The potential barrier governed by a second-order ordinary differential equation has been studied for decades, both exactly and approximately. These concepts are generalized so as to be applicable to differential equations of arbitrary even order. The barrier is defined, and the approximate solutions both inside and outside are derived. Transmission through this barrier is investigated by deriving connexion formulae through the two transition points of arbitrary odd order. The transmitted solution is linked through the barrier to the incident and reflected solutions in a unique manner, enabling an approximate transmission coefficient to be calculated and its structure to be ascertained. Every concept in the investigation is a suitable generalization of the elementary case, the generalization possible being a product of the approximate processes adopted and how they limit the nature of the generalization. An inspection of the elementary case and its transmission coefficient gives no hint as to the nature of the generalization, the limitations necessarily imposed, and the structure of the final transmission coefficient, since the elementary case has special features not present in the generalization.

We obtain upper and lower bounds of the same order of magnitude for the error between the distribution of a sum of independent and identically distributed random variables, and a normal approximation by a portion of a Chebychev-Cramér series. Our results are sufficiently general to contain the familiar characterizations by Ibragimov(4), Heyde and Leslie (3) and Lifshits(5), and complement some of those obtained earlier by the author (2).

1. Introduction. A Markov Renewal Process (MRP) with m(<∞) states is one which records at each time t, the number of times a system visits each of the m states up to time t, if the system moves from state to state according to a Markov chain with transition probability matrix P0 = [pij] and if the time required for each successive move is a random variable whose distribution function (d.f.) depends on the two states between which the move is made. Thus, if the system moves from state i to state j, the holding time in the state i has Fij(x) as its d.f. (i, j = 1,2, …, m).

1. The postulation of a multiple curve for primals of sufficiently large order in space of any number of dimensions has been obtained recently by J. A. Todd, by a simple and elegant degeneration argument which, however, is not deemed to be a conclusive proof by the author himself. And, indeed, in order to make sure of the unconditional validity of such an argument, one should ascertain whether

(i) the postulation θk of an irreducible non-singular curve ϲ, of order c and genus p, for the primals of sufficiently large order n of [r + 2] (r ≥ 1), required to go through it with multiplicity k (≥ 1), is a function of k, c, p, n, r only;

(ii) it is possible, by means of a continuous variation of ϲ, to reduce this curve to connected polygon ϲ′ having the same virtual characters as ϲ, in such a way that each intermediate position of ϲ is still irreducible and non-singular;

(iii) the postulation θk of ϲ equals the similarly defined postulation of ϲ′.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the asymptotic behaviour as r → 1− of the integrals

and f is an analytic function on the unit disk Δ which has non-tangential limits at almost every point on ∂Δ. The paper is divided into three parts. In the first part we consider the case where λ ≠ 1/k, in the second the somewhat more delicate case when λ = 1/k and in the third part we concentrate on some problems related to the case λ = k = 1.

The quantal quartic oscillator, characterized by two real and two complex conjugate transition points (simple zeros), is studied by means of the phase-integral method developed by Fröman and Fröman, and various quantization conditions are obtained. The main results, obtained in §3·3 and §4, are summarized below.

A correction to the generalized Bohr–Sommerfeld quantization condition, due to the complex conjugate transition points, is obtained from estimates of the. F-matrix for a path passing above the complex conjugate transition points. This quantization condition is closely related to the quantization condition for a double-oscillator. The correction is shown to be rigorously valid when the distance between the real transition points is large compared to the distance between the complex conjugate ones, which may lie at an unspecified distance from each other.

At sufficiently large distances from the cluster of four transition points the solutions of the Schrödinger equation can be characterized by the Stokes constants between anti-Stokes lines emerging from the cluster in six directions towards infinity. There are initially six non-trivial such Stokes constants in the problem under consideration, but, from the results in previous papers by N. Fröman and the present authors, these Stokes constants are linked by a number of algebraic relations, so that one or two Stokes constants suffice to describe the solutions far away from the cluster of transition points. The quantization condition is expressed in terms of these Stokes constants. Approximate values of the relevant Stokes constants are given in the three limiting cases when all four transition points coalesce (and the first-order phase-integral approximation is used), when the distance between the real transition points is sufficiently large (extreme double-oscillator), and in the Bohr-Sommerfeld limit.

We investigate when a Legendrian knot in the standard contact ${{\mathbb{R}}}^3$ has a non-orientable exact Lagrangian filling. We prove analogs of several results in the orientable setting, develop new combinatorial obstructions to fillability, and determine when several families of knots have such fillings. In particular, we completely determine when an alternating knot (and more generally a plus-adequate knot) is decomposably non-orientably fillable and classify the fillability of most torus and 3-strand pretzel knots. We also describe rigidity phenomena of decomposable non-orientable fillings, including finiteness of the possible normal Euler numbers of fillings and the minimisation of crosscap numbers of fillings, obtaining results which contrast in interesting ways with the smooth setting.

