p(B) is obtuse, what is the minimal p(S) such that {A, SBS^(-1)} indefinite? In this dissertation we will describe the level curves of the angle function mapping a unit vector x to the angle between x and Ax for a 3 by 3 PDS matrix A, and discuss their interaction with those of a second such matrix.
Date: December 2009
Creator: Bajracharya, Neeraj
System: The UNT Digital Library