A new semifield of order 2

In [G. Lunardon, Semifields and linear sets of PG(1,q^t), Quad. Mat., Dept. Math., Seconda Univ. Napoli, Caserta (in press)], G. Lunardon has exhibited a construction method yielding a theoretical family of semifields of order q²ⁿ,n>1 and n odd, with left nucleus F_qⁿ, middle and right nuclei both F_q² and center F_q. When n=3 this method gives an alternative construction of a family of semifields described in [N.L. Johnson, G. Marino, O. Polverino, R. Trombetti, On a generalization of cyclic semifields, J. Algebraic Combin. 26 (2009), 1-34], which generalizes the family of cyclic semifields obtained by Jha and Johnson in [V. Jha, N.L. Johnson, Translation planes of large dimension admitting non-solvable groups, J. Geom. 45 (1992), 87-104]. For n>3, no example of a semifield belonging to this family is known.In this paper we first prove that, when n>3, any semifield belonging to the family introduced in the second work cited above is not isotopic to any semifield of the family constructed in the former. Then we construct, with the aid of a computer, a semifield of order 2¹⁰ belonging to the family introduced by Lunardon, which turns out to be non-isotopic to any other known semifield.     

On the Hughes–Kleinfeld and Knuth’s semifields two-dimensional over a weak nucleus

In 1960 Hughes and Kleinfeld (Am J Math 82:389–392, 1960) constructed a finite semifield which is two-dimensional over a weak nucleus, given an automorphism σ of a finite field and elements with the property that has no roots in . In 1965 Knuth (J Algebra 2:182–217, 1965) constructed a further three finite semifields which are also two-dimensional over a weak nucleus, given the same parameter set . Moreover, in the same article, Knuth describes operations that allow one to obtain up to six semifields from a given semifield. We show how these operations in fact relate these four finite semifields, for a fixed parameter set, and yield at most five non-isotopic semifields out of a possible 24. These five semifields form two sets of semifields, one of which consists of at most two non-isotopic semifields related by Knuth operations and the other of which consists of at most three non-isotopic semifields.      

On Gronwall-Bellman-Bihari-type integral inequalities in several variables with retardation

Presented are some new nonlinear integral inequalities of the Gronwall-Bellman-Bihari type in n-independent variables with delay which extend recent results of C. C. Yeh and M.-H. Shin [J. Math. Anal. Appl.86, (1982), 157–167], C. C. Yeh [J. Math. Anal. Appl.87, (1982), 311–321], and A. I. Zahariev and D. D. Bainor [J. Math. Anal. Appl.89, (1981), 147–149]. Some applications of the results are included.     

The Kleinfeld identities in generalized accessible rings

It is proved that the identities ([x, y]⁴, z, t) = ([x, y]², z, t) [x, y] = [x, y] ([x, y]², z, t) = 0, known in the theory of alternative rings as the Kleinfeld identities, are fulfilled in every generalized accessible ring of characteristic different from 2 and 3. These identities allow us to construct central and kernel functions in the variety of generalized accessible rings. It is also proved that in a free generalized accessible and a free alternative ring with more than three generators the Kleinfeld element ([x, y]², z, t) is nilpotent of index 2.Translated from Matematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 291–297, February, 1976.     

Exhaustive checking of sparse algebras

We checked the 107-dimensional alternative algebra constructed by E. Kleinfeld (On centers of alternative algebras, Comm. Algebra8(3) 1980, 289–297) and verified that it was alternative. To straightforwardly check the alternative law for the basis elements proved to be too time consuming for the computer. We developed a new algorithm which is much faster for sparse multiplication tables and which requires much less memory. Instead of testing the identities for all possible choices of basis elements, our algorithm is based on “factoring” the basis elements in all possible ways. The factorization algorithm took 5 minutes of C.P.U. time; it is estimated direct substitution with no consideration for sparseness would take 600 hours. Even when the substitution technique was improved to account for sparseness it is estimated it would take 12 hours of C.P.U. time. Substitution also requires 100 times as much memory space as factorization.     

Remarks on a paper of S. Zelditch: “Szegö limit theorems in quantum mechanics”

In this note, we should like to present alternative proofs of recent results in J. Funct Anal.50 (1983), 67–80, by S. Zelditch, on the basis of the theory developed in [10]. Theses new proofs extend Zelditch's results to a more general class of differential operators (for examples, see Remark 1.3).     

