Commutative Schur Rings of Maximal Dimension

A commutative Schur ring over a finite group G has dimension at most s _G  = d ₁ + … +d _r , where the d _i are the degrees of the irreducible characters of G. We find families of groups that have S-rings that realize this bound, including the groups SL(2, 2 ⁿ ), metacyclic groups, extraspecial groups, and groups all of whose character degrees are 1 or a fixed prime. We also give families of groups that do not realize this bound. We show that the class of groups that have S-rings that realize this bound is invariant under taking quotients. We also show how such S-rings determine a random walk on the group and how the generating function for such a random walk can be calculated using the group determinant.     

Centralizers of Involutions in Locally Finite Groups

The present article deals with locally finite groups G having an involution φ such that C _G (φ) is an SF-group. It is shown that G possesses a normal subgroup B which is a central product of finitely many groups isomorphic to PSL(2, K _i ) or SL(2, K _i ) for some infinite locally finite fields K _i of odd characteristic, such that [G, φ]′/B and G/[G, φ] are both SF-groups.     

Coloring Vertices and Faces of Locally Planar Graphs

If G is an embedded graph, a vertex-face r-coloring is a mapping that assigns a color from the set {1, . . . ,r} to every vertex and every face of G such that different colors are assigned whenever two elements are either adjacent or incident. Let χ_vf(G) denote the minimum r such that G has a vertex-face r-coloring. Ringel conjectured that if G is planar, then χ_vf(G)≤6. A graph G drawn on a surface S is said to be 1-embedded in S if every edge crosses at most one other edge. Borodin proved that if G is 1-embedded in the plane, then χ(G)≤6. This result implies Ringel's conjecture. Ringel also stated a Heawood style theorem for 1-embedded graphs. We prove a slight strengthening of this result. If G is 1-embedded in S, let w(G) denote the edge-width of G, i.e. the length of a shortest non-contractible cycle in G. We show that if G is 1-embedded in S and w(G) is large enough, then the list chromatic number ch(G) is at most 8. Work completed while the author was the Neil R. Grabois Visiting Chair of Mathematics, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY 13346 USA. Supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Slovenia, Research Program P1–0507–0101.     

On the growth of generating sets for direct powers of semigroups

For a semigroup S its d-sequence is d(S)=(d ₁,d ₂,d ₃,…), where d _i is the smallest number of elements needed to generate the ith direct power of S. In this paper we present a number of facts concerning the type of growth d(S) can have when S is an infinite semigroup, comparing them with the corresponding known facts for infinite groups, and also for finite groups and semigroups.     

On locally primitive Cayley graphs of finite simple groups

In this paper we investigate locally primitive Cayley graphs of finite nonabelian simple groups. First, we prove that, for any valency d for which the Weiss conjecture holds (for example, d?20 or d is a prime number by Conder, Li and Praeger (2000) [1]), there exists a finite list of groups such that if G is a finite nonabelian simple group not in this list, then every locally primitive Cayley graph of valency d on G is normal. Next we construct an infinite family of p-valent non-normal locally primitive Cayley graph of the alternating group for all prime p?5. Finally, we consider locally primitive Cayley graphs of finite simple groups with valency 5 and determine all possible candidates of finite nonabelian simple groups G such that the Cayley graph Cay(G,S) might be non-normal.     

Locally (soluble-by-finite) groups with all proper insoluble subgroups of finite rank

A group G has finite rank r if every finitely generated subgroup of G is at most r-generator. If C is a class of groups then we let C* denote the class of groups G in which every proper subgroup of G is either of finite rank or in C. We let denote the class of soluble groups and the class of soluble groups of derived length at most d, where d is a positive integer. We let λ denote the set of closure operations and let denote the λ-closure of the class of periodic locally graded groups. Amongst other results we prove that a soluble -group is either of finite rank or of derived length at most d and also that a group in the class is either locally soluble, or has finite rank, or is isomorphic to one of or for suitable locally finite fields . The second author would like to thank the Department of Mathematics at Bucknell University for its hospitality while part of this work was being done.     

Finite phase transitions in countable abelian groups

Let A be an infinite set that generates a group G. The sphere S _A (r) is the set of elements of G for which the word length with respect to A is exactly r. We say G admits all finite transitions if for every r ≥ 2 and every finite symmetric subset W ì G\{e}{W \subset G{\setminus}\{e\}}, there exists an A with S _A (r) = W. In this paper we determine which countable abelian groups admit all finite transitions. We also show that \mathbbRⁿ{\mathbb{R}^n} and the finitary symmetric group on \mathbbN{\mathbb{N}} admit all finite transitions.     

