On the product of an abelian group and a nilpotent group

We study the structure of the product of an Abelian group and a nilpotent group. Conditions for the existence of a normal subgroup in one of the factors are given. These conditions generalize the known results on the product of two Abelian groups. The statements obtained are used to describe the structure of a product of an infinite cyclic subgroup and a periodic nilpotent subgroup. Institute of Mathematics, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Kiev. Translated from Ukrainskii Matematicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 51, No. 9, pp. 1165–1171, September, 1999.     

On abelian difference set codes

In this paper we determine the ranks of the incidence matrices that belong to the following types of difference sets: Twin prime power difference sets, biquadratic residues and biquadratic residues with 0. We also prove a conjecture of Assmus and Key on the code generated by the hyperovals of PG(2, q).     

On the maximum total sample size of a group sequential test about bivariate binomial proportions

For testing “univariate” binomial proportions, it has been proven that, under mild conditions, there exist group sequential designs which satisfy the pre-specified Type I error and power of the single-stage design while the sample size is bounded above by that of the single-stage design (Kepner and Chang, 2003). In this article, we extend this result and prove the existence of such group sequential designs for various decision rules in the space of bivariate binomial variables. We also demonstrate how to obtain the actual group sequential designs for detecting changes in bivariate binomial variables.     

Freiman's theorem in an arbitrary abelian group

A famous result of Freiman describes the structure of finitesets A with small doubling property. If |A + A| K|A|, thenA is contained within a multidimensional arithmetic progressionof dimension d(K) and size f(K)|A|. Here we prove an analogousstatement valid for subsets of an arbitrary abelian group.     

On the abelian fundamental group scheme of a family of varieties

Let S be a connected Dedekind scheme and X an S-scheme provided with a section x. We prove that the morphism between fundamental group schemes π ₁(X, x) ^ab → π ₁(Alb _X/S , 0_AlbX/S{0_{{\rm{Al}}{{\rm{b}}_{X/S}}}}) induced by the canonical morphism from X to its Albanese scheme Alb _X/S (when the latter exists) fits in an exact sequence of group schemes 0 → (NS _X/S ^τ )^⋎ → π ₁(X, x) ^ab → π ₁(Alb _X/S , 0_AlbX/S{0_{{\rm{Al}}{{\rm{b}}_{X/S}}}}) → 0, where the kernel is a finite and flat S-group scheme. Furthermore, we prove that any finite and commutative quotient pointed torsor over the generic fiber X _η of X can be extended to a finite and commutative pointed torsor over X.     

On hitting all maximum cliques with an independent set

We prove that every graph G for which has an independent set I such that ω(G?I)<ω(G). It follows that a minimum counterexample G to Reed's conjecture satisfies and hence also . This also applies to restrictions of Reed's conjecture to hereditary graph classes, and in particular generalizes and simplifies King, Reed and Vetta's proof of Reed's conjecture for line graphs. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 66: 32–37, 2010     

The Hopfian exponent of an abelian group

If \(G\) is a Hopfian abelian group then it is, in general, difficult to determine if direct sums of copies of \(G\) will remain Hopfian. We exhibit large classes of Hopfian groups such that every finite direct sum of copies of the group is Hopfian. We also show that for any integer \(n > 1\) there is a torsion-free Hopfian group \(G\) having the property that the direct sum of \(n\) copies of \(G\) is not Hopfian but the direct sum of any lesser number of copies is Hopfian.     

On abelian automorphism group of a surface of general type

Summary LetS be a minimal surface of general type over,K the canonical divisor ofS. LetG be an abelian automorphism group ofS. IfK ²140, then the order ofG is at most 52K ²+32. Examples are also provided with an abelian automorphism group of order 12K ²+96.The automorphism groups for a complex algebraic curve of genusg2 have been thoroughly studied by many authors, including many recent ones. In particular, various bounds have been established for the order of such groups: for example, the order of the total automorphism group is 84(g–1) [Hu], that of an abelian subgroup is 4g+4 [N], while the order of any automorphism is 4g+2 ([W], see also [Ha]).It is an intriguing problem to generalise these bounds to higher dimensions. For example, for surfaces of general type, it is well known that the automorphism groups are finite, and the bound of the orders of these groups depends only on the Chern numbers of the surface [A].In the attempts to such generalisations, the order of abelian subgroups has a special importance. Due to Jordan's theorem on group representations (and its followers), a bound on the order of abelian subgroups induces a bound on that of the whole automorphism group, although bounds thus obtained are generally far from satisfactory. In [H-S], it is shown that for surfaces of general type, the order of such an abelian subgroup is bounded by the square of the Chern numbers times a constant.The purpose of this article is to give a further analysis to the abelian case for surfaces of general type, in proving that the order is bounded linearly by the Chern numbers of the surface, in good analogy with the case of curves. More precisely, our main result is the following.Oblatum 11-IX-1989 & 29-I-1990     

The maximum size of a convex polygon in a restricted set of points in the plane

Assume we havek points in general position in the plane such that the ratio between the maximum distance of any pair of points to the minimum distance of any pair of points is at mostk, for some positive constant. We show that there exist at leastk ^1/4 of these points which are the vertices of a convex polygon, for some positive constant=(). On the other hand, we show that for every fixed>0, ifk>k(), then there is a set ofk points in the plane for which the above ratio is at most 4k, which does not contain a convex polygon of more thank ^1/3+ vertices.The work of the first author was supported in part by the Allon Fellowship, by the Bat Sheva de Rothschild Foundation, by the Fund for Basic Research administered by the Israel Academy of Sciences, and by the Center for Absorbtion in Science. Work by the second author was supported by the Technion V. P.R. Fund, Grant No. 100-0679. The third author's work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Canada, and the joint project Combinatorial Optimization of the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Canada, and the German Research Association (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SFB 303).