A commutative complex unital Banach algebra can be represented as a space of continuous complex-valued functions on a compact Hausdorff space via the Gelfand transform. However, in general it is not possible to represent a commutative real unital Banach algebra as a space of continuous real-valued functions on some compact Hausdorff space, and for this to happen some additional conditions are needed. In this note we represent a commutative real Banach algebra on a part of its state space and show connections with representations on the maximal ideal space of the algebra (whose existence one has to prove first).

Let E/k be a function field over an infinite field of constants. Assume that E/k(x) is a separable extension of degree greater than one such that there exists a place of degree one of k(x) ramified in E. Let K/k be a function field. We prove that there exist infinitely many nonisomorphic separable extensions L/K such that [L:K]=[E:k(x)] and AutkL=AutKL≅Autk(x)E.

Assuming a conjecture intermediate in strength between one of Chowla and one of Heath-Brown on the least prime in a residue class, we show that for any coprime integers a and m≥1, there are infinitely many Carmichael numbers in the arithmetic progression a mod m.

We prove that all g-natural contact metric structures on a two-point homogeneous space are homogeneous contact. The converse is also proved for metrics of Kaluza–Klein type. We also show that if (M,g) is an Einstein manifold and is a Riemannian g-natural metric on T1M of Kaluza–Klein type, then is H-contact if and only if (M,g) is 2-stein, so proving that the main result of Chun et al. [‘H-contact unit tangent sphere bundles of Einstein manifolds’, Q. J. Math., to appear. DOI: 10.1093/qmath/hap025] is invariant under a two-parameter deformation of the standard contact metric structure on T1M. Moreover, we completely characterize Riemannian manifolds admitting two distinct H-contact g-natural contact metric structures, with associated metric of Kaluza–Klein type.

According to the Skitovich–Darmois theorem, the independence of two linear forms of n independent random variables implies that the random variables are Gaussian. We consider the case where independent random variables take values in a second countable locally compact abelian group X, and coefficients of the forms are topological automorphisms of X. We describe a wide class of groups X for which a group-theoretic analogue of the Skitovich–Darmois theorem holds true when n=2.

According to the classical Borel lemma, any positive nondecreasing continuous function T satisfiesT(r+1/T(r))≤2T(r) outside a possible exceptional set of finite linear measure. This lemma plays an important role in the theory of entire and meromorphic functions, where the increasing function T is either the logarithm of the maximum modulus function, or the Nevanlinna characteristic. As a result, exceptional sets appear throughout Nevanlinna theory, in particular in Nevanlinna’s second main theorem. In this paper, we consider generalizations of Borel’s lemma. Conversely, we consider ways in which certain inequalities can be modified so as to remove exceptional sets. All results discussed are presented from the point of view of real analysis.

Let A be a unital C*-algebra. Let (B,E) be a pair consisting of a unital C*-algebra B containing A as a C*-subalgebra with a unit that is also the unit of B, and a conditional expectation E from B onto A that is of index-finite type and of depth 2. Let B1 be the C*-basic construction induced by (B,E). In this paper, we shall show that any such pair (B,E) satisfying the conditions that A′∩B=ℂ1 and that A′∩B1 is commutative is constructed by a saturated C*-algebraic bundle over a finite group. Furthermore, we shall give a necessary and sufficient condition for B to be described as a twisted crossed product of A by its twisted action of a finite group under the condition that A′∩B1 is commutative.

We prove that the category of boolean inverse monoids is dually equivalent to the category of boolean groupoids. This generalizes the classical Stone duality between boolean algebras and boolean spaces. As an instance of this duality, we show that the boolean inverse monoid Cn associated with the Cuntz groupoid Gn is the strong orthogonal completion of the polycyclic (or Cuntz) monoid Pn. The group of units of Cn is the Thompson group Vn,1.

Extending previous results of the first author, some new estimates are obtained for maximal operators of Schrödinger type with a complex parameter.

Let S be a Riemann surface of type (p,n) with 3p+n>4 and n≥1. We investigate products of some pseudo-Anosov maps θ and Dehn twists tα on S, and prove that under certain conditions the products tkα∘θ are pseudo-Anosov for all integers k. We also give examples that show that tkα∘θ are not pseudo-Anosov for some integers k.