Zero-sum problems with congruence conditions

For a finite abelian group G and a positive integer d, let s _dℕ(G) denote the smallest integer ℓ∈ℕ₀ such that every sequence S over G of length |S|≧ℓ has a nonempty zero-sum subsequence T of length |T|≡0 mod d. We determine s _dℕ(G) for all d≧1 when G has rank at most two and, under mild conditions on d, also obtain precise values in the case of p-groups. In the same spirit, we obtain new upper bounds for the Erdős–Ginzburg–Ziv constant provided that, for the p-subgroups G _p of G, the Davenport constant D(G _p ) is bounded above by 2exp  (G _p )−1. This generalizes former results for groups of rank two.     

Almost fixed-point-free automorphisms of prime order

Let ϕ be an automorphism of prime order p of the group G with C _G (ϕ) finite of order n. We prove the following. If G is soluble of finite rank, then G has a nilpotent characteristic subgroup of finite index and class bounded in terms of p only. If G is a group with finite Hirsch number h, then G has a soluble characteristic subgroup of finite index in G with derived length bounded in terms of p and n only and a soluble characteristic subgroup of finite index in G whose index and derived length are bounded in terms of p, n and h only. Here a group has finite Hirsch number if it is poly (cyclic or locally finite). This is a stronger notion than that used in [Wehrfritz B.A.F., Almost fixed-point-free automorphisms of order 2, Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo (in press)], where the case p = 2 is discussed.     

The partition dimension of circulant graphs

Let Π = {S₁, S₂, . . . , S_k} be an ordered partition of the vertex set V (G) of a graph G. The partition representation of a vertex v ∈ V (G) with respect to Π is the k-tuple r(v|Π) = (d(v, S₁), d(v, S₂), . . . , d(v, S_k)), where d(v, S) is the distance between v and a set S. If for every pair of distinct vertices u, v ∈ V (G), we have r(u|Π) ≠ r(v|Π), then Π is a resolving partition and the minimum cardinality of a resolving partition of V (G) is called the partition dimension of G. We study the partition dimension of circulant graphs, which are Cayley graphs of cyclic groups. Grigorious et al. [On the partition dimension of circulant graphs] proved that pd(C_n(1, 2, . . . , t)) ≥ t + 1 for n ≥ 3. We disprove this statement by showing that if t ≥ 4 is even, then there exists an infinite set of values of n, such that . We also present exact values of the partition dimension of circulant graphs with 3 generators.     

Regular orbits on the deleted permutation module

Let S _d denote the symmetric group of degree d. Let F be the field of r elements, and let S(d, r) = S _d × F*. Let V(d, r) be the deleted permutation module of dimension d – 1 over F, viewed as an S(d, r)-module. We determine the pairs (d, r) such that S(d, r) has a regular orbit on V (d, r). This question arose from D. Goodwin’s work on the quasisimple case of the k(GV)-problem. Received: 17 April 2007     

Strongly and weakly almost periodic linear maps on semigroup algebras

Let S be a foundation locally compact topological semigroup. Two new topologies τ _c and τ _w are introduced on M _a (S)^*. We introduce τ _c and τ _w almost periodic functionals in M _a (S)^*. We study these classes and compare them with each other and with the norm almost periodic and weakly almost periodic functionals. For f∈M _a (S)^*, it is proved that T _f ∈ℬ(M _a (S),M _a (S)^*) is strong almost periodic if and only if f is τ _c -almost periodic. Indeed, we have obtained a generalization of a well known result of Crombez for locally compact group to a more general setting of foundation topological semigroups. Finally if P(S) (the set of all probability measures in M _a (S)) has the semiright invariant isometry property, it is shown that the set of τ _w -almost periodic functionals has a topological left invariant mean.     

Hypergraph list coloring and Euclidean Ramsey theory

A hypergraph is simple if it has no two edges sharing more than a single vertex. It is s‐list colorable (or s‐choosable) if for any assignment of a list of s colors to each of its vertices, there is a vertex coloring assigning to each vertex a color from its list, so that no edge is monochromatic. We prove that for every positive integer r, there is a function d_r(s) such that no r‐uniform simple hypergraph with average degree at least d_r(s) is s‐list‐colorable. This extends a similar result for graphs, due to the first author, but does not give as good estimates of d_r(s) as are known for d₂(s), since our proof only shows that for each fixed r ≥ 2, d_r(s) ≤ 2 We use the result to prove that for any finite set of points X in the plane, and for any finite integer s, one can assign a list of s distinct colors to each point of the plane so that any coloring of the plane that colors each point by a color from its list contains a monochromatic isometric copy of X. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2011     

