The problem considered is that of the diffraction of sound pulses by a plane interface separating two stratified media in each of which the refractive index increases with distance from the interface. Two types of diffraction phenomena occur, glancing ray diffraction and total reflection. The solution is obtained as a series of ‘pulse propagation modes’, using a double transform technique. The main results are some formulae for the pulse field near a diffracted wavefront.

1. Introduction. This note is a sequel to (1), the notation of which will be used without further explanation. In (2), certain deductions from the theorems proved in (1) were made in the case where K(x, t) is derived from a function K(x), a.c. in [0, 1], by the equation

1. The surface here discussed arises most naturally in the study of a certain cubic primal in space of five dimensions. Let G be a cubic primal in five-dimensional space, containing two planes M1, M2 which do not intersect. From any point of G can be drawn one transversal to M1, M2; this does not meet G again, and meets a fixed prime p in one point. Thus G can be birationally projected upon p, and is rational.

If the series Σαn is convergent, it follows that Σαnzn is uniformly convergent in a Stolz angle at z = 1 ((7), p. 229). It was shown in (3) that for the Ces methods (C, α) with α > – 1, and for a certain class of general Nörlund means (containing (C, α) for 0 < α ≤ 1), summability of Σαn implies uniform summability in a Stolz angle at z = 1. In section 2 we prove this theorem for a class of methods which satisfy a mean value property ((6), p. 31), and for a wider class of Nörlund methods which includes (C, α) for all α > 0. An analog is also proved for absolute summability.

How many 2-cells must two finite CW-complexes have to admit a common, but not finite common, covering? Leighton’s theorem says that both complexes must have 2-cells. We construct an almost (?) minimal example with two 2-cells in each complex.

The method of Part I(3) is applied to problems involving boundary conditions on an equatorial plane.

Let f be a real-valued function of two real variables. It is well known(5) that the Lebesgue measurability or even upper semicontinuity of all the sections fx and fy does not imply the measurability of f. Lipiński proved (3) that there exists a non-measurable function f such that each section fx and fy is Baire one, has the Darboux property, and fails to be approximately continuous at no more than one point. Davies (1) noted that the continuum hypothesis implies the existence of a non-measurable function f, such that each fy is measurable and each fx approximately continuous. Ursell (6) proved that if each fy is measurable and each fx continuous (or monotonic), then f is measurable.

The differential equation

which is of importance in boundary-layer theory, has recently been discussed in detail for all non-negative values of the parameter λ(1). I wish to point out here that when λ = − 1 the equation can be solved completely in terms of known functions.

1. Let F be an irreducible surface in [4] with apparent triple points, t in number; let P be an arbitrary point in the space and p1,…,pt the trisecant lines which can be drawn through P. Then, if F lies on at least ∞1 cubic primals, any one of these which passes through P will contain p1,…,pt in consequence and the linear system will be compounded of the congruence of trisecant lines of F. By a well-known theorem it follows that the grade of the system is zero. The free surface of intersection Φ of two cubic primals will be ruled, having t generators, each a trisecant of F, passing through every point on it.

We determine the stable decompositions of the classifying spaces of metacyclic 2-groups into wedges of indecomposable spectra. The stable decompositions of classifying spaces of finite groups with metacyclic 2-Sylow subgroups are also determined.

Let γ be an irreducible variety of dimension d, and let In denote an involution of order n on Γ. The image of In is a variety C, also irreducible and of dimension d, and Γ is said to be a multiple of C. Among the possible multiples of a given variety C there is a class of particular interest; this arises when the involution In possesses the following properties:

(1) it is unramified, that is, in every set of the involution the n points are all distinct;

(2) it is generated by an Abelian group G of order n of birational transformations of Γ into itself. Given any point P of Γ the n transformations of G transform P into n points P1 = P, P2, …, Pn which constitute a set of In. The two conditions together imply that the function field κ of Γ is an unramified Abelian Galois extension of the function field k of C, and this shows that the study of the particular class of multiple varieties—which we may call normal multiple varieties when it is necessary to give a name to them—is analogous to the study of a well-known branch of the theory of numbers.

Let G be a monoid; that is to say, G is a set such that with each pair σ, τ of elements of G there is associated a further element of G called the ‘product’ of σ and τ and written as στ. In addition it is required that multiplication be associative and that G shall have a unit element. The so-called ‘Homology Theory’† associates with each left G-module A and each integer n (n ≥ 0) an additive Abelian group Hn (G, A), called the nth homology group of G with coefficients in A. It is natural to ask what can be said about G if all the homology groups of G after the pth vanish identically in A. In this paper we give a complete answer to this question in the case when G is an Abelian group. Before describing the main result, however, it will be convenient to define what we shall call the homology type of G. We write Hn(G, A) ≡ 0 if Hn(G, A) = 0 for all left G-modules A.

The classical configuration connected with the names of Miquel and Clifford associates with a set of n straight lines in a plane a point called their Miquel point when n is even, and a circle, their Clifford circle, when n is odd. When the number of lines n in a set is even, the omission of these, one at a time, gives n subsets whose associated Clifford circles are concurrent at the Miquel point of the original set; when n is odd, the omission of the lines one at a time gives n subsets whose associated Miquel points are concyclic on the Clifford circle of the original set. To start the chain, it is only necessary to define the Miquel point of two lines as their common point.

Integral transformations analogous to the Nörlund means have been introduced and investigated by Kuttner, Knopp and Vanderburg(6), (5), (4). It is known that with any regular Nörlund mean (N, p) there is associated a function

regular for |z| < 1, and if we have two Nörlund means (N, p) and (N, r), where (N, pr is regular, while the function is regular for |z| ≤ 1 and different) from zero at z = 1, then q(z) = r(z)p(z) belongs to a regular Nörlund mean (N, q). Concerning Nörlund means Peyerimhoff(7) and Miesner (3) have recently obtained the relation between the convergence fields of the Nörlund means (N, p) and (N, r) on the one hand and the convergence field of the Nörlund mean (N, q) on the other hand.

1. Introduction. A Markov Renewal Process (MRP) with m(<∞) states is one which records at each time t, the number of times a system visits each of the m states up to time t, if the system moves from state to state according to a Markov chain with transition probability matrix P0 = [pij] and if the time required for each successive move is a random variable whose distribution function (d.f.) depends on the two states between which the move is made. Thus, if the system moves from state i to state j, the holding time in the state i has Fij(x) as its d.f. (i, j = 1,2, …, m).

The following matrix problems are well known in quantum mechanics:

(a) The one-dimensional harmonic oscillator. Given

determine the eigenvalues hjj of H, and the matrix elements of X, P if H is diagonal. It is found (Wigner (4)) that

A proof by means of graphical techniques is given of an inequality conjectured by Nakanishi concerning the Feynman integrand for any term in the perturbation expansion of the scattering amplitude.

It is proved that every locally convex space is linearly homeomorphic to a subspace of a space which admits no non-trivial continuous linear functionals.

Let p be an odd prime and G = HB be a semi-direct product where H is a cyclic, p-Sylow subgroup and B is finite Abelian. If K is a field of characteristic p the isomorphism classes of KG-modules relative to direct sum and tensor product generate a ring a(G) called the representation ring of G over K. If K is algebraically closed it is shown in (4) that there is a ring isomorphism a(G) ≃ a(HB2)⊗a(B1) where B1 is the kernel of the action of B on H and B2 = B/B1.> 2, Aut (H) is cyclic thus HB2 is metacyclic. The study of the multiplicative structure of a(G) is thus reduced to that of the known rings a(B1) and a(HB2) (see (3)).

We prove that if K is a nontrivial null-homotopic knot in a closed oriented 3–manfiold Y such that $Y-K$ does not have an $S^1\times S^2$ summand, then the zero surgery on K does not have an $S^1\times S^2$ summand. This generalises a result of Hom and Lidman, who proved the case when Y is an irreducible rational homology sphere.