In order to model biological reactions, distances between knots/links based on tangle replacement are defined. Given a tangle R, an R-move is defined as the replacement of the zero tangle in a link L with the tangle R. The R-distance between the link L and the link M is defined to be the minimum number of R-moves required to change L into M where the minimum is taken over all diagrams of the link L. A formula is given to determine when one 4-plat knot/link can be obtained from another 4-plat via one R-move when R is a rational tangle and not equal to the 1/n tangle. The formula can also be used to find all rational tangles R for which the R-distance between two given 4-plats is 1 except in the case R = 1/n tangle. These results are also generalized to the case when any rational tangle P is replaced with any rational tangle R, P not necessarily the zero tangle.

Let A be an artin algebra over a commutative artin ring R, mod A be the category of finitely generated right A-modules, and rad∞ (modA) be the infinite power of the Jacobson radical rad(modA) of modA. Recall that A is said to be representation-finite if mod A admits only finitely many non-isomorphic indecomposable modules. It is known that A is representation-finite if and only if rad∞ (mod A) = 0. Moreover, from the validity of the First Brauer–Thrall Conjecture [26, 2] we know that A is representation-finite if and only if there is a common bound on the length of indecomposable modules in mod A.

This paper is concerned with topologies for vector lattices (in the sense of (1)) or spaces that satisfy the axioms K 1, 2, 3′ and 4 of (5) that are given by neighbourhoods. The notions of convergence introduced by Kantorovitch(5) and Birkhoff(1) do not in general lead to topologies which can be denned in terms of open sets, as, even for directed systems, the notion of closure derived from them is not such that the closure of every set is closed. In order to ensure this Kantorovitch introduces an axiom (his K6) which excludes even some Banach lattices. These notions of convergence are based more on the lattice aspect than the vector-space aspect of a vector lattice. In this paper the reverse is true, and it deals essentially with the application of the theory of topological vector spaces, as developed by von Neumann(9), Mackey (6, 7) and others, to vector lattices.

The essential difference between mobile and immobile adsorbed films of gases on solids when there is repulsive interaction between adsorbed particles is discussed. Ordinary statistical methods can be applied to the equilibrium configurations of the particles in a mobile film but not to immobile films. Films formed by the adsorption of diatomic molecules with dissociation are then considered. It is pointed out that for a mobile (equilibrium) film there are differences between the true heat of adsorption and the apparent heat obtained from the temperature variation of the evaporation rate. A detailed comparison is made by obtaining a formula for the apparent heat of evaporation and comparing it with that for the true heat obtained earlier by Wang, and the physical reasons for the differences are discussed. A model suitable for studying the pseudo-equilibrium states in immobile films is described and formulae and diagrams in connexion with the kinetics of the formation of such films and the variation of heat of adsorption with fraction of surface covered are given.

In a simple homogeneous birth-and-death process with λ and μ as the constant birth and death rates respectively, let X(t) denote the population size at time t, Z(t) the number of deaths and N(t) the number of events (births and deaths combined) occurring during (0, t). Also let . The results obtained include the following:

(a) An explicit formula for the characteristic quasi-probability generating function of the joint distribution of X(t), Y(t) and Z(t).

(b) Let X(0) = 1. It is shown that, if t → ∞ while λ ≤ μ, N(t) ↑ N a.s., where N takes only positive odd integral values. If λ > μ, then P[N(t) ↑ ∞] = 1 − μ/λ. Given that N(t)∞, the limiting distribution of N(t) is similar to that of N. It was reported earlier (Puri (11)), that the limiting distribution of Y(t) is a weighted average of certain chi-square distributions. It is now found that these weights are nothing but the probabilities P[N = 2k + 1] (k = 0, 1,…).

(c) Let λ = μ, and MXω), MYω and MZω be defined as in (36), then as

where the c.f. of (X*; Y*; Z*) is given by (38).

