On the Edge Reconstruction of Graphs Embedded in Surfaces II

In this paper, we prove the following theorems. (i) Let G bea graph of minimum degree 5. If G is embeddable in a surface and satisfies (–5)|V(G)|+6()0, then G is edge reconstructible.(ii) Any graph of minimum degree 4 that triangulates a surfaceis edge reconstructible. (iii) Any graph which triangulatesa surface of characteristic 0 is edge reconstructible.     

The Bestvina-Brady Construction Revisited: Geometric Computation of {sum}-Invariants for Right-Angled Artin Groups

The starting point of our investigation is the remarkable paper[2] in which Bestvina and Brady gave an example of an infinitelyrelated group of type FP₂. The result about right-angled Artingroups behind their example is best interpreted by means ofthe Bieri–Strebel–Neumann–Renz -invariants. For a group G the invariants ⁿ(G) and ⁿ(G, Z) are sets of non-trivialhomomorphisms :GR. They contain full information about finitenessproperties of subgroups of G with abelian factor groups. Themain result of [2] determines for the canonical homomorphism, taking each generator of the right-angled Artin group G to1, the maximal n with ⁿ(G), respectively ⁿ(G, Z). In [6] Meier, Meinert and VanWyk completed the picture by computingthe full -invariants of right-angled Artin groups using as wellthe result of Bestvina and Brady as algebraic techniques from-theory. Here we offer a new account of their result which istotally geometric. In fact, we return to the Bestvina–Bradyconstruction and simplify their argument considerably by bringinga more general notion of links into play. At the end of thefirst section we re-prove their main result. By re-computingthe full -invariants, we show in the second section that thesimplification even adds some power to the method. The criterionwe give provides new insight on the geometric nature of the‘n-domination’ condition employed in [6].     

Inverse Spectral Problems for Sturm-Liouville Equations with Eigenparameter Dependent Boundary Conditions

Inverse Sturm–Liouville problems with eigenparameter-dependentboundary conditions are considered. Theorems analogous to thoseof both Hochstadt and Gelfand and Levitan are proved. In particular, let ly = (1/r)(–(py')'+qy), , where det = > 0, c 0, det > 0, t 0 and (cs + dr –au – tb)² < 4(cr – ta)(ds – ub). Denoteby (l; ; ) the eigenvalue problem ly = y with boundary conditionsy(0)cos+y'(0)sin = 0 and (a+b)y(1) = (c+d)(py')(1). Define (; ; ) as above but with l replacedby . Let w_n denote the eigenfunctionof (l; ; ) having eigenvalue n and initial conditions w_n(0)= sin and pw'_n(0) = –cos and let _n = –aw_n(1)+cpw'_n(1).Define _n and _n similarly. As sample results, it is proved that if (l; ; ) and (; ; ) have the same spectrum, and (l;; ) and (; ; ) have the samespectrum or for all n, thenq/r = /.     

Periodic Solutions of Lienard Equations with Asymmetric Nonlinearities at Resonance

The existence of 2-periodic solutions of the second-order differentialequation where a, b satisfy and p(t)=p(t+2),t R, is examined. Assume that limits lim_x±F(x)=F(±)(F(x)=) and lim_x±g(x)=g(±)exist and are finite. It is proved that the equation has atleast one 2-periodic solution provided that the zeros of thefunction ₁ are simple and the zeros of the functions ₁, ₂ aredifferent and the signs of ₂ at the zeros of ₁ in [0,2/n) donot change or change more than two times, where ₁ and ₂ aredefined as follows: Moreover, it is also proved that the given equation has at leastone 2-periodic solution provided that the following conditionshold: with 1 p < q 2.     

Extremal Subgroups in Chevalley Groups

Throughout this paper G(k) denotes a Chevalley group of rankn defined over the field k, where n3. Let be the root systemassociated with G(k) and let ={₁, ₂, ..., _n} be a set of fundamentalroots of , with ⁺ being the set of positive roots of with respectto . For and ⁺, let n() be the coefficient of in the expressionof as a sum of fundamental roots; so =n(). Also we recall thatht(), the height of , is given by ht()=n(). The highest rootin ⁺ will be denoted by . We additionally assume that the Dynkindiagram of G(k) is connected.     

The Isolated Points of G{rho} and the w*-Strongly Exposed Points of P{rho}(G)0

Let G be a separable locally compact group and let be its dualspace with Fell's topology. It is well known that the set P(G)of continuous positive-definite functions on G can be identifiedwith the set of positive linear functionals on the group C^*-algebraC^*(G). We show that if is discrete in , then there exists anonzero positive-definite function associated with such that is a w^*-strongly exposed point of P(G)₀, where P(G)₀={f P(G):f(e)1. Conversely, if some nonzero positive-definite function associatedwith is a w^*-strongly exposed point of P(G)₀, then is isolatedin . Consequently, G is compact if and only if, for every ,there exists a nonzero positive-definite function associatedwith that is a w^*-strongly exposed point of P(G)₀. If, in addition,G is unimodular and , then is isolated in if and only if somenonzero positive-definite function associated with is a w^*-stronglyexposed point of P(G)₀, where is the left regular representationof G and is the reduced dual space of G. We prove that if B(G)has the Radon–Nikodym property, then the set of isolatedpoints of (so square-integrable if G is unimodular) is densein . It is also proved that if G is a separable SIN-group, thenG is amenable if and only if there exists a closed point in. In particular, for a countable discrete non-amenable groupG (for example the free group F₂ on two generators), there isno closed point in its reduced dual space .     

Geometry of Critical Loci

Let :(Z,z)(U,0) be the germ of a finite (that is, proper with finite fibres)complex analytic morphism from a complex analytic normal surfaceonto an open neighbourhood U of the origin 0 in the complexplane C². Let u and v be coordinates of C² defined on U. Weshall call the triple (, u, v) the initial data. Let stand for the discriminant locus of the germ , that is,the image by of the critical locus of . Let ()_A be the branches of the discriminant locus at O whichare not the coordinate axes. For each A, we define a rational number d by where I(–, –) denotes the intersection number at0 of complex analytic curves in C². The set of rational numbersd, for A, is a finite subset D of the set of rational numbersQ. We shall call D the set of discriminantal ratios of the initialdata (, u, v). The interesting situation is when one of thetwo coordinates (u, v) is tangent to some branch of , otherwiseD = {1}. The definition of D depends not only on the choiceof the two coordinates, but also on their ordering. In this paper we prove that the set D is a topological invariantof the initial data (, u, v) (in a sense that we shall definebelow) and we give several ways to compute it. These resultsare first steps in the understanding of the geometry of thediscriminant locus. We shall also see the relation with thegeometry of the critical locus.     

Movement and Separation of Subsets of Points Under Group Actions

Let G be a permutation group on a set , and let m and k be integerswhere 0<m<k. For a subset of , if the cardinalities ofthe sets ^g\, for gG, are finite and bounded, then is said tohave bounded movement, and the movement of is defined as move()=max_gG|^g\|. If there is a k-element subset such that move()m, it is shown that some G-orbit has length at most (k²–m)/(k–m).When combined with a result of P. M. Neumann, this result hasthe following consequence: if some infinite subset has boundedmovement at most m, then either is a G-invariant subset withat most m points added or removed, or nontrivially meets aG-orbit of length at most m²+m+1. Also, if move ()m for allk-element subsets and if G has no fixed points in , then either||k+m (and in this case all permutation groups on have thisproperty), or ||5m–2. These results generalise earlierresults about the separation of finite sets under group actionsby B. J. Birch, R. G. Burns, S. O. Macdonald and P. M. Neumann,and groups in which all subsets have bounded movement (by theauthor).     

Higher Generation Subgroup Sets and the Virtual Cohomological Dimension of Graph Products of Finite Groups

We introduce panels of stabilizer schemes (K, G_*) associatedwith finite intersection-closed subgroup sets of a given groupG, generalizing in some sense Davis' notion of a panel structureon a triangulated manifold for Coxeter groups. Given (K, G_*),we construct a G-complex X with K as a strong fundamental domainand simplex stabilizers conjugate to subgroups in . It turnsout that higher generation properties of in the sense of Abels-Holzare reflected in connectivity properties of X. Given a finite simplicial graph and a non-trivial group G()for every vertex of , the graph product G() is the quotientof the free product of all vertex groups modulo the normal closureof all commutators [G(), G(w)] for which the vertices , w areadjacent. Our main result allows the computation of the virtualcohomological dimension of a graph product with finite vertexgroups in terms of connectivity properties of the underlyinggraph .     

Faithful Representations of Free Products

In 1940 Nisnevi published the following theorem [3]. Let (G) be a family of groups indexed by some set and (F) a family of fields of the same characteristic p0. Iffor each the group G has a faithful representation of degreen over F then the free product* G has a faithful representationof degree n+1 over some field of characteristic p. In [6] Wehrfritzextended this idea. If (G) GL(n, F) is a family of subgroupsfor which there exists ZGL(n, F) such that for all the intersectionGF.1_n=Z, then the free product of the groups *_ZG with Z amalgamatedvia the identity map is isomorphic to a linear group of degreen over some purely transcendental extension of F. Initially, the purpose of this paper was to generalize theseresults from the linear to the skew-linear case, that is, togroups isomorphic to subgroups of GL(n, D) where the D are divisionrings. In fact, many of the results can be generalized to ringswhich, although not necessarily commutative, contain no zero-divisors.We have the following.     

Algebraic invariants for Bestvina Brady groups

Bestvina–Brady groups arise as kernels of length homomorphismsG from right-angled Artin groups to the integers. Under someconnectivity assumptions on the flag complex , we compute severalalgebraic invariants of such a group N, directly from the underlyinggraph . As an application, we give examples of finitely presentedBestvina–Brady groups which are not isomorphic to anyArtin group or arrangement group.     

BOUNDARY CONCENTRATION IN RADIAL SOLUTIONS TO A SYSTEM OF SEMILINEAR ELLIPTIC EQUATIONS

We study concentration phenomena for the system in the unit ball B₁ of ³ with Dirichlet boundaryconditions. Here , , > 0 and p > 1. We prove the existenceof positive radial solutions (, ) such that concentrates ata distance (/2)|log | away from the boundary B₁ as the parameter tends to 0. The approach is based on a combination of Lyapunov–Schmidtreduction procedure together with a variational method.     

Minimal Geodesics on Manifolds with Discontinuous Metrics

The paper describes some qualitative properties of minimizerson a manifold M endowed with a discontinuous metric. The discontinuityoccurs on a hypersurface disconnecting M. Denote by ₁ and₂ the open subsets of M such that M\ =₁₂. Assume that and are endowed with metrics ·, · ₍₁₎ and ·,·₍₂₎, respectively, such that (i=1, 2) is convex or concave. The existence of a minimizerof the length functional on curves joining two given pointsof M is proved. The qualitative properties obtained allows therefraction law in a very general situation to be described.     

Chord Diagrams and Coxeter Links

The paper presents a construction of fibered links (K, ) outof chord diagrams L. Let be the incidence graph of L. Undercertain conditions on L the symmetrized Seifert matrix of (K,) equals the bilinear form of the simply-laced Coxeter system(W, S) associated to and the monodromy of (K, ) equals minusthe Coxeter element of (W, S). Lehmer's problem is solved forthe monodromy of these Coxeter links.     

An Access Theorem for Continuous Functions

Let f be a continuous function on an open subset of R² suchthat for every x there exists a continuous map : [–1,1] with (0) = x and f increasing on [–1, 1]. Thenfor every there exists a continuous map : [0, 1) suchthat (0) = y, f is increasing on [0; 1), and for every compactsubset K of , max{t : (t) K} < 1. This result gives an answerto a question posed by M. Ortel. Furthermore, an example showsthat this result is not valid in higher dimensions.     

Nonpositively Curved Metric in the Positive Cone of a Finite Von Neumann Algebra

In this paper we study the metric geometry of the space ofpositive invertible elements of a von Neumann algebra A witha finite, normal and faithful tracial state . The trace inducesan incomplete Riemannian metric x,y_a = (ya^–1xa^–1),and, though the techniques involved are quite different, thesituation here resembles in many relevant aspects that of then x n matrices when they are regarded as a symmetric space.For instance, we prove that geodesics are the shortest pathsfor the metric induced, and that the geodesic distance is aconvex function; we give an intrinsic (algebraic) characterizationof the geodesically convex submanifolds M of ; and under a suitablehypothesis we prove a factorization theorem for elements inthe algebra that resembles the Iwasawa decomposition for matrices.This factorization is obtained via a nonlinear orthogonal projection_M : M, a map which turns out to be contractive for the geodesicdistance.     

