Primes Represented by Binary Cubic Forms

Let f(x, y) be a binary cubic form with integral rational coefficients,and suppose that the polynomial f(x, y) is irreducible in Q[x,y] and no prime divides all the coefficients of f. We provethat the set f Z⁽²⁾ contains infinitely many primes unless f(a,b) is even for each (a,b) in Z², in which case the set contains infinitely many primes. 2000Mathematical Subject Classification: primary 11N32; secondary11N36, 11R44.     

On The Greatest Prime Factor of axm+byn, II

We provide a new lower bound for the greatest prime factor ofthe norm of algebraic numbers of the form ax^m+byⁿ. The improvementconcerns the dependence on the number field containing a, b,x and y. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification 11D61.     

Majorations Uniformes de Normes D'Inverses Dans Les Algebres de Beurling

The Beurling algebras l¹(D,)(D=N,Z) that are semi-simple, withcompact Gelfand transform, are considered. The paper gives anecessary and sufficient condition (on ) such that l¹(D,) possessesa uniform quantitative version of Wiener's theorem in the sensethat there exists a function :]0,+[]0,+ such that, for everyinvertible element x in the unit ball of l¹(D,), we have ||x^–1||(r(x^–1)) r(x^–1) is the spectral radiusof x^–1.     

Weak Laws of Large Numbers in Some Non-Commutative Spaces

We prove weak laws of large numbers for freely independent,uniformly bounded and non-identically distributed random variablesbelonging to non-commutative Ciach and, in particular, LorentzL^p-spaces. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification 60B11, 60F25,46L54, 47N30.     

On the Local and Superlinear Convergence of Quasi-Newton Methods

This paper presents a local convergence analysis for severalwell-known quasi-Newton methods when used, without line searches,in an iteration of the form to solve for x^* such that Fx^* = 0. The basic idea behind theproofs is that under certain reasonable conditions on x_o, Fand x_o, the errors in the sequence of approximations {H_k} toF'(x^*)^–1 can be shown to be of bounded deterioration inthat these errors, while not ensured to decrease, can increaseonly in a controlled way. Despite the fact that H_k is not shownto approach F'(x^*)^–1, the methods considered, includingthose based on the single-rank Broyden and double-rank Davidon-Fletcher-Powellformulae, generate locally Q-superlinearly convergent sequences{x_k}.     

Optimum Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg Methods for Second-order Differential Equations

^* Presently at Deparment of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. The optimum Runge-Kutta method of a particular order is theone whose truncation error is minimum. In this paper, we havederived optimum Runge-Kutta mehtods of 0(h^m+4), 0(h^m+5) and0(h^m+6) for m = 0(1)8, which can be directly used for solvingthe second order differential equation yⁿ = f(x, y, y'). Thesemethods are based on a transformation similar to that of Fehlbergand require two, three and four evaluations of f(x, y, y') respectively,for each step. The numercial solutions of one example obtainedwith these methods are given. It has been assumed that f(x,y, y')is sufficiently differentiable in the entire region ofintegration.     

Binary Quadratic Forms with Large Discriminants and Sums of Two Squareful Numbers II

Let F = (F₁, ..., F_m) be an m-tuple of primitive positive binaryquadratic forms and let U_F(x) be the number of integers notexceeding x that can be represented simultaneously by all theforms F_j, j = 1, ... , m. Sharp upper and lower bounds for U_F(x)are given uniformly in the discriminants of the quadratic forms. As an application, a problem of Erds is considered. Let V(x)be the number of integers not exceeding x that are representableas a sum of two squareful numbers. Then V(x) = x(log x)^–+o(1)with = 1 – 2^–1/3 = 0.206....     

Cm Elliptic Curves and Bicolorings of Steiner Triple Systems

It is shown that a necessary condition for the existence ofa bicolored Steiner triple system of order n is that n can bewritten in the form A²+3B² for integers A and B. In the casewhen n=q is either a prime congruent to 1 mod 3, or the squareof a prime congruent to 2 mod 3, it is shown that the numbersof colored vertices in the triple system would be unique, andare given by the number of points on specific twists of theCM elliptic curve y²=x³–1 over the finite field F_q. 2000Mathematics Subject Classification 05B07, 11G20, 14G15 (primary);11G15, 14K22 (secondary).     

Smoothness Properties of the Unit Ball in a JB*-Triple

An element a of norm one in a JB^*-triple A is said to be smoothif there exists a unique element x in the unit ball A₁^* of thedual A^* of A at which a attains its norm, and is said to beFréchet-smooth if, in addition, any sequence (x_n) ofelements in A₁^* for which (x_n(a)) converges to one necessarilyconverges in norm to x. The sequence (a²ⁿ⁺¹) of odd powers ofa converges in the weak^*-topology to a tripotent u(a) in theJBW^*-envelope A^** of A. It is shown that a is smooth if andonly if u(a) is a minimal tripotent in A^** and a is Fréchet-smoothif and only if, in addition, u(a) lies in A.     

Weakly Almost Periodic Functions on N with a Negative Base

Weakly almost periodic compactifications have been seriouslystudied for over 30 years. In the pioneering papers of de Leeuwand Glicksberg [4] and [5], the approach adopted was operator-theoretic.The current definition is more likely to be created from theperspective of universal algebra (see [1, Chapter 3]). For adiscrete group or semigroup S, the weakly almost periodic compactificationwS is the largest compact semigroup which (i) contains S asa dense subsemigroup, and (ii) has multiplication continuousin each variable separately (where largest means that any othercompact semigroup with the properties (i) and (ii) is a quotientof wS). A third viewpoint is to envisage wS as the Gelfand spaceof the C*-algebra of bounded weakly almost periodic functionson S (for the definition of such functions, see below). In this paper, we are concerned only with the simplest semigroup(N, +). The three approaches described above give three methodsof obtaining information about wN. An early striking resultabout wN, that it contains more than one idempotent, was obtainedby T. T. West using operator theory [13]. He considered theweak operator closure of the semigroup {T, T², T³, ...} of iteratesof a single operator T on the Hilbert space L²(µ) fora particular measure µ on [0, 1]. Brown and Moran, ina series of papers culminating in [2], used sophisticated techniquesfrom harmonic analysis to produce measures µ that permittedthe detection of further structure in wN; in particular, theyfound 2^cdistinct idempotents. However, for many years, no otherway of showing the existence of more than one idempotent inwN was found. The breakthrough came in 1991, and it was made by Ruppert [11].In his paper, he created a direct construction of a family ofweakly almost periodic functions which could detect 2^c differentidempotents in wN. His method was very ingenious (he used aunique variant of the p-adic expansion of integers) and rathercomplicated. Our main aim in this paper is to construct weaklyalmost periodic functions which are easy to describe and soappear more ‘natural’ than Ruppert's. We also showthat there are enough functions of our type to distinguish 2^cidempotentsin wN.     

Stationary Critical Points of the Heat Flow in Spaces of Constant Curvature

The paper considers stationary critical points of the heat flowin sphere S^N and in hyperbolic space H^N, and proves severalresults corresponding to those in Euclidean space R^N which havebeen proved by Magnanini and Sakaguchi. To be precise, it isshown that a solution u of the heat equation has a stationarycritical point, if and only if u satisfies some balance lawwith respect to the point for any time. In Cauchy problems forthe heat equation, it is shown that the solution u has a stationarycritical point if and only if the initial data satisfies thebalance law with respect to the point. Furthermore, one point,say x₀, is fixed and initial-boundary value problems are consideredfor the heat equation on bounded domains containing x₀. It isshown that for any initial data satisfying the balance law withrespect to x₀ (or being centrosymmetric with respect to x₀)the corresponding solution always has x₀ as a stationary criticalpoint, if and only if the domain is a geodesic ball centredat x₀ (or is centrosymmetric with respect to x₀, respectively).     

Pad?-approximant Bounds and Approximate Solutions for Kirkwood-Riseman Integral Equations

Two-point Pad? approximants are used to calculate tight upperand lower bounds on the quantity <?, f> associated withKirkwood-Riseman integral equations (1+yL)?=f, which arise inthe diffusion theory of flexible macromolecules. The self-adjointoperator L is an integral operator on –1 x 1, with weaklysingular kernel |x – x'|^–?, and the two specificcases (i) f = 1, (ii) f = x² are studied. In case (i) directbounds on <?, 1> are obtained; this quantity is inverselyproportional to the translational diffusion constant. In case(ii) bounds on <?, 1 > are found by a new technique involvingcombinations of bounds for the three cases f = 1, f = x² andf = bx²?b^–1. Various types of Pade and related approximantsare compared, using the information <f, Lⁿf>, n = –2,–1, 0, 1, 2, 3 and (an upper bound on L) for severalvalues of the positive parameter y. Pad?-approximant-generating trial vectors are investigated anda convergence theorem is established. The vector consistingof an optimum linear combination of L^–1f, f and Lf isfound to be an accurate approximation to a numerical solutionin case (ii), for all values of y and x. Specific analyticalexpressions are derived for the approximate solutions.     

ORTHOGONALLY ADDITIVE POLYNOMIALS ON C*-ALGEBRAS

We show that for every orthogonally additive scalar n-homogeneouspolynomial P on a C*-algebra A there exists in A* satisfyingP(x)= (xⁿ), for each element x in A. The vector-valued analoguefollows as a corollary.     

Orbits in the Maximal Ideal Space of H{infty}

Let H be the Banach algebra of bounded analytic functions inthe open unit disc D. We can define the rotation in the maximalideal space M(H). For a point x in M(H)\D, an orbit O(x) isnot closed in M(H). It is proved that there exists a point xin M(H) such that x is not contained in the Shilov boundaryX and cl O(x), the closure of O(x), contains X, and there existsa point y in M(H)\(D X) such that cl O(y) X. The rotationpresents many problems concerning H. The purpose of this paperis to discuss these problems.     

Increased Accuracy Cubic Spline Solutions to Two-Point Boundary Value Problems

The relation between finite difference approximation and cubicspline solutions of a two-point boundary value problem for thedifferential equation y' +f(x)y^'+g(x)y = r(x) has been consideredin a previous paper. The present paper extends the analysisto the integral equation formulation of the problem. It is shownthat an improvement in accuracy (local truncation error O(h⁶)rather than O(h⁴)) now results from a cubic spline approximationand that for the particular case f(x) 0 the resulting recurrencerelations have a form and accuracy similar to the well-knownNumerov formula. For this case also a formula with local truncationerror O(h⁸) is derived.     

On Waring's Problem for Cubes and Smooth Weyl Sums

Non-trivial estimates for fractional moments of smooth cubicWeyl sums are developed. Complemented by bounds for such sumsof use on both the major and minor arcs in a Hardy-Littlewooddissection, these estimates are applied to derive an upper boundfor the sth moment of the smooth cubic Weyl sum of the expectedorder of magnitude as soon as s> 7.691. Related argumentsdemonstrate that all large integers n are represented as thesum of eight cubes of natural numbers, all of whose prime divisorsare at most exp (c(log nlog log n)^1/2}, for a suitable positivenumber c. This conclusion improves a previous result of G. Harcosin which nine cubes are required. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification:11P05, 11L15, 11P55.     

On Certain Exponential Sums and the Distribution of Diffie-Hellman Triples

Let g be a primitive root modulo a prime p. It is proved thatthe triples (g^x, g^y, g^xy), x, y = 1, ..., p–1, are uniformlydistributed modulo p in the sense of H. Weyl. This result isbased on the following upper bound for double exponential sums.Let >0 be fixed. Then uniformly for any integers a, b, c with gcd(a, b, c, p) = 1.Incomplete sums are estimated as well. The question is motivated by the assumption, often made in cryptography,that the triples (g^x, g^y, g^xy) cannot be distinguished fromtotally random triples in feasible computation time. The resultsimply that this is in any case true for a constant fractionof the most significant bits, and for a constant fraction ofthe least significant bits.     

Holomorphic Almost Modular Forms

Holomorphic almost modular forms are holomorphic functions ofthe complex upper half plane that can be approximated arbitrarilywell (in a suitable sense) by modular forms of congruence subgroupsof large index in SL(2,Z). It is proved that such functionshave a rotation-invariant limit distribution when the argumentapproaches the real axis. An example of a holomorphic almostmodular form is the logarithm of . The paper is motivated by the author's previous studies [Int.Math. Res. Not. 39 (2003) 2131–2151] on the connectionbetween almost modular functions and the distribution of thesequence n²x modulo one. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification11F11 (primary), 11F06, 11J71 (secondary).     

On Ramanujan's Double Inequality for the Gamma Function

Ramanujan presented (without proof) the following double inequalityfor the gamma function: .Recently, Karatsuba established that these inequalities holdfor x 1. We show that this can be slightly improved: the inequalitieshold for all x 0, even if we replace 1/100 by where f(x) = (1/)³[(x + 1)(e/x)^x]⁶–8x³–4x²–x.Moreover, and 1/30 are the best possible constant terms. 2000Mathematics Subject Classification 33B15 (primary); 26D15, 26D20(secondary).     

On a model of viscoelastic rod in unilateral contact with a rigid wall

^** Corresponding author. Email: atanackovic{at}uns.ns.ac.yu We study translatory motion of a body to which a viscoelasticrod with the constitutive equation with fractional derivativesis attached. The body with a rod impacts against a rigid wall.It is shown that the problem is described with a coupled systemof differential equations having integer and fractional derivativeshaving the form x⁽²⁾ = –f; f + af⁽⁾ = x + bx⁽⁾, x(0) =0, x⁽¹⁾(0) = 1. The unique solvability in S'₊ is proved andinterpretation of solutions is given. Also, some a priori estimatesof the solution are given. In particular, we showed that restrictionson coefficients that follow from the second law of thermodynamicsimply that the velocity after the impact is smaller than thevelocity before the impact.