On uniformly bounded spherical functions in Hilbert space

Let G be a commutative group, written additively, with a neutral element 0, and let K be a finite group. Suppose that K acts on G via group automorphisms ${G \ni a \mapsto ka \in G}$ , ${k \in K}$ . Let ${{\mathfrak{H}}}$ be a complex Hilbert space and let ${{\mathcal L}({\mathfrak{H}})}$ be the algebra of all bounded linear operators on ${{\mathfrak{H}}}$ . A mapping ${u \colon G \to {\mathcal L}({\mathfrak{H}})}$ is termed a K-spherical function if it satisfies (1) ${|K|^{-1} \sum_{k\in K} u (a+kb)=u (a) u (b)}$ for any ${a,b\in G}$ , where |K| denotes the cardinality of K, and (2) ${u (0) = {\rm id}_{\mathfrak {H}},}$ where ${{\rm id}_{\mathfrak {H}}}$ designates the identity operator on ${{\mathfrak{H}}}$ . The main result of the paper is that for each K-spherical function ${u \colon G \to {\mathcal {L}}({\mathfrak {H}})}$ such that ${\| u \|_{\infty} = \sup_{a\in G} \| u (a)\|_{{\mathcal L}({\mathfrak{H}})} < \infty,}$ there is an invertible operator S in ${{\mathcal L}({\mathfrak{H}})}$ with ${\| S \| \, \| S^{-1}\| \leq |K| \, \| u \|_{\infty}^2}$ such that the K-spherical function ${{\tilde{u}} \colon G \to {\mathcal L}({\mathfrak{H}})}$ defined by ${{\tilde{u}}(a) = S u (a) S^{-1},\,a \in G,}$ satisfies ${{\tilde{u}}(-a) = {\tilde{u}}(a)^*}$ for each ${a \in G}$ . It is shown that this last condition is equivalent to insisting that ${{\tilde{u}}(a)}$ be normal for each ${a \in G}$ .     

Irregular and Singular Loci of Commuting Varieties

Let $ {\user1{\mathcal{C}}} $ be the commuting variety of the Lie algebra $ \mathfrak{g} $ of a connected noncommutative reductive algebraic group G over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. Let $ {\user1{\mathcal{C}}}^{{{\text{sing}}}} $ be the singular locus of $ {\user1{\mathcal{C}}} $ and let $ {\user1{\mathcal{C}}}^{{{\text{irr}}}} $ be the locus of points whose G-stabilizers have dimension > rk G. We prove that: (a) $ {\user1{\mathcal{C}}}^{{{\text{sing}}}} $ is a nonempty subset of $ {\user1{\mathcal{C}}}^{{{\text{irr}}}} $ ; (b) $ {\text{codim}}_{{\user1{\mathcal{C}}}} \,{\user1{\mathcal{C}}}^{{{\text{irr}}}} = 5 - {\text{max}}\,l{\left( \mathfrak{a} \right)} $ where the maximum is taken over all simple ideals $ \mathfrak{a} $ of $ \mathfrak{g} $ and $ l{\left( \mathfrak{a} \right)} $ is the “lacety” of $ \mathfrak{a} $ ; and (c) if $ \mathfrak{t} $ is a Cartan subalgebra of $ \mathfrak{g} $ and $ \alpha \in \mathfrak{t}^{*} $ root of $ \mathfrak{g} $ with respect to $ \mathfrak{t} $ , then $ \overline{{G{\left( {{\text{Ker}}\,\alpha \times {\text{Ker }}\alpha } \right)}}} $ is an irreducible component of $ {\user1{\mathcal{C}}}^{{{\text{irr}}}} $ of codimension 4 in $ {\user1{\mathcal{C}}} $ . This yields the bound $ {\text{codim}}_{{\user1{\mathcal{C}}}} \,{\user1{\mathcal{C}}}^{{{\text{sing}}}} \geqslant 5 - {\text{max}}\,l{\left( \mathfrak{a} \right)} $ and, in particular, $ {\text{codim}}_{{\user1{\mathcal{C}}}} \,{\user1{\mathcal{C}}}^{{{\text{sing}}}} \geqslant 2 $ . The latter may be regarded as an evidence in favor of the known longstanding conjecture that $ {\user1{\mathcal{C}}} $ is always normal. We also prove that the algebraic variety $ {\user1{\mathcal{C}}} $ is rational.     

