Let ${{\mathcal{H}}_{n}}$ be the real linear space of $n\,\times \,n$ complex Hermitian matrices. The unitary (similarity) orbit $\mathcal{U}\left( C \right)$ of $C\,\in \,{{\mathcal{H}}_{n}}$ is the collection of all matrices unitarily similar to $C$. We characterize those $C\,\in \,{{\mathcal{H}}_{n}}$ such that every matrix in the convex hull of $\mathcal{U}\left( C \right)$ can be written as the average of two matrices in $\mathcal{U}\left( C \right)$. The result is used to study spectral properties of submatrices of matrices in $\mathcal{U}\left( C \right)$, the convexity of images of $\mathcal{U}\left( C \right)$ under linear transformations, and some related questions concerning the joint $C$-numerical range of Hermitian matrices. Analogous results on real symmetric matrices are also discussed.

For given multiplicative function $f$, with $\left| f\left( n \right) \right|\le 1$ for all $n$, we are interested in how fast its mean value $\left( 1/x \right)\sum{_{n\le x}f\left( n \right)}$ converges. Halász showed that this depends on the minimum $M\,\left( \text{over}\,y\,\in \,\mathbb{R} \right)\,\text{of}\,\sum{_{p\le x}\left( 1-\operatorname{Re}\left( f\left( p \right){{p}^{-iy}} \right) \right)}/p$, and subsequent authors gave the upper bound $\ll \left( 1+M \right){{e}^{-M}}$. For many applications it is necessary to have explicit constants in this and various related bounds, and we provide these via our own variant of the Halász-Montgomery lemma (in fact the constant we give is best possible up to a factor of 10). We also develop a new type of hybrid bound in terms of the location of the absolute value of $y$ that minimizes the sum above. As one application we give bounds for the least representatives of the cosets of the $k$-th powers mod $p$.

The method of moving frames, introduced by Elie Cartan, is a powerful tool for the solution of various equivalence problems. The practical implementation of Cartan's method, however, remains challenging, despite its later significant development and generalization. This paper presents two new variations on the Fels and Olver algorithm, which under some conditions on the group action, simplify a moving frame construction. In addition, the first algorithm leads to a better understanding of invariant differential forms on the jet bundles, while the second expresses the differential invariants for the entire group in terms of the differential invariants of its subgroup.

For a given Sturm-Liouville equation whose leading coefficient function changes sign, we establish inequalities among the eigenvalues for any coupled self-adjoint boundary condition and those for two corresponding separated self-adjoint boundary conditions. By a recent result of Binding and Volkmer, the eigenvalues (unbounded from both below and above) for a separated self-adjoint boundary condition can be numbered in terms of the Prüfer angle; and our inequalities can then be used to index the eigenvalues for any coupled self-adjoint boundary condition. Under this indexing scheme, we determine the discontinuities of each eigenvalue as a function on the space of such Sturm-Liouville problems, and its range as a function on the space of self-adjoint boundary conditions. We also relate this indexing scheme to the number of zeros of eigenfunctions. In addition, we characterize the discontinuities of each eigenvalue under a different indexing scheme.

An $E$-ring is a unital ring $R$ such that every endomorphism of the underlying abelian group ${{R}^{+}}$ is multiplication by some ring element. The existence of almost-free $E$-rings of cardinality greater than ${{2}^{{{\aleph }_{0}}}}$ is undecidable in ZFC. While they exist in Gödel's universe, they do not exist in other models of set theory. For a regular cardinal ${{\aleph }_{1}}\le \text{ }\!\!\lambda\!\!\text{ }\le {{2}^{{{\aleph }_{0}}}}$ we construct $E$-rings of cardinality $\lambda $ in ZFC which have ${{\aleph }_{1}}$-free additive structure. For $\text{ }\!\!\lambda\!\!\text{ }={{\aleph }_{1}}$ we therefore obtain the existence of almost-free $E$-rings of cardinality ${{\aleph }_{1}}$ in ZFC.

