The distal order of a minimal flow

The capturing operation, a kind of reverse orbit closure, is defined. In terms of this operation generalized proximal relationsP _γ(X) for a minimal flow (X, T) are defined. The distal order of (X, T) is then defined to be the least ordinal numberγ for which the distal structure relationS _d(X) =P _γ(X). It is shown that the distal order of a minimal flow is either finite orω, the first infinite ordinal. Examples are given which show that minimal flows of any allowable distal order actually occur. An analogous theory is developed for the equicontinuous relationS _eq(X).     

Unions of minimal prime ideals in rings of continuous functions on compact spaces

As is well-known to those familiar with the Gillman-Jerison text on the ring C(X) of real-valued continuous functions on a topological space (which we may assume is a Tychonoff space), every prime ideal is contained in a unique maximal ideal. In case X is compact, each maximal ideal is of the form M _p for some ${p \in X}$ and consists of all ${f \in C(X)}$ such that f(p) = 0, while the intersection of all minimal prime ideals contained in M _p is the set of all continuous functions which vanish on a neighborhood of p. In this paper, we reverse some inclusions and study the union of all of the minimal prime ideals contained in M _p ; particularly in the case when this set-theoretic union is all of M _p . When this occurs, we call X a UMP-space. By making use of the well-known theorem of Gelfand and Kolmogoroff, we obtain new results without assuming that X is compact. It turns out that all UMP-spaces have the property that each of its nonempty zero-sets has nonempty interior. That is, X is an almost P-space. But this condition is far from sufficient.     

Space of minimal prime ideals of a ring without nilpotent elements

Hull-kernel topology on the set ∑(R) of prime ideals of a ring R with unity and without nilpotent elements is discussed. The restriction of this topology to the set π(R) of minimal prime ideals of R has been investigated in detail. The compactness of π(R) has been characterized in several ways. An interesting characterization of Baer rings is given.A functorial correspondence between the category of rings having the property that every prime ideal contains a unique minimal prime ideal and their minimal spectra is established.     

Minimal nil-transformations of class two

On a metric minimal flow (X, a) which is a torus (K) extension of its largest almost periodic factorZ=X/K, the following conditions are equivalent.

1. (X, a) is a nil-transformation of the form (N/Γ,a) whereK is central inN and [N, N]?K.
2. E(X), the enveloping group of (X, a) is a nilpotent group of class 2.
3. Any minimal subset Ω ofX×X is invariant under the diagonal action ofK and the quotient Ω/K=Z ₁, is the largest almost periodic factor of Ω.

The enveloping groups of such flows are described and a corollary on cocycles of the circle into itself is deduced. Finally general minimal niltransformations of class two are shown to be of the form considered in condition (i) above (possibly with a different nilpotent group) and consequently we deduce that the class of minimal flows which are group factors of nil-transformations of class 2 is closed under factors.     

Soluble minimal non-(finite-by-Baer)-groups

Let \mathfrakX{\mathfrak{X}} be a class of groups. A group G is called a minimal non- \mathfrakX{\mathfrak{X}}-group if it is not an \mathfrakX{\mathfrak{X}}-group but all of whose proper subgroups are \mathfrakX{\mathfrak{X}}-groups. In [16], Xu proved that if G is a soluble minimal non-Baer-group, then G/G ^′′ is a minimal non-nilpotent-group which possesses a maximal subgroup. In the present note, we prove that if G is a soluble minimal non-(finite-by-Baer)-group, then for all integer n ≥ 2, G/γ _n (G′) is a minimal non-(finite-by-abelian)-group.     

Wijsman topology on function spaces

LetC(X,Y) be the space of continuous functions from a metric space (X,d) to a metric space (Y, e).C(X, Y) can be thought as subset of the hyperspaceCL(X×Y) of closed and nonempty subsets ofX×Y by identifying each element ofC(X,Y) with its graph. We considerC(X,Y) with the topology inherited from the Wijsman topology induced onCL(X×Y) by the box metric ofd ande. We study the relationships between the Wijsman topology and the compact-open topology onC(X,Y) and also conditions under which the Wijsman topology coincide with the Fell topology. Sufficient conditions under which the compactopen topology onC(X,Y) is weaker than the Wijsman topology are given (IfY is totally bounded, then for every metric spaceX the compactopen topology onC(X,Y) is weaker than the Wijsman topology and the same is true forX locally connected andY rim-totally bounded). We prove that a metric spaceX is boundedly compact iff the Wijsman topology onC(X, ?) is weaker than the compact-open topology. We show that ifX is a σ-compact complete metric space andY a compact metric space, then the Wijsman topology onC(X,Y) is Polish.     

Lengths of chains of minimal rational curves on Fano manifolds

In this paper, we consider a natural question how many minimal rational curves are needed to join two general points on a Fano manifold X of Picard number 1. In particular, we study the minimal length of such chains in the cases where the dimension of X is at most 5, the coindex of X is at most 3 and X equips with a structure of a double cover. As an application, we give a better bound on the degree of Fano 5-folds of Picard number 1.     

Cardinality of the Ellis semigroup on compact metric countable spaces

Let E(X, f) be the Ellis semigroup of a dynamical system (X, f) where X is a compact metric space. We analyze the cardinality of E(X, f) for a compact countable metric space X. A characterization when E(X, f) and \(E(X,f)^* = E(X,f) \setminus \{ f^n : n \in \mathbb {N}\}\) are both finite is given. We show that if the collection of all periods of the periodic points of (X, f) is infinite, then E(X, f) has size \(2^{\aleph _0}\). It is also proved that if (X, f) has a point with a dense orbit and all elements of E(X, f) are continuous, then \(|E(X,f)| \le |X|\). For dynamical systems of the form \((\omega ^2 +1,f)\), we show that if there is a point with a dense orbit, then all elements of \(E(\omega ^2+1,f)\) are continuous functions. We present several examples of dynamical systems which have a point with a dense orbit. Such systems provide examples where \(E(\omega ^2+1,f)\) and \(\omega ^2+1\) are homeomorphic but not algebraically homeomorphic, where \(\omega ^2+1\) is taken with the usual ordinal addition as semigroup operation.     

Rank and idempotent rank of finite full transformation semigroups with restricted range

Let T(X) be the full transformation semigroup on the set X and let T(X,Y) be the semigroup consisting of all total transformations from X into a fixed nonempty subset Y of X. In 2011, Sanwong studied the regular part $$F(X,Y)=\bigl\{\alpha\in T(X,Y): X\alpha\subseteq Y\alpha\bigr\}, $$ of T(X,Y) and described its Green’s relations and ideals. In this paper, we compute the rank of F(X,Y) when X is a finite set. Moreover, we obtain the rank and idempotent rank of its ideals.     

Some topologies on the spaces of USCO maps and densely continuous forms

We study the completeness of three (metrizable) uniformities on the sets D(X, Y) and U(X, Y) of densely continuous forms and USCO maps from X to Y: the uniformity of uniform convergence on bounded sets, the Hausdorff metric uniformity and the uniformity U _B . We also prove that if X is a nondiscrete space, then the Hausdorff metric on real-valued densely continuous forms D(X, ?) (identified with their graphs) is not complete. The key to guarantee completeness of closed subsets of D(X, Y) equipped with the Hausdorff metric is dense equicontinuity introduced by Hammer and McCoy in [7].     

Listing minimal edge-covers of intersecting families with applications to connectivity problems

Let G=(V,E) be a directed/undirected graph, let s,t∈V, and let F be an intersecting family on V (that is, X∩Y,X∪Y∈F for any intersecting X,Y∈F) so that s∈X and t∉X for every X∈F. An edge set I⊆E is an edge-cover of F if for every X∈F there is an edge in I from X to V−X. We show that minimal edge-covers of F can be listed with polynomial delay, provided that, for any I⊆E the minimal member of the residual family F_I of the sets in F not covered by I can be computed in polynomial time. As an application, we show that minimal undirected Steiner networks, and minimal k-connected and k-outconnected spanning subgraphs of a given directed/undirected graph, can be listed in incremental polynomial time.     

Measure of minimal sets for certain discrete dynamical systems

Let X be a separable metric space, μ a complete Borel measure on X that is finite on balls, and f a closed discrete dynamical system on X that preserves μ and has the diameters of all orbits bounded. We prove that almost every point in X (in the sense of measure μ) has its orbit contained in its ω-limit set.     

Gradient flows of the entropy for finite Markov chains

Let K be an irreducible and reversible Markov kernel on a finite set X. We construct a metric W on the set of probability measures on X and show that with respect to this metric, the law of the continuous time Markov chain evolves as the gradient flow of the entropy. This result is a discrete counterpart of the Wasserstein gradient flow interpretation of the heat flow in Rn by Jordan, Kinderlehrer and Otto (1998). The metric W is similar to, but different from, the L²-Wasserstein metric, and is defined via a discrete variant of the Benamou-Brenier formula.     

