In this paper we will study the properties of a natural partial order which may bedefined on an arbitrary abundant semigroup: in the case of regular semigroups werecapture the order introduced by Nambooripad [24]. For abelian PP rings our order coincides with a relation introduced by Sussman [25], Abian [1, 2] and further studied by Chacron [7]. Burmistroviˇ [6] investigated Sussman's order on separative semigroups. In the abundant case his order coincides with ours: some order theoretic properties of such semigroups may be found in a paper by Burgess [5].

Throughout this paper S will denote a given monoid and R a given ring with unity. A set A is a right S-system if there is a map φ:A × S→A satisfying

and

for any element a of A and any elements s, t of S. For φ(a, s) we write as and we refer to right S-systems simply as S-systems. One has the obvious definitions of an S-subsystem, an S-homomorphism and a congruence on an S-system. The reader ispresumed to be familiar with the basic definitions concerning right R-modules over R. As with S-systems we will refer to right R-modules just as R-modules.

Let R be a ring with an identity and a nilpotent ideal N. Let G be a group and let R(G) be the group ring of G over R. The aim of this paper is to study the relationships between the automorphisms of G and R-linear automorphisms of R(G) which either preserve the augmentation or do so modulo the ideal N. We shall show, for example, that if G is a unique product group ([6], Chapter 13, Section 1) then every automorphism of R(G) is modulo N induced from some automorphism of G. This result, which is immediate if, for instance, R is an integral domain, is here requiring of proof since R(G) has non-trivial units (e.g. if N ≠ 0, 1 + n(g − h), ∀ n ∈ N, ∀g, h ∈ G is a unit of augmentation 1), the existence of which is responsible for some of the difficulties inherent in the present investigation. We are obliged to the referee for several helpful suggestions and, in particular, for the proof of Lemma 2.2 whose use obviates our previous combinatorial arguments.

Let G be a group and let Aut(G) be its automorphism group. It is notorious that the properties of Aut (G) do not relate well to the properties of G, perhaps the only twogeneral results being that if G has a trivial centre then the same is true of Aut (G) [2, p.89] and Baumslag's theorem that if G is finitely generated and residually finite then Aut (G) is also residually finite [1, Theorem 1, p. 117]. In the paper we shall attempt tofind analogues of these results for therelationship between the properties of R(G), the group ring of G over a ring R, and the properties of Aut R(G), the automorphism of R(G). We prove that if R(G) has a trivial centre then Aut R(G) has a trivial centre. We establish the analogue, Theorem 2.3, of Baumslag's theorem by ring-theoretic methods; our original proof used properties of group rings, the present simplified proof we owe to the referee. As an example we calculate Aut ℤ(G) in the case that G is the direct product of two cyclic groups, one of infinite order and the other of order 5. This calculation will, it is hoped, give some indication of the difficulties in determining automorphisms of the group ring of an infinite group.

We study the eigenproblem

where

and Tm, Vmn are self-adjoint operators on separable Hilbert spaces Hm. We assume the Tm to be bounded below with compact resolvents, and the Vmn to be bounded and to satisfy an “ellipticity” condition. If k = 1 then ellipticity is automatic, and if each Tm is positive definite then the problem is “left definite”.

This paper is a continuation of our project on “inverse interpolation”, begun in [6]. In brief, the task of inverse interpolation is to deduce some property of a function f from some given property of the set L of its Lagrange interpolants. In the present work, the property of L is that it be a uniformly bounded set of functions when restricted to the domain of f. In particular (see Section 3), when the domain is a disc, we deduce sharp bounds on the successive derivatives of f. As a result, f must extend to be an analytic function (of restricted growth) in the concentric disc of thrice the original radius.

Let E be n-dimensional (n≧2) real vector space with a nondegenerate symmetric scalar product (.|.):E × E → R1 with an arbitrary signature (p, n–p). Let us consider a second order partial differential equation (P.D.E.) of the form:

where φ is a given function of two variables, v is an unknown function (defined on an open subset 0 ⊂E), |∇ν|2: =(∇ν|∇ν) is the square of the gradient ∇ν of the function ν and ∇2, denotes the Laplace-Beltrami operator.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss non-linear boundary value problems for elliptic systems of the type

where Ak is a second order uniformly elliptic operator and is such that the problem

has a one-dimensional space of solutions that is generated by a non-negative function. The boundary ∂G is supposed to be smooth and the functions gk, 1≦k≦m are defined on Ḡ×Rm and are continuously differentiate (usually, Bk represents Dirichlet or Neumann conditions and is the first eigenvalue associated with Ak and such boundary conditions).