Character Quotients for Coprime Acting Groups

Let the finite group A be acting on a finite group G with (|A|,|G|)=1. Let be the semidirect product of A and G. Let be acharacter of irreducible after restriction to G. In a previouspaper by Brian Hartley and the author, we proved that the restrictionof to S belongs to the set C(S) obtained by running over all that arise in this manner, by assuming, in addition, that Gis a product of extraspecial groups. This was proved in general,assuming only some condition on the Green functions of groupsof Lie type that is not as yet fully verified. In the presentpaper, we define the map Q(): SC by Q()(s)=|C_G(s)|/(s). We provethat Q()C(S) under the same hypotheses. In particular, the characterquotient Q() is an ordinary character.     

Planar Harmonic Maps with Inner and Blaschke Dilatations

A univalent harmonic map of the unit disk :={zC:|z|<1} isa complex-valued function f(z) on that satisfies Laplace'sequation and is injective. The Jacobian of a univalent harmonic map can never vanish [18], and so we might as wellassume that J>0 throughout . Then |f_z|>0 and a short computationverifies that the analytic dilatation is indeed an analytic function, with ||<1 sinceJ>0. Clearly 0 when f is a conformal map, and in generalthe dilatation measures how far f is from being conformal.Also, if happens to be the square of an analytic function,then f ‘lifts’ to give an isothermal coordinatemap for a minimal surface, and in that case i/ equals the stereographicprojection of the Gauss map of the surface.     

Identity Theorems for Functions of Bounded Characteristic

Suppose that f(z) is a meromorphic function of bounded characteristicin the unit disk :|z|<1. Then we shall say that f(z)N. Itfollows (for example from [3, Lemma 6.7, p. 174 and the following])that where h₁(z), h₂(z) are holomorphic in and have positive realpart there, while ₁(z), ₂(z) are Blaschke products, that is, where p is a positive integer or zero, 0<|a_j|<1, c isa constant and (1–|a_j|)<. We note in particular that, if c0, so that f(z)0, (1.1) so that f(z)=0 only at the points a_j. Suppose now that z_j isa sequence of distinct points in such that |z_j|1 as j and (1–|z_j|)=. (1.2) If f(z_j)=0 for each j and fN, then f(z)0. N. Danikas [1] has shown that the same conclusion obtains iff(z_j)0 sufficiently rapidly as j. Let _j, _j be sequences of positivenumbers such that _j< and _j as j. Danikas then defines and proves Theorem A.     

Normal and Non-Normal Points of Self-Similar Sets and Divergence Points of Self-Similar Measures

Let K and µ be the self-similar set and the self-similarmeasure associated with an IFS (iterated function system) withprobabilities (S_i, p_i)_i=1,...,N satisfying the open set condition.Let ={1,...,N}^N denote the full shift space and let : K denotethe natural projection. The (symbolic) local dimension of µat is defined by lim_n (log µK_|n/log diam K_|n), where for = (₁, ₂,...) . A point for which the limit lim_n (log µK_|n/log diam K_|n) doesnot exist is called a divergence point. In almost all of theliterature the limit lim_n (log µK_|n/log diam K_|n) is assumedto exist, and almost nothing is known about the set of divergencepoints. In the paper a detailed analysis is performed of theset of divergence points and it is shown that it has a surprisinglyrich structure. For a sequence (_n)_n, let A(_n) denote the setof accumulation points of (_n)_n. For an arbitrary subset I ofR, the Hausdorff and packing dimension of the set and related sets is computed. An interesting and surprisingcorollary to this result is that the set of divergence pointsis extremely ‘visible’; it can be partitioned intoan uncountable family of pairwise disjoint sets each with fulldimension. In order to prove the above statements the theory of normaland non-normal points of a self-similar set is formulated anddeveloped in detail. This theory extends the notion of normaland non-normal numbers to the setting of self-similar sets andhas numerous applications to the study of the local propertiesof self-similar measures including a detailed study of the setof divergence points.