Moments of Dirichlet L–functions with prime conductors over function fields

We compute the second moment in the family of quadratic Dirichlet L–functions with prime conductors over ${\mathbb{F}}_q[x]$ when the degree of the discriminant goes to infinity, obtaining one of the lower order terms. We also obtain an asymptotic formula with the leading order term for the mean value of the derivatives of L–functions associated to quadratic twists of a fixed elliptic curve over ${\mathbb{F}}_q(t)$ by monic irreducible polynomials. As a corollary, we prove that there are infinitely many monic irreducible polynomials such that the analytic rank of the corresponding twisted elliptic curves is equal to 1.     

Paley-like graphs over finite fields from vector spaces

Motivated by the well-known Paley graphs over finite fields and their generalizations, in this paper we explore a natural multiplicative-additive analogue of such graphs arising from vector spaces over finite fields. Namely, if $n\ge 2$ and $U⊊{\mathbb{F}}_{q^n}$ is an ${\mathbb{F}}_q$-vector space, $G_U$ is the (undirected) graph with vertex set $V(G_U)={\mathbb{F}}_{q^n}$ and edge set $E(G_U)=\{(a,b)\in {\mathbb{F}}_{q^n}^2|a\ne b,ab\in U\}$. We describe the structure of an arbitrary maximal clique in $G_U$ and provide bounds on the clique number $\omega (G_U)$ of $G_U$. In particular, we compute the largest possible value of $\omega (G_U)$ for arbitrary q and n. Moreover, we obtain the exact value of $\omega (G_U)$ when $U⊊{\mathbb{F}}_{q^n}$ is any ${\mathbb{F}}_q$-vector space of dimension $d_U\in \{1,2,n-1\}$.     

Classification of cyclic codes over a non-Galois chain ring Zp[u]/〈u3〉

We explicitly determine generators of cyclic codes over a non-Galois finite chain ring ${\mathbb{Z}}_p[u]/〈u^3〉$ of length $p^k$, where p is a prime number and k is a positive integer. We completely classify that there are three types of principal ideals of ${\mathbb{Z}}_p[u]/〈u^3〉$ and four types of non-principal ideals of ${\mathbb{Z}}_p[u]/〈u^3〉$, which are associated with cyclic codes over ${\mathbb{Z}}_p[u]/〈u^3〉$ of length $p^k$. We then obtain a mass formula for cyclic codes over ${\mathbb{Z}}_p[u]/〈u^3〉$ of length $p^k$.     

New lower bound for the Hilbert number in piecewise quadratic differential systems

We study the number of limit cycles bifurcating from a piecewise quadratic system. All the differential systems considered are piecewise in two zones separated by a straight line. We prove the existence of 16 crossing limit cycles in this class of systems. If we denote by $H_p(n)$ the extension of the Hilbert number to degree n piecewise polynomial differential systems, then $H_p(2)\ge 16$. As fas as we are concerned, this is the best lower bound for the quadratic class. Moreover, in the studied cases, all limit cycles appear nested bifurcating from a period annulus of a isochronous quadratic center.     

Endomorphisms and cores of quadratic forms graphs in odd characteristic

A graph G is called a pseudo-core if every endomorphism of G is either an automorphism or a colouring. A graph G is a core if every endomorphism of G is an automorphism. Let ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ be the finite field with q elements where q is a power of an odd prime number. The quadratic forms graph, denoted by $\mathrm{Quad}(n,q)$ where $n\ge 2$, has all quadratic forms on ${\mathbb{F}}_q^n$ as vertices and two vertices f and g are adjacent whenever $\mathrm{rk}(f-g)=1$ or 2. We prove that every $\mathrm{Quad}(n,q)$ is a pseudo-core. Further, when n is even, $\mathrm{Quad}(n,q)$ is a core. When n is odd, $\mathrm{Quad}(n,q)$ is not a core. On the other hand, we completely determine the independence number of $\mathrm{Quad}(n,q)$.     

Flow number and circular flow number of signed cubic graphs

Let $\mathrm{\Phi }(G,\sigma )$ and ${\mathrm{\Phi }}_c(G,\sigma )$ denote the flow number and the circular flow number of a flow-admissible signed graph $(G,\sigma )$, respectively. It is known that $\mathrm{\Phi }(G)=?{\mathrm{\Phi }}_c(G)?$ for every unsigned graph G. Based on this fact, in 2011 Raspaud and Zhu conjectured that $\mathrm{\Phi }(G,\sigma )?{\mathrm{\Phi }}_c(G,\sigma )<1$ holds also for every flow-admissible signed graph $(G,\sigma )$. This conjecture was disproved by Schubert and Steffen using graphs with bridges and vertices of large degree. In this paper we focus on cubic graphs, since they play a crucial role in many open problems in graph theory. For cubic graphs we show that $\mathrm{\Phi }(G,\sigma )=3$ if and only if ${\mathrm{\Phi }}_c(G,\sigma )=3$ and if $\mathrm{\Phi }(G,\sigma )\in \{4,5\}$, then $4\le {\mathrm{\Phi }}_c(G,\sigma )\le \mathrm{\Phi }(G,\sigma )$. We also prove that all pairs of flow number and circular flow number that fulfil these conditions can be achieved in the family of bridgeless cubic graphs and thereby disprove the conjecture of Raspaud and Zhu even for bridgeless signed cubic graphs. Finally, we prove that all currently known flow-admissible graphs without nowhere-zero 5-flow have flow number and circular flow number 6 and propose several conjectures in this area.