On Convergence to Infinity

 By a metric mode of convergence to infinity in a regular Hausdorff space X, we mean a sequence of closed subsets of X with and , and a sequence (or net) in X is convergent to infinity with respect to provided for each contains eventually. Modulo a natural equivalence relation, these correspond to one-point extensions of the space with a countable base at the ideal point, and in the metrizable setting, they correspond to metric boundedness structures for the space. In this article, we study the interplay between these objects and certain continuous functions that may determine the metric mode of convergence to infinity, called forcing functions. Falling out of our results is a simple proof that each noncompact metrizable space admits uncountably many distinct metric uniformities. (Received 2 March 1999)     

Continuous reducibility and dimension of metric spaces

If (X, d) is a Polish metric space of dimension 0, then by Wadge’s lemma, no more than two Borel subsets of X are incomparable with respect to continuous reducibility. In contrast, our main result shows that for any metric space (X, d) of positive dimension, there are uncountably many Borel subsets of (X, d) that are pairwise incomparable with respect to continuous reducibility. In general, the reducibility that is given by the collection of continuous functions on a topological space \((X,\tau )\) is called the Wadge quasi-order for \((X,\tau )\). As an application of the main result, we show that this quasi-order, restricted to the Borel subsets of a Polish space \((X,\tau )\), is a well-quasiorder if and only if \((X,\tau )\) has dimension 0. Moreover, we give further examples of applications of the construction of graph colorings that is used in the proofs.     

Entropy of Hadamard spaces

We consider a geodesically complete and proper Hadamard metric measure space X endowed with a Borel measure. Assuming that there exists a certain non-amenable group of isometry of X which acts freely, properly discontinuously and cocompactly on X and preserves the measure we show that the topological entropy of the geodesic flow on the orbit space is positive.     

On Convergence to Infinity

 By a metric mode of convergence to infinity in a regular Hausdorff space X, we mean a sequence of closed subsets of X with and , and a sequence (or net) in X is convergent to infinity with respect to provided for each contains eventually. Modulo a natural equivalence relation, these correspond to one-point extensions of the space with a countable base at the ideal point, and in the metrizable setting, they correspond to metric boundedness structures for the space. In this article, we study the interplay between these objects and certain continuous functions that may determine the metric mode of convergence to infinity, called forcing functions. Falling out of our results is a simple proof that each noncompact metrizable space admits uncountably many distinct metric uniformities.     

An Analog of Titchmarsh’s Theorem for the Fourier–Walsh Transform

The space clos(X) of all nonempty closed subsets of an unbounded metric space X is considered. The space clos(X) is endowed with a metric in which a sequence of closed sets converges if and only if the distances from these sets to a fixed point θ are bounded and, for any r, the sequence of the unions of the given sets with the exterior balls of radius r centered at θ converges in the Hausdorff metric. The metric on clos(X) thus defined is not equivalent to the Hausdorff metric, whatever the initial metric space X. Conditions for a set to be closed, totally bounded, or compact in clos(X) are obtained; criteria for the bounded compactness and separability of clos(X) are given. The space of continuous maps from a compact space to clos(X) is considered; conditions for a set to be totally bounded in this space are found.     

Wijsman topology on function spaces

LetC(X,Y) be the space of continuous functions from a metric space (X,d) to a metric space (Y, e).C(X, Y) can be thought as subset of the hyperspaceCL(X×Y) of closed and nonempty subsets ofX×Y by identifying each element ofC(X,Y) with its graph. We considerC(X,Y) with the topology inherited from the Wijsman topology induced onCL(X×Y) by the box metric ofd ande. We study the relationships between the Wijsman topology and the compact-open topology onC(X,Y) and also conditions under which the Wijsman topology coincide with the Fell topology. Sufficient conditions under which the compactopen topology onC(X,Y) is weaker than the Wijsman topology are given (IfY is totally bounded, then for every metric spaceX the compactopen topology onC(X,Y) is weaker than the Wijsman topology and the same is true forX locally connected andY rim-totally bounded). We prove that a metric spaceX is boundedly compact iff the Wijsman topology onC(X, ℝ) is weaker than the compact-open topology. We show that ifX is a σ-compact complete metric space andY a compact metric space, then the Wijsman topology onC(X,Y) is Polish.