We determine all conjugacy classes of maximal p-local subgroups of the Monster for p ≠ 2.

We determine all conjugacy classes of maximal local subgroups of Thompson's sporadic simple group, and all maximal non-local subgroups except those with socle isomorphic to one of five particular small simple groups.

A Kirkman square with index λ, latinicity μ, block size k and ν points, KSk(v; μ, λ), is a t × t array (t = λ(ν−1)/μ(k − 1)) defined on a ν-set V such that (1) each point of V is contained in precisely μ cells of each row and column, (2) each cell of the array is either empty or contains a k-subset of V, and (3) the collection of blocks obtained from the nonempty cells of the array is a (ν, k, λ)-BIBD. For μ = 1, the existence of a KSk(ν; μ, λ) is equivalent to the existence of a doubly resolvable (ν, k, λ)-BIBD. In this case the only complete results are for k = 2. The case k = 3, λ = 1 appears to be quite difficult although some existence results are available. For k = 3, λ = 2 the problem seems to be more tractable. In this paper we prove the existence of a KS3(ν; 1, 2) for all ν ≡ 3 (mod 12).

The quintuple product identity has appeared many times in the literature. Indeed, no fewer than 12 proofs have been given. We establish a more general identity from which the quintuple product identity follows in two ways.

We address the problem of describing all graphs Γ such that Aut Γ is a symmetric group, subject to certain restrictions on the sizes of the orbits of Aut Γ on vertices. As a corollary of our general results, we obtain a classification of all graphs Γ on v vertices with Aut Γ ≅ Sn, where ν < min{5n, ½n(n – 1)}.

A direct construction for partially resolvable t-partitions is presented and then used to give a recursive construction for BIBDs (ν, 4, 2). In particular, we construct BIBD(ν, 4, 2) with BIBD(ν, 4, 2) embedded in it whenever ν = 3u + a, a ∈ {1, 4, 7}. This result allows us to give simple proofs for the existence of BIBD(ν, 4, 2) with various additioinal properties.

The most general continuous time and state branching (C.B.) process (Xt) can be constructed as a certain random time transformation of a spectrally positive Levy process. When the generating process is compound Poisson with a superimposed negative linear drift and the C.B. process is not supercritical, then there is a random time T such that Xt+T = e-ctXT where c > 0 is the drift parameter. Thus T is the last epoch of random variation.

A space S is R*-embedded (G*-embedded) in a space X if two disjoint regular closed sets (closure disjoint open sets) of S are contained in disjoint regular closed sets (extended to closure disjoint open sets) of X. A space S is R-extendable to a space X if any regular closed set of S can be extended to a regular closed set of X. It is shown that R*-embedding and G*-embedding are identical with C*-embedding for certain fairly general classes of Tychonoff spaces. Under certain conditions it is shown that R-extendability is related to z-embedding. Spaces in which the regular open sets are C and C*-embedded are also investigated.

Recursively presented topological spaces are topological spaces with a recursive system of basic neighbourhoods. A recursively enumerable (r.e.) open set is a r.e. union of basic neighbourhoods. A set is everywhere r.e. open if its intersection with each basic neighbourhood is r.e. Similarly we define everywhere creative, everywhere simple, everywhere r.e. non-recursive sets and show that there exist sets both with and without these everywhere properties.

Notions of effective complementation in effective topological spaces are considered, and several types of non-complemented sets are constructed. While there are parallels with recursively enumerable sets, some unexpected differences appear. Finally, a pair of splitting theorems is proved.

In this paper, we prove the following results: (1) if a topological space X has a pair-countable, closure-preserving cover of compact sets, then X is locally paracompact at each point of X and X has a dense open subspace which is locally σ-compact. In addition, if X is also collectionwise-T2, then X is paracompact. Locally paracompact is taken to mean that each point X has an open set with paracompact closure.