We explore transversals of finite index subgroups of finitely generated groups. We show that when $H$ is a subgroup of a rank-$n$ group $G$ and $H$ has index at least $n$ in $G$, we can construct a left transversal for $H$ which contains a generating set of size $n$ for $G$; this construction is algorithmic when $G$ is finitely presented. We also show that, in the case where $G$ has rank $n\leq 3$, there is a simultaneous left–right transversal for $H$ which contains a generating set of size $n$ for $G$. We finish by showing that if $H$ is a subgroup of a rank-$n$ group $G$ with index less than $3\cdot 2^{n-1}$, and $H$ contains no primitive elements of $G$, then $H$ is normal in $G$ and $G/H\cong C_{2}^{n}$.

We characterise number fields without a unit primitive element, and we exhibit some families of such fields with low degree. Also, we prove that a noncyclotomic totally complex number field $K$, with degree $2d$ where $d$ is odd, and having a unit primitive element, can be generated by a reciprocal integer if and only if $K$ is not CM and the Galois group of the normal closure of $K$ is contained in the hyperoctahedral group $B_{d}$.

In this paper, we prove that the finite simple groups $\text{PSp}_{6}(q)$, ${\rm\Omega}_{7}(q)$ and $\text{PSU}_{7}(q^{2})$ are $(2,3)$-generated for all $q$. In particular, this result completes the classification of the $(2,3)$-generated finite classical simple groups up to dimension 7.

Li et al. [‘On finite self-complementary metacirculants’, J. Algebraic Combin.40 (2014), 1135–1144] proved that the automorphism group of a self-complementary metacirculant is either soluble or has $\text{A}_{5}$ as the only insoluble composition factor, and gave a construction of such graphs with insoluble automorphism groups (which are the first examples of self-complementary graphs with this property). In this paper, we will prove that each simple group is a subgroup (so is a section) of the automorphism groups of infinitely many self-complementary vertex-transitive graphs. The proof involves a construction of such graphs. We will also determine all simple sections of the automorphism groups of self-complementary vertex-transitive graphs of $4$-power-free order.

The Brück conjecture states that if a nonconstant entire function $f$ with hyper-order ${\it\sigma}_{2}(f)\in [0,+\infty )\setminus \mathbb{N}$ shares one finite value $a$ (counting multiplicities) with its derivative $f^{\prime }$, then $f^{\prime }-a=c(f-a)$, where $c$ is a nonzero constant. The conjecture has been established for entire functions with order ${\it\sigma}(f)<+\infty$ and hyper-order ${\it\sigma}_{2}(f)<{\textstyle \frac{1}{2}}$. The purpose of this paper is to prove the Brück conjecture for the case ${\it\sigma}_{2}(f)=\frac{1}{2}$ by studying the infinite hyper-order solutions of the linear differential equations $f^{(k)}+A(z)f=Q(z)$. The shared value $a$ is extended to be a ‘small’ function with respect to the entire function $f$.

Let $R$ be a commutative Gorenstein ring. A result of Araya reduces the Auslander–Reiten conjecture on the vanishing of self-extensions to the case where $R$ has Krull dimension at most one. In this paper we extend Araya’s result to certain $R$-algebras. As a consequence of our argument, we obtain examples of bound quiver algebras that satisfy the Auslander–Reiten conjecture.

We calculate the rank and idempotent rank of the semigroup ${\mathcal{E}}(X,{\mathcal{P}})$ generated by the idempotents of the semigroup ${\mathcal{T}}(X,{\mathcal{P}})$ which consists of all transformations of the finite set $X$ preserving a nonuniform partition ${\mathcal{P}}$. We also classify and enumerate the idempotent generating sets of minimal possible size. This extends results of the first two authors in the uniform case.

In this note, we prove a uniqueness theorem for finite-order meromorphic solutions to a class of difference equations of Malmquist type. Such solutions $f$ are uniquely determined by their poles and the zeros of $f-e_{j}$ (counting multiplicities) for two finite complex numbers $e_{1}\neq e_{2}$.

Zhou and Feng [‘On symmetric graphs of valency five’, Discrete Math. 310 (2010), 1725–1732] proved that all connected pentavalent 1-transitive Cayley graphs of finite nonabelian simple groups are normal. We construct an example of a nonnormal 2-arc transitive pentavalent symmetric Cayley graph on the alternating group $\text{A}_{39}$. Furthermore, we show that the full automorphism group of this graph is isomorphic to the alternating group $\text{A}_{40}$.

We obtain lower bounds for the growth of solutions of higher order linear differential equations, with coefficients analytic in the unit disc of the complex plane, by localising the equations via conformal maps and applying known results for the unit disc. As an example, we study equations in which the coefficients have a certain explicit exponential growth at one point on the boundary of the unit disc and consider the iterated $M$-order of solutions.

In this paper, we give some Łojasiewicz-type inequalities for continuous definable functions in an o-minimal structure. We also give a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a global error bound and the relationship between the Palais–Smale condition and this global error bound. Moreover, we give a Łojasiewicz nonsmooth gradient inequality at infinity near the fibre for continuous definable functions in an o-minimal structure.

Let $G$ be a finite group. We denote by ${\it\nu}(G)$ the probability that two randomly chosen elements of $G$ generate a nilpotent subgroup and by $\text{Nil}_{G}(x)$ the set of elements $y\in G$ such that $\langle x,y\rangle$ is a nilpotent subgroup. A group $G$ is called an ${\mathcal{N}}$-group if $\text{Nil}_{G}(x)$ is a subgroup of $G$ for all $x\in G$. We prove that if $G$ is an ${\mathcal{N}}$-group with ${\it\nu}(G)>\frac{1}{12}$, then $G$ is soluble. Also, we classify semisimple ${\mathcal{N}}$-groups with ${\it\nu}(G)=\frac{1}{12}$.

Let $G$ be a commutative group, $Y$ a real Banach space and $f:G\rightarrow Y$. We prove the Ulam–Hyers stability theorem for the cyclic functional equation

$$\begin{eqnarray}\displaystyle \frac{1}{|H|}\mathop{\sum }_{h\in H}f(x+h\cdot y)=f(x)+f(y) & & \displaystyle \nonumber\end{eqnarray}$$

$x,y\in {\rm\Omega}$

$H$

$\text{Aut}(G)$

${\rm\Omega}\subset G\times G$

$$\begin{eqnarray}\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}\mathop{\sum }_{k=1}^{N}f(z+{\it\omega}^{k}{\it\zeta})=f(z)+f({\it\zeta}) & & \displaystyle \nonumber\end{eqnarray}$$

$(z,{\it\zeta})\in {\rm\Omega}$

$f:\mathbb{C}\rightarrow Y,\,{\it\omega}=e^{2{\it\pi}i/N}$

${\rm\Omega}\subset \mathbb{C}^{2}$

$0$

In this work we study the homogenisation problem for nonlinear elliptic equations involving $p$-Laplacian-type operators with sign-changing weights. We study the asymptotic behaviour of variational eigenvalues which consist of a double sequence of eigenvalues. We show that the $k$th positive eigenvalue goes to infinity when the average of the weights is nonpositive, and converges to the $k$th variational eigenvalue of the limit problem when the average is positive for any $k\geq 1$.

We give a sufficient condition under which a semigroup is nonfinitely based. As an application, we show that a certain variety is nonfinitely based, and we indicate the additional analysis (to be presented in a forthcoming paper), which shows that this example is a new limit variety of aperiodic monoids.

Given a closed set $C$ in a Banach space $(X,\Vert \cdot \Vert )$, a point $x\in X$ is said to have a nearest point in $C$ if there exists $z\in C$ such that $d_{C}(x)=\Vert x-z\Vert$, where $d_{C}$ is the distance of $x$ from $C$. We survey the problem of studying the size of the set of points in $X$ which have nearest points in $C$. We then turn to the topic of delta convex functions and indicate how it is related to finding nearest points.

Our aim in this paper is to deal with Sobolev inequalities for Riesz potentials of functions in Lebesgue spaces of variable exponents near Sobolev’s exponent over nondoubling metric measure spaces.

From the viewpoint of $C^{\ast }$-dynamical systems, we define a weak version of the Haagerup property for the group action on a $C^{\ast }$-algebra. We prove that this group action preserves the Haagerup property of $C^{\ast }$-algebras in the sense of Dong [‘Haagerup property for $C^{\ast }$-algebras’, J. Math. Anal. Appl.377 (2011), 631–644], that is, the reduced crossed product $C^{\ast }$-algebra $A\rtimes _{{\it\alpha},\text{r}}{\rm\Gamma}$ has the Haagerup property with respect to the induced faithful tracial state $\widetilde{{\it\tau}}$ if $A$ has the Haagerup property with respect to ${\it\tau}$.

Let $G$ be a compact group. The aim of this note is to show that the only continuous *-homomorphism from $L^{1}(G)$ to $\ell ^{\infty }\text{-}\bigoplus _{[{\it\pi}]\in {\hat{G}}}{\mathcal{B}}_{2}({\mathcal{H}}_{{\it\pi}})$ that transforms a convolution product into a pointwise product is, essentially, a Fourier transform. A similar result is also deduced for maps from $L^{2}(G)$ to $\ell ^{2}\text{-}\bigoplus _{[{\it\pi}]\in {\hat{G}}}{\mathcal{B}}_{2}({\mathcal{H}}_{{\it\pi}})$.

We show that, under special hypotheses, each 3-Jordan homomorphism ${\it\varphi}$ between Banach algebras ${\mathcal{A}}$ and ${\mathcal{B}}$ is a 3-homomorphism.