Upper bounds for the prime divisors of Wendt's determinant

Let be an even integer, . The resultant of the polynomials and is known as Wendt's determinant of order . We prove that among the prime divisors of only those which divide or can be larger than , where and is the th Lucas number, except when and . Using this estimate we derive criteria for the nonsolvability of Fermat's congruence.

     

On the primality of

For each prime , let be the product of the primes less than or equal to . We have greatly extended the range for which the primality of and are known and have found two new primes of the first form ( ) and one of the second (). We supply heuristic estimates on the expected number of such primes and compare these estimates to the number actually found.

     

Merging the Bramble-Pasciak-Steinbach and the Crouzeix-Thomée criterion for -projection onto finite element spaces

Suppose is a finite-dimensional linear space based on a triangulation of a domain , and let denote the -projection onto . Provided the mass matrix of each element and the surrounding mesh-sizes obey the inequalities due to Bramble, Pasciak, and Steinbach or that neighboring element-sizes obey the global growth-condition due to Crouzeix and Thomée, is -stable: For all we have with a constant that is independent of, e.g., the dimension of .

This paper provides a more flexible version of the Bramble-Pasciak- Steinbach criterion for -stability on an abstract level. In its general version, (i) the criterion is applicable to all kind of finite element spaces and yields, in particular, -stability for nonconforming schemes on arbitrary (shape-regular) meshes; (ii) it is weaker than (i.e., implied by) either the Bramble-Pasciak-Steinbach or the Crouzeix-Thomée criterion for regular triangulations into triangles; (iii) it guarantees -stability of a priori for a class of adaptively-refined triangulations into right isosceles triangles.

     

On a problem of Byrnes concerning polynomials with restricted coefficients, II

As in the earlier paper with this title, we consider a question of Byrnes concerning the minimal length of a polynomial with all coefficients in which has a zero of a given order at . In that paper we showed that for all and showed that the extremal polynomials for were those conjectured by Byrnes, but for that rather than . A polynomial with was exhibited for , but it was not shown there that this extremal was unique. Here we show that the extremal is unique. In the previous paper, we showed that is one of the 7 values or . Here we prove that without determining all extremal polynomials. We also make some progress toward determining . As in the previous paper, we use a combination of number theoretic ideas and combinatorial computation. The main point is that if is a primitive th root of unity where is a prime, then the condition that all coefficients of be in , together with the requirement that be divisible by puts severe restrictions on the possible values for the cyclotomic integer .

     

On the stability of the

We prove the stability in of the projection onto a family of finite element spaces of conforming piecewise linear functions satisfying certain local mesh conditions. We give explicit formulae to check these conditions for a given finite element mesh in any number of spatial dimensions. In particular, stability of the projection in holds for locally quasiuniform geometrically refined meshes as long as the volume of neighboring elements does not change too drastically.

     

The irreducibility of some level 1 Hecke polynomials

Let be the characteristic polynomial of the Hecke operator acting on the space of level 1 cusp forms . We show that is irreducible and has full Galois group over  for and ,  prime.

     

Directional Newton methods in variables

Directional Newton methods for functions of variables are shown to converge, under standard assumptions, to a solution of . The rate of convergence is quadratic, for near-gradient directions, and directions along components of the gradient of with maximal modulus. These methods are applied to solving systems of equations without inversion of the Jacobian matrix.

     

New convergence results on the generalized Richardson extrapolation process GREP for logarithmic sequences

Let as , where and are known for for some 0$">, but and the are not known. The generalized Richardson extrapolation process GREP is used in obtaining good approximations to , the limit or antilimit of as . The approximations to obtained via GREPare defined by the linear systems , , where is a decreasing positive sequence with limit zero. The study of GREP for slowly varying functions was begun in two recent papers by the author. For such we have as with possibly complex and . In the present work we continue to study the convergence and stability of GREPas it is applied to such with different sets of collocation points that have been used in practical situations. In particular, we consider the cases in which (i) are arbitrary, (ii) , (iii) as for some 0$">, (iv) for all , (v) , and (vi) for all .

     

Computation of several cyclotomic Swan subgroups

Let denote the locally free class group, that is the group of stable isomorphism classes of locally free -modules, where is the ring of algebraic integers in the number field and is a finite group. We show how to compute the Swan subgroup, , of when , a primitive -th root of unity, , where is an odd (rational) prime so that and 2 is inert in We show that, under these hypotheses, this calculation reduces to computing a quotient ring of a polynomial ring; we do the computations obtaining for several primes a nontrivial divisor of These calculations give an alternative proof that the fields for =11, 13, 19, 29, 37, 53, 59, and 61 are not Hilbert-Speiser.

     

Finite SAGBI bases for polynomial invariants of conjugates of alternating groups

It is well-known, that the ring of polynomial invariants of the alternating group has no finite SAGBI basis with respect to the lexicographical order for any number of variables . This note proves the existence of a nonsingular matrix such that the ring of polynomial invariants , where denotes the conjugate of with respect to , has a finite SAGBI basis for any .     

Special prime numbers and discrete logs in finite prime fields

A set of primes involving numbers such as , where and , is defined. An algorithm for computing discrete logs in the finite field of order with is suggested. Its heuristic expected running time is for , where as , , and . At present, the most efficient algorithm for computing discrete logs in the finite field of order for general is Schirokauer's adaptation of the Number Field Sieve. Its heuristic expected running time is for . Using rather than general does not enhance the performance of Schirokauer's algorithm. The definition of the set and the algorithm suggested in this paper are based on a more general congruence than that of the Number Field Sieve. The congruence is related to the resultant of integer polynomials. We also give a number of useful identities for resultants that allow us to specify this congruence for some .

     

A posteriori error estimates for general numerical methods for Hamilton-Jacobi equations. Part I: The steady state case

A new upper bound is provided for the L-norm of the difference between the viscosity solution of a model steady state Hamilton-Jacobi equation, , and any given approximation, . This upper bound is independent of the method used to compute the approximation ; it depends solely on the values that the residual takes on a subset of the domain which can be easily computed in terms of . Numerical experiments investigating the sharpness of the a posteriori error estimate are given.

     

Some computations on the spectra of Pisot and Salem numbers

Properties of Pisot numbers have long been of interest. One line of questioning, initiated by Erdos, Joó and Komornik in 1990, is the determination of for Pisot numbers , where

Although the quantity is known for some Pisot numbers , there has been no general method for computing . This paper gives such an algorithm. With this algorithm, some properties of and its generalizations are investigated.

A related question concerns the analogy of , denoted , where the coefficients are restricted to ; in particular, for which non-Pisot numbers is nonzero? This paper finds an infinite class of Salem numbers where .

     

Component-by-component construction of good lattice rules

This paper provides a novel approach to the construction of good lattice rules for the integration of Korobov classes of periodic functions over the unit -dimensional cube. Theorems are proved which justify the construction of good lattice rules one component at a time - that is, the lattice rule for dimension is obtained from the rule for dimension by searching over all possible choices of the th component, while keeping all the existing components unchanged. The construction, which goes against accepted wisdom, is illustrated by numerical examples. The construction is particularly useful if the components of the integrand are ordered, in the sense that the first component is more important than the second, and so on.

     

Three- and four-dimensional -optimal lattice rules of moderate trigonometric degree

A systematic search for optimal lattice rules of specified trigonometric degree over the hypercube has been undertaken. The search is restricted to a population of lattice rules . This includes those where the dual lattice may be generated by points for each of which . The underlying theory, which suggests that such a restriction might be helpful, is presented. The general character of the search is described, and, for , and , , a list of -optimal rules is given. It is not known whether these are also optimal rules in the general sense; this matter is discussed.

     

Finding prime pairs with particular gaps

By a prime gap of size , we mean that there are primes and such that the numbers between and are all composite. It is widely believed that infinitely many prime gaps of size exist for all even integers . However, it had not previously been known whether a prime gap of size existed. The objective of this article was to be the first to find a prime gap of size , by using a systematic method that would also apply to finding prime gaps of any size. By this method, we find prime gaps for all even integers from to , and some beyond. What we find are not necessarily the first occurrences of these gaps, but, being examples, they give an upper bound on the first such occurrences. The prime gaps of size listed in this article were first announced on the Number Theory Listing to the World Wide Web on Tuesday, April 8, 1997. Since then, others, including Sol Weintraub and A.O.L. Atkin, have found prime gaps of size with smaller integers, using more ad hoc methods. At the end of the article, related computations to find prime triples of the form , , and their application to divisibility of binomial coefficients by a square will also be discussed.

     

On the modular curves

Let denote an elliptic curve over and the modular curve classifying the elliptic curves over such that the representations of in the 7-torsion points of and of are symplectically isomorphic. In case is given by a Weierstraß equation such that the invariant is a square, we exhibit here nontrivial points of . From this we deduce an infinite family of curves for which has at least four nontrivial points.

     

Jacobi sums and new families of irreducible polynomials of Gaussian periods

Let 2$">, an -th primitive root of 1, mod a prime number, a primitive root modulo and . We study the Jacobi sums , , where is the least nonnegative integer such that mod . We exhibit a set of properties that characterize these sums, some congruences they satisfy, and a MAPLE program to calculate them. Then we use those results to show how one can construct families , , of irreducible polynomials of Gaussian periods, , of degree , where is a suitable set of primes mod . We exhibit examples of such families for several small values of , and give a MAPLE program to construct more of them.

     

A stochastic particle numerical method for 3D Boltzmann equations without cutoff

Using the main ideas of Tanaka, the measure-solution of a -dimensional spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation of Maxwellian molecules without cutoff is related to a Poisson-driven stochastic differential equation. Using this tool, the convergence to of solutions of approximating Boltzmann equations with cutoff is proved. Then, a result of Graham-Méléard is used and allows us to approximate with the empirical measure of an easily simulable interacting particle system. Precise rates of convergence are given. A numerical study lies at the end of the paper.

     

Short effective intervals containing primes in arithmetic progressions and the seven cubes problem

For any and any non-exceptional modulus , we prove that, for large enough ( ), the interval contains a prime in any of the arithmetic progressions modulo . We apply this result to establish that every integer larger than is a sum of seven cubes.