A model subspace ${{K}_{\Theta }}$ of the Hardy space ${{H}^{2}}={{H}^{2}}\left( {{\mathbb{C}}_{+}} \right)$ for the upper half plane ${{\mathbb{C}}_{+}}$ is ${{H}^{2}}\left( {{\mathbb{C}}_{+}} \right)\ominus \Theta {{H}^{2}}\left( {{\mathbb{C}}_{+}} \right)$ where $\Theta $ is an inner function in ${{\mathbb{C}}_{+}}$. A function $\omega :\,\mathbb{R}\mapsto [0,\,\infty )$ is called an admissible majorant for ${{K}_{\Theta }}$ if there exists an $f\,\in \,{{K}_{\Theta }},\,f\,\not{\equiv }\,0,\,|f\left( x \right)|\,\le \,\omega \left( x \right)$ almost everywhere on $\mathbb{R}$. For some (mainly meromorphic) $\Theta $'s some parts of Adm $\Theta $ (the set of all admissible majorants for ${{K}_{\Theta }}$) are explicitly described. These descriptions depend on the rate of growth of arg $\Theta $ along $\mathbb{R}$. This paper is about slowly growing arguments (slower than $x$). Our results exhibit the dependence of Adm $B$ on the geometry of the zeros of the Blaschke product $B$. A complete description of Adm $B$ is obtained for $B$'s with purely imaginary (“vertical”) zeros. We show that in this case a unique minimal admissible majorant exists.

It is well known that many polynomials which solve extremal problems on a single interval as the Chebyshev or the Bernstein-Szegö polynomials can be represented by trigonometric functions and their inverses. On two intervals one has elliptic instead of trigonometric functions. In this paper we show that the counterparts of the Chebyshev and Bernstein-Szegö polynomials for several intervals can be represented with the help of automorphic functions, so-called Schottky-Burnside functions. Based on this representation and using the Schottky-Burnside automorphic functions as a tool several extremal properties of such polynomials as orthogonality properties, extremal properties with respect to the maximum norm, behaviour of zeros and recurrence coefficients etc. are derived.

In the paper, we study the shortest time problem on a Riemannian space with an external force. We show that such problem can be converted to a shortest path problem on a Randers space. By choosing an appropriate external force on the Euclidean space, we obtain a non-trivial Randers metric of zero flag curvature. We also show that any positively complete Randers metric with zero flag curvature must be locally Minkowskian.

The infinitely divisible distributions on ${{\mathbb{R}}^{+}}$ of random variables ${{C}_{t}},\,{{S}_{t}}\,\text{and}\,{{T}_{t}}$ with Laplace transforms

$${{\left( \frac{1}{\cosh \sqrt{2\lambda }} \right)}^{t}},{{\left( \frac{\sqrt{2\lambda }}{\sinh \sqrt{2\lambda }} \right)}^{t}},\,\text{and}\,{{\left( \frac{\tanh \sqrt{2\lambda }}{\sqrt{2\lambda }} \right)}^{t}}$$

respectively are characterized for various $t\,>\,0$ in a number of different ways: by simple relations between their moments and cumulants, by corresponding relations between the distributions and their Lévy measures, by recursions for their Mellin transforms, and by differential equations satisfied by their Laplace transforms. Some of these results are interpreted probabilistically via known appearances of these distributions for $t\,=\,1\,\,\text{or}\,2$ in the description of the laws of various functionals of Brownian motion and Bessel processes, such as the heights and lengths of excursions of a one-dimensional Brownian motion. The distributions of ${{C}_{1}}\,\text{and}\,{{S}_{2}}$ are also known to appear in the Mellin representations of two important functions in analytic number theory, the Riemann zeta function and the Dirichlet $L$-function associated with the quadratic character modulo 4. Related families of infinitely divisible laws, including the gamma, logistic and generalized hyperbolic secant distributions, are derived from ${{S}_{t}}\,\text{and}\,{{C}_{t}}$ by operations such as Brownian subordination, exponential tilting, and weak limits, and characterized in various ways.

Eventual positivity problems for real convergent Maclaurin series lead to density questions for sets of harmonic functions. These are solved for large classes of series, and in so doing, asymptotic estimates are obtained for the values of the series near the radius of convergence and for the coefficients of convolution powers.

This paper is a continuation of $[6]$. We consider the model subspaces ${{K}_{\Theta }}={{H}^{2}}\ominus \Theta {{H}^{2}}$ of the Hardy space ${{H}^{2}}$ generated by an inner function $\Theta $ in the upper half plane. Our main object is the class of admissible majorants for ${{K}_{\Theta }}$, denoted by Adm $\Theta $ and consisting of all functions $\omega $ defined on $\mathbb{R}$ such that there exists an $f\ne 0,f\in {{K}_{\Theta }}$ satisfying $|f\left( x \right)|\,\le \,\omega \left( x \right)$ almost everywhere on $\mathbb{R}$. Firstly, using some simple Hilbert transform techniques, we obtain a general multiplier theorem applicable to any ${{K}_{\Theta }}$ generated by a meromorphic inner function. In contrast with $[6]$, we consider the generating functions $\Theta $ such that the unit vector $\Theta \left( x \right)$ winds up fast as $x$ grows from $-\infty \,\text{to}\,\infty $. In particular, we consider $\Theta \,=\,B$ where $B$ is a Blaschke product with “horizontal” zeros, i.e., almost uniformly distributed in a strip parallel to and separated from $\mathbb{R}$. It is shown, among other things, that for any such $B$, any even $\omega $ decreasing on $\left( 0,\,\infty \right)$ with a finite logarithmic integral is in Adm $B$ (unlike the “vertical” case treated in $[6]$), thus generalizing (with a new proof) a classical result related to Adm $\exp \left( i\sigma z \right),\,\sigma \,>\,0$. Some oscillating $\omega $'s in Adm $B$ are also described. Our theme is related to the Beurling-Malliavin multiplier theorem devoted to Adm $\exp \left( i\sigma z \right),\,\sigma \,>\,0$, and to de Branges’ space $H\left( E \right)$.

We prove that the maximum number of rational points on a smooth, geometrically irreducible genus 4 curve over the field of 8 elements is 25. The body of the paper shows that 27 points is not possible by combining techniques from algebraic geometry with a computer verification. The appendix shows that 26 points is not possible by examining the zeta functions.

We provide an explicit thick and thin decomposition for oriented hyperbolic manifolds $M$ of dimension 5. The result implies improved universal lower bounds for the volume $\text{vo}{{\text{l}}_{\text{5}}}\left( M \right)$ and, for $M$ compact, new estimates relating the injectivity radius and the diameter of $M$ with $\text{vo}{{\text{l}}_{\text{5}}}\left( M \right)$. The quantification of the thin part is based upon the identification of the isometry group of the universal space by the matrix group $\text{P}{{\text{S}}_{\Delta }}\text{L}\left( 2,\,\mathbb{H} \right)$ of quaternionic $2\,\times \,2$-matrices with Dieudonné determinant $\Delta$ equal to 1 and isolation properties of $\text{P}{{\text{S}}_{\Delta }}\text{L}\left( 2,\,\mathbb{H} \right)$.

A Hopf surface is the quotient of the complex surface ${{\mathbb{C}}^{2}}\,\backslash \,\left\{ 0 \right\}$ by an infinite cyclic group of dilations of ${{\mathbb{C}}^{2}}$. In this paper, we study the moduli spaces ${{\mathcal{M}}^{n}}$ of stable $\text{SL}\left( 2,\,\mathbb{C} \right)$-bundles on a Hopf surface $\mathcal{H}$, from the point of view of symplectic geometry. An important point is that the surface $\mathcal{H}$ is an elliptic fibration, which implies that a vector bundle on $\mathcal{H}$ can be considered as a family of vector bundles over an elliptic curve. We define a map $G:\,{{\mathcal{M}}^{n}}\,\to \,{{\mathbb{P}}^{2n+1}}$ that associates to every bundle on $\mathcal{H}$ a divisor, called the graph of the bundle, which encodes the isomorphism class of the bundle over each elliptic curve. We then prove that the map $G$ is an algebraically completely integrable Hamiltonian system, with respect to a given Poisson structure on ${{\mathcal{M}}^{n}}$. We also give an explicit description of the fibres of the integrable system. This example is interesting for several reasons; in particular, since the Hopf surface is not Kähler, it is an elliptic fibration that does not admit a section.

We develop an explicit skein-theoretical algorithm to compute the Alexander polynomial of a 3-manifold from a surgery presentation employing the methods used in the construction of quantum invariants of 3-manifolds. As a prerequisite we establish and prove a rather unexpected equivalence between the topological quantum field theory constructed by Frohman and Nicas using the homology of $U\left( 1 \right)$-representation varieties on the one side and the combinatorially constructed Hennings TQFT based on the quasitriangular Hopf algebra $\mathcal{N=}\mathbb{Z}\text{/2}\ltimes {{\wedge }^{*}}{{\mathbb{R}}^{2}}$ on the other side. We find that both TQFT's are $\text{SL}\left( 2,\,\mathbb{R} \right)$-equivariant functors and, as such, are isomorphic. The $\text{SL}\left( 2,\,\mathbb{R} \right)$-action in the Hennings construction comes from the natural action on $\mathcal{N}$ and in the case of the Frohman–Nicas theory from the Hard–Lefschetz decomposition of the $U\left( 1 \right)$-moduli spaces given that they are naturally Kähler. The irreducible components of this TQFT, corresponding to simple representations of $\text{SL}\left( 2,\,\mathbb{Z} \right)\,\text{and}\,\text{Sp}\left( 2g,\,\mathbb{Z} \right)$, thus yield a large family of homological TQFT's by taking sums and products. We give several examples of TQFT's and invariants that appear to fit into this family, such as Milnor and Reidemeister Torsion, Seiberg–Witten theories, Casson type theories for homology circles à la Donaldson, higher rank gauge theories following Frohman and Nicas, and the $\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ reductions of Reshetikhin–Turaev theories over the cyclotomic integers $\mathbb{Z}[{{\zeta }_{p}}]$. We also conjecture that the Hennings TQFT for quantum-$\mathfrak{s}{{\mathfrak{l}}_{2}}$ is the product of the Reshetikhin–Turaev TQFT and such a homological TQFT.

Let $f:\,E\,\to \,B$ be a dominant morphism, where $E$ and $B$ are smooth irreducible complex quasi-projective varieties, and let ${{F}_{b}}$ be the general fiber of $f$. We present conditions under which the homomorphism ${{\text{ }\!\!\pi\!\!\text{ }}_{1}}\left( {{F}_{b}} \right)\,\to \,{{\text{ }\!\!\pi\!\!\text{ }}_{1}}\,\left( E \right)$ induced by the inclusion is injective.

Given a $p$-dimensional oriented foliation of an $n$-dimensional compact manifold ${{M}^{n}}$ and a transversal invariant measure $\tau$, Sullivan has defined an element of ${{H}_{p}}\left( {{M}^{n}},\,R \right)$. This generalized the notion of a $\mu$-asymptotic cycle, which was originally defined for actions of the real line on compact spaces preserving an invariant measure $\mu$. In this one-dimensional case there was a natural 1–1 correspondence between transversal invariant measures $\tau$ and invariant measures $\mu$ when one had a smooth flow without stationary points.

For what we call an oriented action of a connected Lie group on a compact manifold we again get in this paper such a correspondence, provided we have what we call a positive quantifier. (In the one-dimensional case such a quantifier is provided by the vector field defining the flow.) Sufficient conditions for the existence of such a quantifier are given, together with some applications.

Let $F$ be a $p$-adic local field and let $A_{i}^{\times }$ be the unit group of a central simple $F$-algebra ${{A}_{i}}$ of reduced degree $n\,>\,1\,(i\,=\,1,\,2)$. Let ${{\mathcal{R}}^{2}}\left( A_{i}^{\times } \right)$ denote the set of irreducible discrete series representations of $A_{i}^{\times }$. The “Abstract Matching Theorem” asserts the existence of a bijection, the “Jacquet-Langlands” map, $J{{L}_{{{A}_{2}},{{A}_{1}}}}\,:\,{{R}^{2}}\left( A_{1}^{\times } \right)\,\to \,{{R}^{2}}\left( A_{2}^{\times } \right)$ which, up to known sign, preserves character values for regular elliptic elements. This paper addresses the question of explicitly describing the map 𝒥ℒ, but only for “level zero” representations. We prove that the restriction $J{{L}_{{{A}_{2}},{{A}_{1}}}}\,:\,R_{0}^{2}\left( A_{1}^{\times } \right)\,\to \,R_{0}^{2}\left( A_{2}^{\times } \right)$ is a bijection of level zero discrete series (Proposition 3.2) and we give a parameterization of the set of unramified twist classes of level zero discrete series which does not depend upon the algebra ${{A}_{i}}$ and is invariant under $J{{L}_{{{A}_{2}},{{A}_{1}}}}$ (Theorem 4.1).

We define a total ordering of the pure braid groups which is invariant under multiplication on both sides. This ordering is natural in several respects. Moreover, it well-orders the pure braids which are positive in the sense of Garside. The ordering is defined using a combination of Artin's combing technique and the Magnus expansion of free groups, and is explicit and algorithmic.

By contrast, the full braid groups (on 3 or more strings) can be ordered in such a way as to be invariant on one side or the other, but not both simultaneously. Finally, we remark that the same type of ordering can be applied to the fundamental groups of certain complex hyperplane arrangements, a direct generalization of the pure braid groups.

For complex projective manifolds we introduce polar homology groups, which are holomorphic analogues of the homology groups in topology. The polar $k$-chains are subvarieties of complex dimension $k$ with meromorphic forms on them, while the boundary operator is defined by taking the polar divisor and the Poincaré residue on it. One can also define the corresponding analogues for the intersection and linking numbers of complex submanifolds, which have the properties similar to those of the corresponding topological notions.