Under certain conditions the reduced product space JX of a space X has the same homotopy type as ΩΣX, the loop-space on the suspension of X. Several proofs can be found in the literature. The original proof [6] made unnecessarily strong assumptions. Later, in the last chapter of [3], torn Dieck, Kamps and Puppe gave a proof under much weaker conditions and showed that they could not be further weakened. The question then arose as to whether the reduced product construction could be generalized to provide combinatorial models not only of ΩΣX but also of Ω2Σ2X, Ω3Σ3X and so on. This was answered in the affirmative by May [10], using ideas of Boardman and Vogt [1], and the construction was further developed by Segal [11] and others.

The present note, however, is not concerned with these generalizations. Its purpose is to give a simple proof of the original result, without striving for maximum generality, and to show that the same method can be used to prove an equivariant version of the reduced product theorem and hence a fibrewise version. Fibrewise versions of the reduced product theorem have previously been given by Eggar [5] and, more recently, by one of us [8] but it may be useful to have a relatively simple treatment which is adequate for the majority of applications.

We consider a specific Riemann type integral, called the gage integral. Using variational measures, we characterize all additive functions of intervals that are indefinite gage integrals. The characterization generalizes the descriptive definition of the classical Denjoy-Perron integral to all dimensions.

We give a characterization of polynomials with rational coefficients which take integral values on the prime numbers: to test a polynomial of degree n, it is enough to consider its values on the integers from 1 to 2n —1.

Loosely speaking, a function (meromorphic or harmonic) from the hyperbolic disk of the complex plane to the Riemann sphere is normal if its dilatation is bounded. We call a function strongly normal if its dilatation vanishes at the boundary. A sequential property of this class of functions is proved. Certain integral conditions, known to be sufficient for normality, are shown to be in fact sufficient for strong normality.

AF C*-algebras contain natural AF masas which, here, we call standard diagonals. Standard diagonals are unique, in the sense that two standard diagonals in an AF C*-algebra are conjugate by an approximately inner automorphism. We show that this uniqueness fails for non-selfadjoint AF operator algebras. Precisely, we construct two standard diagonals in a particular non-selfadjoint AF operator algebra which are not conjugate by an approximately inner automorphism of the non-selfadjoint algebra.

Examples are constructed of stably finite, imitai, separable C* -algebras A of real rank zero such that the partially ordered abelian groups K0(A) do not satisfy the Riesz decomposition property. This contrasts with the result of Zhang that projections in C* -algebras of real rank zero satisfy Riesz decomposition. The construction method also produces a stably finite, unital, separable C* -algebra of real rank zero which has the same K-theory as an approximately finite dimensional C*-algebra, but is not itself approximately finite dimensional.

We show that bounded John domains and bounded starshaped domains with respect to a point satisfy the following inequality

where F: [0, ∞) → [0, ∞) is a continuous, convex function with F(0) = 0, and u is a function from an appropriate Sobolev class. Constants b and K do depend at most on D. If F(x) = xp, 1 ≤ p < ∞, this inequality reduces to the ordinary Poincaré inequality.

Let d ≥ 2, and K ⊂ ℝd be a convex body with 0 ∈ int K. We consider the intersection body IK, the cross-section body CK and the projection body ΠK of K, which satisfy IK ⊂ CK ⊂ ΠK. We prove that [bd(IK)] ∩ [bd(CK)] ≠ (a joint observation with R. J. Gardner), while for d ≥ 3 the relation [CK] ⊂ int(ΠK) holds for K in a dense open set of convex bodies, in the Hausdorff metric. If IK = c ˙ CK for some constant c > 0, then K is centred, and if both IK and CK are centred balls, then K is a centred ball. If the chordal symmetral and the difference body of K are constant multiples of each other, then K is centred; if both are centred balls, then K is a centred ball. For d ≥ 3 we determine the minimal number of facets, and estimate the minimal number of vertices, of a convex d-polytope P having no plane shadow boundary with respect to parallel illumination (this property is related to the inclusion [CP] ⊂ int(ΠP)).

We study the topology of the nontrivial component, , of self-adjoint Fredholm operators on a separable Hilbert space. In particular, if {Bt} is a path of such operators, we can associate to {Bt} an integer, sf({Bt}), called the spectral flow of the path. This notion, due to M. Atiyah and G. Lusztig, assigns to the path {Bt} the net number of eigenvalues (counted with multiplicities) which pass through 0 in the positive direction. There are difficulties in making this precise — the usual argument involves looking at the graph of the spectrum of the family (after a suitable perturbation) and then counting intersection numbers with y = 0.

We present a completely different approach using the functional calculus to obtain continuous paths of eigenprojections (at least locally) of the form . The spectral flow is then defined as the dimension of the nonnegative eigenspace at the end of this path minus the dimension of the nonnegative eigenspace at the beginning. This leads to an easy proof that spectral flow is a well-defined homomorphism from the homotopy groupoid of onto Z. For the sake of completeness we also outline the seldom-mentioned proof that the restriction of spectral flow to is an isomorphism onto Z.

We show that every Turaev-Viro invariant for 3-manifolds is a sum of three new invariants and discuss their properties. We also find a solution of a conjecture of L. H. Kauffman and S. Lins. Tables of the invariants for closed orientable 3-manifolds of complexity ≤ 3 are presented at the end of the paper.

In [7,3.1 ] the authors show that if a space X is realcompact and locally compact, then X* is a P′-space. In this paper we show that the hypothesis of realcompactness can be weakened. We also look at other conditions on X that are sufficient to guarantee that X* is a P′-space.

We construct, under MAcountable, a countably compact topological subsemigroup of which is not a group, hence a counterexample for the Wallace problem. We also show that there is no p-compact counterexample for the Wallace problem, answering a question of D. Grant. Finally, we show that—in some sense—our counterexample for the Wallace problem constructed under MAcountable cannot be done in ZFC.

The defining relations for the Lie superalgebra Γ (σ1, σ2, σ3) as a contragredient algebra are discussed and a PBW type basis theorem is proved for the corresponding q-deformation.