In a finite soluble group G, the Fitting (or nilpotency) length h(G) can be considered as a measure for how strongly G deviates from being nilpotent. As another measure for this, the number v(G) of conjugacy classes of the maximal nilpotent subgroups of G may be taken. It is shown that there exists an integer-valued function f on the set of positive integers such that h(G) ≦ f(v(G)) for all finite (soluble) groups of odd order. Moreover, if all prime divisors of the order of G are greater than v(G)(v(G) - l)/2, then h(G) ≦3. The bound f(v(G)) is just of qualitative nature and by far not best possible. For v(G) = 2, h(G) = 3, some statements are made about the structure of G.

Let G be the free product of groups Gα, [Gα] the cartesian subgroup of G and k [Gα] the intersection of [G] with the k–th term of the lower central series for G. Then the k[Gα] form a descending chain of subgroups of ] and it is shown that if the intersection of all the subgroups in this chain is trivial then G and hence each Gα, is residually nilpotent. This answers a question of S. Moran.

Here we announce results which will appear in full in due course elsewhere. The aim is a study of varieties of metabelian groups. The technique is to study varieties of certain universal algebras, which are very similar to groups, called bigroups. For certain varieties of bigroups all the non-nilpotent join-irreducible subvarieties are determined, and this is used to reduce the same problem for varieties of metabelian groups to the case of prime-power exponent. Questions of distributivity of the lattice of metabelian varieties are also discussed.

The following result is proved. Let X be a Schunk class and k a positive integer. Then the k–th nilpotent product of any two groups in X¯ is in X¯.

Consider a stably stratified liquid, whose density varies exponentially with the vertical co-ordinate, that is bounded above by a free surface and below by a bed whose height depends on only one of the horizontal co-ordinates. Suppose that a gravity wave, that may be either a surface or an internal one, is travelling in a direction normal to the lines of constant depth. It is shown that if the frequency is below a certain value an infinite number of waves, all of the same frequency but having differing wave lengths, are generated and expressions for their amplitude are given in terms of the changes in depth which are assumed to be small.

Let S and T be compact (topological) semigroups, A be a closed subsemigroup of S, and f be a continuous homomorphism of A onto T. It is a natural question to ask is there a compact semigroup Z containing T and a continuous homomorphism φ of S onto Z such that φ restricted to A is f?

In the category of compact Hausdorff spaces, the answer to the analogous question may be given by the following construction due to Borsuk. Let X and Y be compact Hausdorff spaces, A be a closed subspace of X and f a continuous function of A onto Y. Then R(f, X) = {(x, y)|f(x) = f(y) or x = y} is a closed equivalence relation on X. The adjunction space Z(f, x) is X/R(f, X). The purpose of this note is to investigate this construction in semigroups.

Two new simple groups have recently been discovered by Z. Janko. One of these groups has order 50,232,960. As a first step in showing that there is precisely one (up to isomorphism) simple group of order 50,232,960, the author proves in this paper the following result: If G is a non-abelian simple group of order 50,232,960, then the structure of the centralizer of an element of order two in G is uniquely determined.

In a note added on 21 April 1969 to this paper, the author announces that he has proved the uniqueness of the simple group of order 50,232,960.

Certain Hilbert spaces of functions with known smoothness are considered. The weights and mesh of the quadrature formulae which have least estimate of error with respect to the norm for functions in these spaces are found and their properties are discussed.

In the usual Krull-Schmidt-Azumaya theorem in abelian categories it is essential that each of the direct summands has a local ring of endomorphisms. A partial answer is given here to the case where this last condition is not satisfied by the indecomposable direct summands. It is found that those summands with local endomorphism rings are determined up to isomorphism and cardinality of occurrence.

An N-semigroup is a commutative, cancellative, archimedean semigroup with no idempotent element. This paper obtains a representation of finitely generated N-semigroups as the subdirect product of an abelian group and a subsemigroup of the additive positive integers.

Consider a stably stratified liquid, whose density varies exponentially with the vertical co-ordinate, that is bounded above by a free surface and below by a bed whose height depends on only one of the horizontal co-ordinates. Suppose that a gravity wave, that may be either a surface or an internal one, is travelling in a direction normal to the lines of constant depth. It is shown that if the frequency is below a certain value an infinite number of waves, all of the same frequency but having differing wave lengths, are generated and expressions for their amplitude are given in terms of the changes in depth which are assumed to be small.

Extending the results of An†onovskiĭ, Bol†janskiĭ, and Sarymsakov on semifield metric spaces, the authors define a regular semifield metric to be one in which the distance in the standard Tychonoff product representation of a point from a disjoint closed set is nonzero. It is shown that every completely regular topological space possesses a completely regular semifield metric and that there is an equivalent completely regular semifield metric for every semifield metric space. A normal semifield metric is defined to be one in which the distance between two disjoint closed sets is nonzero and it is shown that possessing a normal semifield metric is equivalent to being a normal topological space. Finally, Cauchy nets in semifield metric spaces are introduced leading to the notion of completeness. It is shown that a semifield metric space is complete iff every Cauchy net with the property that its directed set has cardinality less than or equal to the cardinality of the indexing set of the Tychonoff product representation of the semifield converges.

Let H(C) be the group of homeomorphisms of the Cantor set, C, onto itself. Let p: C → M be a map of C onto a compact metric space M, and let G(p, M) be is a group.

The map p: C → M is standard, if for each (x, y) ∈ C × C such that p(x) = p(y), there is a sequence and a sequence such that xn → x and hn (xn) → y Standard maps and their associated groups characterize compact metric spaces in the sense that: Two such spaces, M and N, are homeomorphic if and only if, given p standard from C onto M, there is a standard q from C onto N for which G(p, M) = h−1G(q, N)h, for some h ∈ H(C) The present paper exhibits a structure theorem connecting these characterizing subgroups of H(C) and products of spaces: Let M1 and M2 be compact metric spaces. Then there are standard maps p: C → M1 × M2 and pi: C → Mi, i = 1, 2, such that G(p, M1 × M2) = G(p1, M1) ∩ G(p2, M2).