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.

     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Time-periodic perturbation of a Liénard equation with an unbounded homoclinic loop

We consider a quadratic Liénard equation with an unbounded homoclinic loop, which is a solution tending in forward and backward time to a non-hyperbolic equilibrium point located at infinity. Under small time-periodic perturbation, this equilibrium becomes a normally hyperbolic line of singularities at infinity. We show that the perturbed system may present homoclinic bifurcations, leading to the existence of transverse intersections between the stable and unstable manifolds of such a normally hyperbolic line of singularities. The global study concerning the infinity is performed using the Poincaré compactification in polar coordinates, from which we obtain a system defined on a set equivalent to a solid torus in R³, whose boundary plays the role of the infinity. The transversality of the manifolds is proved using the Melnikov method and implies, via the Birkhoff-Smale Theorem, a complex dynamical behaviour of the perturbed system solutions in the finite part of the phase space. Numerical simulations are performed in order to illustrate this behaviour, which could be called “the chaos arising from infinity”, since it depends on the global structure of the Liénard equation, including the points at infinity. Although applied to a particular case, the analysis presented provides a geometrical approach to study periodic perturbations of homoclinic (or heteroclinic) loops to infinity of any planar polynomial vector field.     

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.     

Maximal degeneracy points of GKZ systems

Motivated by mirror symmetry, we study certain integral representations of solutions to the Gel´fand-Kapranov-Zelevinsky (GKZ) hypergeometric system. Some of these solutions arise as period integrals for Calabi-Yau manifolds in mirror symmetry. We prove that for a suitable compactification of the parameter space, there exist certain special boundary points, which we called maximal degeneracy points, at which all solutions but one become singular.

     

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.

     

POSITIVELY CURVED COMPLETE NONCOMPACT KAHLER MANIFOLDS

In this paper we give a partial affirmative answer to a conjecture of Greene-Wu and Yau. Among other things, we prove that a complete noncompact Kahler surface with positive and bounded sectional curvature and with finite analytic Chern number c1（M）^2 is biholomorphic to C2.