Generators and relations for subsemigroups via boundaries in Cayley graphs

Given a finitely generated semigroup S and subsemigroup T of S, we define the notion of the boundary of T in S which, intuitively, describes the position of T inside the left and right Cayley graphs of S. We prove that if S is finitely generated and T has a finite boundary in S then T is finitely generated. We also prove that if S is finitely presented and T has a finite boundary in S then T is finitely presented. Several corollaries and examples are given.     

Positive integers expressible as a sum of three squares in essentially only one way

The set S consisting of those positive integers n which are uniquely expressible in the form n = a² + b² + c², $\text{a ≧ b ≧ c ≧ 0}$, is considered. Since n ∈ S if and only if 4n ∈ S, we may restrict attention to those n not divisible by 4. Classical formulas and the theorem that there are only finitely many imaginary quadratic fields with given class number imply that there are only finitely many n ∈ S with n = 0 (mod 4). More specifically, from the existing knowledge of all the imaginary quadratic fields with odd discriminant and class number 1 or 2 it is readily deduced that there are precisely twelve positive integers n such that n ∈ S and n ≡ 3 (mod 8). To determine those n ∈ S such that n ≡ 1, 2, 5, 6 (mod 8) requires the determination of the imaginary quadratic fields with even discriminant and class number 1, 2, or 4. While the latter information is known empirically, it has not been proved that the known list of 33 such fields is complete. If it is complete, then our arguments show that there are exactly 21 positive integers n such that n ∈ S and n ≡ 1, 2, 5, 6 (mod 8).     

Preservers of pairs of bivectors with bounded distance

We extend Liu’s fundamental theorem of the geometry of alternate matrices to the second exterior power of an infinite dimensional vector space and also use her theorem to characterize surjective mappings T from the vector space V of all n×n alternate matrices over a field with at least three elements onto itself such that for any pair A, B in V, rank(A-B)?2k if and only if rank(T(A)-T(B))?2k, where k is a fixed positive integer such that n?2k+2 and k?2.     

Reflection rigidity of 2-spherical Coxeter groups

We prove that each finitely generated, irreducible and 2-sphericalCoxeter system (W, S) is strongly reflection rigid wheneverthe group W is of infinite order. This means in particular thatall reflection-preserving automorphisms of such a group areinner-by-graph. Our result can be seen as a first major steptowards a proof of the conjecture that all infinite, irreducibleCoxeter systems are strongly reflection rigid if they do notadmit diagram twists.     

Residually finite algorithmically finite groups,their subgroups and direct products

We construct a finitely generated infinite recursively presented residually finite algorithmically finite group G, thus answering a question of Myasnikov and Osin. The group G here is “strongly infinite” and “strongly algorithmically finite,” which means that G contains an infinite Abelian normal subgroup and all finite Cartesian powers of G are algorithmically finite (i.e., for any n, there is no algorithm writing out infinitely many pairwise distinct elements of the group G ⁿ ). We also formulate several open questions concerning this topic.     

Strong S-domains

S-domains and strong S-rings are studied extensively with special emphasis on integral and polynomial ring extensions. The main theorem of this paper is that for a Prüfer domain R, the polynomial ring R[X₁,…X_n] in finitely many indeterminates is a strong S-domain. We also prove that any Prüfer υ-multiplication domain is an S-domain.     

Trees and the bireflection property

The group of automorphisms of a tree (partially ordered set where the set of predecessors of an element is well ordered) with no infinite levels enjoys the property that every member is a product of two elements of order ≦2. It is shown that this property—called the bireflection property—fails for some trees having infinite levels. In fact, every subtree of a treeT has the the bireflection property if and only if the tree of all zero-one sequences of length ≦ω with finitely many ones is not embeddable inT.     

Wakamatsu tilting modules with finite injective dimension

Let R be a left Noetherian ring, S a right Noetherian ring and _R ω a Wakamatsu tilting module with S = End( _R ω). We introduce the notion of the ω-torsionfree dimension of finitely generated R-modules and give some criteria for computing it. For any n ? 0, we prove that l.id _R (ω) = r.id _S (ω) ? n if and only if every finitely generated left R-module and every finitely generated right S-module have ω-torsionfree dimension at most n, if and only if every finitely generated left R-module (or right S-module) has generalized Gorenstein dimension at most n. Then some examples and applications are given.     

Gelfand-Kirillov dimension of some primitive abundant semigroups

In this paper, the growth and Gelfand-Kirillov dimension of some primitive abundant semigroups are investigated. It is shown that for certain primitive abundant (regular) semigroup S, S as well as the semigroup algebra K [S] has polynomial growth if and only if all of its cancellative submonoids (subgroups) T as well as K[T] have polynomial growth. As applications, it is shown that if S is a finitely generated primitive inverse monoid having the permutational property, then clK dim K[S] = GK dim K[S] = rk(S).     

On trivialities of Stiefel-Whitney classes of vector bundles over highly connected complexes

It is a classical theorem of Milnor that for every vector bundle over Sn, all the Stiefel-Whitney classes vanish if and only if n≠1,2,4,8. We describe a space B as W-trivial (except for one dimension) if for every vector bundle over B, all the Stiefel-Whitney classes vanish (except for a single fixed dimension). We establish theorems which state that certain high-connectivities of B imply these trivialities as well as a theorem which states that there are infinitely many “W-trivial except for one dimension” spaces.     

On Finite Presentability of Direct Products of Semigroups

A finite semigroup S is said to preserve finite generation (resp., presentability) in direct products, provided that, for every infinite semigroup T, the direct product S × T is finitely generated (resp., finitely presented) if and only if T is finitely generated (resp., finitely presented). The main result of this paper is a constructive necessary and sufficient condition for S to preserve both finite generation and presentability in direct products. The condition is that certain graphs, (s), one for each s S, are all connected. The main result is illustrated in three examples, one of which exhibits a 4-element semigroup that preserves finite generation but not finite presentability in direct products.1991 Mathematics Subject Classification: 20M05, 05C25The first author is financially supported by the Sub-Programa Ciência e Tecnologia do 2° Quadro Comunitário de Apoio (grant number BD/ 15623/98). The author also acknowledges the support of the Centro de Álgebra da Universidade de Lisboa and of the Projecto Praxis 2/2.1/MAT/73/94. The second author acknowledges partial financial support from the Nuffield Foundation.     

Characterizations of n-connected and n-line connected graphs

The following two theorems are proved: (1) A graph G with at least n + 1 points, n ≥ 2, is n-connected if and only if for each set S of n distinct points of G and for each two point subset T of S there is a cycle of G that contains the points of T and avoids the points of S ? T. (2) A graph G with at least n + 1 lines, n ≥ 2, with no isolated points is n-line connected if and only if for each set S of n distinct lines of G and for each two line subset T of S there is a circuit of G that contains the lines of T and avoids the lines of S ? T.     

Automatic subsemigroups of free products

We consider the automaticity of subsemigroups of free products of semigroups, proving that subsemigroups of free products, with all generators having length greater than one in the free product, are automatic. As a corollary, we show that if S is a free product of semigroups that are either finite or free, then any finitely generated subsemigroup of S is automatic. In particular, any finitely generated subsemigroup of a free product of finite or monogenic semigroups is automatic.     

K-flows are forward deterministic,backward completely non-deterministic stationary point processes

Stationary processes with discrete time parameter and finitely many states are forward deterministic if and only if they are backward deterministic. In contrast to this we prove in the case of continuous time parameter: Every K-flow in a Lebesgue space is isomorphic to the flow of shifts of a stationary forward deterministic, backward completely non-deterministic process (X_t, t?R¹) with two states and with right-continuous paths having only finitely many jumps in any finite time-interval. The process may be considered as a point process. The result is obtained from a representation theorem for flows, describing increasing sub-σ-algebras of a flow up to “equivalence.”     

On polygonal measures with vanishing harmonic moments

A polygonal measure is the sum of finitely many real constant density measures supported on triangles in ?. Given a finite set S ? ?, we study the existence of polygonal measures spanned by triangles with vertices in S, all of whose harmonic moments vanish. We show that for generic S, the dimension of the linear space of such measures is \(\left( {_2^{|S| - 3} } \right)\) . We also investigate the situation in which the density for such measure takes on only values 0 or ±1. This corresponds to pairs of polygons of unit density having the same logarithmic potential at ∞. We show that such (signed) measures do not exist for |S| ≤ 5, but that for each n ≥ 6 one can construct an S, with |S| = n, giving rise to such a measure.     

Constant tolerance intersection graphs of subtrees of a tree

A chordal graph is the intersection graph of a family of subtrees of a host tree. In this paper we generalize this. A graph G=(V,E) has an (h,s,t)-representation if there exists a host tree T of maximum degree at most h, and a family of subtrees {S_v}_v∈V of T, all of maximum degree at most s, such that uv∈E if and only if |S_u∩S_v|?t. For given h,s, and t, there exist infinitely many forbidden induced subgraphs for the class of (h,s,t)-graphs. On the other hand, for fixed h?s?3, every graph is an (h,s,t)-graph provided that we take t large enough. Under certain conditions representations of larger graphs can be obtained from those of smaller ones by amalgamation procedures. Other representability and non-representability results are presented as well.     

Meromorphic functions that share a set with their derivatives

There exists a set S with three elements such that if a meromorphic function f, having at most finitely many simple poles, shares the set S CM with its derivative f^′, then f^′≡f.     

Structure theorems over polynomial rings

Given a polynomial ring R over a field k and a finite group G, we consider a finitely generated graded RG-module S. We regard S as a kG-module and show that various conditions on S are equivalent, such as only containing finitely many isomorphism classes of indecomposable summands or satisfying a structure theorem in the sense of [D. Karagueuzian, P. Symonds, The module structure of a group action on a polynomial ring: A finiteness theorem, preprint, http://www.ma.umist.ac.uk/pas/preprints].