In 1948 P. Lévy formulated the following theorem: If U is an open subset of the complex plane and f:U → ℂ is a nonconstant analytic function, then f maps a 2-dimensional Brownian motion Bt (up to the exit time from U) into a time changed 2-dimensional Brownian motion. A rigorous proof of this result first appeared in McKean [22]. This theorem has been used by many authors to solve problems about analytic functions by reducing them to problems about Brownian motion where the arguments are often more transparent. The survey paper [8] is a good reference for some of these applications. Lévy's theorem has been generalized, first by Bernard, Campbell, and Davie [5], and subsequently by Csink and Øksendal [7]. In Section 1 of this note we use these generalizations of Lévy's theorem to extend some results about BMO functions in the unit disc to harmonic morphisms in ℝn to holomorphic functions in ℂn and to analytic functions on Riemann surfaces. In Section 2, we characterize the domains in ℝn which have the property that the expected exit time of elliptic diffusions is uniformly bounded as a function of the starting point. This extends a result of Hayman and Pommerenke [15], and Stegenga [24] about BMO domains in the complex plane.

Let X be a compact Riemannian manifold. If f:X→ℝ is a nondegenerate Morse function in the sense of Bott [2] then one has Morse inequalities which can be expressed in the form

where Pt(X) is the Poincaré polynomial Σtidim Hi(X;ℚ of X ann {Cβ|β ∈B} are the connected components of the set of critical points for f For any polynomial Q(t)∈ℤ[t] we write Q(t)≧0 if all the coefficients of Q are nonnegative.

The infinite continued fraction

in which

is periodic with period l and is equal to a quadratic surd if and only if the partial quotients, ak, are integers or rational numbers [1]. We shall also assume that they are positive. The transformation discussed below applies only to pure periodic fractions where n is zero.

Throughout this paper H will denote a complex separable Hilbert space and L(H) denotes the algebra of all bounded linear operators on H. If T lies in L(H), its spectrum σ(T) is the set of all complex numbers z such zI–T is not invertible in L(H) and its compression spectrum σcomp(T) is the set of all complex numbers z such that the range (zI-T)(H) is not dense in H ([3, p. 240]). This paper is concerned with the Sturm–Liouville operator problem

where λ is a complex parameter and X(t), Q, Ei, Fi for i = l,2, and t∈[0,a], are bounded operators in L(H). For the scalar case, the classical Sturm-Liouville theory yields a complete solution of the problem, see [4], and [7]. For the finite-dimensional case, second order operator differential equations are important in the theory of damped oscillatory systems and vibrational systems ([2, 6]). Infinite-dimensional differential equations occur frequently in the theory of stochastic processes, the degradation of polymers, infinite ladder network theory in engineering [1, 17], denumerable Markov chains, and moment problems [10, 20]. Sturm-Liouville operator problems have been studied by several authors and with several techniques ([12, 13, 14, 15, 16]).

The aim in this paper is to indicate one way of interpreting covariants of a binary quintic F geometrically, interpretations having been found recently [7] for its quadratic covariant 2C2, called Γ in [7], and its invariant I4. The symbol dCn will denote a covariant of order n in the binary variables x, y and degree d in the coefficients of F, Id being used in preference to dI0 for invariants. The sum d + n is 4 for both 2C2 and I4, and no other covariant affords as small a sum; so it is natural to have begun by interpreting these two and to use them as auxiliaries in interpreting others.

In the paper referred to above (see [1]), the following corrections should be made.

(1) Hypothesis 2.2 should read:

(2) The set E⊂ℝn should be defined as

(3) F0(υ)=υ+x should read F(υ)=υ–x.

(4) The unique solution of F0(υ)=0 is υ=x (not υ= –x as printed).

(5) Page 345, line 14: