A linear second order partial differential equation with variable coefficients is considered. The equation is relevant in a number of physical situations. Simple general solutions are obtained subject to the coefficients satisfying certain constraints.

An internal wave motion, below a layer of uniform fluid, induces a weak current on the free surface in the form of a long wave with phase velocity cI. A uniform progressive train of surface waves, whose wave-length is much shorter than that of the current is incident on it from infinity and undergoes modification. In particular, when the group velocity cg of the progressive wave is equal to cI, the resonance takes place and then, even though the amplitude of the current is small, the interaction builds up near a number of its wavelengths until the train of surface waves is significantly modified. The equations governing the modifications are derived, using the method of multiple scales, and the roles of the Döppler shift and the radiation stress in resonant situations are elucidated. Three-dimensional interactions are discussed and an analogy is drawn between the fundamental equation describing the interactions and Schrödinger's equation.

In this note it is shown that

(i) there is a plane convex set of minimal width λ which does not contain any convex set whose width is constant and greater than λ/(3—31/2),

(ii) every plane convex set of minimal width λ contains a convex set whose width is constant and is equal to λ/(3—31/2).

Let a1 …, ar be elements of a commutative ring R with identity. When the R-length of

is finite and R is Noetherian the multiplicity e(a1 …, ar\R) can be defined in one of three ways. Starting either from the earliest definition by means of Hilbert functions (see Samuel [4]) or from the latest by induction on r(see Wright [5]) it can be shown that e(a1 …, ar\R) depends only on the ideal

and the number r of generators. The other definition due to Auslander and Buchsbaum [1] is as the Euler-Poincare characteristic of a Koszul complex. The main purpose of this note is to investigate the extent to which the separate homology modules and the Koszul complex itself are independent of the sequence a1 …, ar. First it is shown that when A = (a1, …, ar) and B = (b1 …, br) are related by a reversible R-linear transformation the two Koszul complexes are isomorphic. A special case of the final theorem states that if A and B are minimal generating sets of the same ideal and R is a local ring then again the Koszul complexes are isomorphic.

The theorem proved in this paper is basic for a general intersection theory applicable to multigraded polynomial rings. When the polynomial ring is graded by the non-negative integers the facts, in one form or another, are well known, but on passing to more general gradings fresh complications appear. These are not wholly trivial and, as the author was unable to find an account of these matters in the literature, it may be of interest if one is given here.

Minkowski's fundamental theorem and the Minkowski-Hlawka theorem play basic complementary roles in the Geometry of Numbers. Blichfeldt showed essentially that Minkowski's fundamental theorem was a simple consequence of a more general theorem, in which the convex body was replaced by any measurable set and the lattice was replaced by a discrete set of points having a definite asymptotic density. Hlawka himself showed that the Minkowski-Hlawka theorem could be proved in a slightly modified form, when the star body was replaced by any measurable set, but he did not replace the lattice by a more general set of points.

Let s1, s2, … denote the squarefree numbers in ascending order. In [1], Erdős showed that, if 0 ≤ γ ≤ 2, then

where B(γ) is a function only of γ. In 1973 Hooley [4] improved the range of validity of this result to 0 ≤ γ ≤ 3, and then later gained a further slight improvement by a method he outlined at the International Number Theory Symposium at Stillwater, Oklahoma in 1984. We have, however, independently obtained the better improvement that (1) holds for

in contrast to the range

derived by Hooley. The main purpose of this paper is to substantiate our new result. Professor Hooley has informed me that there are similarities between our methods as well as significant differences.

Let I be an ideal of a Noetherian ring R. The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between the vanishing of the local cohomology modules , and the comparison of the topologies defined by the I-adic {In}n≥0, the symbolic {I(n)}n≥0 and the integral filtration

In recent papers the present authors considered the effects of small cross-flow on the evolution of two unequal oblique waves. In these studies the relative size of the crossflow meant that a diffusion (or buffer) layer was required around the critical layer to smooth out the algebraic growth in the mean-flow distortion generated by the nonlinear critical-layer interactions. The present analysis increases the cross-flow to an order of magnitude such that the buffer and critical layers coalesce. In this instance the nonlinear critical layer contains viscous as well as nonequilibrium effects. The resulting amplitude equations are solved for perturbations initiated at a fixed station in the flow.

