The -theory of is undecidable

The three quantifier theory of , the recursively enumerable degrees under Turing reducibility, was proven undecidable by Lempp, Nies and Slaman (1998). The two quantifier theory includes the lattice embedding problem and its decidability is a long-standing open question. A negative solution to this problem seems out of reach of the standard methods of interpretation of theories because the language is relational. We prove the undecidability of a fragment of the theory of that lies between the two and three quantifier theories with but includes function symbols.

Theorem. The two quantifier theory of , the r.e. degrees with Turing reducibility, supremum and infimum (taken to be any total function extending the infimum relation on ) is undecidable.

The same result holds for various lattices of ideals of which are natural extensions of preserving join and infimum when it exits.

     

Parametrized principles

We will present a collection of guessing principles which have a similar relationship to as cardinal invariants of the continuum have to . The purpose is to provide a means for systematically analyzing and its consequences. It also provides for a unified approach for understanding the status of a number of consequences of and in models such as those of Laver, Miller, and Sacks.

     

Subgroups of acting transitively on -tuples

We consider subgroups of -diffeomorphisms of the circle which act transitively on -tuples of points. We show, in particular, that these subgroups are dense in the group of homeomorphisms of . A stronger result concerning -approximations is obtained as well. The techniques employed in this paper rely on Lie algebra ideas and they also provide partial generalizations to the differentiable case of some results previously established in the analytic category.

     

Combinatorial properties of Thompson's group

We study some combinatorial consequences of Blake Fordham's theorems on the word metric of Thompson's group in the standard two generator presentation. We explore connections between the tree pair diagram representing an element of , its normal form in the infinite presentation, its word length, and minimal length representatives of it. We estimate word length in terms of the number and type of carets in the tree pair diagram and show sharpness of those estimates. In addition we explore some properties of the Cayley graph of with respect to the two generator finite presentation. Namely, we exhibit the form of ``dead end' elements in this Cayley graph, and show that it has no ``deep pockets'. Finally, we discuss a simple method for constructing minimal length representatives for strictly positive or negative words.

     

Exponential sums on , II

We prove a vanishing theorem for the -adic cohomology of exponential sums on . In particular, we obtain new classes of exponential sums on that have a single nonvanishing -adic cohomology group. The dimension of this cohomology group equals a sum of Milnor numbers.

     

Blakers-Massey elements and exotic diffeomorphisms of and via geodesics

We use the geometry of the geodesics of a certain left-invariant metric on the Lie group to find explicit related formulas for two topological objects: the Blakers-Massey element (a generator of ) and an exotic (i.e. not isotopic to the identity) diffeomorphism of (C. E. Durán, 2001). These formulas depend on two quaternions and their conjugates and we produce their extensions to the octonions through formulas for a generator of and exotic diffeomorphisms of , thus giving explicit gluing maps for half of the 15-dimensional exotic spheres expressed as the union of two 15-disks.

     

Involutions fixing , II

This paper studies the equivariant cobordism classification of all involutions fixing a disjoint union of an odd-dimensional real projective space with its normal bundle nonbounding and a Dold manifold with a positive even and 0$">. The complete analysis of the equivariant cobordism classes of such involutions is given except that the upper and lower bounds on the codimension of may not be best possible. In particular, we find that there exist such involutions with nonstandard normal bundle to . Together with the results of part I of this title (Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 354 (2002), 4539-4570), the argument for involutions fixing is finished.

     

Analysing finite locally -arc transitive graphs

We present a new approach to analysing finite graphs which admit a vertex intransitive group of automorphisms and are either locally -arc transitive for or -locally primitive. Such graphs are bipartite with the two parts of the bipartition being the orbits of . Given a normal subgroup which is intransitive on both parts of the bipartition, we show that taking quotients with respect to the orbits of preserves both local primitivity and local -arc transitivity and leads us to study graphs where acts faithfully on both orbits and quasiprimitively on at least one. We determine the possible quasiprimitive types for in these two cases and give new constructions of examples for each possible type. The analysis raises several open problems which are discussed in the final section.

     

Symplectic semifield planes and -linear codes

There are lovely connections between certain characteristic 2 semifields and their associated translation planes and orthogonal spreads on the one hand, and -linear Kerdock and Preparata codes on the other. These inter-relationships lead to the construction of large numbers of objects of each type. In the geometric context we construct and study large numbers of nonisomorphic affine planes coordinatized by semifields; or, equivalently, large numbers of non-isotopic semifields: their numbers are not bounded above by any polynomial in the order of the plane. In the coding theory context we construct and study large numbers of -linear Kerdock and Preparata codes. All of these are obtained using large numbers of orthogonal spreads of orthogonal spaces of maximal Witt index over finite fields of characteristic 2.

We also obtain large numbers of ``boring' affine planes in the sense that the full collineation group fixes the line at infinity pointwise, as well as large numbers of Kerdock codes ``boring' in the sense that each has as small an automorphism group as possible.

The connection with affine planes is a crucial tool used to prove inequivalence theorems concerning the orthogonal spreads and associated codes, and also to determine their full automorphism groups.

     

On the -Minkowski problem

A volume-normalized formulation of the -Minkowski problem is presented. This formulation has the advantage that a solution is possible for all , including the degenerate case where the index is equal to the dimension of the ambient space. A new approach to the -Minkowski problem is presented, which solves the volume-normalized formulation for even data and all .

     

Simple birational extensions of the polynomial algebra

The Abhyankar-Sathaye Problem asks whether any biregular embedding can be rectified, that is, whether there exists an automorphism such that is a linear embedding. Here we study this problem for the embeddings whose image is given in by an equation , where and . Under certain additional assumptions we show that, indeed, the polynomial is a variable of the polynomial ring (i.e., a coordinate of a polynomial automorphism of ). This is an analog of a theorem due to Sathaye (1976) which concerns the case of embeddings . Besides, we generalize a theorem of Miyanishi (1984) giving, for a polynomial as above, a criterion for when .

     

The best constant of the Moser-Trudinger inequality on

We consider the best constant of the Moser-Trudinger inequality on under a certain orthogonality condition. Applying Moser's calculation, we construct a counterexample to the sharper inequality with the condition.

     

Analytic -adic cell decomposition and integrals

We prove a conjecture of Denef on parameterized -adic analytic integrals using an analytic cell decomposition theorem, which we also prove in this paper. This cell decomposition theorem describes piecewise the valuation of analytic functions (and more generally of subanalytic functions), the pieces being geometrically simple sets, called cells. We also classify subanalytic sets up to subanalytic bijection.

     

Eigenvalue and gap estimates for the Laplacian acting on -forms

We study the gap of the first eigenvalue of the Hodge Laplacian acting on -differential forms of a manifold with boundary, for consecutive values of the degree .

We first show that the gap may assume any sign. Then we give sufficient conditions on the intrinsic and extrinsic geometry to control it. Finally, we estimate the first Hodge eigenvalue of manifolds whose boundaries have some degree of convexity.

     

Semi-linear homology -spheres and their equivariant inertia groups

This paper introduces an abelian group for all semi-linear homology -spheres, which corresponds to a known abelian group for all semi-linear homotopy -spheres, where is a compact Lie group and is a -representation with 0$">. Then using equivariant surgery techniques, we study the relation between both and when is finite. The main result is that under the conditions that -action is semi-free and with 0$">, the homomorphism defined by is an isomorphism if , and a monomorphism if . This is an equivariant analog of a well-known result in differential topology. Such a result is also applied to the equivariant inertia groups of semi-linear homology -spheres.

     

Square -lattice paths and

The combinatorial -Catalan numbers are weighted sums of Dyck paths introduced by J. Haglund and studied extensively by Haglund, Haiman, Garsia, Loehr, and others. The -Catalan numbers, besides having many subtle combinatorial properties, are intimately connected to symmetric functions, algebraic geometry, and Macdonald polynomials. In particular, the 'th -Catalan number is the Hilbert series for the module of diagonal harmonic alternants in variables; it is also the coefficient of in the Schur expansion of . Using -analogues of labelled Dyck paths, Haglund et al. have proposed combinatorial conjectures for the monomial expansion of and the Hilbert series of the diagonal harmonics modules.

This article extends the combinatorial constructions of Haglund et al. to the case of lattice paths contained in squares. We define and study several -analogues of these lattice paths, proving combinatorial facts that closely parallel corresponding results for the -Catalan polynomials. We also conjecture an interpretation of our combinatorial polynomials in terms of the nabla operator. In particular, we conjecture combinatorial formulas for the monomial expansion of , the ``Hilbert series' , and the sign character .

     

A unified approach to improved Hardy inequalities with best constants

We present a unified approach to improved Hardy inequalities in . We consider Hardy potentials that involve either the distance from a point, or the distance from the boundary, or even the intermediate case where the distance is taken from a surface of codimension . In our main result, we add to the right hand side of the classical Hardy inequality a weighted norm with optimal weight and best constant. We also prove nonhomogeneous improved Hardy inequalities, where the right hand side involves weighted norms, .

     

Quantum deformations of fundamental groups of oriented -manifolds

We compute two-term skein modules of framed oriented links in oriented -manifolds. They contain the self-writhe and total linking number invariants of framed oriented links in a universal way. The relations in a natural presentation of the skein module are interpreted as monodromies in the space of immersions of circles into the -manifold.

     

A new variational characterization of -dimensional space forms

A Riemannian manifold is associated with a Schouten -tensor which is a naturally defined Codazzi tensor in case is a locally conformally flat Riemannian manifold. In this paper, we study the Riemannian functional defined on , where is the space of smooth Riemannian metrics on a compact smooth manifold and is the elementary symmetric functions of the eigenvalues of with respect to . We prove that if and a conformally flat metric is a critical point of with , then must have constant sectional curvature. This is a generalization of Gursky and Viaclovsky's very recent theorem that the critical point of with characterized the three-dimensional space forms.

     

How to do a -descent on an elliptic curve

In this paper, we describe an algorithm that reduces the computation of the (full) -Selmer group of an elliptic curve over a number field to standard number field computations such as determining the (-torsion of) the -class group and a basis of the -units modulo th powers for a suitable set of primes. In particular, we give a result reducing this set of `bad primes' to a very small set, which in many cases only contains the primes above . As of today, this provides a feasible algorithm for performing a full -descent on an elliptic curve over , but the range of our algorithm will certainly be enlarged by future improvements in computational algebraic number theory. When the Galois module structure of is favorable, simplifications are possible and -descents for larger are accessible even today. To demonstrate how the method works, several worked examples are included.