(d) Exact expressions for the p.d.f. of Y(t) are derived for the cases (i) λ = 0, μ > 0, (ii) λ > 0, μ = 0. For the case (iii) λ gt; 0, μ > 0, since the complete expression is complicated, only the procedure of derivation is indicated.

(e) Finally, it is shown that the regressions of Y(t) and of Z(t) on X(t) are linear for X(t) ≥ 1.

The theory of time-periodic wave problems falls into two parts. On the one hand there is the rigorous formulation in terms of differential wave equations, on the other there are approximate theories like geometrical optics. It should be possible, in principle, to deduce the latter from the former by a logical process; but this has been done only for a few simple configurations, e.g. the circle. A possible approach to the solution of the general problem is suggested here, and is applied to a typical two-dimensional acoustical example. An arbitrary closed convex curve (satisfying certain regularity conditions) is emitting short sound waves towards infinity, the normal velocity V(s) exp (− iωt) is prescribed on the curve as a function of the arc-length s, and the potential is to be found, first on the curve and then at any point in the sound field. (Only the first part of the problem is treated in detail.) The potential ø(s) exp (− iωt) on the curve satisfies all the integral equations

where G(s, s′) is any Green's function of the problem, and V(a) is prescribed. All the equations corresponding to different Green's functions have the same solution. An asymptotic and convergent short-wave solution can be found by iteration if G can be chosen explicitly so that the integral equation has a small kernel for high frequencies. At any point of the curve draw the local circle of curvature; then the explicit known solution for a source on this circle is (with slight modifications) a possible Green's function, and the equation formed with it has a small kernel and can be solved rigorously by iteration. If V(a) is independent of the frequency, the leading term in the resulting asymptotic expansion is

where c is the velocity of sound and 2πk−1 is the (short) wavelength corresponding to the frequency ω/2π. If V(a) varies rapidly, as in diffraction theory, the iterative solution still gives a convergent asymptotic expansion, but the first approximation is then practically useless in the shadow region. Diffraction problems are not treated in the present paper.

The present work appears to be the first practical and rigorous solution of a short-wave problem in optics or acoustics when a solution in closed form is not available. It is suggested that the technique (suitably combined with formal expansions) may be applicable to a wider class of radiation and diffraction problems.

In a study of the properties of hydrogen on tungsten by the method of contact potentials the following points have been established:

(1) The contact potential of a 92% covered surface of hydrogen on tungsten against bare tungsten is 1·04 V., and the Richardson constants for such a surface are, approximately,

A = 30, b = 5·60 V.

(2) A film of deuterium is 20 m V. positive relative to a similar hydrogen film.

(3) Over the range of temperatures and pressures used by Bryce in a study of the production of atomic hydrogen the films are nearly saturated, so that the production of atomic hydrogen is primarily due to a molecule striking a bare tungsten atom, one atom being adsorbed and the other going into the gas phase.

(4)The condensation coefficient for hydrogen molecules on cold tungsten is 0·01.

(5) The effective dipole moment of each hydrogen atom on the surface is −0·42 Debye unit and is independent of the fraction of the surface covered.

The Feynman method of quantization by summation over q-histories is extended to a summation over q, p-histories, corresponding to the classical variational method of treating q and p as independent variables. The equivalence of this q-p summation to the usual quantization procedure is shown in the Heisenberg picture by choosing convenient canonical coordinates and in the Schrödinger picture by obtaining the usual representations of the q, p operators.

A train of surface waves (water waves under gravity) is normally incident on a cylinder with horizontal generators fixed near the free surface, and is partially transmitted and partially reflected. At a great distance behind the cylinder the wave motion tends to a regular wave train travelling towards infinity; the ratio of its amplitude to the amplitude of the incident wave is the transmission coefficient . The transmission coefficient is studied when the wavelength is short compared to the dimensions of the body; physically (though not for engineering applications) this is the most interesting range of wavelengths, which corresponds to the range of shadow formation and ray propagation in optics and acoustics. The waves are then confined to a thin layer near the free surface, and the transmission under a partially immersed obstacle is then small. In the calculation the boundary condition at the free surface is linearized, viscosity is neglected, and the motion is assumed to be irrotational.

