Choquet-type extensions of set-pair functions, and applications in graph limits, hypergraphs, and metric measure spaces

Abstract

We propose Choquet-type extensions for set-pair functions, an $L^p$-integration of a family of such extensions, and the associated min-max extension constants, and apply these to investigate variational problems and establish sharp bounds for many combinatorial and geometric quantities. Specifically, we use Choquet-type extensions to construct equivalent functional representations of fractional optimization problems with set-variables, which find applications in various settings, such as maxcut and bipartiteness ratio on graph limits, and Cheeger constants on Riemannian manifolds. We further establish the $L^p$ integration of a family of Choquet-type extensions, and apply it to derive spectral bounds for conductance and other combinatorial quantities on measure spaces. A monotonicity inequality on min-max extension constants is proposed, which unifies classical estimates and uncovers new bounds for many geometric and combinatorial quantities, such as torsional rigidity, Cheeger constants, Dirichlet $p$-isoperimetric constant, and $p$-Laplacian eigenvalues, in seemingly unrelated underlying structures----including hypergraphs, graph limits, Riemannian manifolds and metric measure spaces.

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