d‐homogeneous and d‐ultrahomogeneous linear spaces

A linear space S is d‐homogeneous if, whenever the linear structures induced on two subsets S₁ and S₂ of cardinality at most d are isomorphic, there is at least one automorphism of S mapping S₁ onto S₂. S is called d‐ultrahomogeneous if each isomorphism between the linear structures induced on two subsets of cardinality at most d can be extended into an automorphism of S. We have proved in [11;] (without any finiteness assumption) that every 6‐homogeneous linear space is homogeneous (that is d‐homogeneous for every positive integer d). Here we classify completely the finite nontrivial linear spaces that are d‐homogeneous for d ≥ 4 or d‐ultrahomogeneous for d ≥ 3. We also prove an existence theorem for infinite nontrivial 4‐ultrahomogeneous linear spaces. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 8: 321–329, 2000     

On the injective envelope of a graded module

Abstract

Let Sing _n be the semigroup of all singular full transformations on the set X _n  = {1, 2,…, n} under the composition of functions. Let E(J _n ? 1) be the set of all idempotents of the top 𝒥-class J _n ? 1 = {α ∈ Sing _n :|im α| = n-1}. For any nonempty subset I of E(J _n  ? 1), the aim of this paper is to find a constructive necessary and sufficient condition for the semiband S(I) = ?I? to be ?-trivial. Further, the semiband S(I) is locally maximal ?-trivial if S(I) is ?-trivial and S(I ∪ {e}) is not ?-trivial for any e ∈ E(J _n ? 1 )\I. As applications, we classify locally maximal ?-trivial subsemibands and locally maximal regular ?-trivial subsemibands of Sing _n , respectively. Moreover, the characterization of which S(I) is a band is obtained.

     

Characterization of Gromov hyperbolic short graphs

To decide when a graph is Gromov hyperbolic is,in general,a very hard problem.In this paper,we solve this problem for the set of short graphs(in an informal way,a graph G is r-short if the shortcuts in the cycles of G have length less than r):an r-short graph G is hyperbolic if and only if S9r(G)is finite,where SR(G):=sup{L(C):C is an R-isometric cycle in G}and we say that a cycle C is R-isometric if dC(x,y)≤dG(x,y)+R for every x,y∈C.     

Centers to centroids in graphs

For S ? V(G) the S-center and S-centroid of G are defined as the collection of vertices u ∈ V(G) that minimize e_s(u) = max {d(u, v): v ∈ S} and d_s(u) = ∑_u∈S d(u, v), respectively. This generalizes the standard definition of center and centroid from the special case of S = V(G). For 1 ? k ?|V(G)| and u ∈ V(G) let r_k(u) = max {∑_s∈S d(u, s): S ? V(G), |S| = k}. The k-centrum of G, denoted C(G; k), is defined to be the subset of vertices u in G for which r_k(u) is a minimum. This also generalizes the standard definitions of center and centroid since C(G; 1) is the center and C(G; |V(G)|) is the centroid. In this paper the structure of these sets for trees is examined. Generalizations of theorems of Jordan and Zelinka are included.     

P. Hall's covering group and embeddings of countable cc-groups

Let A be an elementary abelian group of order at least p ³ acting on a finite p′-group G that is soluble with derived length d. Assume that γ _c (C _G (a)) has exponent dividing m for any a ∈ A ^#. It is proved that there exist {p, d, c, m}-bounded numbers c ₁ and m ₁ such that γ _{c 1} (G) has exponent dividing m ₁.     

Graphs and ranks of monoids

For a finite monoid S, let ν(S) (ν_d(S)) denote the least number n such that there exists a graph (directed graph) Γ of order n with End(Γ)?S. Also let rank(S) be the smallest number of elements required to generate S. In this paper, we use Cayley digraphs of monoids, to connect lower bounds of ν(S) (ν_d(S)) to the lower bounds of rank(S). On the other hand, we connect upper bounds of rank(S) to upper bounds of ν(S) (ν_d(S)).     

Integral Schur algebras forGL 2

The structure of Schur algebrasS(2,r) over the integral domainZ is intensively studied from the quasi-hereditary algebra point of view. We introduce certain new bases forS(2,r) and show that the Schur algebraS(2,r) modulo any ideal in the defining sequence is still such a Schur algebra of lower degree inr. A Wedderburn-Artin decomposition ofS _K (2,r) over a fieldK of characteristic 0 is described. Finally, we investigate the extension groups between two Weyl modules and classify the indecomposable Weyl-filtered modules for the Schur algebrasS _Zp(2,r) withr<p ² . Research supported by ARC Large Grant L20.24210