Twisted first homology groups of the automorphism group of a free group

The automorphism group and outer automorphism group of a free group F_n of rank n act on the abelianized group H of F_n and the dual group H^* of H. The twisted first homology groups of and with coefficients in H and H^* are calculated.     

A class of essential representations of product systems

We construct a family of essential representations of an arbitrary product system by generalizing some techniques introduced by M. Skeide and W. Arveson. We then classify the resulting E₀-semigroups up to conjugacy, by identifying their tail flows as periodic W^∗-dynamical systems acting on factors of type I_∞. The conjugacy classes of these E₀-semigroups correspond to the orbits of the action of the automorphism group of the product system on unital vectors. In the sequel, this classification shows explicitly that any E₀-semigroup admits uncountably many non-conjugate cocycle perturbations.     

A unique decomposition result for HT factors with torsion free core

We prove that II₁ factors M have a unique (up to unitary conjugacy) cross-product type decomposition around “core subfactors” N⊂M satisfying the property HT of [S. Popa, On a class of type II₁ factors with Betti numbers invariants, Ann. of Math. (2) 163 (2006) 809-899] and a certain “torsion freeness” condition. In particular, this shows that isomorphism of factors of the form Lαi(Z²)?Fni, i=1,2, for Fni⊂SL(2,Z) free groups of rank ni and αj=e2πitj, tj∉Q, implies n₁=n₂.     

A duality principle for groups

The duality principle for Gabor frames states that a Gabor sequence obtained by a time-frequency lattice is a frame for L²(Rd) if and only if the associated adjoint Gabor sequence is a Riesz sequence. We prove that this duality principle extends to any dual pairs of projective unitary representations of countable groups. We examine the existence problem of dual pairs and establish some connection with classification problems for II₁ factors. While in general such a pair may not exist for some groups, we show that such a dual pair always exists for every subrepresentation of the left regular unitary representation when G is an abelian infinite countable group or an amenable ICC group. For free groups with finitely many generators, the existence problem of such a dual pair is equivalent to the well-known problem about the classification of free group von Neumann algebras.     

On symmetric graphs of valency five

A graph X, with a subgroup G of the automorphism group of X, is said to be (G,s)-transitive, for some s≥1, if G is transitive on s-arcs but not on (s+1)-arcs, and s-transitive if it is -transitive. Let X be a connected (G,s)-transitive graph, and G_v the stabilizer of a vertex v∈V(X) in G. If X has valency 5 and G_v is solvable, Weiss [R.M. Weiss, An application of p-factorization methods to symmetric graphs, Math. Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. 85 (1979) 43-48] proved that s≤3, and in this paper we prove that G_v is isomorphic to the cyclic group Z₅, the dihedral group D₁₀ or the dihedral group D₂₀ for s=1, the Frobenius group F₂₀ or F₂₀×Z₂ for s=2, or F₂₀×Z₄ for s=3. Furthermore, it is shown that for a connected 1-transitive Cayley graph of valency 5 on a non-abelian simple group G, the automorphism group of is the semidirect product , where R(G) is the right regular representation of G and .     

Group actions and Helly's theorem

We describe a connection between the combinatorics of generators for certain groups and the combinatorics of Helly's 1913 theorem on convex sets. We use this connection to prove fixed point theorems for actions of these groups on nonpositively curved metric spaces. These results are encoded in a property that we introduce called “property FAr”, which reduces to Serre's property FA when r=1. The method applies to S-arithmetic groups in higher Q-rank, to simplex reflection groups (including some nonarithmetic ones), and to higher rank Chevalley groups over polynomial and other rings (for example SLn(Z[x₁,…,xd]), n>2).     

The Rohlin property for automorphisms of the Jiang-Su algebra

For projectionless C^∗-algebras absorbing the Jiang-Su algebra tensorially, we study a kind of the Rohlin property for automorphisms. We show that the crossed products obtained by automorphisms with this Rohlin property also absorb the Jiang-Su algebra tensorially under a mild technical condition on the C^∗-algebras. In particular, for the Jiang-Su algebra we show the uniqueness up to outer conjugacy of the automorphism with this Rohlin property.     

Endomorphisms of the shift dynamical system, discrete derivatives, and applications

All continuous endomorphisms f_∞ of the shift dynamical system S on the 2-adic integers Z₂ are induced by some , where n is a positive integer, B_n is the set of n-blocks over {0, 1}, and f_∞(x)=y₀y₁y₂… where for all i∈N, y_i=f(x_ix_i+1…x_i+n−1). Define D:Z₂→Z₂ to be the endomorphism of S induced by the map {(00,0),(01,1),(10,1),(11,0)} and V:Z₂→Z₂ by V(x)=−1−x. We prove that D, V°D, S, and V°S are conjugate to S and are the only continuous endomorphisms of S whose parity vector function is solenoidal. We investigate the properties of D as a dynamical system, and use D to construct a conjugacy from the 3x+1 function T:Z₂→Z₂ to a parity-neutral dynamical system. We also construct a conjugacy R from D to T. We apply these results to establish that, in order to prove the 3x+1 conjecture, it suffices to show that for any m∈Z⁺, there exists some n∈N such that R⁻¹(m) has binary representation of the form or .     

Domains of infinitesimal generators of automorphism flows

We present a systematic characterization of the domain of a generator of a one parameter group on certain C∗-subalgebras of via finite-dimensional estimates. Our approach yields an example of a densely defined closed symmetric derivation on a C∗-subalgebras of whose domain is not closed with respect to the C¹-functional calculus. This completes and complements the earlier example of McIntosh (J. Funct. Anal. 30 (1977) 264). Our methods are partly based on the theory of adjoint C₀-semigroups.     

Constructions of generalized Sidon sets

We give explicit constructions of sets S with the property that for each integer k, there are at most g solutions to k=s₁+s₂,s_i∈S; such sets are called Sidon sets if g=2 and generalized Sidon sets if g?3. We extend to generalized Sidon sets the Sidon-set constructions of Singer, Bose, and Ruzsa. We also further optimize Kolountzakis’ idea of interleaving several copies of a Sidon set, extending the improvements of Cilleruelo, Ruzsa and Trujillo, Jia, and Habsieger and Plagne. The resulting constructions yield the largest known generalized Sidon sets in virtually all cases.     

Simple compact quantum groups I

The notion of simple compact quantum group is introduced. As non-trivial (noncommutative and noncocommutative) examples, the following families of compact quantum groups are shown to be simple: (a) The universal quantum groups Bu(Q) for Q∈GL(n,C) satisfying , n?2; (b) The quantum automorphism groups Aaut(B,τ) of finite-dimensional C^∗-algebras B endowed with the canonical trace τ when dim(B)?4, including the quantum permutation groups Aaut(Xn) on n points (n?4); (c) The standard deformations Kq of simple compact Lie groups K and their twists , as well as Rieffel's deformation KJ.     

An extension of the Vu-Sine theorem and compact-supercyclicity

If (Tt)_t?0 is a bounded C₀-semigroup in a Banach space X and there exists a compact subset K⊆X such that

     

Exponential asymptotic property of a parallel repairable system with warm standby under common-cause failure

We discuss exponential asymptotic property of the solution of a parallel repairable system with warm standby under common-cause failure. This system can be described by a group of partial differential equations with integral boundary. First we show that the positive contraction C₀-semigroup T(t) [Weiwei Hu, Asymptotic stability analysis of a parallel repairable system with warm standby under common-cause failure, Acta Anal. Funct. Appl. 8 (1) (2006) 5-20] which is generated by the operator corresponding to these equations is a quasi-compact operator. Then by using [Weiwei Hu, Asymptotic stability analysis of a parallel repairable system with warm standby under common-cause failure, Acta Anal. Funct. Appl. 8 (1) (2006) 5-20] that 0 is an eigenvalue of the operator with algebraic index one and the C₀-semigroup T(t) is contraction, we conclude that the spectral bound of the operator is zero. By using the above results the exponential asymptotical stability of the time-dependent solution of the system follows easily.     

A distance-labelling problem for hypercubes

Let i₁≥i₂≥i₃≥1 be integers. An L(i₁,i₂,i₃)-labelling of a graph G=(V,E) is a mapping ?:V→{0,1,2,…} such that |?(u)−?(v)|≥i_t for any u,v∈V with d(u,v)=t, t=1,2,3, where d(u,v) is the distance in G between u and v. The integer ?(v) is called the label assigned to v under ?, and the difference between the largest and the smallest labels is called the span of ?. The problem of finding the minimum span, λ_i1,i2,i3(G), over all L(i₁,i₂,i₃)-labellings of G arose from channel assignment in cellular communication systems, and the related problem of finding the minimum number of labels used in an L(i₁,i₂,i₃)-labelling was originated from recent studies on the scalability of optical networks. In this paper we study the L(i₁,i₂,i₃)-labelling problem for hypercubes Q_d (d≥3) and obtain upper and lower bounds on λ_i1,i2,i3(Q_d) for any (i₁,i₂,i₃).     

On certain spaces of vector measures of bounded variation

If (Σ,X) is a measurable space and X a Banach space we investigate the X-inheritance of copies of ?_∞ in certain subspaces Δ(Σ,X) of bvca(Σ,X), the Banach space of all X-valued countable additive measures of bounded variation equipped with the variation norm. Among the consequences of our main theorem we get a theorem of J. Mendoza on the X-inheritance of copies of ?_∞ in the Bochner space L₁(μ,X) and other of the author on the X-inheritance of copies of ?_∞ in bvca(Σ,X).     

A multiply intersecting Erd?s-Ko-Rado theorem — The principal case

Let m(n,k,r,t) be the maximum size of satisfying |F₁∩?∩F_r|≥t for all F₁,…,F_r∈F. We prove that for every p∈(0,1) there is some r₀ such that, for all r>r₀ and all t with 1≤t≤⌊(p^1−r−p)/(1−p)⌋−r, there exists n₀ so that if n>n₀ and p=k/n, then . The upper bound for t is tight for fixed p and r.     

Labeling graphs with two distance constraints

Given a graph G and integers p,q,d₁ and d₂, with p>q, d₂>d₁?1, an L(d₁,d₂;p,q)-labeling of G is a function f:V(G)→{0,1,2,…,n} such that |f(u)−f(v)|?p if d_G(u,v)?d₁ and |f(u)−f(v)|?q if d_G(u,v)?d₂. A k-L(d₁,d₂;p,q)-labeling is an L(d₁,d₂;p,q)-labeling f such that max_v∈V(G)f(v)?k. The L(d₁,d₂;p,q)-labeling number ofG, denoted by , is the smallest number k such that G has a k-L(d₁,d₂;p,q)-labeling. In this paper, we give upper bounds and lower bounds of the L(d₁,d₂;p,q)-labeling number for general graphs and some special graphs. We also discuss the L(d₁,d₂;p,q)-labeling number of G, when G is a path, a power of a path, or Cartesian product of two paths.     

A group-based search for solutions of the n-queens problem

The n-queens problem is a well-known problem in mathematics, yet a full search for n-queens solutions has been tackled until now using only simple algorithms (with the exception of the Rivin-Zabih algorithm). In this article, we discuss optimizations that mainly rely on group actions on the set of n-queens solutions. Most of our arguments deal with the case of toroidal queens; at the end, the application to the regular n-queens problem is discussed, and also the Rivin-Zabih algorithm.