Analysing finite locally -arc transitive graphs

We present a new approach to analysing finite graphs which admit a vertex intransitive group of automorphisms and are either locally -arc transitive for or -locally primitive. Such graphs are bipartite with the two parts of the bipartition being the orbits of . Given a normal subgroup which is intransitive on both parts of the bipartition, we show that taking quotients with respect to the orbits of preserves both local primitivity and local -arc transitivity and leads us to study graphs where acts faithfully on both orbits and quasiprimitively on at least one. We determine the possible quasiprimitive types for in these two cases and give new constructions of examples for each possible type. The analysis raises several open problems which are discussed in the final section.

     

Positive laws in fixed points

Let be an elementary abelian group of order at least acting on a finite -group in such a manner that satisfies a positive law of degree for any . It is proved that the entire group satisfies a positive law of degree bounded by a function of and only.

     

The periodic isoperimetric problem

Given a discrete group of isometries of , we study the -isoperimetric problem, which consists of minimizing area (modulo ) among surfaces in which enclose a -invariant region with a prescribed volume fraction. If is a line group, we prove that solutions are either families of round spheres or right cylinders. In the doubly periodic case we prove that for most rank two lattices, solutions must be spheres, cylinders or planes. For the remaining rank two lattices we show, among other results, an isoperimetric inequality in terms of the topology of the isoperimetric surfaces. Finally, we study the case where (the group of symmetries of the integer rank three lattice ) and other crystallographic groups of cubic type. We prove that isoperimetric solutions must be spheres if the prescribed volume fraction is less than , and we give an isoperimetric inequality for -invariant regions that, for instance, implies that the area (modulo ) of a surface dividing the three space in two -invariant regions with equal volume fractions, is at least (the conjectured solution is the classical Schwarz triply periodic minimal surface whose area is ). Another consequence of this isoperimetric inequality is that -symmetric surfaces (other than families of spheres) cannot be isoperimetric for the lattice group .

     

Stable representatives for symmetric automorphisms of groups and the general form of the Scott conjecture

Let be a group acting on a tree such that all edge stabilizers are finite. We extend Bestvina-Handel's theory of train tracks for automorphisms of free groups to automorphisms of which permute vertex stabilizers. Using this extension we show that there is an upper bound depending only on for the complexity of the graph of groups decomposition of the fixed subgroups of such automorphisms of .

     

Semi-linear homology -spheres and their equivariant inertia groups

This paper introduces an abelian group for all semi-linear homology -spheres, which corresponds to a known abelian group for all semi-linear homotopy -spheres, where is a compact Lie group and is a -representation with 0$">. Then using equivariant surgery techniques, we study the relation between both and when is finite. The main result is that under the conditions that -action is semi-free and with 0$">, the homomorphism defined by is an isomorphism if , and a monomorphism if . This is an equivariant analog of a well-known result in differential topology. Such a result is also applied to the equivariant inertia groups of semi-linear homology -spheres.

     

Cartan-decomposition subgroups of

For and , we give explicit, practical conditions that determine whether or not a closed, connected subgroup of has the property that there exists a compact subset of with . To do this, we fix a Cartan decomposition of , and then carry out an approximate calculation of for each closed, connected subgroup of .

     

Character degree graphs and normal subgroups

We consider the degrees of those irreducible characters of a group whose kernels do not contain a given normal subgroup . We show that if and is not perfect, then the common-divisor graph on this set of integers has at most two connected components. Also, if is solvable, we obtain bounds on the diameters of the components of this graph and, in the disconnected case, we study the structure of and of .

     

Lattice invariants and the center of the generic division ring

Let be a finite group, let be a -lattice, and let be a field of characteristic zero containing primitive roots of 1. Let be the quotient field of the group algebra of the abelian group . It is well known that if is quasi-permutation and -faithful, then is stably equivalent to . Let be the center of the division ring of generic matrices over . Let be the symmetric group on symbols. Let be a prime. We show that there exist a split group extension of by a -elementary group, a -faithful quasi-permutation -lattice , and a one-cocycle in such that is stably isomorphic to . This represents a reduction of the problem since we have a quasi-permutation action; however, the twist introduces a new level of complexity. The second result, which is a consequence of the first, is that, if is algebraically closed, there is a group extension of by an abelian -group such that is stably equivalent to the invariants of the Noether setting .

     

On restrictions of modular spin representations of symmetric and alternating groups

Let be an algebraically closed field of characteristic and be an almost simple group or a central extension of an almost simple group. An important problem in representation theory is to classify the subgroups of and -modules such that the restriction is irreducible. For example, this problem is a natural part of the program of describing maximal subgroups in finite classical groups. In this paper we investigate the case of the problem where is the Schur's double cover or .

     

How to do a -descent on an elliptic curve

In this paper, we describe an algorithm that reduces the computation of the (full) -Selmer group of an elliptic curve over a number field to standard number field computations such as determining the (-torsion of) the -class group and a basis of the -units modulo th powers for a suitable set of primes. In particular, we give a result reducing this set of `bad primes' to a very small set, which in many cases only contains the primes above . As of today, this provides a feasible algorithm for performing a full -descent on an elliptic curve over , but the range of our algorithm will certainly be enlarged by future improvements in computational algebraic number theory. When the Galois module structure of is favorable, simplifications are possible and -descents for larger are accessible even today. To demonstrate how the method works, several worked examples are included.

     

Connections with prescribed first Pontrjagin form

Let be a principal bundle over a manifold of dimension . If , then we prove that every differential 4-form representing the first Pontrjagin class of is the Pontrjagin form of some connection on .     

Tangent algebraic subvarieties of vector fields

An algebraic commutative group is associated to any vector field on a complete algebraic variety . The group acts on and its orbits are the minimal subvarieties of which are tangent to . This group is computed in the case of a vector field on .

     

Non-isotopic symplectic tori in the same homology class

For any pair of integers and , we construct an infinite family of mutually non-isotopic symplectic tori representing the homology class of an elliptic surface , where is the homology class of the fiber. We also show how such families can be non-isotopically and symplectically embedded into a more general class of symplectic -manifolds.

     

Double coset density in classical algebraic groups

We classify all pairs of reductive maximal connected subgroups of a classical algebraic group that have a dense double coset in . Using this, we show that for an arbitrary pair of reductive subgroups of a reductive group satisfying a certain mild technical condition, there is a dense -double coset in precisely when is a factorization.

     

Asymptotic behavior of the solutions of linear and quasilinear elliptic equations on

We investigate the relationship between the decay at infinity of the right-hand side and solutions of an equation when is a second order elliptic operator on It is shown that when is Fredholm, inherits the type of decay of (for instance, exponential, or power-like). In particular, the generalized eigenfunctions associated with all the Fredholm eigenvalues of isolated or not, decay exponentially. No use is made of spectral theory. The result is next extended when is replaced by a Fredholm quasilinear operator. Various generalizations to other unbounded domains, higher order operators or elliptic systems are possible and briefly alluded to, but not discussed in detail.

     

Symmetrization, symmetric stable processes, and Riesz capacities

Let be a symmetric -stable process killed on exiting an open subset of . We prove a theorem that describes the behavior of its transition probabilities under polarization. We show that this result implies that the probability of hitting a given set in the complement of in the first exit moment from increases when and are polarized. It can also lead to symmetrization theorems for hitting probabilities, Green functions, and Riesz capacities. One such theorem is the following: Among all compact sets in with given volume, the balls have the least -capacity ( ).

     

Finely -harmonic functions of a Markov process

Let be a Borel right process and a fixed excessive measure. Given a finely open nearly Borel set we define an operator which we regard as an extension of the restriction to of the generator of . It maps functions on to (locally) signed measures on not charging -semipolars. Given a locally smooth signed measure we define to be (finely) -harmonic on provided on and denote the class of such by . Under mild conditions on we show that is equivalent to a local ``Poisson' representation of . We characterize by an analog of the mean value property under secondary assumptions. We obtain global Poisson type representations and study the Dirichlet problem for elements of under suitable finiteness hypotheses. The results take their nicest form when specialized to Hunt processes.

     

The cohomology of certain Hopf algebras associated with -groups

We study the cohomology of a locally finite, connected, cocommutative Hopf algebra over . Specifically, we are interested in those algebras for which is generated as an algebra by and . We shall call such algebras semi-Koszul. Given a central extension of Hopf algebras with monogenic and semi-Koszul, we use the Cartan-Eilenberg spectral sequence and algebraic Steenrod operations to determine conditions for to be semi-Koszul. Special attention is given to the case in which is the restricted universal enveloping algebra of the Lie algebra obtained from the mod- lower central series of a -group. We show that the algebras arising in this way from extensions by of an abelian -group are semi-Koszul. Explicit calculations are carried out for algebras arising from rank 2 -groups, and it is shown that these are all semi-Koszul for .

     

Sums of squares in real rings

Let be an excellent ring. We show that if the real dimension of is at least three then has infinite Pythagoras number, and there exists a positive semidefinite element in which is not a sum of squares in .