More translation planes and semifields from Dembowski–Ostrom polynomials

In this article we use pairs of Dembowski–Ostrom polynomials with special properties (see (P1)–(P3) in the introduction below) to construct translation planes of order q ⁿ which admit cyclic groups of order q ⁿ ?1 having orbits of lengths 1, 1, (q ⁿ ?1)/2, (q ⁿ ?1)/2 on the line at infinity. The same pairs also define semifields of order q ²ⁿ . We discuss the properties of these translation planes and semifields. These constructions extend the related construction in Dempwolff and Müller, Osaka J Math [5].     

Circular-imperfection of triangle-free graphs

Circular-perfect graphs form a natural superclass of the well-known perfect graphs by means of a more general coloring concept.For perfect graphs, a characterization by means of forbidden subgraphs was recently settled by Chudnovsky et al. [Chudnovsky, M., N. Robertson, P. Seymour, and R. Thomas, The Strong Perfect Graph Theorem, Annals of Mathematics 164 (2006) 51–229]. It is, therefore, natural to ask for an analogous characterization for circular-perfect graphs or, equivalently, for a characterization of all minimally circular-imperfect graphs.Our focus is the circular-(im)perfection of triangle-free graphs. We exhibit several different new infinite families of minimally circular-imperfect triangle-free graphs. This shows that a characterization of circular-perfect graphs by means of forbidden subgraphs is a difficult task, even if restricted to the class of triangle-free graphs. This is in contrary to the perfect case where it is long-time known that the only minimally imperfect triangle-free graphs are the odd holes [Tucker, A., Critical Perfect Graphs and Perfect 3-chromatic Graphs, J. Combin. Theory (B) 23 (1977) 143–149].     

Some infinite classes of Hadamard matrices

Some results of Williamson [Duke Math. J., 11 1944, Bull. Amer. Math. Soc., 53 1947] and Wallis (J. Combinatorial Theory, 6 1969] are considerably improved to establish that in each case referred to, the same stated condition or conditions, which according to either of the authors give rise to one Hadamard matrix, actually imply the existence of an infinite series of Hadamard matrices. Also proved is the existence of some infinite series of Williamson's matrices, which coupled with the interesting findings of Turyn [J. Combinatorial Theory Ser. A, 16 1974] establish the existence of infinitely many more series of Hadamard matrices than those known so far.     

Some Remarks on Korn Inequalities

A recent joint paper with Doina Cioranescu and Julia Orlik was concerned with the homogenization of a linearized elasticity problem with inclusions and cracks(see[Cioranescu, D., Damlamian, A. and Orlik, J., Homogenization via unfolding in periodic elasticity with contact on closed and open cracks, Asymptotic Analysis, 82, 2013, 201–232]). It required uniform estimates with respect to the homogenization parameter. A Korn inequality was used which involves unilateral terms on the boundaries where a nopenetration condition is imposed. In this paper, the author presents a general method to obtain many diverse Korn inequalities including the unilateral inequalities used in [Cioranescu, D., Damlamian, A. and Orlik, J., Homogenization via unfolding in periodic elasticity with contact on closed and open cracks, Asymptotic Analysis, 82, 2013, 201–232]. A preliminary version was presented in [Damlamian, A., Some unilateral Korn inequalities with application to a contact problem with inclusions, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I,350, 2012, 861–865].     

A unique exchange property for bases

We define the concept of unique exchange on a sequence (X₁,…, X_m) of bases of a matroid M as an exchange of x ? X_i for y ? X_j such that y is the unique element of X_j which may be exchanged for x so that (X_i ? {x}) ∪ {y} and (X_j ? {y}) ∪ {x} are both bases. Two sequences X and Y are compatible if they are on the same multiset. Let UE(1) [UE(2)] denote the class of matroids such that every pair of compatible basis sequences X and Y are related by a sequence of unique exchanges [unique exchanges and permutations in the order of the bases]. We similarly define UE(3) by allowing unique subset exchanges. Then UE(1),UE(2), and UE(3) are hereditary classes (closed under minors) and are self-dual (closed under orthogonality). UE(1) equals the class of series-parallel networks, and UE(2) and UE(3) are contained in the class of binary matroids. We conjecture that UE(2) contains the class of unimodular matroids, and prove a related partial result for graphic matroids. We also study related classes of matroids satisfying transitive exchange, in order to gain information about excluded minors of UE(2) and UE(3). A number of unsolved problems are mentioned.     

Polygon-circle and word-representable graphs

We describe work on the relationship between the independently-studied polygon-circle graphs and word-representable graphs.A graph G = (V, E) is word-representable if there exists a word w over the alpha-bet V such that letters x and y form a subword of the form xyxy ⋯ or yxyx ⋯ iff xy is an edge in E. Word-representable graphs generalise several well-known and well-studied classes of graphs [S. Kitaev, A Comprehensive Introduction to the Theory of Word-Representable Graphs, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 10396 (2017) 36–67; S. Kitaev, V. Lozin, “Words and Graphs”, Springer, 2015]. It is known that any word-representable graph is k-word-representable, that is, can be represented by a word having exactly k copies of each letter for some k dependent on the graph. Recognising whether a graph is word-representable is NP-complete ([S. Kitaev, V. Lozin, “Words and Graphs”, Springer, 2015, Theorem 4.2.15]). A polygon-circle graph (also known as a spider graph) is the intersection graph of a set of polygons inscribed in a circle [M. Koebe, On a new class of intersection graphs, Ann. Discrete Math. (1992) 141–143]. That is, two vertices of a graph are adjacent if their respective polygons have a non-empty intersection, and the set of polygons that correspond to vertices in this way are said to represent the graph. Recognising whether an input graph is a polygon-circle graph is NP-complete [M. Pergel, Recognition of polygon-circle graphs and graphs of interval filaments is NP-complete, Graph-Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science: 33rd Int. Workshop, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 4769 (2007) 238–247]. We show that neither of these two classes is included in the other one by showing that the word-representable Petersen graph and crown graphs are not polygon-circle, while the non-word-representable wheel graph W₅ is polygon-circle. We also provide a more refined result showing that for any k ≥ 3, there are k-word-representable graphs which are neither (k −1)-word-representable nor polygon-circle.     

Strong convergence theorems for strictly asymptotically pseudocontractive mappings in Hilbert spaces

The purpose of this paper is by using CSQ method to study the strong convergence problem of iterative sequences for a pair of strictly asymptotically pseudocontractive mappings to approximate a common fixed point in a Hilbert space. Under suitable conditions some strong convergence theorems are proved. The results presented in the paper are new which extend and improve some recent results of Acedo and Xu [Iterative methods for strict pseudo-contractions in Hilbert spaces. Nonlinear Anal., 67(7), 2258??271 (2007)], Kim and Xu [Strong convergence of modified Mann iterations for asymptotically nonexpansive mappings and semigroups. Nonlinear Anal., 64, 1140??152 (2006)], Martinez-Yanes and Xu [Strong convergence of the CQ method for fixed point iteration processes. Nonlinear Anal., 64, 2400??411 (2006)], Nakajo and Takahashi [Strong convergence theorems for nonexpansive mappings and nonexpansive semigroups. J. Math. Anal. Appl., 279, 372??79 (2003)], Marino and Xu [Weak and strong convergence theorems for strict pseudocontractions in Hilbert spaces. J. Math. Anal. Appl., 329(1), 336??46 (2007)], Osilike et al. [Demiclosedness principle and convergence theorems for k-strictly asymptotically pseudocontractive maps. J. Math. Anal. Appl., 326, 1334??345 (2007)], Liu [Convergence theorems of the sequence of iterates for asymptotically demicontractive and hemicontractive mappings. Nonlinear Anal., 26(11), 1835??842 (1996)], Osilike et al. [Fixed points of demi-contractive mappings in arbitrary Banach spaces. Panamer Math. J., 12 (2), 77??8 (2002)], Gu [The new composite implicit iteration process with errors for common fixed points of a finite family of strictly pseudocontractive mappings. J. Math. Anal. Appl., 329, 766??76 (2007)].     

Separation properties in algebraic categories of topological spaces

Full subcategories C ? Top of the category of topological spaces, which are algebraic over Set in the sense of Herrlich [2], have pleasant separation properties, mostly subject to additional closedness assumptions. For instance, every C-object is a T₁-space, if the two-element discrete space belongs to C. Moreover, if C is closed under the formation of finite powers in Top and even varietal [2], then every C-object is Hausdorff. Hence, the T₂-axiom turns out to be (nearly) superfluous in Herrlich's and Strecker's characterization of the category of compact Hausdorff spaces [1], although it is essential for the proof.If we think of C-objects X as universal algebras (with possibly infinite operations), then the subalgebras of X form the closed sets of a compact topology on X, provided that the ordinal spaces [0, β] belong to C. This generalizes a result in [3]. The subalgebra topology is used to prove criterions for the Hausdorffness of every space in C, if C is only algebraic.     

Random nonlinear Hammerstein equations

We prove existence theorems for random differential equations defined in a separable reflexive Banach space. These theorems are proved through the use of theory of random analysis established in [X. Z. Yuan, Random nonlinear mappings of monotone type, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 19] which differs from the other means, for example in [R. Kannan and H. Salehi, Random nonlinear equations and monotonic nonlinearities, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 57 (1977), 234–256; D. Kravvaritis, Existence theorems for nonlinear random equations and inequalities, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 86 (1982), 61–73; D. A. Kandilakis and N. S. Papageorgious, On the existence of solutions for random differential inclusions in a Banach space, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 126 (1987), 11–23].     

The six semifield planes associated with a semifield flock

In 1965 Knuth (J. Algebra 2 (1965) 182) noticed that a finite semifield was determined by a 3-cube array (a_ijk) and that any permutation of the indices would give another semifield. In this article we explain the geometrical significance of these permutations. It is known that a pair of functions (f,g) where f and g are functions from GF(q) to GF(q) with the property that f and g are linear over some subfield and g(x)²+4xf(x) is a non-square for all x∈GF(q)∗, q odd, give rise to certain semifields, one of which is commutative of rank 2 over its middle nucleus, one of which arises from a semifield flock of the quadratic cone, and another that comes from a translation ovoid of Q(4,q). We show that there are in fact six non-isotopic semifields that can be constructed from such a pair of functions, which will give rise to six non-isomorphic semifield planes, unless (f,g) are of linear type or of Dickson-Kantor-Knuth type. These six semifields fall into two sets of three semifields related by Knuth operations.     

Non-Liouville numbers and a Theorem of Hörmander

It is shown in this paper that Theorem 1 of [G. H. Meisters, “Translation-invariant linear forms and a formula for the Dirac measure,” J. Functional Analysis 8 (1971), 173–188] can be deduced from a very general result of Lars Hörmander, namely, Theorem 1 of “Generators for some rings of analytic functions” [Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.73 (1967), 943–949]. However, Hörmander's theorem is evidently not applicable in several other cases where Meisters'-type results have been obtained (e.g., Theorem 1 of G.H. Meisters and Wolfgang M. Schmidt, “Translation-invariant linear forms on L²(G) for compact abelian groups G,” J. Functional Analysis11 (1972), 407–424).     

Maximum scattered linear sets of pseudoregulus type and the Segre variety \mathcal{S}_{n,n}

In this paper we study a family of scattered $\mathbb{F}_{q}$ -linear sets of rank tn of the projective space PG(2n?1,q ^t ) (n≥1, t≥3), called of pseudoregulus type, generalizing results contained in Lavrauw and van de Voorde, Des. Codes Crypt. 20(1) (2013) and in Marino et al. J. Combin. Theory, Ser. A 114:769–788 (2007). As an application, we characterize, in terms of the associated linear sets, some classical families of semifields: the Generalized Twisted Fields and the 2-dimensional Knuth semifields.     

Some remarks on permutation designs

A definition of isomorphism of two permutation designs is proposed, which differs from the definition in Bandt [J. Combinatorial Theory Ser. A21 (1976), 384–392]. The proposed definition has the (generally required) property that the allowed permutations always transform a permutation design into a permutation design. It is shown that the n permutation designs coming from the partitioning of S_n into permutation designs, as constructed in Bandt [J. Combinatorial Theory Ser. A21 (1976), 384–392] are all isomorphic. Further we find that this modified definition does not increase the number of nonisomorphic (6, 4) permutation designs. The same investigation showed that one of the designs, claimed to be a (6, 4) permutation design in [J. Combinatorial Theory Ser. A21 (1976), 384–392], is actually not a (6, 4) permutation design.