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International audience; We construct an example of a smooth convex function on the plane with a strict minimum at zero, which is real analytic except at zero, for which Thom's gradient conjecture fails both at zero and infinity. More precisely, the gradient orbits of the function spiral around zero and at infinity. Besides, the function satisfies the Lojasiewicz gradient inequality at zero.

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We show that in a metric space, any continuous function with compact sublevel sets and finite metric slope is uniquely determined by the slope and its critical values.

Continuity of set-valued maps is hereby revisited: after recalling some basic concepts of variational analysis and a short description of the State-of-the-Art, we obtain as by-product two Sard type results concerning local minima of scalar and vector valued functions. Our main result though, is inscribed in the framework of tame geometry, stating that a closed-valued semialgebraic set-valued map is almost everywhere continuous (in both topological and measure-theoretic sense). The result -depending on stratification techniques- holds true in a more general setting of o-minimal (or tame) set-valued maps. Some applications are briefly discussed at the end.

The convex cone $SC_{\mathrm{SLip}}^1(\mathcal{X})$ of real-valued smooth semi-Lipschitz functions on a Finsler manifold $\mathcal{X}$ is an order-algebraic structure that captures both the differentiable and the quasi-metric feature of $\mathcal{X}$. In this work we show that the subset of smooth semi-Lipschitz functions of constant strictly less than $1$, denoted $SC_{1^{-}}^1(\mathcal{X})$, can be used to classify Finsler manifolds and to characterize almost isometries between them, in the lines of the classical Banach-Stone and Mykers-Nakai theorems., Comment: 17 pages

We disclose an interesting connection between the gradient flow of a $\mathcal{C}^2$-smooth function $\psi$ and evanescent orbits of the second order gradient system defined by the square-norm of $\nabla\psi$, under adequate convexity assumption. As a consequence, we obtain the following surprising result for two $\mathcal{C}^2$, convex and bounded from below functions $\psi_1$, $\psi_2$: if $||\nabla\psi_1||=||\nabla\psi_2||$, then $\psi_1=\psi_2 + k$, for some $k\in \mathbb{R}$.

We consider linear optimization over a nonempty convex semi-algebraic feasible region F. Semidefinite programming is an example. If F is compact, then for almost every linear objective there is a unique optimal solution, lying on a unique \active" manifold, around which F is \partly smooth", and the second-order sufficient conditions hold. Perturbing the objective results in smooth variation of the optimal solution. The active manifold consists, locally, of these perturbed optimal solutions; it is independent of the representation of F, and is eventually identified by a variety of iterative algorithms such as proximal and projected gradient schemes. These results extend to unbounded sets F.

The classical Lojasiewicz inequality and its extensions for partial differential equation problems (Simon) and to o-minimal structures (Kurdyka) have a considerable impact on the analysis of gradient-like methods and related problems: minimization methods, complexity theory, asymptotic analysis of dissipative partial differential equations, tame geometry. This paper provides alternative characterizations of this type of inequalities for nonsmooth lower semicontinuous functions defined on a metric or a real Hilbert space. In a metric context, we show that a generalized form of the Lojasiewicz inequality (hereby called the Kurdyka- Lojasiewicz inequality) relates to metric regularity and to the Lipschitz continuity of the sublevel mapping, yielding applications to discrete methods (strong convergence of the proximal algorithm). In a Hilbert setting we further establish that asymptotic properties of the semiflow generated by -∂f are strongly linked to this inequality. This is done by introducing the notion of a piecewise subgradient curve: such curves have uniformly bounded lengths if and only if the Kurdyka- Lojasiewicz inequality is satisfied. Further characterizations in terms of talweg lines -a concept linked to the location of the less steepest points at the level sets of f- and integrability conditions are given. In the convex case these results are significantly reinforced, allowing in particular to establish the asymptotic equivalence of discrete gradient methods and continuous gradient curves. On the other hand, a counterexample of a convex C2 function in R2 is constructed to illustrate the fact that, contrary to our intuition, and unless a specific growth condition is satisfied, convex functions may fail to fulfill the Kurdyka- Lojasiewicz inequality.

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