Height of a Superposition

We observe that, given a poset ${\left( {E,{\user1{\mathcal{R}}}} \right)}$ and a finite covering ${\user1{\mathcal{R}}} = {\user1{\mathcal{R}}}_{1} \cup \cdots \cup {\user1{\mathcal{R}}}_{n} $ of its ordering, the height of the poset does not exceed the natural product of the heights of the corresponding sub-relations: $$\mathfrak{h}{\left( {E,{\user1{\mathcal{R}}}} \right)} \leqslant \mathfrak{h}{\left( {E,{\user1{\mathcal{R}}}_{1} } \right)} \otimes \cdots \otimes \mathfrak{h}{\left( {E,{\user1{\mathcal{R}}}_{n} } \right)}.$$ Conversely for every finite sequence $(\xi_1,\cdots,\xi_n)$ of ordinals, every poset ${\left( {E,{\user1{\mathcal{R}}}} \right)}$ of height at most $\xi_1\otimes\cdots\otimes\xi_n$ admits a partition ${\left( {{\user1{\mathcal{R}}}_{1} , \cdots ,{\user1{\mathcal{R}}}_{n} } \right)}$ of its ordering ${\user1{\mathcal{R}}}$ such that each ${\left( {E,{\user1{\mathcal{R}}}_{k} } \right)}$ has height at most $\xi_k$ . In particular for every finite sequence $(\xi_1,\cdots,\xi_n)$ of ordinals, the ordinal $$\xi _{1} \underline{ \otimes } \cdots \underline{ \otimes } \xi _{n} : = \sup {\left\{ {{\left( {\xi ^{\prime }_{1} \otimes \cdots \otimes \xi ^{\prime }_{n} } \right)} + 1:\xi ^{\prime }_{1} < \xi _{1} , \cdots ,\xi ^{\prime }_{n} < \xi _{n} } \right\}}$$ is the least $\xi$ for which the following partition relation holds $$\mathfrak{H}_{\xi } \to {\left( {\mathfrak{H}_{{\xi _{1} }} , \cdots ,\mathfrak{H}_{{\xi _{n} }} } \right)}^{2} $$ meaning: for every poset ${\left( {A,{\user1{\mathcal{R}}}} \right)}$ of height at least $\xi$ and every finite covering ${\left( {{\user1{\mathcal{R}}}_{1} , \cdots ,{\user1{\mathcal{R}}}_{n} } \right)}$ of its ordering ${\user1{\mathcal{R}}}$ , there is a $k$ for which the relation ${\left( {A,{\user1{\mathcal{R}}}_{k} } \right)}$ has height at least $\xi_k$ . The proof will rely on analogue properties of vertex coverings w.r.t. the natural sum.     

Complemented modular lattices with involution and orthogonal geometry

With each orthogeometry (P, ⊥) we associate ${{\mathbb {L}}(P, \bot)}$ , a complemented modular lattice with involution (CMIL), consisting of all subspaces X and X ^⊥ such that dim X < ?₀, and we study its rôle in decompositions of (P, ⊥) as directed (resp., disjoint) union. We also establish a 1–1 correspondence between ?-varieties ${\mathcal {V}}$ of CMILs with ${\mathcal {V}}$ generated by its finite dimensional members and ‘quasivarieties’ ${\mathcal {G}}$ of orthogeometries: ${\mathcal {V}}$ consists of the CMILs representable within some geometry from ${\mathcal {G}}$ and ${\mathcal {G}}$ of the (P, ⊥) with ${{\mathbb {L}}(P, \bot) \in {\mathcal {V}}}$ . Here, ${\mathcal {V}}$ is recursively axiomatizable if and only if so is ${\mathcal {G}}$ . It follows that the equational theory of ${\mathcal {V}}$ is decidable provided that the equational theories of the ${\{{\mathbb {L}}(P, \bot)\, |\, (P, \bot) \in \mathcal {G}, {\rm{dim}} P = n\}}$ are uniformly decidable.     

Nikodym Maximal Functions Associated with Variable Planes in {\mathbb{R}^{3}}

Given a vector field ${\mathfrak{a}}$ on ${\mathbb{R}^3}$ , we consider a mapping ${x\mapsto \Pi_{\mathfrak{a}}(x)}$ that assigns to each ${x\in\mathbb{R}^3}$ , a plane ${\Pi_{\mathfrak{a}}(x)}$ containing x, whose normal vector is ${\mathfrak{a}(x)}$ . Associated with this mapping, we define a maximal operator ${\mathcal{M}^{\mathfrak{a}}_N}$ on ${L^1_{loc}(\mathbb{R}^3)}$ for each ${N\gg 1}$ by $$\mathcal{M}^{\mathfrak{a}}_Nf(x)=\sup_{x\in\tau} \frac{1}{|\tau|} \int_{\tau}|f(y)|\,dy$$ where the supremum is taken over all 1/N ×? 1/N?× 1 tubes τ whose axis is embedded in the plane ${\Pi_\mathfrak{a}(x)}$ . We study the behavior of ${\mathcal{M}^{\mathfrak{a}}_N}$ according to various vector fields ${\mathfrak{a}}$ . In particular, we classify the operator norms of ${\mathcal{M}^{\mathfrak{a}}_N}$ on ${L^2(\mathbb{R}^3)}$ when ${\mathfrak{a}(x)}$ is the linear function of the form (a ₁₁ x ₁?+?a ₂₁ x ₂, a ₁₂ x ₁?+?a ₂₂ x ₂, 1). The operator norm of ${\mathcal{M}^\mathfrak{a}_N}$ on ${L^2(\mathbb{R}^3)}$ is related with the number given by $$D=(a_{12}+a_{21})^2-4a_{11}a_{22}.$$      

Howe correspondence and Springer correspondence for real reductive dual pairs

We consider a real reductive dual pair (G′, G) of type I, with rank ${({\rm G}^{\prime}) \leq {\rm rank(G)}}$ . Given a nilpotent coadjoint orbit ${\mathcal{O}^{\prime} \subseteq \mathfrak{g}^{{\prime}{*}}}$ , let ${\mathcal{O}^{\prime}_\mathbb{C} \subseteq \mathfrak{g}^{{\prime}{*}}_\mathbb{C}}$ denote the complex orbit containing ${\mathcal{O}^{\prime}}$ . Under some condition on the partition λ′ parametrizing ${\mathcal{O}^{\prime}}$ , we prove that, if λ is the partition obtained from λ by adding a column on the very left, and ${\mathcal{O}}$ is the nilpotent coadjoint orbit parametrized by λ, then ${\mathcal{O}_\mathbb{C}= \tau (\tau^{\prime -1}(\mathcal{O}_\mathbb{C}^{\prime}))}$ , where ${\tau, \tau^{\prime}}$ are the moment maps. Moreover, if ${chc(\hat\mu_{\mathcal{O}^{\prime}}) \neq 0}$ , where chc is the infinitesimal version of the Cauchy-Harish-Chandra integral, then the Weyl group representation attached by Wallach to ${\mu_{\mathcal{O}^{\prime}}}$ with corresponds to ${\mathcal{O}_\mathbb{C}}$ via the Springer correspondence.     

On Deformations of Lie Algebroids

For any Lie algebroid A, its 1-jet bundle ${\mathfrak{J} A}$ is a Lie algebroid naturally and there is a representation ${\pi:\mathfrak{J} A\longrightarrow\mathfrak{D} A}$ . Denote by ${{\rm d}_{\mathfrak{J}}}$ the corresponding coboundary operator. In this paper, we realize the deformation cohomology of a Lie algebroid A introduced by M. Crainic and I. Moerdijk as the cohomology of a subcomplex ${(\Gamma({\rm Hom}(\wedge^\bullet\mathfrak{J} A,A)_{{\mathfrak{D}} A}),{\rm d}_{\mathfrak{J}})}$ of the cochain complex ${(\Gamma({\rm Hom}(\wedge^\bullet\mathfrak{J} A, A)),{\rm d}_\mathfrak{J})}$ .     

