On fixed point sets and Lefschetz modules for sporadic simple groups

We consider 2-local geometries and other subgroup complexes for sporadic simple groups. For six groups, the fixed point set of a noncentral involution is shown to be equivariantly homotopy equivalent to a standard geometry for the component of the centralizer. For odd primes, fixed point sets are computed for sporadic groups having an extraspecial Sylow p-subgroup of order p³, acting on the complex of those p-radical subgroups containing a p-central element in their centers. Vertices for summands of the associated reduced Lefschetz modules are described.     

Pairwise “Orthogonal generalized room squares” and equidistant permutation arrays

A generalized Room square S(r, λ; v) is an r × r array such that every cell in the array contains a subset of a v-set V. This subset could of course be the empty set. The array has the property that every element of V is contained precisely once in every row and column and that any two distinct elements of V are contained in precisely λ common cells. In this paper we define pairwise orthogonal generalized Room squares and give a construction for these using finite projective geometries. This is another generalization of the concept of pairwise orthogonal latin squares. We use these orthogonal arrays to construct permutations having a constant Hamming distance.     

Finite entropy actions of free groups,rigidity of stabilizers,and a Howe-Moore type phenomenon

We study a notion of entropy, called f-invariant entropy, introduced by Lewis Bowen for probability measure preserving actions of finitely generated free groups. In the degenerate case, the f-invariant entropy is -∞. In this paper, we investigate the qualitative consequences of an action having finite f-invariant entropy. We find three main properties of such actions. First, the stabilizers occurring in factors of such actions are highly restricted. Specifically, the stabilizer of almost every point must be either trivial or of finite index. Second, such actions are very chaotic in the sense that when the space is not essentially countable, every non-identity group element acts with infinite Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy. Finally, we show that such actions display behavior reminiscent of the Howe-Moore property. Specifically, if the action is ergodic, there exists an integer n such that for every non-trivial normal subgroup K, the number of K-ergodic components is at most n. Our results are based on a new formula for f-invariant entropy.     

A generalized Winternitz Theorem

We prove that, for every simple polygon P having k ?? 1 reflex vertices, there exists a point ${q \in P}$ such that every half-polygon that contains q contains nearly 1/2(k +?1) times the area of P. We also give a family of examples showing that this result is the best possible.     

Banach spaces without minimal subspaces

We prove three new dichotomies for Banach spaces à la W.T. Gowers' dichotomies. The three dichotomies characterise respectively the spaces having no minimal subspaces, having no subsequentially minimal basic sequences, and having no subspaces crudely finitely representable in all of their subspaces. We subsequently use these results to make progress on Gowers' program of classifying Banach spaces by finding characteristic spaces present in every space. Also, the results are used to embed any partial order of size ℵ₁ into the subspaces of any space without a minimal subspace ordered by isomorphic embeddability.     

Spanning cycles of nearly cubic graphs

The fact that a cubic hamiltonian graph must have at least three spanning cycles suggests the question of whether every hamiltonian graph in which each point has degree at least 3 must have at least three spanning cycles. We answer this in the negative by exhibiting graphs on n=2m+1, m≥5, points in which one point has degree 4, all others have degree 3, and only two spanning cycles exist.     

Some classes of finite homomorphism-homogeneous point-line geometries

In 2006, P. J. Cameron and J. Ne?et?ril introduced the following variant of homogeneity: we say that a structure is homomorphism-homogeneous if every homomorphism between finite substructures of the structure extends to an endomorphism of the structure. In this paper we classify finite homomorphism-homogeneous point-line geometries up to a certain point. We classify all disconnected point-line geometries, and all connected point-line geometries that contain a pair of intersecting proper lines (we say that a line is proper if it contains at least three points). In a way, this is the best one can hope for, since a recent result by Rusinov and Schweitzer implies that there is no polynomially computable characterization of finite connected homomorphism-homogeneous point-line geometries that do not contain a pair of intersecting proper lines (unless P=coNP).     

Linear closures of finite geometries

The interrelations between finite geometries (finite incidence structures) and linear codes over finite fields are discussed under some special fundamental aspects. For any incidence structure \({\mathcal{I}}\) block codes, block-difference codes and co-block codes over finite fields of characteristic p are discussed resp. introduced; correspondingly p-modular co-blocks are defined for \({\mathcal{I}}\). Orthogonality modulo p is introduced as a concept relating different geometries having the same point set. Conversely three types of block-tactical geometries may be derived from vector classes of fixed Hamming weight in a given linear code. These geometries are tactical configurations if the given code admits a transitive permutation group. A combination of both approaches leads to the concept of p-closure of a finite geometry and to the notions of p-closed, weakly p-closed and p-dense incidence structures. These geometric concepts are applied to simple or directed graphs via their natural “adjacency geometry”. Here the above mentioned code theoretic treatment leads to the concept of p-modular co-adjacent vertex sets. As instructive examples the Petersen graph, its complemetary graph and the Higman-Sims graph are considered.     

Parity properties and terminal points for lattice walks with steps of equal length

A lattice walk with all steps having the same length d is called a d-walk. In this note we examine parity properties of closed d-walks in RN in relation to N and d. We also characterize real numbers d for which in R² every lattice point can be the terminal point in a d-walk starting from the origin.     

Special conformal groups of a Riemannian manifold and Lie point symmetries of the nonlinear Poisson equation

We obtain a complete group classification of the Lie point symmetries of nonlinear Poisson equations on generic (pseudo) Riemannian manifolds M. Using this result we study their Noether symmetries and establish the respective conservation laws. It is shown that the projection of the Lie point symmetries on M are special subgroups of the conformal group of M. In particular, if the scalar curvature of M vanishes, the projection on M of the Lie point symmetry group of the Poisson equation with critical nonlinearity is the conformal group of the manifold. We illustrate our results by applying them to the Thurston geometries.     

On the existence of a point subset with three or five interior points

An interior point of a finite planar point set is a point of the set that is not on the boundary of the convex hull of the set. For any integer k ≥ 1, let h(k) be the smallest integer such that every point set in the plane, no three collinear, with at least h(k) interior points, has a subset with k or k + 2 interior points of P. We prove that h(3) = 8.     

Antiproximinal Norms in Banach Spaces

We prove that every Banach space containing a complemented copy of c₀ has an antiproximinal body for a suitable norm. If, in addition, the space is separable, there is a pair of antiproximinal norms. In particular, in a separable polyhedral space X, the set of all (equivalent) norms on X having an isomorphic antiproximinal norm is dense. In contrast, it is shown that there are no antiproximinal norms in Banach spaces with the convex point of continuity property (CPCP). Other questions related to the existence of antiproximinal bodies are also discussed.     

Ten Exceptional Geometries from Trivalent Distance Regular Graphs

The ten distance regular graphs of valency 3 and girth > 4 define ten non-isomorphic neighborhood geometries, amongst which a projective plane, a generalized quadrangle, two generalized hexagons, the tilde geometry, the Desargues configuration and the Pappus configuration. All these geometries are bislim, i.e., they have three points on each line and three lines through each point. We study properties of these geometries such as embedding rank, generating rank, representation in real spaces, alternative constructions. Our main result is a general construction method for homogeneous embeddings of flag transitive self-polar bislim geometries in real projective space.     

Distortion and stability of the fixed point property for non-expansive mappings

Let X be a Banach space. We say that X satisfies the fixed point property (weak fixed point property) if every non-expansive mapping defined from a convex closed bounded (convex weakly compact) subset of X into itself has a fixed point. We say that X satisfies the stable fixed point property (stable weak fixed point property) if the same is true for every equivalent norm which is close enough to the original one. Denote by P(X) the set formed by all equivalent norms with the topology of the uniform convergence on the unit ball of X. We prove that the subset of P(X) formed by the norms failing the fixed point property is dense in P(X) when X is a non-distortable space which fails the fixed point property. In particular, no renorming of ?₁ can satisfy the stable fixed point property. Furthermore, we show some examples of distortable spaces failing the weak fixed point property, which can be renormed to satisfy the stable weak fixed point property. As a consequence we prove that every separable Banach space can be renormed to satisfy the stable weak fixed point property.     

Associativity in multiary quasigroups: the way of biased expansions

A multiary (polyadic, n-ary) quasigroup is an n-ary operation which is invertible with respect to each of its variables. A biased expansion of a graph is a kind of branched covering graph with an additional structure similar to the combinatorial homotopy of circles. A biased expansion of a circle with chords encodes a multiary quasigroup, the chords corresponding to factorizations, i.e., associative structure. Some but not all biased expansions are constructed from groups (group expansions); these include all biased expansions of complete graphs (with at least four nodes), which correspond to Dowling’s lattices of a group and encode an iterated group operation. We show that any biased expansion of a 3-connected graph (with at least four nodes) is a group expansion, and that all 2-connected biased expansions are constructed by the identification of edges from group expansions and irreducible multiary quasigroups. If a 2-connected biased expansion covers every base edge at most three times, or if every four-node minor that contains a fixed edge is a group expansion, then the whole biased expansion is a group expansion. We deduce that if a multiary quasigroup has a factorization graph that is 3-connected, or if every ternary principal retract is an iterated group isotope, it is isotopic to an iterated group. We mention applications of generalizing Dowling geometries and of transversal designs of high strength.     

On edges crossing few other edges in simple topological complete graphs

We study the existence of edges having few crossings with the other edges in drawings of the complete graph (more precisely, in simple topological complete graphs). A topological graphT=(V,E) is a graph drawn in the plane with vertices represented by distinct points and edges represented by Jordan curves connecting the corresponding pairs of points (vertices), passing through no other vertices, and having the property that any intersection point of two edges is either a common end-point or a point where the two edges properly cross. A topological graph is simple if any two edges meet in at most one common point.Let h=h(n) be the smallest integer such that every simple topological complete graph on n vertices contains an edge crossing at most h other edges. We show that Ω(n^3/2)≤h(n)≤O(n²/log^1/4n). We also show that the analogous function on other surfaces (torus, Klein bottle) grows as cn².     

Triangle Contact Representations and Duality

A?contact representation by triangles of a graph is a set of triangles in the plane such that two triangles intersect on at most one point, each triangle represents a vertex of the graph and two triangles intersects if and only if their corresponding vertices are adjacent. De Fraysseix, Ossona de Mendez and Rosenstiehl proved that every planar graph admits a contact representation by triangles. We strengthen this in terms of a simultaneous contact representation by triangles of a planar map and of its dual. A?primal?Cdual contact representation by triangles of a planar map is a contact representation by triangles of the primal and a contact representation by triangles of the dual such that for every edge uv, bordering faces f and g, the intersection between the triangles corresponding to u and v is the same point as the intersection between the triangles corresponding to f and g. We prove that every 3-connected planar map admits a primal?Cdual contact representation by triangles. Moreover, the interiors of the triangles form a tiling of the triangle corresponding to the outer face and each contact point is a corner of exactly three triangles. Then we show that these representations are in one-to-one correspondence with generalized Schnyder woods defined by Felsner for 3-connected planar maps.     

Join-semidistributive lattices and convex geometries

We introduce the notion of a convex geometry extending the notion of a finite closure system with the anti-exchange property known in combinatorics. This notion becomes essential for the different embedding results in the class of join-semidistributive lattices. In particular, we prove that every finite join-semidistributive lattice can be embedded into a lattice S_P(A) of algebraic subsets of a suitable algebraic lattice A. This latter construction, S_P(A), is a key example of a convex geometry that plays an analogous role in hierarchy of join-semidistributive lattices as a lattice of equivalence relations does in the class of modular lattices. We give numerous examples of convex geometries that emerge in different branches of mathematics from geometry to graph theory. We also discuss the introduced notion of a strong convex geometry that might promise the development of rich structural theory of convex geometries.     

Attractors and recurrence for dendrite-critical polynomials

We call a rational map f dendrite-critical if all its recurrent critical points either belong to an invariant dendrite D or have minimal limit sets. We prove that if f is a dendrite-critical polynomial, then for any conformal measure μ either for almost every point its limit set coincides with the Julia set of f, or for almost every point its limit set coincides with the limit set of a critical point c of f. Moreover, if μ is non-atomic, then c can be chosen to be recurrent. A corollary is that for a dendrite-critical polynomial and a non-atomic conformal measure the limit set of almost every point contains a critical point.