In this paper upper bounds on the Engel length of a group G of prime-power exponent are obtained, under varying conditions on a normal subgroup H and the quotient G/H. Examples are constructed to show that the bounds are best possible when the nilpotency class of H is less than the relevant prime.

1. Introduction. Little has been written on the effects of surface tension (or cohesion) on waves in liquid media; this is not surprising as in general its effects are small compared with those of gravity or compressibility, except in the case of ripple motion (Lamb (3), sections 265, 267). Bondi (1) has investigated the problem of a compressible fluid half space; he found that under cohesive action ‘faster-than-sound’ propagation along the surface is possible, and he studied it with the aid of an elegant image-function-space method; but he carefully points out the small size of the parameters involved.

In this paper, we use categorical methods to arrive at a characterization of Hausdorff hyperspaces of separated uniform spaces within a category of ordered uniform spaces. We begin by showing that the hyperspace construction gives rise to a monad H in the category Uni of non-empty separated uniform spaces and uniformly continuous maps. We then identify the category of H-algebras and characterize hyperspaces in this context.

The problem considered is that of transforming the integral equations obtained by Jones (2, 3), for diffraction by a circular disc so that they can be solved by iteration for any general incident field. A method of achieving this transformation is presented for the case of axi-symmetric incident fields. The generalization of the method to non-axi-symmetric problems is also examined.

This paper contains an attempt, begun several years ago and only partially successful, to do for the canonical curve of genus five something similar to what W. P. Milne had done for that of genus four. A fundamental feature of Milne's work was the use of a rational normal curve of order three drawn through the six points of contact of a quadric with the sextic curve; here it is not in general possible to pass a rational curve of order four through the eight points of contact. (Exceptionally it may be possible to do so and then the development follows much the same lines as in Milne's paper: only the general case is discussed in what follows.)

1. Introduction. This note is a sequel to (1), the notation of which will be used without further explanation. In (2), certain deductions from the theorems proved in (1) were made in the case where K(x, t) is derived from a function K(x), a.c. in [0, 1], by the equation

The topological theory of covering spaces may be used to prove results in group theory, for instance, the Kuros-Reidemeister-Schreier theorem (1). It seems likely that such methods can be applied to prove the Freiheitsatz (4) and the identity theorem (3), and also perhaps Lyndon's conjecture, that the normal closure in a free group F of a, single element r is freely generated by conjugates of r. However, although these problems may easily be stated in topological terms, no such proof is at present known. In this paper we prove a related result.

Given a1, . . ., ar ∈ ℚ \ {0, ±1}, the Schinzel–Wójcik problem is to determine whether there exist infinitely many primes p for which the order modulo p of each a1, . . ., ar coincides. We prove on the GRH that the primes with this property have a density and in the special case when each ai is a power of a fixed rational number, we show unconditionally that such a density is non zero. Finally, in the case when all the ai's are prime, we express the density it terms of an infinite product.

The hysteresis losses and demagnetizing coefficients of rectangular Fe-Si strips of various dimensions have been investigated. The hysteresis loss is approximately independent of the value of N, in agreement with a simple theoretical argument. The value of the demagnetizing coefficient is in fair agreement with the value calculated for the inscribed ellipsoid.

The incitement, or provocation, to assemble the following pages was the recognition in a recent paper (5) of a geometrical property characterizing those pairs, in a pencil of quadric surfaces, such that the quadrics of a pair are both outpolar and inpolar to each other: symmetrically apolar let it be said. That there are three such pairs was known (8), but their identification by means of the principal chords of their common curve had apparently not been remarked upon. The question naturally arose as to the number and identification of such pairs of quadrics of a pencil in n-dimensional projective space [n]; it is easy to show that the number is ½n(n–1), but geometrical identification seems quite another matter and no success whatever has yet been achieved even when n is 4.

Considering a certain partition of a given compact region in the complex plane, interpolatory, convergence and quasiconformal properties of interpolants from the class of continuous piecewise functions with pieces as quadratic polynomials in z and were studied recently in [3] and [7]. In the present paper we succeed in showing that the foregoing mapping properties continue to hold for interpolants from a certain class of continuous piecewise rational polynomial functions in z and

The notation of the introduction of the first paper (1) will be used without further explanation. All page references, and also references to Theorems 1, 2, 3, 4 or to numbered equations, will be understood to refer to the pages, theorems or equations* so numbered in (1). The theorems of the present paper are denoted by primed numbers.