Complex (associative) H*-algebras were introduced and studied in detail by Ambrose[1]; it was proved that every complex H*-algebra with zero annihilator is the l2-sum of a suitable family of topologically simple complex H*-algebras and that the H*-algebras (H) of all Hilbert-Schmidt operators on any complex Hilbert space H are the only topologically simple complex H*-algebras. In a recent paper [2] Balachandran and Swaminathan observe that the reduction of the theory of real H*-algebras to the topologically simple case follows easily with minor changes of the complex argument, and they prove a theorem describing topologically simple real H*-algebras. This theorem can be equivalently reformulated as follows.

Many facts in the theory of general Riesz spaces are easily verified by thinking in terms of spaces of functions. A proof via this insight is said to use representation theory. In recent years a growing number of authors has successfully been trying to bypass representation theorems, judging them to be extraneous. (See, for instance, [9,10].) In spite of the positive aspects of these efforts the following can be said. Firstly, avoiding representation theory does not always make the facts transparent. Reading the more cumbersome constructions and procedures inside the Riesz space itself one feels the need for a pictorial representation with functions, and one suspects the author himself of secret heretical thoughts. Secondly, the direct method leads to repeating constructions of the same nature over and over again.

Given an embedding of an oriented surface F in an oriented three-manifold M and a homeomorphism h of F, one can construct another three-manifold Mn by cutting M along F and re-glueing the two boundary components using h. Let F be a genus two surface and r the involution which exhibits F as the 2-fold branched cover of S2 branched over six points. In this special case we call Mr the mutation of M along F.

It is found that Kasparov's technical lemma may be proved for b*-algebras by a generalization of the techniques used in recent proofs for the C*-algebra case. An application of this result enables us to prove a standard lifting problem for b*-algebras.

By a complex function space A we will mean a uniformly closed linear space of continuous complex-valued functions on a compact Hausdorff space X, such that A contains constants and separates the points of X. We denote by S the state-space

endowed with the w*-topology. If A is self-adjoint then it is well known (cf. [1]) that A is naturally isometrically isomorphic to , and re A is naturally isometrically isomorphic to A(S), where (respectively A(S)) denotes the Banach space of all complex-valued (respectively real-valued) continuous affine functions on S with the supremum norm.

F. Riesz's ‘Representation Theorem’ has been proved by methods classical [11, 12], category-theoretic [7], and functional-analytic [2, 9]. (Garling's remarkable proofs [5, 6] owe their brevity to the combined strength of these and other methods.) These proofs often reveal a connection between the Riesz theorem and some unexpected area of mathematics.

In a recent paper [39] the second author established sufficient conditions for a Nörlund matrix (N, p) to be stronger than a Cesaro matrix (C, α) of order α, for some positive α. This result was then used to show that a number of known theorems dealing with the Nörlund summability of Fourier series, or related series, can be more easily established, since the conditions placed on the Nörlund matrix imply that it is stronger than some (C, α) method, for which the summability theorem has already been established.

In this paper we discuss homogeneous Diophantine approximation of points on smooth manifolds M in ℝk. We begin with a brief survey of the notation and results. For any x,y ∈ℝk, let

.

Assuming that the nth iterate of the Laplacian Δnf belongs to L∞(ℝ), we show for 0 < k < 2n that

where ∂/∂ξi is the derivative in the ei direction. The result is also extended to other Banach spaces of functions on ℝd.

The theory of bi-orthogonal polynomials is exploited to investigate the location of zeros of truncated expansions in orthogonal polynomials. It turns out that, subject to additional conditions, these zeros can be confined to certain real intervals. Two general techniques are being used: the first depends on a theorem that links strict sign consistency of a generating function to loci of zeros and the second consists of re-expression of transformations from [3] in an orthogonal basis.

An easy way to construct the representing vector measures of weakly compact operators on C(Ω) is given by using the Loeb measure technique. This construction is not based on the Riesz representation theorem for linear functionals; thus we have a uniform way to treat the scalar and vector cases. Also the star finite representations of regular vector measures follow from the proof.

The tauberian theorems concerning power-bounded elements of Banach algebras studied by Katznelson and Tzafriri, Allan, O'Farrell and Ransford and Allan are considered, and it is shown that (almost) exactly the same results are true for power-bounded elements in a very large class of locally convex topological algebras, the pseudo-complete algebras. The submultiplicativity of the Banach algebra norm is, for once, inessential to the proof of these theorems.

The following elegant one-sided large deviation result is given by S. V. Nagaev in [2].

Theorem 0. Suppose that {Sn,n ≤ 0} is a random walk whose increments Xi are independent copies of X, where(X) = 0 and

Pr{X > x} ̃ x−αL(x) as x→ + ∞,

and where 1 < α < ∞ and L is slowly varying at ∞. Then for any ε > 0 and uniformly in x ≥ εn

Pr{Sn > x} ̃ n Pr{X > x} as n→∞.

It is the purpose of this note to point out that for lattice-valued random walks there is an analogous local limit theorem.

We consider the problem of amenability for a commutative Banach algebra. The question of amenability for a Banach algebra was first studied by B. E. Johnson in 1972, in [5]. The most recent contributions, to our knowledge, are papers by Bade, Curtis and Dales [1], and by Curtis and Loy [3]. In the first, amenability for Lipschitz algebras on a compact metric space K is studied. Using the fact, which they prove, that LipαK is isometrically isomorphic to the second dual of lipαK, for 0 < α < 1, they show that lipαK is not amenable when K is infinite and 0 < α < 1. In the second paper, the authors prove, without using any serious cohomology theory, some results proved earlier by Khelemskii and Scheinberg [8] using cohomology. They also discuss the amenability of Lipschitz algebras, using the result that a weakly complemented closed two-sided ideal in an amenable Banach algebra has a bounded approximate identity. Their result is stronger than that of [1].

By investigating a Markov chain whose limiting distribution corresponds to that of the Dirichlet process we are able directly to ascertain conditions for the existence of linear functionals of that process. Together with earlier analyses we are able to characterize those functionals which are a.s. finite in terms of the parameter measure of the process. We also show that the appropriate Markov chain in the space of measures is only weakly convergent and not Harris ergodic.

This paper is concerned with expressions of the form

where fa(x) = ax. Thus we have

Such expressions have been described variously as continued exponentials, iterated exponentials, towers of exponents or hyperpowers. We shall frequently make use of their elementary properties, as for example

and

A classical theorem of Weyl [7] guarantees that the eigenvalues, ordered according to decreasing absolute values, of a symmetric kernel of class Cm (m ≥ 0) satisfy λn = o(n−m−½). Reade [5, 6] recently proved that if K is, in addition, positive definite, then λn = o(n−m−1;). He has also in [4] made similar improvements of classical spectral estimates for kernels of class Lip α. James Cochran pointed out to me that allied theorems for trigonometric Fourier coefficients seem to have been neglected in the literature. The trigonometric versions turn out to be elementary; nevertheless, in their conclusions concerning the decreasing rearrangement {f^*(n)} they generalize known results about the behaviour of monotone trigonometric transforms. Furthermore they suggest that the Cm hypothesis of Reade's theorem could be relaxed.

In a recent paper Mountford [4] showed, using an ingenious probabilistic argument, that if X is a real-valued stable process with index α < 1 and f: [0, ∞) → ℝ is a non-constant continuous function, then

where we use the notation |A| for the Lebesgue measure of a Lebesgue measurable set A ⊂ ℝ. The argument in [4] appears to make strong use of the strict scaling properties of X and the ‘intermediate value’ property of f.

The general problem can be stated as follows. Take a Brownian motion Bt started at − x < 0, and consider the additive functional At = ∫L(a,t)m(da), where L(a, t) is the Brownian local time. We suppose that m = m+ — m−, where these are positive measures supported respectively on (0, ∞) and (— ∞, 0). Then, with the equalization time defined by T = inf {t > 0: At = 0}, we ask for an explicit evaluation of the law π (x,dy) = P−x[BT∈dy]. In [8, 9] we showed how π (x,dy) can be obtained by solving an integral convolution equation of Wiener-Hopf type. The method used there exploits a technique of Ray [10].

Reade[10] has recently improved Weyl's classical estimate λn = o(n−3/2) for the eigenvalues of a symmetric kernel K∈C1 by relaxing the Cl hypothesis to the assumptions that K∈L2[0, 2π]2, that K is absolutely continuous in each variable separately, and that both ∂K/∂s and ∂K/t belong to L2[0, 2π]2. The conclusion of his theorem, that is, of course, stronger than λn = o(n−3/2).