On the Relation between the Scalar Moment Problem and the Matrix Moment Problem on *-Semigroups

There is a countable cancellative commutative *-semigroup S withzero (in fact, a *-subsemigroup of G × N₀ for some abelian group G carrying the inverse involution) such that the answer to the question “if f is a function on S , with values in M_d(C) (the square matrices of order d) and such that $\sum^{n}_{j,k=1} \lbrak f(s^*_k s_j)\xi_j, \xi_k \rbrak \ge 0$ for all n in N, s₁, . . . , s_n in S , and $\xi_1$, . . . , $\xi_n$ in C^d, does it follow that $f(s) = \int_{S^*}\sigma (s) d\mu(\sigma) (s \memb S)$ for some measure $\mu$ (with values in M_d(C)₊ , the positive semidenite matrices) on the space S of hermitian multiplicative functions on S?” is “yes” if d = 1 but “no” if d = 2 (hence also for d > 2).     

Metallextraktion mit N-thiobenzoyl-N-phenylhydroxylamin: Extraction of metal ions with N-thiobenzoyl-N-phenylhydroxylamine

The extraction parameters pH_{$\text{1}\text{2}$} and K_ex for Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb with N-thiobenzoyl-N-phenylhydroxylamine are reported. N-Thiobenzoyl-N-phenylhydroxylamine extracts metals from more strongly acidic solutions than does N-benzoyl-N-phenylhydroxylamine. Iron(III) is extracted as a 1:2 chelate with the extracant, whereas iron(II) forms the expected tris chelate by oxidation. The other bivalent ions are extracted as their bis chelates.     

On the positive definiteness of n ↦ epnα for α close to 2

For >2, let Q ⁺() be the infimum of those q>0 for which the function n e^pn is positive definite on N ₀ for every pq. We shall prove that Q ⁺()0 as 2.     

On the Stieltjes moment problem on semigroups

We characterize finitely generated abelian semigroups such that every completely positive definite function (a function all of whose shifts are positive definite) is an integral of nonnegative miltiplicative real-valued functions (called nonnegative characters).     

On the Growth of Positive Definite Double Sequences Which Are not Moment Sequences

For every a > 1, there is a function f : N²₀ → R, which is positive semidefinite but not a moment sequence, such that |f(m, n)| ≥ m+ n^a(m+n) for all (m, n). The constant 1 is the best possible.     

On the Positive Definiteness of Certain Functions

For a coinmutative senugoup (S, +, *) with involution and a function f : S → [0, ∞), the set S(f) of those p ≥ 0 such that f^P is a positive definite function on S is a closed subsemigroup of [0, ∞) containing 0. For S = (IR, +, x* = -x) it may happen that S(f) = { kd : k ∈ N₀ } for some d > 0, and it may happen that S(f) = {0} ? [d, ∞) for some d > O. If α > 2 and if S = (?, +, n* = -n) and f(n) = e^?[n]α or S = (IN₀, +, n* = n) and f(n) = e^nα, then S(f) ∪ (0, c) = ? and [d, ∞) ? S(f) for some d ≥; c > 0. Although (with c maximal and d minimal) we have not been able to show c = d in all cases, this equality does hold if S = ? and α ≥ 3.4. In the last section we give sinipler proofs of previously known results concerning the positive definiteness of x → e^?||x||α on normed spaces.     

Hoeffding's inequalities: A counterexample

A sequence : ₀ satisfiesHoeffding's inequality of order n if wheneverX ₁,...,X _n are independent nonnegative integer-valued elementary random variables and are independent identically distributed nonnegative integer-valued elementary random variables, the common distribution of which is the average of those ofX ₁,...,X _n. We show that for each integerm greater than 2 there exists a sequence satisfying Hoeffding's inequality of every order greater thanm but not that of orderm. This answers a question raised by Berg, Christensen, and Ressel.