Eta Cocycles, Relative Pairings and the Godbillon–Vey Index Theorem

We prove a Godbillon?CVey index formula for longitudinal Dirac operators on a foliated bundle with boundary ${(X,\mathcal{F})}$ ; in particular, we define a Godbillon?CVey eta invariant on ${(\partial X,\mathcal{F}_{\partial}),}$ that is, a secondary invariant for longitudinal Dirac operators on type III foliations. Moreover, employing the Godbillon?CVey index as a pivotal example, we explain a new approach to higher index theory on geometric structures with boundary. This is heavily based on the interplay between the absolute and relative pairings of K-theory and cyclic cohomology for an exact sequence of Banach algebras, which in the present context takes the form ${0 \to \mathbf{\mathfrak{J}} \to \mathbf{\mathfrak{A}} \to \mathbf{\mathfrak{B}} \to 0}$ with ${ \mathbf{\mathfrak{J}}}$ dense and holomorphically closed in ${C^* (X,\mathcal{F})}$ and ${ \mathbf{\mathfrak{B}}}$ depending only on boundary data. Of particular importance is the definition of a relative cyclic cocycle ${(\tau_{GV}^r,\sigma_{GV})}$ for the pair ${\mathbf{\mathfrak{A}} \to \mathbf{\mathfrak{B}}}$ ; ${\tau_{GV}^r}$ is a cyclic cochain on ${\mathbf{\mathfrak{A}}}$ defined through a regularization à la Melrose of the usual Godbillon?CVey cyclic cocycle ?? _GV ; ?? _GV is a cyclic cocycle on ${\mathbf{\mathfrak{B}}}$ , obtained through a suspension procedure involving ?? _GV and a specific 1-cyclic cocycle (Roe??s 1-cocycle). We call ?? _GV the eta cocycle associated to ?? _GV . The Atiyah?CPatodi?CSinger formula is obtained by defining a relative index class ${{\rm Ind} (D,D^\partial) \in K_* (\mathbf{\mathfrak{A}}, \mathbf{\mathfrak{B}})}$ and establishing the equality ${\langle {\rm Ind} (D), [\tau_{GV}] \rangle\,=\,\langle {\rm Ind} (D,D^\partial), [(\tau^r_{GV}, \sigma_{GV})] \rangle}$ . The Godbillon?CVey eta invariant ?? _GV is obtained through the eta cocycle ?? _GV .     

Covering properties of ideals

Elekes proved that any infinite-fold cover of a σ-finite measure space by a sequence of measurable sets has a subsequence with the same property such that the set of indices of this subsequence has density zero. Applying this theorem he gave a new proof for the random-indestructibility of the density zero ideal. He asked about other variants of this theorem concerning I-almost everywhere infinite-fold covers of Polish spaces where I is a σ-ideal on the space and the set of indices of the required subsequence should be in a fixed ideal ${{\mathcal{J}}}$ on ω. We introduce the notion of the ${{\mathcal{J}}}$ -covering property of a pair ${({\mathcal{A}}, I)}$ where ${{\mathcal{A}}}$ is a σ-algebra on a set X and ${{I \subseteq \mathcal{P}(X)}}$ is an ideal. We present some counterexamples, discuss the category case and the Fubini product of the null ideal ${\mathcal{N}}$ and the meager ideal ${\mathcal{M}}$ . We investigate connections between this property and forcing-indestructibility of ideals. We show that the family of all Borel ideals ${{\mathcal{J}}}$ on ω such that ${\mathcal{M}}$ has the ${{\mathcal{J}}}$ -covering property consists exactly of non weak Q-ideals. We also study the existence of smallest elements, with respect to Katětov–Blass order, in the family of those ideals ${\mathcal{J}}$ on ω such that ${\mathcal{N}}$ or ${\mathcal{M}}$ has the ${\mathcal{J}}$ -covering property. Furthermore, we prove a general result about the cases when the covering property “strongly” fails.     

Categories of bounded \left( {\mathfrak{sp}\left( {{{\mathrm{S}}^2}V \oplus {{\mathrm{S}}^2}{V^{*}}} \right),\;\mathfrak{gl}(V)} \right) - and \left( {\mathfrak{sp}\left( {{\varLambda^2}V \oplus {\varLambda^2}{V^{*}}} \right),\;\mathfrak{gl}(V)} \right) -modules

Let $ \mathfrak{g} $ be a reductive Lie algebra over $ \mathbb{C} $ and $ \mathfrak{k} \subset \mathfrak{g} $ be a reductive in $ \mathfrak{g} $ subalgebra. We call a $ \mathfrak{g} $ -module M a $ \left( {\mathfrak{g}{\hbox{,}}\;\mathfrak{k}} \right) $ -module whenever M is a direct sum of finite-dimensional $ \mathfrak{k} $ -modules. We call a $ \left( {\mathfrak{g}{\hbox{,}}\;\mathfrak{k}} \right) $ -module M bounded if there exists $ {C_M} \in {\mathbb{Z}_{{ \geqslant 0}}} $ such that for any simple finite-dimensional $ \mathfrak{k} $ -module E the dimension of the E-isotypic component is not greater than C _M dim E. Bounded $ \left( {\mathfrak{g}{\hbox{,}}\;\mathfrak{k}} \right) $ -modules form a subcategory of the category of $ \mathfrak{g} $ -modules. Let V be a finite-dimensional vector space. We prove that the categories of bounded $ \left( {\mathfrak{sp}\left( {{{\mathrm{S}}^2}V \oplus {{\mathrm{S}}^2}{V^{*}}} \right),\;\mathfrak{gl}(V)} \right) $ - and $ \left( {\mathfrak{sp}\left( {{\varLambda^2}V \oplus {\varLambda^2}{V^{*}}} \right),\;\mathfrak{gl}(V)} \right) $ -modules are isomorphic to the direct sum of countably many copies of the category of representations of some explicitly described quiver with relations under some mild assumptions on the dimension of V .     

A commutant realization of Odake’s algebra

The bcβγ-system $ \mathcal{W} $ of rank 3 has an action of the affine vertex algebra $ {V_0}\left( {\mathfrak{s}{{\mathfrak{l}}_2}} \right) $ , and the commutant vertex algebra $ \mathcal{C}=\mathrm{Com}\left( {{V_0}\left( {\mathfrak{s}{{\mathfrak{l}}_2}} \right),\mathcal{W}} \right) $ contains copies of V _?3/2 $ \left( {\mathfrak{s}{{\mathfrak{l}}_2}} \right) $ and Odake’s algebra $ \mathcal{O} $ . Odake’s algebra is an extension of the N = 2 super-conformal algebra with c = 9, and is generated by eight fields which close nonlinearly under operator product expansions. Our main result is that V _?3/2 $ \left( {\mathfrak{s}{{\mathfrak{l}}_2}} \right) $ and $ \mathcal{O} $ form a Howe pair (i.e., a pair of mutual commutants) inside $ \mathcal{C} $ . More generally, any finite-dimensional representation of a Lie algebra $ \mathfrak{g} $ gives rise to a similar Howe pair, and this example corresponds to the adjoint representation of $ \mathfrak{s}{{\mathfrak{l}}_2} $ .     

On the Generality of Assuming that a Family of Continuous Functions Separates Points

For an algebra ${\mathcal{A}}$ of complex-valued, continuous functions on a compact Hausdorff space (X, τ), it is standard practice to assume that ${\mathcal{A}}$ separates points in the sense that for each distinct pair ${x, y \in X}$ , there exists an ${f \in \mathcal{A}}$ such that ${f(x) \neq f(y)}$ . If ${\mathcal{A}}$ does not separate points, it is known that there exists an algebra ${\widehat{\mathcal{A}}}$ on a compact Hausdorff space ${(\widehat{X}, \widehat{\tau})}$ that does separate points such that the map ${\mathcal{A} \mapsto \widehat{\mathcal{A}}}$ is a uniform norm isometric algebra isomorphism. So it is, to a degree, without loss of generality that we assume ${\mathcal{A}}$ separates points. The construction of ${{\widehat{\mathcal{A}}}}$ and ${(\widehat{X}, \widehat{\tau})}$ does not require that ${\mathcal{A}}$ has any algebraic structure nor that ${(X, \tau)}$ has any properties, other than being a topological space. In this work we develop a framework for determining the degree to which separation of points may be assumed without loss of generality for any family ${\mathcal{A}}$ of bounded, complex-valued, continuous functions on any topological space ${(X, \tau)}$ . We also demonstrate that further structures may be preserved by the mapping ${\mathcal{A} \mapsto \widehat{\mathcal{A}}}$ , such as boundaries of weak peak points, the Lipschitz constant when the functions are Lipschitz on a compact metric space, and the involutive structure of real function algebras on compact Hausdorff spaces.     

The gluing formula of the refined analytic torsion for an acyclic Hermitian connection

In the previous study by Huang and Lee (arXiv:1004.1753) we introduced the well-posed boundary conditions ${{\mathcal P}_{-, {\mathcal L}_{0}}}$ and ${{\mathcal P}_{+, {\mathcal L}_{1}}}$ for the odd signature operator to define the refined analytic torsion on a compact manifold with boundary. In this paper we discuss the gluing formula of the refined analytic torsion for an acyclic Hermitian connection with respect to the boundary conditions ${{\mathcal P}_{-, {\mathcal L}_{0}}}$ and ${{\mathcal P}_{+, {\mathcal L}_{1}}}$ . In this case the refined analytic torsion consists of the Ray-Singer analytic torsion, the eta invariant and the values of the zeta functions at zero. We first compare the Ray-Singer analytic torsion and eta invariant subject to the boundary condition ${{\mathcal P}_{-, {\mathcal L}_{0}}}$ or ${{\mathcal P}_{+, {\mathcal L}_{1}}}$ with the Ray-Singer analytic torsion subject to the relative (or absolute) boundary condition and eta invariant subject to the APS boundary condition on a compact manifold with boundary. Using these results together with the well known gluing formula of the Ray-Singer analytic torsion subject to the relative and absolute boundary conditions and eta invariant subject to the APS boundary condition, we obtain the main result.     

Positive definite superfunctions and unitary representations of lie supergroups

For a broad class of Fréchet-Lie supergroups $ \mathcal{G} $ , we prove that there exists a correspondence between positive definite smooth (resp., analytic) superfunctions on $ \mathcal{G} $ and matrix coefficients of smooth (resp., analytic) unitary representations of the Harish-Chandra pair (G, $ \mathfrak{g} $ ) associated to $ \mathcal{G} $ . As an application, we prove that a smooth positive definite superfunction on $ \mathcal{G} $ is analytic if and only if it restricts to an analytic function on the underlying manifold of $ \mathcal{G} $ . When the underlying manifold of $ \mathcal{G} $ is 1-connected we obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for a linear functional on the universal enveloping algebra U( $ {{\mathfrak{g}}_{\mathbb{C}}} $ ) to correspond to a matrix coefficient of a unitary representation of (G, $ \mathfrak{g} $ ). The class of Lie supergroups for which the aforementioned results hold is characterised by a condition on the convergence of the Trotter product formula. This condition is strictly weaker than assuming that the underlying Lie group of $ \mathcal{G} $ is a locally exponential Fréchet-Lie group. In particular, our results apply to examples of interest in representation theory such as mapping supergroups and diffeomorphism supergroups.     

Unbounded Induced Representations of ∗-Algebras

Induced representations of *-algebras by unbounded operators in Hilbert space are investigated. Conditional expectations of a *-algebra ${{\mathcal{A}}}$ onto a unital *-subalgebra ${{\mathcal{B}}}$ are introduced and used to define inner products on the corresponding induced modules. The main part of the paper is concerned with group graded *-algebras ${{\mathcal{A}}}=\oplus_{g\in G}{{\mathcal{A}}}_g$ for which the *-subalgebra ${{\mathcal{B}}}:={{\mathcal{A}}}_e$ is commutative. Then the canonical projection $p:{{\mathcal{A}}}\to{{\mathcal{B}}}$ is a conditional expectation and there is a partial action of the group G on the set ${{\mathcal{B}}}p$ of all characters of ${{\mathcal{B}}}$ which are nonnegative on the cone $\sum{{\mathcal{A}}}^2{{\mathcal{A}}}p{{\mathcal{B}}}.$ The complete Mackey theory is developed for *-representations of ${{\mathcal{A}}}$ which are induced from characters of ${{\widehat{{{\mathcal{B}}}}^+}}.$ Systems of imprimitivity are defined and two versions of the Imprimitivity Theorem are proved in this context. A concept of well-behaved *-representations of such *-algebras ${{\mathcal{A}}}$ is introduced and studied. It is shown that well-behaved representations are direct sums of cyclic well-behaved representations and that induced representations of well-behaved representations are again well-behaved. The theory applies to a large variety of examples. For important examples such as the Weyl algebra, enveloping algebras of the Lie algebras su(2), su(1,1), and of the Virasoro algebra, and *-algebras generated by dynamical systems our theory is carried out in great detail.     

Almost Cross-Intersecting and Almost Cross-Sperner Pairs of Families of Sets

For a set G and a family of sets ${\mathcal{F}}$ let ${\mathcal{D}_{\mathcal{F}}(G)=\{F\in \mathcal{F}:F\cap G=\emptyset\}}$ and ${\mathcal{S}_{\mathcal{F}}(G)=\{F\in\mathcal{F}:F\subseteq G\,{\rm or} \,G \subseteq F\}.}$ We say that a family is l-almost intersecting, (≤ l)-almost intersecting, l-almost Sperner, (≤ l)-almost Sperner if ${|\mathcal{D}_{\mathcal{F}}(F)|=l, |\mathcal{D}_{\mathcal{F}}(F)|\le l, |\mathcal{S}_{\mathcal{F}}(F)|=l, |\mathcal{S}_{\mathcal{F}}(F)| \le l}$ (respectively) for all ${F \in \mathcal{F}.}$ We consider the problem of finding the largest possible family for each of the above properties. We also address the analogous generalization of cross-intersecting and cross-Sperner families.     

On Quadratic Differentials and Twisted Normal Maps of Surfaces in {\mathbb{S}^{2} \times\mathbb{R}} and {\mathbb{H}^{2} \times\mathbb{R}}

Given a Lie group G with a bi-invariant metric and a compact Lie subgroup K, Bittencourt and Ripoll used the homogeneous structure of quotient spaces to define a Gauss map ${\mathcal{N}:M^{n}\rightarrow{\mathbb{S}}}$ on any hypersupersurface ${M^{n}\looparrowright G/K}$ , where ${{\mathbb{S}}}$ is the unit sphere of the Lie algebra of G. It is proved in Bittencourt and Ripoll (Pacific J Math 224:45–64, 2006) that M ⁿ having constant mean curvature (CMC) is equivalent to ${\mathcal{N}}$ being harmonic, a generalization of a Ruh–Vilms theorem for submanifolds in the Euclidean space. In particular, when n = 2, the induced quadratic differential ${\mathcal{Q}_{\mathcal{N}}:=(\mathcal{N}^{\ast}g)^{2,0}}$ is holomorphic on CMC surfaces of G/K. In this paper, we take ${G/K={\mathbb{S}}^{2}\times{\mathbb{R}}}$ and compare ${\mathcal{Q}_{\mathcal{N}}}$ with the Abresch–Rosenberg differential ${\mathcal{Q}}$ , also holomorphic for CMC surfaces. It is proved that ${\mathcal{Q}=\mathcal{Q}_{\mathcal{N}}}$ , after showing that ${\mathcal{N}}$ is the twisted normal given by (1.5) herein. Then we define the twisted normal for surfaces in ${{\mathbb{H}}^{2}\times{\mathbb{R}}}$ and prove that ${\mathcal{Q}=\mathcal{Q}_{\mathcal{N}}}$ as well. Within the unified model for the two product spaces, we compute the tension field of ${\mathcal{N}}$ and extend to surfaces in ${{\mathbb{H}}^{2}\times{\mathbb{R}}}$ the equivalence between the CMC property and the harmonicity of ${\mathcal{N}.}$