We consider the spectral function

associated with the Sturm-Liouville equation

in situations where q(x) →−∞ as x → ∞ and (1.1) is in the Weyl limit-point case at ∞. As usual, q is real-valued and locally integrable in [0, ∞], and our particular concern is where q(x) has the form

where c (>0) is a parameter, s and p are non-negative on [0, ∞], p(x) → ∞ and p(x) = 0{s(x) } as x → ∞. As the boundary condition at x = 0, we take the Dirichlet condition y(0) = 0 for convenience: we can equally take the Neumann condition y′ (0) = 0 or generally a1y(0) + a2y′ (0) = 0 with real a1 and a2.

In 1918 Pólya and Vinogradov established the estimate for Dirichlet character sums that currently carries their names. It was forty years until Burgess gave an improvement of their bound [1], and it is forty years since that improvement.

Results are formulated about the image and the kernel of the kth iterate fk of a function f : A → A. In this way, an extremely general version of Fitting's classical lemma is obtained. Two applications are presented: the first is a characterization of strongly π-regular rings, while the second is a “lattice theoretical Fitting lemma”.

Asymmetry classes of convex bodies have been introduced and investigated by G. Ewald and G. C. Shephard [2], [3], [6]. These classes are defined as follows. Let denote the set of all convex bodies in n-dimensional Euclidean space ℝn. For K1, K2 ∊ write K1 ∼ K2 if there exist centrally symmetric convex bodies S1, S2 ∊ such that

where + denotes Minkowski addition. Then ∼ is an equivalence relation on and the corresponding classes are called asymmetry classes. The asymmetry class which contains K is denoted by [K].

A right S-system over a monoid S is a set A on which S acts unitarily on the right. That is, there is a function A such that (φ,1)φ and (a, st)φ = ((a, s) t)φ for all a є A and for all s, t є S. We shall refer to right S-systems simply as S-systems. It is clear what is meant by S-homomorphism, S-subsystem etc.; further details of the terms used in this Introduction are given in Section 2.

In trying to extend some theorems of diophantine approximation to number fields or function fields, one meets certain difficulties associated with the presence of units. By using a very simple trick, one overcomes these difficulties. In this paper I limit myself to one example.

Let A = {a1, …, an} and B={b1, …, bn} be two sets of n elements, and let R be a set of ordered pairs (ai, bi), or in other words a relation defined on A × B. By a map between A and B under R we mean a one-to-one correspondence between A and B such that if bi, corresponds to ai then (ai, bj) is one of the pairs in R.

The flow in the wake of a finite rotating disc was recently investigated by Leslie [1], who showed that the structure of the wake was very similar to that found for the two-dimensional flow past the trailing edge of a flat plate by Goldstein. Here, we investigate the inner region where the Goldstein wake joins onto the flow over the plate itself. Because there is no pressure jump across the rim at the edge of the Ekman layer, no third deck is necessary, so this inner region has width O (E½) and contains just two decks, the lower thickness O(E⅔) and the upper with thickness O(E½); E is the Ekman number for the flow. The resultant differential equation in the lower deck for the radial and axial velocities is uncoupled from that for the azimuthal velocity, and has exactly the same form as the equation found by Stewartson [4] for the lower deck in the flat plate problem cited above.

That these two subjects—the History of Science and the Psychology of Invention—are intimately connected with one another, is immediately evident and needs no explanation. Perhaps, however, it has not always been sufficiently appreciated. The recent Congress for the History of Science (Jerusalem, 1953) has given me an opportunity of trying to apply to the latter the data of the former.

This paper originated with the observation that while all of the known stable lattice packings of spheres are highly symmetric, it is futile to try to prove a converse statement: the ordinary integer-lattice provides a distinctly unstable packing of spheres, but admits a large group of orthogonal symmetries nonetheless. The integerlattice is in fact very unstable—the slightest perturbation places the spheres in a more efficient configuration. We will call such a lattice fragile. The purpose of this note is to prove that a highly symmetric lattice must be either stable or fragile.

1. Let p be a prime, t a positive integer, and ϕ a cubic polynomial with integral coefficients, and an integral constant term. We study the congruence

because of its obvious connection with the equation