An unknotting disc is the ‘trace’ in ℝ4 of a homotopy of a diagram of a knot in ℝ3, which shrinks the diagram to a point. In this paper we study unknotting discs which have as singularities only ordinary triple points. It turns out that the Arf invariant of the knot is determined by the number of triple points in which all three branches of the disc intersect pairwise with the same index. We call such a triple point coherent. This interpretation of the Arf invariant has a surprising consequence:

Let S ⊂ ℝ4 be a taut immersed sphere which has as singularities only ordinary triple points. Then the number of coherent triple points in S is even. For example, it is easy to show that there is a taut immersed sphere S with Euler number six of the normal bundle and which has exactly three ordinary double points and no other singularities. So, our result implies that the three double points of S can not be pushed together to create an ordinary triple point without the appearance of new singularities.

Here ‘taut’ means that the restriction of one of the coordinate functions on S has exactly two (non-degenerate) critical points, i.e. is a perfect Morse function.

In obtaining a solution of Laplace's equation in two dimensions by the method of conformal mapping, one first maps the points (x, y) of the Euclidean plane R2 into the algebra of complex numbers C by means of the real-linear function g: R2→C using the prescription g(x, y) = x + iy ≡ z. One then obtains solutions of Laplace's equation by allowing those mappings of C into itself that are expressed by analytic functions.

An identity of fundamental interest in General Relativity is the breakup or ‘decomposition’ of the scalar curvature density into an ordinary divergence in addition to a term constructed solely from the metric tensor and its first derivative. It is proven that this identity is the most elementary example of an identity satisfied by all members of a particularly important class of Riemannian invariants. For a subset of these invariants, the decomposition identity undergoes a simplification that connects this material with some problems of current research interest.

Let P be a fixed set of primes, the category of all groups and group-homomorphisms, and the full subcategory of nilpotent groups. In [9], an idempotent functor called P-localization, was defined so as to extend the ℤ-module-theoretic localization of abelian groups. There are two well-known extensions of e to , namely, Bousfield's P-localization [2], [4], denoted by EZP, and Ribenboim's P-localization [13], usually denoted by ( )P. Ribenboim's P-localization is the maximal extension among localizations extending e to in that it maximizes the number of groups in its image [7]. The localized groups obtained after applying Ribenboim's P-localization are precisely the P-local groups, that is, the groups having unique nth-root for every n whichis co-prime to P, [13]. Being maximal is equivalent to this class of P-localized groups being the saturated class of groups generated by e–equivalences, that is, group homomorphisms between nilpotent groups which become isomorphisms after applying e.

It is pointed out that many axiomatic systems include a condition of closure under binary composition. In the present development a study is made of the consequences of the weaker requirement of closure under ternary, or three-fold composition. As a preliminary step in the investigation, subsets of groups closed under n-fold multiplication are examined and characterized abstractly. Attention is then focused upon ternary algebras defined as linear subspaces of ℬ (ℋ) (bounded operators on some Hilbert space ℋ) closed under three-fold multiplication. These are shown to satisfy, under suitable conditions, a secondanticommutanttheorem, the analogue of the second commutant theorem which holds for (binary) algebras. It is a result which provides a useful technique for studying such ternary algebras, the structure of which are examined in some detail.

Let G be a group such that

(1) G is finitely presented with deficiency one,

(2) G/G' is infinite cyclic, with a distinguished generator t.

The following work arises from the study of a rotating fluid contained in a rectangular vessel whose depth depends on one coordinate only.

We give a local estimate of the shape of Schottky space at certain boundary points. This is done by studying the geometric limits of sequences of cyclic groups and applying the results to the generators of Schottky groups. We also obtain information on discrete, non-faithful representations close to the cusps.

