On Fusion in Unipotent Blocks

The context of this note is as follows. One considers a connectedreductive group G and a Frobenius endomorphism F: G G definingG over a finite field of order q. One denotes by G^F the associated(finite) group of fixed points. Let l be a prime not dividing q. We are interested in the l-blocksof the finite group G^F. Such a block is called unipotent ifthere is a unipotent character (see, for instance, [6, Definition12.1]) among its representations in characteristic zero. Roughlyspeaking, it is believed that the study of arbitrary blocksof G^F might be reduced to unipotent blocks (see [2, Théorème2.3], [5, Remark 3.6]). In view of certain conjectures aboutblocks (see, for instance, [9]), it would be interesting tofurther reduce the study of unipotent blocks to the study ofprincipal blocks (blocks containing the trivial character).Our Theorem 7 is a step in that direction: we show that thelocal structure of any unipotent block of G^F is very close tothat of a principal block of a group of related type (notionof ‘control of fusion’, see [13, 49]). 1991 MathematicsSubject Classification 20Cxx.     

On the Representations of a Number as the Sum of Four Fifth Powers

It is known from Vaughan and Wooley's work on Waring's problemthat every sufficiently large natural number is the sum of atmost 17 fifth powers [13]. It is also known that at least sixfifth powers are required to be able to express every sufficientlylarge natural number as a sum of fifth powers (see, for instance,[5, Theorem 394]). The techniques of [13] allow one to showthat almost all natural numbers are the sum of nine fifth powers.A problem of related interest is to obtain an upper bound forthe number of representations of a number as a sum of a fixednumber of powers. Let R(n) denote the number of representationsof the natural number n as a sum of four fifth powers. In thispaper, we establish a non-trivial upper bound for R(n), whichis expressed in the following theorem.     

The Dunford-Pettis property in Jb*-Triples

JB*-triples occur in the study of bounded symmetric domainsin several complex variables and in the study of contractiveprojections on C*-algebras. These spaces are equipped with aternary product {·,·,·}, the Jordan tripleproduct, and are essentially geometric objects in that the linearisometries between them are exactly the linear bijections preservingthe Jordan triple product (cf. [23]).     

On the Group of Symplectic Matrices Over a Free Associative Algebra

Symplectic groups are well known as the groups of isometriesof a vector space with a non-singular bilinear alternating form.These notions can be extended by replacing the vector spaceby a module over a ring R, but if R is non-commutative, it willalso have to have an involution. We shall here be concernedwith symplectic groups over free associative algebras (witha suitably defined involution). It is known that the generallinear group GL_n over the free algebra is generated by the setof all elementary and diagonal matrices (see [1, Proposition2.8.2, p. 124]). Our object here is to prove that the symplecticgroup over the free algebra is generated by the set of all elementarysymplectic matrices. For the lowest order this result was obtainedin [4]; the general case is rather more involved. It makes useof the notion of transduction (see [1, 2.4, p. 105]). When thereis only a single variable over a field, the free algebra reducesto the polynomial ring and the weak algorithm becomes the familiardivision algorithm. In that case the result has been provedin [3, Anhang 5].     

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.     

Locally Nilpotent p-Groups whose Proper Subgroups are Hypercentral or Nilpotent-by-Chernikov

Let G be a group and P be a property of groups. If every propersubgroup of G satisfies P but G itself does not satisfy it,then G is called a minimal non-P group. In this work we studylocally nilpotent minimal non-P groups, where P stands for ‘hypercentral’or ‘nilpotent-by-Chernikov’. In the first case weshow that if G is a minimal non-hypercentral Fitting group inwhich every proper subgroup is solvable, then G is solvable(see Theorem 1.1 below). This result generalizes [3, Theorem1]. In the second case we show that if every proper subgroupof G is nilpotent-by-Chernikov, then G is nilpotent-by-Chernikov(see Theorem 1.3 below). This settles a question which was consideredin [1–3, 10]. Recently in [9], the non-periodic case ofthe above question has been settled but the same work containsan assertion without proof about the periodic case. The main results of this paper are given below (see also [13]).     

On Power Series Having Sections with Multiply Positive Coefficients and a Theorem of Polya

Let (0.1) be a formal power series. In 1913, G. Pólya [7] provedthat if, for all sufficiently large n, the sections (0.2) have real negative zeros only, then the series (0.1) convergesin the whole complex plane C, and its sum f(z) is an entirefunction of order 0. Since then, formal power series with restrictionson zeros of their sections have been deeply investigated byseveral mathematicians. We cannot present an exhaustive bibliographyhere, and restrict ourselves to the references [1, 2, 3], wherethe reader can find detailed information. In this paper, we propose a different kind of generalisationof Pólya's theorem. It is based on the concept of multiplepositivity introduced by M. Fekete in 1912, and it has beentreated in detail by S. Karlin [4].     

The Ubiquity of Thompson's Group F in Groups of Piecewise Linear Homeomorphisms of the Unit Interval

In the 1960s, Richard J. Thompson introduced a triple of groupsF T G which, among them, supplied the first examples of infinite,finitely presented, simple groups [14] (see [6] for publisheddetails), a technique for constructing an elementary exampleof a finitely presented group with an unsolvable word problem[12], the universal obstruction to a problem in homotopy theory[8], and the first examples of torsion free groups of type FPand not of type FP [5]. In abstract measure theory, it has beensuggested by Geoghegan (see [3] or [9, Question 13]) that Fmight be a counterexample to the conjecture that any finitelypresented group with no non-cyclic free subgroup is amenable(admits a bounded, non-trivial, finitely additive measure onall subsets that is invariant under left multiplication). Recently,F has arisen in the theory of groups of diagrams over semigrouppresentations [10], and as the object of questions in the algebraof string rewriting systems [7]. For more extensive bibliographiesand more results on Thompson's groups and their generalizationssee [1, 4, 6]. A persistent peculiarity of Thompson's groups is their abilityto pop up in diverse areas of mathematics. This suggests thatthere might be something very natural about Thompson's groups.We support this idea by showing (Theorem 1.1 below) that PL_o(I),the group of piecewise linear (finitely many changes of slope),orientation-preserving, self-homeomorphisms of the unit interval,is riddled with copies of F: a very weak criterion implies thata subgroup of PL_o(I) must contain an isomorphic copy of F.     

The Pontryagin Rings of Moduli Spaces of Arbitrary Rank Holomorphic Bundles Over a Riemann Surface

The cohomology of M(n, d), the moduli space of stable holomorphicbundles of coprime rank n and degree d and fixed determinant,over a Riemann surface of genus g 2, has been widely studiedfrom a wide range of approaches. Narasimhan and Seshadri [17]originally showed that the topology of M(n, d) depends onlyon the genus g rather than the complex structure of . An inductivemethod to determine the Betti numbers of M(n, d) was first givenby Harder and Narasimhan [7] and subsequently by Atiyah andBott [1]. The integral cohomology of M(n, d) is known to haveno torsion [1] and a set of generators was found by Newstead[19] for n = 2, and by Atiyah and Bott [1] for arbitrary n.Much progress has been made recently in determining the relationsthat hold amongst these generators, particularly in the ranktwo, odd degree case which is now largely understood. A setof relations due to Mumford in the rational cohomology ringof M(2, 1) is now known to be complete [14]; recently severalauthors have found a minimal complete set of relations for the‘invariant’ subring of the rational cohomology ofM(2, 1) [2, 13, 20, 25]. Unless otherwise stated all cohomology in this paper will haverational coefficients.     

