General formulae are obtained for the reflection and transmission of harmonic acoustic waves by a curved interface between two media when the frequency is high. In addition to refracted rays there turn up tunnelling rays, if the surface is concave to the source, which are emitted from an evanescent region when the phenomenon of total internal reflection would be anticipated. Uniformly valid formulae dealing with the transition from refraction to tunnelling in both transmission and reflection are derived.

The theory is applied to the circular cylinder and to the top-hat circular jet. In the latter case it is suggested that radiation may tend to be more significant at inclinations of 50°-65° (downstream) and 25°-40° (upstream) to the axis of the cylinder. The augmentation due to tunnelling rays in propagation upstream is mentioned.

Let S be a Clifford semigroup with identity. The weak containment question is posed for S, and answered affirmatively when each of the maximal groups Se in S is amenable. The amenability of S itself is characterised in terms of PL(S), the set of normalised positive definite functions on S arising from the left regular representation of S. A type of mean associated with PL(S) and satisfying a condition weaker than left invariance is introduced.

Using an algebraic approach to the nth order linear differential equations (see [3] for n = 2 and [13 and 14] for n ≧ 2) it is shown the essence of the relation between the limit circle classification and boundedness of solutions of y″ = q(t)y. On this example it is demonstrated that if a problem can be formulated in the rank of the approach, then it is only a technical matter to answer it, e.g. the relationship studied here is based on a standard fact from the theory of functions.

In this paper we study diffusion-reaction equations arising in the theory of chemical reactions. We prove the global existence and uniqueness of a solution without any restriction for the Lewis number and the Biot numbers. In addition, it is shown that there is at least one stationary state which is globally asymptotically stable (in a rather strong sense) provided the Thiele number is sufficiently small. These results are obtained as special cases from much more general results on semilinear parabolic systems, derived below.

In the coordinatization of lattices by Baer semigroups, two notable gaps that remain to be filled concern the coordinatization of modular and distributive lattices. In this paper we present coordinatizations of modular lattices. In a subsequent paper we shall deal with the distributive case. Here we show that a bounded lattice L is modular if and only if L can be coordinatized by a Baer semigroup S such that if eS, fS ∊ R(S) then there exist idempotents ē, ∊ S such that ēS = eS, S = fS and e¯, commute; equivalently, if and only if L can be coordinatized by a Baer semigroup S such that if eS, fS ∊ R(S) with e idempotent then there is an idempotent such that S = fS and e = ee.

By use of the theory of asymptotic expansions for first-order linear systems of ordinary differential equations, asymptotic formulas are obtained for the solutions of an nth order linear homogeneous ordinary differential equation with complex coefficients having asymptotic expansions in a sector of the complex plane. These asymptotic formulas involve the roots of certain polynomials whose coefficients are obtained from the asymptotic expansions of the coefficients of the differential operator.

It is known that the class of all reachable states in boundary control of systems described by parabolic equations in one space dimension is independent of the time during which control is applied. This result is generalized here to systems governed by the heat equation in an arbitrary number of space variables.

Techniques from the theory of partial differential equations are employed to prove the uniform convergence of the eigenfunction expansion associated with a two-parameter system of ordinary differential equations of the second order.

In previous papers [11,12,13], certain spaces of generalized functions were studied from the point of view of fractional calculus. In this paper, we show how a Hankel transform Hv of order v can be defined on for all complex numbers v except for those lying on a countable number of lines of the form Re v = constant in the complex v-plane. The mapping properties of Hv on are obtained. Various connections between Hv (or modifications of Hv) and operators of fractional integration are examined.

In this paper a class of weighted Sobolev spaces defined in terms of square integrability of the gradient multiplied by a weight function, is studied. The domain of integration is either the space Rn or a half-space of Rn. Conditions on the weight functions that will ensure density of classes of smooth functions or functions with compact support, and compact embedding theorems, are derived. Finally the results are applied to a class of isoperimetrical problems in the calculus of variations in which the domain of integration is unbounded.

We consider differential-delay equations which can be written in the form

The functions fi and gk are all assumed odd. The equation

is a special case of such equations with q = N + 1 (assuming f is an odd function). We obtain an essentially best possible theorem which ensures the existence of a non-constant periodic solution x(t) with the properties (1) x(t)≧0 for 0≦t≦q, (2) x(–t) = –x(t) for all t and (3) x(t + q) = –x(t) for all t. We also derive uniqueness and constructibility results for such special periodic solutions. Our theorems answer a conjecture raised in [8].

Here the Riemann boundary value problem-well known in analytic function theory as the problem to find entire analytic functions having a prescribed jump across a given contour-is solved for solutions of a pseudoparabolic equation which is derived from the complex differential equation of generalized analytic function theory. The general solution is given by use of the generating pair of the corresponding class of generalized analytic functions which gives rise to a representation for special bounded solutions of the pseudoparabolic equation. These solutions are obtained by linear integral equations one of which is given by a development of the generalized fundamental kernels of generalized analytic functions and which leads to a Cauchy-type integral representation. The bounded solutions are needed to transform the general boundary value problem (of non-negative index) with arbitrary initial data into a homogeneous problem which can easily be solved by the Cauchy-type integral (if the index is zero).