At present the transmission coefficient is known only for a few configurations, all of them relating to infinitely thin plane barriers. A method is now given which is applicable to cylinders of finite cross-section and which is worked out in detail for a half-immersed cylinder of circular cross-section. The solution of the problem is made to depend on the solution of an integral equation which is solved by iteration. Only the first two terms can be obtained with any accuracy, and it appears at first that this is not sufficient to give the leading term in the transmission coefficient at short wavelengths; this difficulty is characteristic of transmission problems. By various mathematical devices which throw light on the mechanism of wave transmission, it is, nevertheless, found possible to prove that the transmission coefficient for waves of short wavelength λ and period 2π/ω incident on a half-immersed circular cylinder of radius a is asymptotically given by

when N = 2πα/λ = ω2α/g is large. Earlier evidence had pointed towards an exponential law. It is suggested that transmission coefficients of order N−4 are typical for obstacles having vertical tangents and finite non-zero radius of curvature at the points where they meet the horizontal mean free surface. For obstacles having both front and rear face plane vertical to a depth a, is probably of order e−2N approximately; if only one of the two faces is plane vertical, is probably of order e−N approximately. Thus is seen to depend critically on the details of the cross-section.

1. Introduction. In this note Abel-type summability methods (Aλ) are defined and some of their properties investigated.

Let

and let {sn} be any sequence of numbers. If

is convergent for all x in the open interval (0,1) and tends to a finite limit s as x → 1 in (0,1), we shall say that the sequence is Aλ-convergent to s and write sn → s (Aλ;). The A0 method is the ordinary Abel method.

Let U be an invariant component of the Fatou set of an entire transcendental function f such that the iterates of f tend to ∞ in U. Let P(f) be the closure of the set of the forward orbits of all critical and asymptotic values of f. We show that there exists a sequence pn∈P(f) such that dist(pn, U) = o(|pn|), where dist(·, ·) denotes Euclidean distance. On the other hand, we give an example where dist (P(f), U) > 0. In this example, U is bounded by a Jordan curve.

In this paper, we will study the local cohomology modules HiI(S) of a polynomial ring S = k[x1, …, xn] with supports in a (radical) monomial ideal I. When S/I is a Cohen–Macaulay ring of dimension d (more generally, if Extn−d(S/I, [wfr ]S) is Cohen–Macaulay), we can ‘visualize’ a ℤn-graded minimal injective resolution of Hn−dI(S) using Stanley–Reisner's simplicial complex of I.

In a recent paper (1) I described a method for the numerical evaluation of zeros of the Bessel functions Jn(z) and Yn(z), which was independent of computed values of these functions. The essence of the method was to regard the zeros ρ of the cylinder function

as a function of t and to solve numerically the third-order non-linear differential equation satisfied by ρ(t). It has since been successfully used to compute ten-decimal values of jn, s, yn, s, the sth positive zeros* of Jn(z), Yn(z) respectively, in the ranges n = 10 (1) 20, s = 1(1) 20. During the course of this work it was realized that the least satisfactory feature of the new method was the time taken for the evaluation of the first three or four zeros in comparison with that required for the higher zeros; the direct numerical technique for integrating the differential equation satisfied by ρ(t) becomes unwieldy for the small zeros and a different technique (described in the same paper) must be employed. It was also apparent that no mere refinement of the existing methods would remove this defect and that a new approach was required if it was to be eliminated. The outcome has been the development of the method to which the first part (§§ 2–6) of this paper is devoted.

