We prove that the lower radical, determined by a set of rings, is strong if and only if it is the lower radical determined by a ring with zero multiplication.

For a group H and a subset X of H, we let HX denote the set {hxh−1 | h ∈ H, x ∈ X}, and when X is a free-generating set of H, we say that the set HX is a Whitehead subset of H. For a group F and an element r of F, we say that r is Cohen–Lyndon aspherical in F if F{r} is a Whitehead subset of the subgroup of F that is generated by F{r}. In 1963, Cohen and Lyndon (D. E. Cohen and R. C. Lyndon, Free bases for normal subgroups of free groups, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 108 (1963), 526–537) independently showed that in each free group each non-trivial element is Cohen–Lyndon aspherical. Their proof used the celebrated induction method devised by Magnus in 1930 to study one-relator groups. In 1987, Edjvet and Howie (M. Edjvet and J. Howie, A Cohen–Lyndon theorem for free products of locally indicable groups, J. Pure Appl. Algebra45 (1987), 41–44) showed that if A and B are locally indicable groups, then each cyclically reduced element of A*B that does not lie in A ∪ B is Cohen–Lyndon aspherical in A*B. Their proof used the original Cohen–Lyndon theorem. Using Bass–Serre theory, the original Cohen–Lyndon theorem and the Edjvet–Howie theorem, one can deduce the local-indicability Cohen–Lyndon theorem: if F is a locally indicable group and T is an F-tree with trivial edge stabilisers, then each element of F that fixes no vertex of T is Cohen–Lyndon aspherical in F. Conversely, by Bass–Serre theory, the original Cohen–Lyndon theorem and the Edjvet–Howie theorem are immediate consequences of the local-indicability Cohen–Lyndon theorem. In this paper we give a detailed review of a Bass–Serre theoretical form of Howie induction and arrange the arguments of Edjvet and Howie into a Howie-inductive proof of the local-indicability Cohen–Lyndon theorem that uses neither Magnus induction nor the original Cohen–Lyndon theorem. We conclude with a review of some standard applications of Cohen–Lyndon asphericity.

In this paper, we characterize surjective isometries on certain classes of noncommutative spaces associated with semi-finite von Neumann algebras: the Lorentz spaces $L^{w,1}$ , as well as the spaces $L^1+L^\infty$ and $L^1\cap L^\infty$ . The technique used in all three cases relies on characterizations of the extreme points of the unit balls of these spaces. Of particular interest is that the representations of isometries obtained in this paper are global representations.

In this paper, we define a Cayley–Dickson process for k-coalgebras proving some results that describe the properties of the final coalgebra, knowing the properties of the initial one. Namely, after applying the Cayley–Dickson process for k-coalgebras to a coassociative coalgebra, we obtain a coalternative one. Moreover, the first coalgebra is cocommutative if and only if the final coalgebra is coassociative. Finally we extend these results to a more general approach of D-coalgebras, where D is a k-coalgebra, presenting a class of examples of coalternative (non-coassociative) coalgebras obtained from group D-coalgebras.

We continue our investigation of the real space H of Hermitian matrices in $${M_n}(\mathbb{C})$$ with respect to norms on $${\mathbb{C}^n}$$. We complete the commutative case by showing that any proper real subspace of the real diagonal matrices on $${\mathbb{C}^n}$$ can appear as H. For the non-commutative case, we give a complete solution when n=3 and we provide various illustrative examples for n ≥ 4. We end with a short list of problems.

Consider a simple Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ and $\overline{\mathfrak{g}}$ ⊂ $\mathfrak{g}$ a Levi subalgebra. Two irreducible $\overline{\mathfrak{g}}$-modules yield isomorphic inductions to $\mathfrak{g}$ when their highest weights coincide up to conjugation by an element of the Weyl group W of $\mathfrak{g}$ which is also a Dynkin diagram automorphism of $\overline{\mathfrak{g}}$. In this paper, we study the converse problem: given two irreducible $\overline{\mathfrak{g}}$-modules of highest weight μ and ν whose inductions to $\mathfrak{g}$ are isomorphic, can we conclude that μ and ν are conjugate under the action of an element of W which is also a Dynkin diagram automorphism of $\overline{\mathfrak{g}}$? We conjecture this is true in general. We prove this conjecture in type A and, for the other root systems, in various situations providing μ and ν satisfy additional hypotheses. Our result can be interpreted as an analogue for branching coefficients of the main result of Rajan [6] on tensor product multiplicities.

This paper results from the design and development of computer software for lengthy computations with Cayley's algebra C over the field of reals. The algebra C is 8-dimensional over the reals and is not associative. Integer elements of C are defined and can be stored as integer arrays. The problem of solving linear equations αξ = β in C is implemented by using the equation where is the conjugate and N(α) is the non-zero norm of α. Programming multiplication of Cayley numbers is comparable in difficulty to programming matrix multiplication for matrices with eight rows and eight columns.

In 1954 N. Kimura proved that each idempotent in a semigroup is contained in a unique maximal subgroup of the semigroup and that distinct maximal subgroups are disjoint [13] (or see [6, pp. 21–23]). This generalized earlier results of Schwarz [14] and Wallace [15]. These maximal subgroups are important in the study of semigroups. If G is a group, then the collection S(G) of nonempty complexes of G is a semigroup and it is natural to inquire what properties of G are inherited by the maximal subgroups of S(G). There seems to be very little literature devoted to this subject. In [5, Theorem 2], with certain hypotheses placed on an idempotent, it was shown that if G is a lattice-ordered group (“1-group”) then a maximal subgroup of S(G) containing an idempotent satisfying these conditions admits a natural lattice-order. The main result of this note (Theorem 1) is that if Gis a representable 1-group and E is a normal idempotent of S(G) and a dual ideal of the lattice G, then the maximal subgroup of S(G) containing E admits a representable lattice-order.

Let $n$ and $r$ be positive integers with $1\,{<}\,r\,{<}\,n$, and let $X_n\,{=}\break\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$. An $r$-set $A$ and a partition $\pi$ of $X_n$ are said to be orthogonal if every class of $\pi$ meets $A$ in exactly one element. We prove that if $A_{1},A_{2},\ldots, A_{\binom n r}$ is a list of the distinct $r$-sets of $X_ n$ with $|A_{i}\cap A_{i+1}|\,{=}\,r-1$ for $i=1,2,\ldots, \binom n r$ taken modulo $\binom n r$, then there exists a list of distinct partitions $\pi_{1},\pi_{2},\ldots, \pi_{\binom n r}$ such that $\pi_{i}$ is orthogonal to both $A_{i}$ and $A_{i+1}$. This result states that any constant weight Gray code admits a labeling by distinct orthogonal partitions. Using an algorithm from the literature on Gray codes, we provide a surprisingly efficient algorithm that on input $(n,r)$ outputs an orthogonally labeled constant weight Gray code. We also prove a two-fold Gray enumeration result, presenting an orthogonally labeled constant weight Gray code in which the partition labels form a cycle in the covering graph of the lattice of all partitions of $X_n$. This leads to a conjecture related to the Middle Levels Conjecture. Finally, we provide an application of our results to calculating minimal generating sets of idempotents for finite semigroups.

In this paper, we study the homogenised algebra B of the enveloping algebra U of the Lie algebra sℓ(2,ℂ). We look first to connections between the category of graded left B-modules and the category of U-modules, then we prove B is Koszul and Artin–Schelter regular of global dimension four, hence its Yoneda algebra B! is self-injective of radical five zeros, and the structure of B! is given. We describe next the category of homogenised Verma modules, which correspond to the lifting to B of the usual Verma modules over U, and prove that such modules are Koszul of projective dimension two. It was proved in Martínez-Villa and Zacharia (Approximations with modules having linear resolutions, J. Algebra266(2) (2003), 671–697)] that all graded stable components of a self-injective Koszul algebra are of type ZA∞. Here, we characterise the graded B!-modules corresponding to the Koszul duality to homogenised Verma modules, and prove that these are located at the mouth of a regular component. In this way we obtain a family of components over a wild algebra indexed by ℂ.

It is proved that a pure-injective module over a commutative ring with unity is a summand of a product of duals of finitely presented modules, where duals are to be understood with reference to the circle group T, with induced module structures. Using similar techniques, it is also shown that an R-module has its underlying group pure-injective precisely when it is a submodule of a product of duals of cyclic modules and also a summand as abelian group of the same product.

All rings considered are commutative with unity and all modules are unitary. Let Mod-R be the category of modules over a ring R. An exact sequence 0 → A → B → C → 0 in Mod-R is pure-exact if, for any N in Mod-R, 0 → A⊗N → B⊗N → C⊗N → 0 is exact. A module M is pure-injective if it has the injective property relative to the class of pure-exact sequences in Mod-R. A module P is FP (finitely presented) if it is the image of a finitely generated free module with a finitely generated kernel. A module M is compact if it carries a Hausdorff compact topology so that M is a topological R-module. Let T denote the circle group—the group of real numbers modulo the integers—and let X* denote the dual module Homℤ(X, T) of the module X.

In Section 33 of [2], Bonsall and Duncan define an element t of a Banach algebra to act compactly on if the map a → tat is a compact operator on . In this paper, the arguments and technique of [1] are used to study this question for C*-algebras (see also [10]). We determine the elements b of a C*-algebra for which the maps a → ba, a → ab, a → ab + ba, a → bab are compact (respectively weakly compact), determine the C*-algebras which are compact in the sense of Definition 9, of [2, p. 177] and give a characterization of the C*-automorphisms of which are weakly compact perturbations of the identity.

We consider in this paper the problem (1) where Ω is the unit ball in ℝN centred at the origin, 0 ≤ α < pN,β > 0, N ≥ 3. Suppose qϵ → q as ϵ → 0+ and qϵ, q satisfy, respectively, we investigate the asymptotic estimates of the ground-state solutions (uϵ, vϵ) of (1) as β → + ∞ with p, qϵ fixed. We also show the symmetry-breaking phenomenon with α, β fixed and qϵ → q as ϵ → 0+. In addition, the ground-state solution is non-radial provided that ϵ > 0 is small or β is large enough.

The Bass–Serre theorem supplies generators and relations for a group of automorphisms of a tree. Recently K. S. Brown [2] has extended the result to produce a presentation for a group of automorphisms of a simply connected complex, the extra ingredient being relations which come from the 2-cells of the complex. Suppose G is the group, K the complex and L the 1-skeleton of K. Then an extension of π1(L) by G acts on the universal covering space of L (which is of course a tree) and Brown's technique is to apply the work of Bass and Serre to this action. Our aim is to give a direct elementary proof of Brown's theorem which makes no use of covering spaces, deals with the Bass–Serre theorem as a special case and clarifies the roles played by the various generators and relations.

Let F be an orientable surface with or without boundary and let M(F) be the mapping class group of F, i.e. the group of isotopy classes of orientation preserving diffeomorphisms of F. To each essential simple closed curve c on F we can associate an element C of M(F) called the Dehn twist about c. We refer the reader to [1] for definitions. It is well known (see [1]) that, at least in the case where F has no more than one boundary component, M(F) is generated by Dehn twists. Further, there are important subgroups of M(F) which are also generated by Dehn twists or simple products of Dehn twists; for example the Torelli group, the kernel of the homology action map M(F)→ Aut(H1(F;Z)) = Sp(H1(F;Z)), where Sp(H1(F;Z)) denotes the symplectic group, is known to be generated by Dehn twists about bounding curves and by “bounding pairs”. See [8] for proofs and definitions. Also Dehn twists crop up as geometric monodromy maps associated to Picard–Lefschetz vanishing cycles for plane curve singularities (see [5]).

1. Every family of subnormal operators in a Hilbert space fulfils the Halmos-Bram condition on a suitable dense subset of its domain [2], [3]. In [2] and [4] it is shown that the generalized commutation relation implies the Halmos-Bram condition for one operator. In this paper it is proved that the generalized commutation relation implies the Halmos-Bram condition for infinite families of operators (in a special case Jorgensen proved it in a different way for finite families of operators, see [2]) and as an example of the application of this property it is shown that every family of generalized creation operators in the Bargmann space of an infinite order, indexed by mutually orthogonal vectors from I2 is subnormal. See [1] for the definitions.

In this note we show that any derivation of a simple C*-algebra, whose range is not dense, is closable. We also derive a necessary and sufficient condition for a *-derivation of a C*-algebra, which is defined on the domain of a closed *- derivation, to be closed.

For an abelian extension L/K of number fields, the Equivariant Tamagawa Number Conjecture (ETNC) at s = 0, which is equivalent to the Lifted Root Number Conjecture (LRNC), implies Rubin's Conjecture by work of Burns [3]. We show that, for relative biquadratic extensions L/K satisfying a certain condition on the splitting of places, Rubin's Conjecture in turn implies the ETNC/LRNC. We conclude with some examples.

An N-tuple ℐ= (T1…, TN) of commuting contractions on a Hilbert space H is said to be a joint isometry if for all x in H, or, equivalently, if Athavale in [1] characterized the joint isometries as subnormal N-tuples whose minimal normal extensions have joint spectra in the unit sphere S2N−X a geometric perspective of this is given in [4]. Subsequently, V. Müller and F.-H. Vasilescu proved that commuting N-tuples which are joint contractions, i.e. , can be represented as restrictions of certain weighted shifts direct sum a joint isometry. In this paper we adapt the canonical models of [3], and also construct a new canonical model, which completes the previous descriptions by showing joint isometries are indeed restrictions of specific multivariable weighted shifts [2].

The trivial observation that every automorphism of a group is determined by its restriction to a set of generators suggests the converse question: if X is a subset of a group G such that each automorphism of G is determined (or “almost” determined) by its restriction to X, to what extent is the structure of G governed by that of the subgroup which X generates? Is this subgroup in some sense necessarily “large” in G? If the index of the subgroup is used as a measure of largeness, then in the absence of additional hypotheses, the answer to the second question is generally “no”, the additive group of rationals with X = {1} being an obvious counterexample. (More confounding is the existence of uncountable torsion-free abelian groups for which inversion is the only non-trivial automorphism. See, for example, [2], [3], and [4].) However, under certain finiteness assumptions, it seems that some positive conclusions are obtainable. One such example will be considered here.