The <Emphasis Type="Italic">ψ</Emphasis>-associate <Emphasis Type="Italic">X</Emphasis><Superscript>#</Superscript> of a flat <Emphasis Type="Italic">X</Emphasis> in PG(<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>, 2)

For a given hypersurface ψ in PG(n, 2), with equation Q(x) = 0, where Q is a polynomial of (reduced) degree d > 1, a definition is given of the ψ-associate X ^# of a flat X in PG(n, 2). The definition involves the fully polarized form of the polynomial Q; in the cubic case d = 3 it reads: X ^# = {z ∈ PG(n, 2) | T(x, y, z) = 0 for all x, y ∈ X}, where T(x, y, z) denotes the alternating trilinear form obtained by completely polarizing Q. Some general results, valid for any degree d and projective dimension n, are first expounded. Thereafter several choices of ψ are visited, but for each choice just a few aspects are highlighted. Despite the partial nature of the survey quite a variety of behaviours of the ψ-associate are uncovered. Many of the choices of ψ which are considered are of cubic hypersurfaces in PG(5, 2). If ψ is the Segre variety it is shown that the 48 planes external to fall into eight pairs of ordered triplets {(P ₁, R ₁, S ₁), (P ₂, R ₂, S ₂)} such that and . Further those lines L of PG(5, 2) which are singular, satisfying that is L ^# = PG(5.2), are in this case shown to form a complete spread of 21 lines. Another result of note arises in the case where ψ is the underlying 35-set of a non-maximal partial spread Σ₅ of five planes in PG(5, 2), where it is shown that one plane is singled out by the property that every line is singular.      

The Polynomial Degree of the Grassmannian {\mathcal G_{\bf 1,}{\bf n,}{\bf 2}}

For a subset ψ of PG(N, 2) a known result states that ψ has polynomial degree ≤ r, r≤ N, if and only if ψ intersects every r-flat of PG(N, 2) in an odd number of points. Certain refinements of this result are considered, and are then applied in the case when ψ is the Grassmannian , to show that for n <8 the polynomial degree of is .     

On the Intertwining of \partial{\mathcal{D}}-Isometries

Let be a strictly pseudoconvex bounded domain in with C ² boundary . If a subnormal m-tuple T of Hilbert space operators has the spectral measure of its minimal normal extension N supported on , then T is referred to as a -isometry. Using some non-trivial approximation theorems in the theory of several complex variables, we establish a commutant lifting theorem for those -isometries whose (joint) Taylor spectra are contained in a special superdomain Ω of . Further, we provide a function-theoretic characterization of those subnormal tuples whose Taylor spectra are contained in Ω and that are quasisimilar to a certain (fixed) -isometry T (of which the multiplication tuple on the Hardy space of the unit ball in is a rather special example). Submitted: September 9, 2007. Revised: October 10, 2007. Accepted: October 24, 2007.     

On Complete Arcs Arising from Plane Curves

We point out an interplay between -Frobenius non-classical plane curves and complete -arcs in . A typical example that shows how this works is the one concerning an Hermitian curve. We present some other examples here which give rise to the existence of new complete -arcs with parameters and being a power of the characteristic. In addition, for q a square, new complete -arcs with either and or and are constructed by using certain reducible plane curves.     

CR-Admissible $$\mathbb{{Z}}_{2}$$-gradations and CR-symmetries

Complementing the results of (Lotta and Nacinovich, Adv. Math. 191(1): 114–146, 2005), we show that the minimal orbit M of a real form G of a semisimple complex Lie group in a flag manifold is CR-symmetric (see (Kaup and Zaitsev Adv. Math. 149(2):145–181, 2000)) if and only if the corresponding CR algebra admits a gradation compatible with the CR structure.      

Invariants of 2 × 2 matrices, irreducible {\hbox{SL}(2, \mathbb{C})} characters and the Magnus trace map

We obtain an explicit characterization of the stable points of the action of on the cartesian product G  ^{× n} by simultaneous conjugation on each factor in terms of the corresponding invariant functions. From this, a simple criterion for the irreducibility of representations of finitely generated groups into G is derived. We also obtain analogous results for the action of on the vector space of n-tuples of 2 × 2 complex matrices. For a free group F _n of rank n, we show how to generically reconstruct the 2 ^n-2 conjugacy classes of representations F _n → G from their values under the map considered in Magnus [Math. Zeit. 170, 91–103 (1980)], defined by certain 3n − 3 traces of words of length one and two.      

Non-variational elliptic systems in dimension two: a priori bounds and existence of positive solutions

We establish a priori bounds for positive solutions of semilinear elliptic systems of the form

On optimal initial value conditions for local strong solutions of the Navier–Stokes equations

Consider a smooth bounded domain , and the Navier–Stokes system in with initial value and external force f =  div F, where , are so-called Serrin exponents. It is an important question what is the optimal (weakest possible) initial value condition in order to obtain a unique strong solution in some initial interval [0, T), . Up to now several sufficient conditions on u ₀ are known which need not be necessary. Our main result, see Theorem 1.1, shows that the condition , A denotes the Stokes operator, is sufficient and necessary for the existence of such a strong solution u. In particular, if , , then any weak solution u in the usual sense does not satisfy Serrin’s condition for each 0 < T ≤ ∞.      

Nonlinear Elliptic Problems with L 1 Data: an Approach via Symmetrization Methods

We consider nonlinear elliptic problems whose prototype is

Analytic properties in the spectrum of certain Banach algebras

We show a sufficient condition for a domain in to be a H ^∞-domain of holomorphy. Furthermore if a domain has the Gleason property at a point and the projection of the n − 1th order generalized Shilov boundary does not coincide with Ω then is schlicht. We also give two examples of pseudoconvex domains in which the spectrum is non-schlicht and satisfy several other interesting properties.      

Solutions of elliptic problems with nonlinearities of linear growth

In this paper, we study existence of nontrivial solutions to the elliptic equation

On automorphisms of A-groups

Let G be an A-group (i.e. a group in which xx ^α  = x ^α x for all and let denote the subgroup of Aut(G) consisting of all automorphisms that leave invariant the centralizer of each element of G. The quotient is an elementary abelian 2-group and natural analogies exist to suggest that it might always be trivial. It is shown that, in fact, for any odd prime p and any positive integer r, there exist infinitely many finite pA-groups G for which has rank r. Received: 23 March 2008, Revised: 20 May 2008     

$${\mathcal{M}}$$ -decomposability and symmetric unimodal densities in one dimension

In this paper, we introduce the notion of -decomposability of probability density functions in one dimension. Using -decomposability, we derive an inequality that applies to all symmetric unimodal densities. Our inequality involves only the standard deviation of the densities concerned. The concept of -decomposability can be used as a non-parametric criterion for mode-finding and cluster analysis.     

Quasilinearization and curvature of Aleksandrov spaces

We present a new distance characterization of Aleksandrov spaces of non-positive curvature. By introducing a quasilinearization for abstract metric spaces we draw an analogy between characterization of Aleksandrov spaces and inner product spaces; the quasi-inner product is defined by means of the quadrilateral cosine—a metric substitute for the angular measure between two directions at different points. Our main result states that a geodesically connected metric space is an Aleksandrov domain (also known as a CAT(0) space) if and only if the quadrilateral cosine does not exceed one for every two pairs of distinct points in . We also observe that a geodesically connected metric space is an domain if and only if, for every quadruple of points in , the quadrilateral inequality (known as Euler’s inequality in ) holds. As a corollary of our main result we give necessary and sufficient conditions for a semimetric space to be an domain. Our results provide a complete solution to the Curvature Problem posed by Gromov in the context of metric spaces of non-positive curvature.      

Homogeneous factorisations of Johnson graphs

For a graph Γ, subgroups , and an edge partition of Γ, the pair is a (G, M)-homogeneous factorisation if M is vertex-transitive on Γ and fixes setwise each part of , while G permutes the parts of transitively. A classification is given of all homogeneous factorisations of finite Johnson graphs. There are three infinite families and nine sporadic examples. This paper forms part of an ARC Discovery grant of the last two authors. The second author holds an Australian Research Council Australian Research Fellowship.     

Reduced Minimum Modulus Preserving in Banach Space

Let be the algebra of all bounded linear operators on a complex Banach space X and γ(T) be the reduced minimum modulus of operator . In this work, we prove that if , is a surjective linear map such that is an invertible operator, then , for every , if and only if, either there exist two bijective isometries and such that for every , or there exist two bijective isometries and such that for every . This generalizes for a Banach space the Mbekhta’s theorem [12].      

On the Structure and Symmetry Properties of Almost $$\cal{S}$$-manifolds

We prove that any simply connected -manifold of CR-codimension s 2 is noncompact by showing that the complete, simply connected -manifolds are all the CR products N × ^{s-1} with N Sasakian, endowed with a suitable product metric. N is a Sasakian -symmetric space if and only if M is CR-symmetric. The locally CR-symmetric -manifolds are characterized by

Operator Space Embedding of Schatten p-Classes Into Von Neumann Algebra Preduals

Let X₁ and X₂ be subspaces of quotients of R OH and C OH respectively. We use new free probability techniques to construct a completely isomorphic embedding of the Haagerup tensor product into the predual of a sufficiently large QWEP von Neumann algebra. As an immediate application, given any 1 < q ≤ 2, our result produces a completely isomorphic embedding of (equipped with its natural operator space structure) into with a QWEP von Neumann algebra. Received: June 2006, Revision: June 2007, Accepted: September 2007     

The Teichmüller distance between finite index subgroups of $${PSL_2(\mathbb{Z})}$$

For a given , we show that there exist two finite index subgroups of which are -quasisymmetrically conjugated and the conjugation homeomorphism is not conformal. This implies that for any there are two finite regular covers of the Modular once punctured torus T ₀ (or just the Modular torus) and a -quasiconformal map between them that is not homotopic to a conformal map. As an application of the above results, we show that the orbit of the basepoint in the Teichmüller space T(S ^p ) of the punctured solenoid S ^p under the action of the corresponding Modular group (which is the mapping class group of S ^p [6], [7]) has the closure in T(S ^p ) strictly larger than the orbit and that the closure is necessarily uncountable.