A globally convergent algorithm is presented for the total, or partial, factorization of a polynomial. Firstly, a circle is found containing all the zeros. Secondly, a search procedure locates smaller circles, each containing a zero, and the multiplicities are then calculated. Thirdly, a simultaneous Iteration Function is used to accelerate convergence. The Iteration Function is chosen from a class of such functions derived herein to deal with the general case of multiple zeros; various properties of these functions are also discussed. Finally, sample numerical results are given which demon-strate the effectiveness of the algorithm.

Various authors have discussed the ‘disjunctive compound’ of games with the last player winning (Grundy(2); Guy and Smith (3); Smith (4)). We attempt here to analyse the disjunctive compound with the last player losing, though unfortunately with less complete success. The problem was explored tentatively by the first named author, but the rigorous development is due to the second.

The early experiments of Lenard(1), Leithauser(2), and Becker(3) on cathode rays led to the exponential law of absorption; those of Rutherford(4), Schmidt(5) and Hahn and Meitner(6) on β-rays indicated that the rays from some radioactive bodies were absorbed exponentially and that those from others were not. It was considered by Hahn and Meitner that the exponential law of absorption was an indication of the homogeneity of the rays. It was found also that the exponential law was not disturbed by the thickness of radiating material and this led to the conclusion that the rays are not appreciably reduced in velocity on their passage through matter. The theories of McClelland(7) and Schmidt(8) attributed the absorption to the stoppage of particles in mid-career.

In this paper, the general hydrodynamic theory of visco-inelastic, incompressible, non-Newtonian fluids, developed in a previous paper (l), is applied to the problem of the flow of such a fluid through a tube of circular cross-section. It is found that the absolute values of the normal stress components are no longer uniform over a cross-section of the tube normal to its axis, as in the case of Newtonian fluids obeying the laws of classical hydrodynamics.

However, the pressure difference, between points at equal radii on two planes normal to the axis, is independent of the position of these points on the planes.

This paper treats the local study of singularities by means of their tangent cones, more specifically the study of graded rings associated to an ideal of a local ring. We recall some basic facts: let (R, ) be a local ring, I, J ideals of R, such that J ⊆ I; then GR/J(I / J), the graded ring associated to I / J, is canonically isomorphic to the quotient of GR(I) modulo a homogeneous ideal, which is called J*, and which is generated by the so-called ‘initial forms’ of the elements of J. Let us consider the following example: Let k be a field, R = k[X, Y, Z](x, y, Z), I = (X, Y, Z)R, J the prime ideal generated by fl, f2 where f1 = Y3 − Z2, f2 = YZ − X4. Then

and it is easily seen that J* properly contains the ideal generated by the initial forms f*1f*2 of f1, f2; namely f*1 = − Z2, f*2 = YZ and (Yf1 + Zf2)* = Y4 ∉ (−Z2, YZ).

1. The singularities of solutions of linear partial differential equations are most appropriately described in terms of wave front sets of distributions. (For the definition and properties of wave front sets, see (4) and (5).) In particular, let Ω ⊂ RN be an open set and let P be a linear partial differential operator defined on Ω, with smooth coefficients, real principal symbol p(x, ξ), and simple characteristics. Then if u ∈ ′ (Ω) and Pu = 0, the wave front set of u, WF(u), is a set in the cotangent bundle T*Ω (minus the zero section) that is contained in p−1(0) and is invariant under the flow generated in p−1(0) by the Hamiltonian vector field (gradξp, − gradxp). In other words, WF(u) is made up of bicharacteristic strips. This is a special case of an important theorem due to Hörmander (5), and Duistermaat and Hörmander (1), which generalizes classical results on the relation between discontinuities of solutions of a partial differential equation and the characteristics of the equation.

Let be a standard d-dimensional Brownian motion and L a smooth functional on the space C = Cd[0, 1] of continuous functions from [0,1] to Rd, such that Denote Then

is a square integrable martingale which can be represented as a stochastic integral; consequently the random variable has the representation

For Fréchet differentiable functions L, Clark(1) gave the following formula for the integrand e: