On Markoff's Inequality

For compact subsets of the real line the Markoff factors increase at least as fast as n ² . In this paper it is shown that there are sets of measure zero with Markoff factors of order n ² . We shall also show that this cannot happen for compact sets of logarithmic capacity zero. In connection with Markoff's inequality for polynomials of two variables we show a set E

On nonmeasurable unions

For a Polish space X and a σ-ideal I of subsets of X which has a Borel base we consider families A of sets in I with the union ?A not in I. We determine several conditions on A which imply the existence of a subfamily A^′ of A whose union ?A^′ is not in the σ-field generated by the Borel sets on X and I. Main examples are X=R and I being the ideal of sets of Lebesgue measure zero or the ideal of sets of the first Baire category.     

The three space problem in topological groups

We study compact, countably compact, pseudocompact, and functionally bounded sets in extensions of topological groups. A property P is said to be a three space property if, for every topological group G and a closed invariant subgroup N of G, the fact that both groups N and G/N have P implies that G also has P. It is shown that if all compact (countably compact) subsets of the groups N and G/N are metrizable, then G has the same property. However, the result cannot be extended to pseudocompact subsets, a counterexample exists under p=c. Another example shows that extensions of groups do not preserve the classes of realcompact, Dieudonné complete and μ-spaces: one can find a pseudocompact, non-compact Abelian topological group G and an infinite, closed, realcompact subgroup N of G such that G/N is compact and all functionally bounded subsets of N are finite. Several examples given in the article destroy a number of tempting conjectures about extensions of topological groups.     

A note on invariant sets of iterated function systems

We prove that the family of all invariant sets of iterated systems of contractions R ^N → R ^N is a nowhere dense F _σ type subset in the space of the nonempty compact subsets of R ^N equipped with the Hausdorff metric.     

On the Remainder in an Asymptotic Expansion of the Double Gamma Function

We investigate the remainder R_N(z) in an asymptotic expansion of the logarithm of the double gamma function. We show that (−1)^NR_N(x) is a completely monotonic function.Research supported by the Carlsberg Foundation     

Bases and closures under infinite sums

Motivated by work of Diestel and Kühn on the cycle spaces of infinite graphs we study the ramifications of allowing infinite sums in a module R^M. We show that every generating set in this setup contains a basis if the ground set M is countable, but not necessarily otherwise. Given a family N⊆R^M, we determine when the infinite-sum span N of N is closed under infinite sums, i.e. when N=N. We prove that this is the case if R is a field or a finite ring and each element of M lies in the support of only finitely many elements of N. This is, in a sense, best possible. We finally relate closures under infinite sums to topological closures in the product space R^M.     

On convex bodies of constant width

We present an alternative proof of the following fact: the hyperspace of compact closed subsets of constant width in Rn is a contractible Hilbert cube manifold. The proof also works for certain subspaces of compact convex sets of constant width as well as for the pairs of compact convex sets of constant relative width. Besides, it is proved that the projection map of compact closed subsets of constant width is not 0-soft in the sense of Shchepin, in particular, is not open.     

An example on movable approximations of a minimal set in a continuous flow

In the present paper the study of flows on n-manifolds in particular in dimension three, e.g., R³, is motivated by the following question. Let A be a compact invariant set in a flow on X. Does every neighbourhood of A contain a movable invariant set M containing A? It is known that a stable solenoid in a flow on a 3-manifold has approximating periodic orbits in each of its neighbourhoods. The solenoid with the approximating orbits form a movable set, although the solenoid is not movable. Not many such examples are known. The main part of the paper consists of constructing an example of a set in R³ that is not stable, is not a solenoid, and is approximated by Denjoy-like invariant sets instead of periodic orbits. As in the case of a solenoid, the constructed set is an inverse limit of its approximating sets. This gives a partial answer to the above question.     

Lattices on simplicial partitions which are not simply connected

In this paper, (d+1)-pencil lattices on simplicial partitions in R^d, which are not simply connected, are studied. It is shown, how the fact that a partition is not simply connected can be used to increase the flexibility of a lattice. A local modification algorithm is developed also to deal with slight partition topology changes that may appear afterwards a lattice has already been constructed.     

Almost disjoint large subsets of semigroups

There are several notions of largeness in a semigroup S that originated in topological dynamics. Among these are thick, central, syndetic and piecewise syndetic. Of these, central sets are especially interesting because they are partition regular and are guaranteed to contain substantial combinatorial structure. It is known that in (N,+) any central set may be partitioned into infinitely many pairwise disjoint central sets. We extend this result to a large class of semigroups (including (N,+)) by showing that if S is a semigroup in this class which has cardinality κ then any central set can be partitioned into κ many pairwise disjoint central sets. We also show that for this same class of semigroups, if there exists a collection of μ almost disjoint subsets of any member S, then any central subset of S contains a collection of μ almost disjoint central sets. The same statement applies if “central” is replaced by “thick”; and in the case that the semigroup is left cancellative, “central” may be replaced by “piecewise syndetic”. The situation with respect to syndetic sets is much more restrictive. For example, there does not exist an uncountable collection of almost disjoint syndetic subsets of N. We investigate the extent to which syndetic sets can be split into disjoint syndetic sets.     

Trivial stationary solutions to the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky and certain nonlinear elliptic equations

We show that the only locally integrable stationary solutions to the integrated Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation in R and R² are the trivial constant solutions. We extend our technique and prove similar results to other nonlinear elliptic problems in RN.     

Espaces de Banach representables

We study the Banach spaces which are isomorphic to a subspace ofl ^∞(N) which is analytic inR ^N. We prove structure theorems which show that some pathological situations cannot take place in this class. We show that a non-metrizable separable compact of Rosenthal has a continuous image which is not a compact of Rosenthal.      

Embedding solenoids in foliations

In this paper we find smooth embeddings of solenoids in smooth foliations. We show that if a smooth foliation F of a manifold M contains a compact leaf L with H¹(L;R) not equal to 0 and if the foliation is a product foliation in some saturated open neighborhood U of L, then there exists a foliation F^′ on M which is C¹-close to F, and F^′ has an uncountable set of solenoidal minimal sets contained in U that are pairwise non-homeomorphic. If H¹(L;R) is 0, then it is known that any sufficiently small perturbation of F contains a saturated product neighborhood. Thus, our result can be thought of as an instability result complementing the stability results of Reeb, Thurston and Langevin and Rosenberg.     

Asymptotic Distribution of Nodes for Near-Optimal Polynomial Interpolation on Certain Curves in R 2

Let E\subset \Bbb R ^s be compact and let d _n ^E denote the dimension of the space of polynomials of degree at most n in s variables restricted to E . We introduce the notion of an asymptotic interpolation measure (AIM). Such a measure, if it exists , describes the asymptotic behavior of any scheme τ _n ={ \bf x _k,n } _k=1 ^dnE , n=1,2,\ldots , of nodes for multivariate polynomial interpolation for which the norms of the corresponding interpolation operators do not grow geometrically large with n . We demonstrate the existence of AIMs for the finite union of compact subsets of certain algebraic curves in R ² . It turns out that the theory of logarithmic potentials with external fields plays a useful role in the investigation. Furthermore, for the sets mentioned above, we give a computationally simple construction for ``good' interpolation schemes. November 9, 2000. Date revised: August 4, 2001. Date accepted: September 14, 2001.     

A Fubini theorem

Let I₀ be the σ-ideal of subsets of a Polish group generated by Borel sets which have perfectly many pairwise disjoint translates. We prove that a Fubini-type theorem holds between I₀ and the σ-ideals of Haar measure zero sets and of meager sets. We use this result to give a simple proof of a generalization of a theorem of Balcerzak-Ros?anowski-Shelah stating that I₀ on N² strongly violates the countable chain condition.     

Convex solution of a permutation problem

In this paper, we show that a problem of finding a permuted version of k vectors from R^N such that they belong to a prescribed rank r subset, can be solved by convex optimization. We prove that under certain generic conditions, the wanted permutation matrix is unique in the convex set of doubly-stochastic matrices. In particular, this implies a solution of the classical correspondence problem of finding a permutation that transforms one collection of points in R^k into the another one. Solutions to these problems have a wide set of applications in Engineering and Computer Science.     

Transfinite diameter notions in ℂ N and integrals of Vandermonde determinants

We provide a general framework and indicate relations between the notions of transfinite diameter, homogeneous transfinite diameter, and weighted transfinite diameter for sets in ? ^N . An ingredient is a formula of Rumely (A Robin formula for the Fekete–Leja transfinite diameter, Math. Ann. 337 (2007), 729–738) which relates the Robin function and the transfinite diameter of a compact set. We also prove limiting formulas for integrals of generalized Vandermonde determinants with varying weights for a general class of compact sets and measures in ? ^N . Our results extend to certain weights and measures defined on cones in ? ^N .