Recently, through a repeated application of one-dimensional finite integral transforms, Cinelli(1) gave a solution for the temperature distribution in a hollow circular cylinder of finite length. Since no new ideas or techniques are introduced, the extension claimed in (1) with regard to the finite Hankel transform technique employed in the transformation of the radial space variable in the hollow cylinder problem is trivial, in view of well-known works by Sneddon(2) and Tranter (3), to mention a few. The list of the finite Hankel transforms given in (1) for a variety of boundary conditions at r = a and r = b is the result of routine, algebraic manipulations well known from the general theory of eigenvalue problems specialized for the hollow cylinder. In this list a set of seemingly different series expansions is given for the inverse Hankel transform for each combination of boundary conditions at the two radial surfaces. In each case, the two expressions for inversion can readily be shown to be identical to each other when use is made of the frequency equation. One of the inversion forms is therefore unnecessary once the other is given. Furthermore, the general solution as given by equation (54) of Cinelli(1)does not satisfy his boundary conditions (27), (28), (29) and (30), unless these latter are homogeneous.

1. A series with partial sums {An} is said to be summable (e, c) (c > 0) if

exists, where it is to be understood that An+k = 0 when n+k < 0. The (e, c)-sum-mability method which is a regular method of summation was introduced by Hardy and Littlewood (3) (cf. also (5)) as an auxiliary method to prove the Tauberian theorem for Borel summability, viz, if Σan is summable (B) to A and an = 0(n−½), then it converges to A.

Considering a certain partition of a given compact region in the complex plane, interpolatory, convergence and quasiconformal properties of interpolants from the class of continuous piecewise functions with pieces as quadratic polynomials in z and were studied recently in [3] and [7]. In the present paper we succeed in showing that the foregoing mapping properties continue to hold for interpolants from a certain class of continuous piecewise rational polynomial functions in z and

Suppose we have a sample of N independent random variables X1, …, XN where Xi has the distribution F(X|θ, øi). θ is a k-dimensional ‘structural’ parameter (θ(1), …, θ(k)), and the øi are scalar or vector ‘incidental’ parameters in some given space. The Xi may be scalar or vector random variables which are either discrete in which case we write f(X|θ, øi) for the probability associated with a given point, or else continuous random variables with a probability density f(X|θ, øi). In either case we sup pose the support of the probability distribution to be fixed. We aim to estimate the true value of θ by maximum-likelihood methods.

Analysis of projections of a convex body is a familiar topic in tomography. However, instead of considering standard projection bodies, this work investigates a convex body introduced by Schneider [8] which is a Minkowski average of projections. The question addressed here is similar to that posed by Goodey and Weil [4] with respect to Minkowski averages of sections, as opposed to projections, that is, can the shape of a convex body be determined from random sections? Their main result shows that a body K is determined by the average of its two-dimensional sections, but not by the average of its one-dimensional sections. The goal of this study is to uncover the extent to which a convex body is determined by the average of its projections.

In an earlier paper we studied the impact of equivalences between derived categories of group rings on their cohomology rings. Especially the group of auto-equivalences TrPic(RG) of the derived category of a group ring RG as introduced by Raphaël Rouquier and the author defines an action on the cohomology ring of this group. We study this action with respect to the restriction map, transfer, conjugation and the local structure of the group G.

This paper derives some sufficient conditions for the global validity of projective relativity theory. The basic object of study is the infinitesimal bundle, which is a generalization of a principal circle bundle. A method ofconstructing infinitesimal bundles is developed. The main result is that ifspacetime is non-compact and simply connected, and has a finite homology basis, then projective relativity is globally valid.

1. We write L for the class of integrable functions in (− ∞, ∞), V for the class of functions of bounded variation, and define A, A to be the classes of functions F(x) which may be expressed in the forms

respectively.

Let D be the unit disc in the complex plane ℂ with centre 0 and let ∂D be its boundary. By Möb (D) we denote the group of all Möbius transformations which leave D invariant. A Fuchsian group G acting on D is a discrete subgroup of Möb (D). The limit set of G is in ∂D. We decompose ∂D into the following three disjoint sets: