The universal nilpotent group compactification of a semigroup

The purpose of this paper is to introduce an algebra of functions on a semitopological semigroup and to study these functions from the point of view of universal semigroup compactification. We show that the corresponding semigroup compactification of this algebra is universal with respect to the property of being a nilpotent group.

     

The Huber theorem for non-compact conformally flat manifolds

It was proved in 1957 by Huber that any complete surface with integrable Gauss curvature is conformally equivalent to a compact surface with a finite number of points removed. Counterexamples show that the curvature assumption must necessarily be strengthened in order to get an analogous conclusion in higher dimensions. We show in this paper that any non compact Riemannian manifold with finite -norm of the Ricci curvature satisfies Huber-type conclusions if either it is a conformal domain with volume growth controlled from above in a compact Riemannian manifold or if it is conformally flat of dimension 4 and a natural Sobolev inequality together with a mild scalar curvature decay assumption hold. We also get partial results in other dimensions. Received: April 14, 2000; revised version: March 20, 2001     

Hamiltonian nilpotent saddles of linear plus cubic homogeneous polynomial vector fields

We completely characterize the global phase portraits in the Poincaré disk for all planar Hamiltonian vector fields with linear plus cubic homogeneous terms having a nilpotent saddle at the origin.     

Operator Semigroup Compactifications

A weakly continuous, equicontinuous representation of a semitopological semigroup on a locally convex topological vector space gives rise to a family of operator semigroup compactifications of , one for each invariant subspace of . We consider those invariant subspaces which are maximal with respect to the associated compactification possessing a given property of semigroup compactifications and show that under suitable hypotheses this maximality is preserved under the formation of projective limits, strict inductive limits and tensor products.

     

On the dynamics of the Szekeres system

The gravitational Szekeres differential system is completely integrable with two rational first integrals and an additional analytical first integral. We describe the dynamics of the Szekeres system when one of these two rational first integrals is negative, showing that all the orbits come from the infinity of ${\mathbb{R}}^4$ and go to infinity.     

Ends,tangles and critical vertex sets

We show that an arbitrary infinite graph G can be compactified by its ends plus its critical vertex sets, where a finite set X of vertices of an infinite graph is critical if its deletion leaves some infinitely many components each with neighbourhood precisely equal to X. We further provide a concrete separation system whose ?₀‐tangles are precisely the ends plus critical vertex sets. Our tangle compactification is a quotient of Diestel's (denoted by ), and both use tangles to compactify a graph in much the same way as the ends of a locally finite and connected graph compactify it in its Freudenthal compactification. Finally, generalising both Diestel's construction of and our construction of , we show that G can be compactified by every inverse limit of compactifications of the sets of components obtained by deleting a finite set of vertices. Diestel's is the finest such compactification, and our is the coarsest one. Both coincide if and only if all tangles are ends. This answers two questions of Diestel.     

Hindman spaces

A topological space is Hindman if for every sequence in there exists an infinite so that the sequence , indexed by all finite sums over , is IP-converging in . Not all sequentially compact spaces are Hindman. The product of two Hindman spaces is Hindman.

Furstenberg and Weiss proved that all compact metric spaces are Hindman. We show that every Hausdorff space that satisfies the following condition is Hindman:

Consequently, there exist nonmetrizable and noncompact Hindman spaces. The following is a particular consequence of the main result: every bounded sequence of monotone (not necessarily continuous) real functions on has an IP-converging subsequences.

     

Nordström,Ehrenfest, and the Role of Dimensionality in Physics

In the summer of 1916, Finnish physicist Gunnar Nordström (1881–1923) arrived in Leiden to carry out research with Paul Ehrenfest (1880–1933), Hendrik A. Lorentzs successor in the chair of theoretical physics. Nordström had recently published the first five-dimensional unified model of the universe, a theory that went virtually unnoticed by the physics community. Ehrenfests personal journals reveal that Nordströms visit coincided with a flowering of Ehrenfests own interest in dimensionality, which resulted in his well-known paper on the connection between the fundamental laws of physics and the three-dimensionality of space. I examine Nordströms and Ehrenfests collaboration and explore the relationship between their ideas and the Kaluza-Klein model of five-dimensional unification.Paul Halpern is Professor of Physics at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002 to study the history of dimensionality in science.     

Flow Compactifications of Nondiscrete Monoids, Idempotents and Hindman's Theorem

We describe the extension of the multiplication on a not-necessarily-discrete topological monoid to its flow compactification. We offer two applications. The first is a nondiscrete version of Hindman's Theorem, and the second is a characterization of the projective minimal and elementary flows in terms of idempotents of the flow compactification of the monoid.     

On non-measurability of in its second dual

We show that with the weak topology is not an intersection of Borel sets in its Cech-Stone extension (and hence in any compactification). Assuming (CH), this implies that has no continuous injection onto a Borel set in a compact space, or onto a Lindelöf space. Under (CH), this answers a question of Arhangel'ski.