Hypersurface Singularities with 2-Dimensional Critical Locus

Consider an analytic germ f:(C^m, 0)(C, 0) (m3) whose criticallocus is a 2-dimensional complete intersection with an isolatedsingularity (icis). We prove that the homotopy type of the Milnorfiber of f is a bouquet of spheres, provided that the extendedcodimension of the germ f is finite. This result generalizesthe cases when the dimension of the critical locus is zero [8],respectively one [12]. Notice that if the critical locus isnot an icis, then the Milnor fiber, in general, is not homotopicallyequivalent to a wedge of spheres. For example, the Milnor fiberof the germ f:(C⁴, 0)(C, 0), defined by f(x₁, x₂, x₃, x₄) =x₁x₂x₃x₄ has the homotopy type of S¹xS¹xS¹. On the other hand,the finiteness of the extended codimension seems to be the rightgeneralization of the isolated singularity condition; see forexample [9–12, 17, 18]. In the last few years different types of ‘bouquet theorems’have appeared. Some of them deal with germs f:(X, x)(C, 0) wheref defines an isolated singularity. In some cases, similarlyto the Milnor case [8], F has the homotopy type of a bouquetof (dim X–1)-spheres, for example when X is an icis [2],or X is a complete intersection [5]. Moreover, in [13] Siersmaproved that F has a bouquet decomposition FF₀Sⁿ...Sⁿ (whereF₀ is the complex link of (X, x)), provided that both (X, x)and f have an isolated singularity. Actually, Siersma conjecturedand Tibr proved [16] a more general bouquet theorem for thecase when (X, x) is a stratified space and f defines an isolatedsingularity (in the sense of the stratified spaces). In thiscase F_iF_i, where the F_i are repeated suspensions of complexlinks of strata of X. (If (X, x) has the ‘Milnor property’,then the result has been proved by Lê; for details see[6].) In our situation, the space-germ (X, x) is smooth, but f hasbig singular locus. Surprisingly, for dim Sing f^–1(0)2,the Milnor fiber is again a bouquet (actually, a bouquet ofspheres, maybe of different dimensions). This result is in thespirit of Siersma's paper [12], where dim Sing f^–1(0)= 1. In that case, there is only a rather small topologicalobstruction for the Milnor fiber to be homotopically equivalentto a bouquet of spheres (as explained in Corollary 2.4). Inthe present paper, we attack the dim Sing f^–1(0) = 2 case.In our investigation some results of Zaharia are crucial [17,18].     

On Artin's Conjecture, I: Systems of Diagonal Forms

As a special case of a well-known conjecture of Artin, it isexpected that a system of R additive forms of degree k, say [formula] with integer coefficients a_ij, has a non-trivial solution inQ_p for all primes p whenever [formula] Here we adopt the convention that a solution of (1) is non-trivialif not all the x_i are 0. To date, this has been verified onlywhen R=1, by Davenport and Lewis [4], and for odd k when R=2,by Davenport and Lewis [7]. For larger values of R, and in particularwhen k is even, more severe conditions on N are required toassure the existence of p-adic solutions of (1) for all primesp. In another important contribution, Davenport and Lewis [6]showed that the conditions [formula] are sufficient. There have been a number of refinements of theseresults. Schmidt [13] obtained N>>R²k³ log k, and Low,Pitman and Wolff [10] improved the work of Davenport and Lewisby showing the weaker constraints [formula] to be sufficient for p-adic solubility of (1). A noticeable feature of these results is that for even k, onealways encounters a factor k³ log k, in spite of the expectedk² in (2). In this paper we show that one can reach the expectedorder of magnitude k². 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification11D72, 11D79.     

Nilpotent-by-Finite Cofinitary Groups

Throughout this paper, D denotes a division ring (possibly commutative)and V a left vector space over D, usually, but not exclusively,infinite-dimensional. We consider irreducible subgroups G ofGL(V) and are particularly interested in such G that containan element g the fixed-point set C_V(g) of which is non-zerobut finite-dimensional (over D). We then use this to deriveconclusions about cofinitary groups, an element g of GL(V) beingcofinitary if dim_DC_V(g) is finite, and a subgroup of GL(V) beingcofinitary if all its non-identity elements are cofinitary. Suppose that G is a cofinitary subgroup of GL(V). There aretwo extreme cases. If dim_DV is finite the cofinitary conditionis vacuous. At the other extreme, if G acts fixed-point freelyon V then the fixed-point sets C_V(g) for gG\1 are as small aspossible, namely {0}. Work of Blichfeldt and his successorsshows that certain irreducible linear groups G of dimensionat least 2 over, for example, the complexes are always imprimitive.This is the case if G is nilpotent, or supersoluble, or metabelian.Apart from the two extreme cases, the same is frequently truefor irreducible cofinitary subgroups G of GL(V). For example,this is the case if G is finitely generated nilpotent [9, 1.2]or more generally if G is supersoluble [10, 1.1], but not ingeneral if G is metabelian [10, 7.1] or parasoluble (a groupG is parasoluble if it has a normal series of finite lengthsuch that every subgroup of each of its factors is Abelian andnormalised by G) (see [10, 7.2]). Further, it is also the caseif G is Abelian-by-finite [10, 3.4], and every supersolublegroup is finitely generated and nilpotent-by-finite. Collectively,these results suggest that one should consider nilpotent-by-finitegroups.     

On the Zeros of the Riemann Zeta-Function

It is well known that the multiplicity of a complex zero =ß+iof the zeta-function is O(log||). This may be proved by meansof Jensen's formula, as in Titchmarsh [7, Chapter 9]. It mayalso be seen from the formula for the number N(T) of zeros suchthat 0<<T, (1) due to Backlund [1], in which E(T) is a continuous functionsatisfying E(T)=O(1/T) and (2) We assume here that T is not the ordinate of a zero; with appropriatedefinitions of N(T) and S(T) the formula is valid for all T.We have S(T)=O(logT). On the Lindelöf Hypothesis S(T)=o(logT),(Cramér [2]), and on the Riemann Hypothesis (Littlewood [5]). These results are over 70 years old. Because the multiplicity problem is hard, it seems worthwhileto see what can be said about the number of distinct zeros ina short T-interval. We obtain the following result, which isindependent of any unproved hypothesis.     

On Prime Ends and Plane Continua

Let f be a conformal map of the unit disk D onto the domainG = C{}. We shall always use the spherical metric in . Carathéodory [3] introduced the concept of a prime endof G in order to describe the boundary behaviour of f in geometricterms; see for example [6, Chapter 9] or [12, Section 2.4].There is a bijective map of T = D onto the set of prime ends of G.     

On Sets Where Iterates of a Meromorphic Function Zip Towards Infinity

For a transcendental meromorphic function f, various propertiesof the set [formula] were obtained in [8] and [9]. Here we establish analogous propertiesfor the smaller sets [formula] introduced in [5], and [formula] We deduce a symmetry result for Julia sets J(f), and also indicatesome techniques for showing that certain invariant curves liein I'(f), Z(f) and J(f). 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification30D05, 37F10, 37F50.     

On Irregularities of Distribution II

Let a=(a₁, a₂, a₃, ...) be an arbitrary infinite sequence inU=[0, 1). Let Van der Corput [5] conjectured that d(a, n) (n=1, 2, ...) isunbounded, and this was proved in 1945 by van Aardenne-Ehrenfest[1]. Later she refined this [2], obtaining for infinitely many n. Here and later c₁, c₂, ... denote positiveabsolute constants. In 1954, Roth [8] showed that the quantity is closely related to the discrepancy of a suitable point setin U².     

An Euler-Type Version of the Local Steiner Formula for Convex Bodies

The purpose of this note is to establish a new version of thelocal Steiner formula and to give an application to convex bodiesof constant width. This variant of the Steiner formula generalizesresults of Hann [3] and Hug [6], who use much less elementarytechniques than the methods of this paper. In fact, Hann askedfor a simpler proof of these results [4, Problem 2, p. 900].We remark that our formula can be considered as a Euclideananalogue of a spherical result proved in [2, p. 46], and thatour method can also be applied in hyperbolic space. For some remarks on related formulas in certain two-dimensionalMinkowski spaces, see Hann [5, p. 363]. For further information about the notions used below, we referto Schneider's book [9]. Let Kⁿ be the set of all convex bodiesin Euclidean space Rⁿ, that is, the set of all compact, convex,non-empty subsets of Rⁿ. Let S^n–1 be the unit sphere.For KKⁿ, let NorK be the set of all support elements of K, thatis, the pairs (x, u)RⁿxS^n–1 such that x is a boundarypoint of K and u is an outer unit normal vector of K at thepoint x. The support measures (or generalized curvature measures)of K, denoted by ₀(K.), ..., _n–1(K.), are the unique Borelmeasures on RⁿxS^n–1 that are concentrated on NorK andsatisfy [formula] for all integrable functions f:RⁿR; here denotes the Lebesguemeasure on Rⁿ. Equation (1), which is a consequence and a slightgeneralization of Theorem 4.2.1 in Schneider [9], is calledthe local Steiner formula. Our main result is the following.1991 Mathematics Subject Classification 52A20, 52A38, 52A55.     

Confined Subgroups of Simple Locally Finite Groups and Ideals of their Group Rings

We are concerned in this paper with the ideal structure of grouprings of infinite simple locally finite groups over fields ofcharacteristic zero, and its relation with certain subgroupsof the groups, called confined subgroups. The systematic studyof the ideals in these group rings was initiated by the secondauthor in[15], although some results had been obtained previously(see [3, 1]). Let G be an infinite simple locally finite groupand K a field of characteristic zero. It is expected that inmost cases, the group ring KG will have the smallest possiblenumber of ideals, namely three, (KG itself, {0} and the augmentationideal), and this has been verified in some cases. In some interestingcases, however, the situation is different, and there are moreideals. We mention in particular the infinite alternating groups[3] and the stable special linear groups [9], in which the ideallattice has been completely determined. The second author hasconjectured that the presence of ideals in KG, other than thethree unavoidable ones, is synonymous with the presence in thegroup of proper confined subgroups. Here a subgroup H of a locallyfinite group G is called confined, if there exists a finitesubgroup F of G such that H^gF1 for all gG. This amounts to sayingthat F has no regular orbit in the permutation representationof G on the cosets of H.     

Examples of Non-Homeomorphic Harmonic Maps Between Negatively Curved Manifolds

Let M and N be closed non-positively curved manifolds, and letf:MN be a smooth map. Results of Eells and Sampson [1] showthat f is homotopic to a harmonic map , and Hartman [6] showedthat this is unique when N is negatively curved and f_*(₁ M)is not cyclic. Lawson and Yau conjectured that if f:MN is ahomotopy equivalence, where M and N are negatively curved, thenthe unique harmonic map homotopic to f would be a diffeomorphism.Counterexamples to this conjecture appeared in [2], and laterin [7] and [5]. There remains the question of whether a ‘topological’Lawson–Yau conjecture holds. 1991 Mathematics SubjectClassification 53C20, 55P10, 57C25, 58E20.     

Harmonic Analogues of G. R. Maclane's Universal Functions

Let E denote the space of all entire functions, equipped withthe topology of local uniform convergence (the compact-opentopology). MacLane [15] constructed an entire function f whosesequence of derivatives (f, f', f', ...) is dense in E; hisconstruction is succinctly presented in a much later note byBlair and Rubel [2], who unwittingly rederived it (see also[3]). We shall call such a function f a universal entire function.In this note we show that analogous universal functions existin the space H_N of functions harmonic on R^N, where N2. We alsostudy the permissible growth rates of universal functions inH_N and show that the set of all such functions is very large. For purposes of comparison, we first review relevant facts aboutuniversal entire functions. The function constructed by MacLaneis of exponential type 1. Duyos Ruiz [7] observed that a universalentire function cannot be of exponential type less than 1. G.Herzog [11] refined MacLane's growth estimate by proving theexistence of a universal entire function f such that |f(z)|=O(re^r)as |z|=r. Finally, Grosse–Erdmann [10] proved the followingsharp result.