We denote, as usual, the number of integers not exceeding x having no prime factors greater than y by Ψ(x, y). We also write

The function Ψ(x, y) is of great interest in number theory and has been studied by many researchers (see [3], [5] and [6] for example). The function Ψ(x, z, y) has also received some attention (see [2], [4–6]). In this paper we shall try to obtain a positive lower bound for Ψ(x, z, y) with y as small as possible when z is about x½ in magnitude. We note that the approach in [5] and [6] allows y to be much smaller than is permissible here, but requires x/z to be smaller than any power of x in [6] (unless some conjecture like the Riemann Hypothesis is assumed), or needs in [5]. The following result was obtained by Balog[1].

The question of the title is to be interpreted as follows. Given a homogeneous nonzero quartic polynomial ø(x1, x2, x3), can one always find homogeneous quadratics c, q1, q2, q3 in three variables such that

I am indebted to Ulf Persson for asking this question, the answer to which is intimately related to the singularities of the projective quartic curve Γ defined by ø = 0. We work throughout over the field ℂ of complex numbers.

A classical conjecture in the additive theory of numbers is that all sufficiently large natural numbers may be written as the sum of four positive cubes of integers. This is known as the Four Cubes Problem, and since the pioneering work of Hardy and Littlewood one expects a much more precise quantitative form of the conjecture to hold. Let v(n) be the number of representations of n in the proposed manner. Then the expected formula takes the shape

where (n) is the singular series associated with four cubes as familiar in the Hardy–Littlewood theory.

Recently, several authors [1, 3, 9] have investigated the algebraic and transcendental values of the hypergeometric series

for rational parameters a, b, c and algebraic arguments z. This work has led to some interesting new identities such as

and

where Γ(x) denotes the gamma function.

There are many proofs in the literature of the non-triviality of alternating, classical links in the 3-sphere, but almost all use a combinatorial argument involving some algebraic invariant, namely the determinant [1], the Alexander polynomial [3], the Jones polynomial [5], and, in [6], the Q-polynomial of Brandt–Lickorish–Millett. Indeed, alternating links behave remarkably well with respect to these and other invariants, but this fact has not led to any significant geometric understanding of alternating link types. Therefore it is natural to seek purely geometric proofs of geometric properties of these links. Gabai has given in [4] a striking geometric proof of a related result, also proved earlier by algebraic means in [3], namely that the Seifert surface obtained from a reduced alternating link diagram by Seifert's algorithm has minimal genus for that link. Here, we give an elementary geometric proof of non-triviality of alternating knots, using a slight variation of the techniques set forth in [7, 8]. Note that if L is a link of more than one component and some component of L is spanned by a disk whose interior lies in the complement of L, then L is a split link, i.e. it is separated by a 2-sphere in S3\L; thus we do not consider alternating links of more than one component here, as it is proved in [7] that a connected alternating diagram cannot represent a split link.

The concept of an m-full ideal was introduced and studied first by D. Rees (unpublished). In 1983, after having considered and discussed the concept with Professor Rees, the author showed some properties of these ideals in [11], and other authors also have obtained results related to them (cf. [5, 7]). The purpose of this paper is to seek syzygies of m-full ideals and try to analyze their structure. Let a be an m-full ideal, and ᾱ the reduction by a general element. Then it is possible to determine the number of basic syzygies of a in terms of ᾱ. We show that this leads to a method for obtaining a set of basic syzygies of a provided that one for ᾱ is known (Theorem 6). Moreover the entire structure of the syzygy module is known when it is reduced by a general element. It turns out that a/za is the direct sum of ᾱ and copies of the residue field (Corollary 7).

In topology and geometry it is often instructive to consider objects with isolated singularities. Frequently such objects turn out to be relatively tractable and to provide useful insights into more general situations. For actions of finite cyclic groups on manifolds the standard notion of singularity is a point that is left fixed by some non-trivial element of the group (but not necessarily by the whole group). If the singular set is isolated the action is said to be pseudofree. Special cases of pseudofree actions have been studied in several independent contexts; in particular, previous papers of Cappell and Shaneson [4] and the authors [15] considered classes of ‘nice’ pseudofree actions on spheres. References to other works are given at the beginning of [15] (and in the meantime there has also been considerable further activity).

The first factor of the class number of a cyclotomic number field can be obtainable by the analytic class number formula and there are some tables which show the decompositions of the first factors into primes. But, using just the analytic formula, we cannot tell what kinds of primes will appear as the factors of the class number of a given cyclotomic number field, except for those of the genus number, or the irregular primes. It is significant to find in advance the prime factors, particularly those prime to the degree of the field. For instance, in the table of the first factors we can pick out some pairs (l, p) of two odd primes l and p such that the class number of each lpth cyclotomic number field is divisible by l even if p 1 (mod l). If p ≡ (mod l) for l ≥ 5 or p ≡ 1 (mod 32) for l = 3, then it is easy from the outset to achieve our intention of finding the factor l using the genus number formula. Otherwise it seems to be difficult. We wish to make it clear algebraically why the class number has the prime factor l.

In [13] T. H. Pate has recently proved an important inequality between immanants of Hermitian positive semi-definite matrices. In this paper we introduce some more inequalities with the eventual aim of better understanding the permanental dominance conjecture. Indeed the results in this paper together with known results show that the permanental dominance conjecture for immanants is true for all n × n Hermitian positive semi-definite matrices with n ≤ 8, except perhaps for the case of the partition (24) of 8.

For unexplained terms in semigroup theory see [1] or [4].

Let C, D be classes of semigroups such that every finite semigroup in the class C is embeddable in a finite semigroup in the class D. If n ≥ 2 then k is said to be a C – Dcover of n if every semigroup of order n in the class C is embeddable in a semigroup in the class D of order not greater than k. Let be the least C – D cover of n.

An analytic map-germ f:(ℂn, 0)→(ℂp, 0) is said to be quasi-homogeneous, or weighted homogeneous, if there are positive integers w1, …, wn, the weights, and positive integers d1, …, dp, the degrees, such that for each monomial appearing in the Taylor expansion of the ith component fi of f, we have

The class of fundamental groups of non-singular complex projective varieties is an interesting, but as yet imperfectly understood, class of finitely presented groups. Membership of is known to be extremely restricted (see [22, 23]). In this paper, we employ geometrical rigidity properties to realize some group extensions as elements of as in our previous papers, we find it convenient to work simultaneously with the class ℋ of fundamental groups of compact Kähler manifolds.

Let GL2(R) be the general linear group of 2 × 2 invertible matrices in M2(R) over a commutative ring R with 1 and SL2(R) be the special linear group consisting of 2 × 2 matrices over R with determinant 1. In this paper we determine the homomorphisms from GL2 and SL2, as well as their projective groups, over Laurent polynomial rings to those groups over Gaussian domains, i.e. unique factorization domains (cf. Theorems 1, 2, 3 below). We also consider more generally the homomorphisms of non-projective groups over commutative rings containing a field which are generated by their units (cf. Theorems 4 and 5). So far the homomorphisms of two-dimensional linear groups over commutative rings have only been studied in some specific cases. Landin and Reiner[7] obtained the automorphisms of GL2(R), where R is a Euclidean domain generated by its units. When R is a type of generalized Euclidean domain with a degree function and with units of R and 0 forming a field, Cohn[3] described the automorphisms of GL2(R). Later, Cohn[4] applied his methods to the case of certain rings of quadratic integers. Dull[6] has considered the automorphisms of GL2(R) and SL2(R), along with their projective groups, provided that R is a GE-ring and 2 is a unit in R. McDonald [9] examined the automorphisms of GL2(R) when R has a large unit group. The most recent work of which we are aware is that of Li and Ren[8] where the automorphisms of E2(R) and GE2(R) were determined for any commutative ring R in which 2, 3 and 5 are units.

The Pompeiu problem has its origins in classical analysis in ℝn (see [2, 3, 4, 8] for a discussion and some history). In this context it may be stated as follows. Let D ⊂ ℝn be a bounded measurable set of positive Lebesgue measure and f a locally integrable function on ℝn. Then, if ∫σ(D)f = 0 for all rigid motions σ of ℝn, is f = 0?

