A multivariate, formal power series over a field K is a Bézivin series if all of its coefficients can be expressed as a sum of at most r elements from a finitely generated subgroup $G \le K^*$; it is a Pólya series if one can take $r=1$. We give explicit structural descriptions of D-finite Bézivin series and D-finite Pólya series over fields of characteristic $0$, thus extending classical results of Pólya and Bézivin to the multivariate setting.

We introduce a notion of embedding codimension of an arbitrary local ring, establish some general properties and study in detail the case of arc spaces of schemes of finite type over a field. Viewing the embedding codimension as a measure of singularities, our main result can be interpreted as saying that the singularities of the arc space are maximal at the arcs that are fully embedded in the singular locus of the underlying scheme, and progressively improve as we move away from said locus. As an application, we complement a theorem of Drinfeld, Grinberg and Kazhdan on formal neighbourhoods in arc spaces by providing a converse to their theorem, an optimal bound for the embedding codimension of the formal model appearing in the statement, a precise formula for the embedding dimension of the model constructed in Drinfeld’s proof and a geometric meaningful way of realising the decomposition stated in the theorem.

Given a perfect valuation ring $R$ of characteristic $p$ that is complete with respect to a rank-1 nondiscrete valuation, we show that the ring $\mathbb{A}_{\inf }$ of Witt vectors of $R$ has infinite Krull dimension.

Let $D$ be an integral domain, ${{X}^{1}}\left( D \right)$ be the set of height-one prime ideals of $D$, $\left\{ {{X}_{\beta }} \right\}$ and $\left\{ {{X}_{\alpha }} \right\}$ be two disjoint nonempty sets of indeterminates over $D$, $D\left[ \left\{ {{X}_{\beta }} \right\} \right]$ be the polynomial ring over $D$, and $D\left[ \left\{ {{X}_{\beta }} \right\} \right]{{\left[\!\left[ \left\{ {{X}_{\alpha }} \right\} \right]\!\right]}_{1}}$ be the first type power series ring over $D\left[ \left\{ {{X}_{\beta }} \right\} \right]$. Assume that $D$ is a Prüfer $v$-multiplication domain $\left( \text{P}v\text{MD} \right)$ in which each proper integral $t$-ideal has only finitely many minimal prime ideals (e.g., $t$-$\text{SFT}$$\text{P}v\text{MDs}$, valuation domains, rings of Krull type). Among other things, we show that if ${{X}^{1}}\left( D \right)\,=\,\phi$ or ${{D}_{p}}$ is a $\text{DVR}$ for all $P\,\in \,{{X}^{1}}\left( D \right)$, then $D\left[ \left\{ {{X}_{\beta }} \right\} \right]{{\left[\!\left[ \left\{ {{X}_{\alpha }} \right\} \right]\!\right]}_{1D-\left\{ 0 \right\}}}$ is a Krull domain. We also prove that if $D$ is a $t$-$\text{SFT}\text{P}v\text{MD}$, then the complete integral closure of $D$ is a Krull domain and $\text{ht}\left( M\left[ \left\{ {{X}_{\beta }} \right\} \right]{{\left[\!\left[ \left\{ {{X}_{\alpha }} \right\} \right]\!\right]}_{1}} \right)\,=\,1$ for every height-one maximal $t$-ideal $M$ of $D$.

We investigate operator-valued monotone independence, a noncommutative version of independence for conditional expectation. First we introduce operator-valued monotone cumulants to clarify the whole theory and show the moment-cumulant formula. As an application, one can obtain an easy proof of the central limit theorem for the operator-valued case. Moreover, we prove a generalization of Muraki’s formula for the sum of independent random variables and a relation between generating functions of moments and cumulants.

The proof of Theorem 3.2 in [1] (P. Tzermias, On the p-adic binomial series and a formal analogue of Hilbert's Theorem 90, Glasgow Math. J.47 (2005), 319–326) contains two opaque claims. The necessary clarifications are provided here.

Let K be a field of characteristic 0, which is algebraically closed to radicals. Let F = K((X)) be the valued field of Laurent power series and let G = Aut(F/K). We prove that if L is a subfield of F, K ≠ L, such that L/K is a sub-extension of F/K and F/L is a Galois algebraic extension (L/K is Galois coalgebraic in F/K), then L is closed in F, F/L is a finite extension and Gal(F/L) is a finite cyclic group of G. We also prove that there is a one-to-one and onto correspondence between the set of all finite subgroups of G and the set of all Galois coalgebraic sub-extensions of F/K. Some other auxiliary results which are useful by their own are given.

We strengthen a characterization of the $p$-adic binomial series and a special case of a formal analogue of Hilbert's Theorem 90 for $p$-adic power series.

It is proved that two random elements of the Nottingham group generate a free group with probability 1. This answers a question of A. Shalev.

If $A$ is a subring of a commutative ring $B$ and if $n$ is a positive integer, a number of sufficient conditions are given for “$A[[X]]$ is $n$-root closed in $B[[X]]$” to be equivalent to “$A$ is $n$-root closed in $B$.” In addition, it is shown that if $S$ is a multiplicative submonoid of the positive integers $\mathbb{P}$ which is generated by primes, then there exists a one-dimensional quasilocal integral domain $A$ (resp., a von Neumann regular ring $A$) such that $S=\{n\in \mathbb{P}|A\,\,\text{is}\,n-\text{root}\,\text{closed}\}$ (resp., $S=\{n\in \mathbb{P}\,|\,\,A[[X]]\,\,\text{is}\,n-\text{root}\,\text{closed}\}$).

It is proved that if r* is the weak normalization of an integral domain r, then the weak normalization of the power series ring r[[x1,....xn]] is contained in R*[[X1,....Xn]]. Consequently, if R is a weakly normal integral domain, then R[[X1,....Xn]] is also weakly normal.

Let D be an integral domain, and let X be an analytic indeterminate. As usual, if I is an ideal of D, set It = ∪{JV = (J-1)-1 | J is a nonzero finitely generated subideal of I}; this defines the t-operation, a particularly useful star-operation on D. We discuss the t-operation on R[[X]], paying particular attention to the relation between t- dim(R) and t- dim(R[[X]]). We show that if P is a t-prime of R, then P[[X]] contains a t-prime which contracts to P in R, and we note that this does not quite suffice to show that t- dim(R[[X]]) ≥ t- dim(R) in general. If R is Noetherian, it is easy to see that t- dim(R[[X]]) ≥ t- dim(R), and we show that we have equality in the case of t-dimension 1. We also observe that if V is a valuation domain, then t-dim(V[[X]]) ≥ t- dim(V), and we give examples to show that the inequality can be strict. Finally, we prove that if V is a finite-dimensional valuation domain with maximal ideal M, then MV[[X]] is a maximal t-ideal of V[[X]].

Let R be an integral domain with quotient field K. If R has an overling S ≠ K, such that S[X] is integrally closed, then the "algebraic degree" of K((X)) over the quotient field of R[X] is infinite. In particular, it holds for completely integrally closed domain or Noetherian domain R.