Minkowski proved two important finiteness theorems concerning the reduction theory of positive definite quadratic forms (see [6], p. 285 or [7], §8 and §10). A positive definite quadratic form in n variables may be considered as an ellipsoid in n-dimensional Euclidean space, Rn, and then the two results can be investigated more generally by replacing the ellipsoid by any symmetric convex body in Rn. We show here that when n≧3 the two finiteness theorems hold only in the case of the ellipsoid. This is equivalent to showing that Minkowski's results do not hold in a general Minkowski space, namely in a euclidean space where the unit ball is a general symmetric convex body instead of the sphere or ellipsoid.

One of the elementary applications of the Rankine-Hugoniot shock relations which relate conditions on the two sides of a plane shock wave is that of determining the flow when a piston is pushed with constant velocity ū into a tube containing gas at rest. A shock wave races into the undisturbed gas at a constant speed Ū whose value can easily be found in terms of ū and the constants which specify the uniform condition of the gas at rest. If, however, the piston is suddenly brought to rest after a finite time the subsequent behaviour of the shock wave is very difficult to determine. A rarefaction wave is generated at the piston, and, as the velocity of the shock is subsonic relative to the gas behind it, this eventually overtakes the shock wave causing it to weaken. Since the energy supplied is finite the ultimate speed of the shock will tend to that of a sound wave. The analytical treatment of the flow behind the shock is made difficult by the entropy gradients which arise because of the variation in shock strength. It is further complicated by the disturbances which are reflected off the piston and give rise to a secondary interaction with the shock. Indeed, it seems safe to say that a complete description of the motion would certainly depend on some form of numerical integration.

The structure is determined for the existence of some amicable weighing matrices. This is then used to prove the existence and non-existence of some amicable orthogonal designs in powers of two.

If $f:\tilde{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}\rightarrow \unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$ is a covering map between connected graphs, and $H$ is the subgroup of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70B}_{1}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4},v)$ used to construct the cover, then it is well known that the group of deck transformations of the cover is isomorphic to $N(H)/H$, where $N(H)$ is the normalizer of $H$ in $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70B}_{1}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4},v)$. We show that an entirely analogous result holds for immersions between connected graphs, where the subgroup $H$ is replaced by the closed inverse submonoid of the inverse monoid $L(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4},v)$ used to construct the immersion. We observe a relationship between group actions on graphs and deck transformations of graph immersions. We also show that a graph immersion $f:\tilde{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}\rightarrow \unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$ may be extended to a cover $g:\tilde{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E5}}\rightarrow \unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$ in such a way that all deck transformations of $f$ are restrictions of deck transformations of $g$.

In this paper, it is proved that all irreducible Harish-Chandra modules over the ℚ Heisenberg–Virasoro algebra are of the intermediate series (all weight spaces are at most one-dimensional).

In this paper we show that the Lorentz space Lw, 1(0, ∞) has the weak-star uniform Kadec-Klee property if and only if inft>0 (w(αt)/w(t)) > 1 and supt>0(φ(αt) / φ(t))< 1 for all α ∈ (0, 1), where φ(t) = ∫t0 w(s) ds.

It is a trivial consequence of Magnus' solution to the word problem for one-relator groups [9] and the existence of finitely presented groups with unsolvable word problem [4] that not every finitely presented group can be embedded in a one-relator group. We modify a construction of Aanderaa [1] to show that any finitely presented group can be embedded in a group with twenty-six defining relations. It then follows from the well-known theorem of Higman [7] that there is a fixed group with twenty-six defining relations in which every recursively presented group is embedded.

Our main purpose is to extend several results of interest that have been proved for modules over integral domains to modules over arbitrary commutative rings $R$ with identity. The classical ring of quotients $Q$ of $R$ will play the role of the field of quotients when zero-divisors are present. After discussing torsion-freeness and divisibility (Sections 2–3), we study Matlis-cotorsion modules and their roles in two category equivalences (Sections 4–5). These equivalences are established via the same functors as in the domain case, but instead of injective direct sums $\oplus Q$ one has to take the full subcategory of $Q$-modules into consideration. Finally, we prove results on Matlis rings, i.e. on rings for which $Q$ has projective dimension $1$ (Theorem 6.4).

We identify the groups ${\text{PSU} }_{6} (2)$, ${\text{PSU} }_{6} (2){: }2$, ${\text{PSU} }_{6} (2){: }3$ and $\text{Aut} ({\text{PSU} }_{6} (2))$ from the structure of the centralizer of an element of order three.

We investigate the number and size of the maximal sublattices of a finite lattice. For any positive integer k, there is a finite lattice L with more that ]L]k sublattices. On the other hand, there are arbitrary large finite lattices which contain a maximal sublattice with only 14 elements. It is shown that every bounded lattice is isomorphic to the Frattini sublattice (the intersection of all maximal sublattices) of a finite bounded lattice.

By simple geometrical considerations new proofs for some classical results are given and also new theorems about approximation by continued fractions are derived. This geometrical approach presents an instructive visualisation of the nature of proximation theorems.

In this paper we present a minimax theorem of infinite dimension. The result contains several earlier duality results for various trigonometrical extremal problems including a problem of Fejér. Also the present duality theorem plays a crucial role in the determination of the exact number of zeros of certain Beurling zeta functions, and hence leads to a considerable generalization of the classical Beurling's Prime Number Theorem. The proof used functional analysis.

We construct global solutions of the minimal surface equation over certain smooth annular domains and over the domain exterior to certain smooth simple closed curves. Each resulting minimal graph has an isolated jump discontinuity on the inner boundary component which, at least in some cases, is shown to have nonvanishing curvature.

Let $g$ be an element of a finite group $G$ and let $R_{n}(g)$ be the subgroup generated by all the right Engel values $[g,_{n}x]$ over $x\in G$. In the case when $G$ is soluble we prove that if, for some $n$, the Fitting height of $R_{n}(g)$ is equal to $k$, then $g$ belongs to the $(k+1)$th Fitting subgroup $F_{k+1}(G)$. For nonsoluble $G$, it is proved that if, for some $n$, the generalized Fitting height of $R_{n}(g)$ is equal to $k$, then $g$ belongs to the generalized Fitting subgroup $F_{f(k,m)}^{\ast }(G)$ with $f(k,m)$ depending only on $k$ and $m$, where $|g|$ is the product of $m$ primes counting multiplicities. It is also proved that if, for some $n$, the nonsoluble length of $R_{n}(g)$ is equal to $k$, then $g$ belongs to a normal subgroup whose nonsoluble length is bounded in terms of $k$ and $m$. Earlier, similar generalizations of Baer’s theorem (which states that an Engel element of a finite group belongs to the Fitting subgroup) were obtained by the first two authors in terms of left Engel-type subgroups.

Let G be transitive permutation group of degree n and let K be a nontrivial pronormal subgroup of G (that is, for all g in G, K and Kg are conjugate in (K, Kg)). It is shown that K can fix at most ½(n – 1) points. Moreover if K fixes exactly ½(n – 1) points then G is either An or Sn, or GL(d, 2) in its natural representation where n = 2d-1 ≥ 7. Connections with a result of Michael O'Nan are dicussed, and an application to the Sylow subgroups of a one point stabilizer is given.

Let be a family of sets, {Fa|α∈Λ}. By the graph G of the system , we mean the graph whose set of vertices is and in which the vertices Fβ∈, are adjacent (that is, are joined by an edge) if and only if Fα ≠ Fβ and Fα ∩ Fβ □, where □denotes the empty set.

In this paper we study the Stone-Čech bicompactification () of the bispace (X, P, Q). We show that the ring of all continuous real-valued functions on () may be identified with the uniform closure of a suitable subring of C(). Using this result, we give a characterization of the Wallman-Sanin compactifications of the pairwise Tychonoff bitopological spaces.

This paper focuses primarily on two aspects of Stieltjes-Volterra integral equation theory. One is a theory for convolution integrals — that is, integrals of the form — and the other is a fixed point theorem for a mapping which is induced by an integral equation. Throughout the paper I will denote the identity function whose range of definition should be clear from the context and all integrals will be left integrals, written , whose simplest approximating sum is [f(b) – f(a)]·g(a) and whose value is the limit of approximating sums with respect to successive refinements of the interval. Also, N will denote the set of elements of a complete normed ring with unity 1 and S will denote a set linearly ordered by ≦.

We initiate a study of structural properties of the quotient algebra ${\mathcal{K}}(X)/{\mathcal{A}}(X)$ of the compact-by-approximable operators on Banach spaces $X$ failing the approximation property. Our main results and examples include the following: (i) there is a linear isomorphic embedding from $c_{0}$ into ${\mathcal{K}}(Z)/{\mathcal{A}}(Z)$, where $Z$ belongs to the class of Banach spaces constructed by Willis that have the metric compact approximation property but fail the approximation property, (ii) there is a linear isomorphic embedding from a nonseparable space $c_{0}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4})$ into ${\mathcal{K}}(Z_{FJ})/{\mathcal{A}}(Z_{FJ})$, where $Z_{FJ}$ is a universal compact factorisation space arising from the work of Johnson and Figiel.

It is well known that the so-called reduced Borel algebra, that is, the Boolean algebra of all Borel subsets of the unit interval modulo the meager Borel sets of this interval, can be abstractly characterized as a complete, totally non-atomic Boolean algebra containing a countable join dense subset. (For an indication of the history of this result, see, for example, ([2], p. 483, footnote 12.) From this characterization, it easily follows that the reduced Borel algebra B is “homogeneous” in the sense that every non-trivial in B is isomorphic to B.