We prove that for homogeneous spaces of isotropic Grassmannians the Borel map sends the basis of a truncated algebra of Schur Q-functions consisting of Q-functions or P-functions (depending on a case) onto the basis dual to the basis of Schubert cycles.

In this paper, we shall consider the following method for obtaining regular isotopy invariants of link diagrams. Given any link diagram L, equip it with a Morse function h, so that the diagram consists entirely of crossings, maxima, minima and vertical arcs. Introduce 2-valent graphical vertices to separate the various segments of the diagram. Given a finite index set I, a state σ for Lh is an assignation of one element of I to each graphical vertex. Each segment of the diagram now has a weight

associated with it, given in terms of tensor coordinates indexed by the set I by the pictures

and, for any state σ, [Li|σ] denotes the product of the various weights. We then define 〈Lh〉 to be the sum of [Lh|σ] over all possible states σ,

The original motivation for the introduction by Frobenius of group characters for non-abelian groups was the problem of the factorization of the group determinant corresponding to a finite group G. The original papers are [5] and [6] and a good historical survey of the work is given in [7] and [8]. If G is of order n, the group matrix XG is defined to be the n×n matrix {xg, h} where xg, h = xgh∈G. Here the xg, g∈G, represent variables. The group determinant ΘG is defined to be det(XG), and is thus a polynomial of degree n in the xg. This determinant is the same, up to sign, as that of the matrix obtained from the unbordered multiplication table of G by replacing each element g by xg. If there is no ambiguity ΘG will be written as Θ.

In this paper we mainly consider local rings admitting dualizing complexes. It is well-known that if a Noetherian local ring A admits a dualizing complex, then the non-Cohen–Macaulay (abbreviated CM) locus of A is closed in the Zariski topology (cf. [8, 10]). If the dimension of this locus is zero and A is equidimensional, i.e. the punctured spectrum of A is locally CM and dim(A/P) = dim (A) for all minimal prime ideals P ∈ Ass (A), then A is a generalized CM ring and its structure is well-understood (see [2, 12]). For instance, one of the characterizations of generalized CM rings is the conditions that for any parameter ideal q contained in a large power of the maximal ideal m of A, the difference between length and multiplicity

is independent of the choice of q. However, if the dimension of the non-CM locus is larger than zero, little is known about how this dimension is related to the structure of the local ring A. The purpose of this paper is to show that if M is a finitely generated A-module, then there exist systems of parameters x = (x1, …, xd) (where d = dim M) such that the difference

is a polynomial in n1, …, nd for all positive integers n1, …, nd and the degree of IM(n1, …, nd;x) is independent of the choice of x. We shall also give various characterizations of this degree by using the notion of reducing systems of parameters of Auslander and Buchsbaum[l]. In particular, if the module M is equidimensional we shall show that the degree of IM(n1, …, nd;x) is equal to the dimension of the non-CM locus of M.

In this paper, we consider the family of the p-groups of maximal class and study some invariants related to the conjugacy classes of these groups. This subject was first taken up in [7] and [6], whose notation and terminology we maintain and give after this introduction. In [7], the invariants σG and k(G) are found for the p-groups of maximal class satisfying |G| ≤ p7. Here, apart from extending those results to the case when G has order p8 or p9, we consider the problem in all its generality and propose to determine their values for as large a family of p-groups of maximal class as possible. In this direction, we get some general results in the first paragraph, from which we want to point out the following ones.

In this paper, the Identity Theorem of R. C. Lyndon and the Freiheitssatz of W. Magnus are extended to a large class of multi-relator groups. Included are the two-relator groups introduced by I. L. Anshel in her thesis, where the Freiheitssatz was proved for those groups. The Identity Theorem provides cohomology computations and a classification of finite subgroups. The methods are geometric; technical tools include the original theorems of Magnus and Lyndon, as well as an amalgamation technique due to J. H. C. Whitehead.