A calibration of degree k ∈ ℕ on a Riemannian manifold M is a closed differential k-form θ such that the integral of θ over every k-dimensional, oriented submanifold N is smaller or equal to the Riemannian volume of N. A calibration θ is said to calibrate N if θ restricts to the oriented volume form of N. We investigate conditions on a calibration θ that ensure the existence of submanifolds calibrated by θ. The cases k = 1 and k > 1 turn out to be essentially different. Our main result says that, on a compact manifold M, a calibration θ calibrates a lamination if θ is simple, of class C1, and if θ has minimal comass norm in its cohomology class.

Recently the so-called Atiyah conjecture about l2-Betti numbers has been disproved. The counterexamples were found using a specific method of computing the spectral measure of a matrix over a complex group ring. We show that in many situations the same method allows to compute homology gradients, i.e. generalisations of l2-Betti numbers to fields of arbitrary characteristic. As an application we point out that (i) the homology gradient over any field of characteristic different than 2 can be an irrational number, and (ii) there exists a finite CW-complex with the property that the homology gradients of its universal cover taken over different fields have infinitely many different values.

We prove Davis decompositions for vector valued Hardy martingales and illustrate their use. This paper continues the work in [18] and [19] on Davis and Garsia Inequalities.

We prove that for random affine code tree fractals the affinity dimension is almost surely equal to the unique zero of the pressure function. As a consequence, we show that the Hausdorff, packing and box counting dimensions of such systems are equal to the zero of the pressure. In particular, we do not presume the validity of the Falconer–Sloan condition or any other additional assumptions which have been essential in all the previously known results.

Starting from their defining presentation by generators and relations, we develop the basic structure and representation theory of generalised q-Schur algebras of finite type.

We define a quasi-Fatou component of a quasiregular map as a connected component of the complement of the Julia set. A domain in ℝd is called hollow if it has a bounded complementary component. We show that for each d ⩾ 2 there exists a quasiregular map of transcendental type f: ℝd → ℝd with a quasi-Fatou component which is hollow.

Suppose that U is a hollow quasi-Fatou component of a quasiregular map of transcendental type. We show that if U is bounded, then U has many properties in common with a multiply connected Fatou component of a transcendental entire function. On the other hand, we show that if U is not bounded, then it is completely invariant and has no unbounded boundary components. We show that this situation occurs if J(f) has an isolated point, or if J(f) is not equal to the boundary of the fast escaping set. Finally, we deduce that if J(f) has a bounded component, then all components of J(f) are bounded.