We compute the number of points over finite fields of the character stack associated to a compact surface group and a reductive group with connected centre. We find that the answer is a polynomial on residue classes (PORC). The key ingredients in the proof are Lusztig’s Jordan decomposition of complex characters of finite reductive groups and Deriziotis’s results on their genus numbers. As a consequence of our main theorem, we obtain an expression for the E-polynomial of the character stack.

Let q be an odd prime power and suppose that $a,b\in \mathbb {F}_q$ are such that $ab$ and $(1{-}a)(1{-}b)$ are nonzero squares. Let $Q_{a,b} = (\mathbb {F}_q,*)$ be the quasigroup in which the operation is defined by $u*v=u+a(v{-}u)$ if $v-u$ is a square, and $u*v=u+b(v{-}u)$ if $v-u$ is a nonsquare. This quasigroup is called maximally nonassociative if it satisfies $x*(y*z) = (x*y)*z \Leftrightarrow x=y=z$. Denote by $\sigma (q)$ the number of $(a,b)$ for which $Q_{a,b}$ is maximally nonassociative. We show that there exist constants $\alpha \approx 0.029\,08$ and $\beta \approx 0.012\,59$ such that if $q\equiv 1 \bmod 4$, then $\lim \sigma (q)/q^2 = \alpha $, and if $q \equiv 3 \bmod 4$, then $\lim \sigma (q)/q^2 = \beta $.

Let H be an ultraspherical hypergroup and let $A(H)$ be the Fourier algebra associated with $H.$ In this paper, we study the dual and the double dual of $A(H).$ We prove among other things that the subspace of all uniformly continuous functionals on $A(H)$ forms a $C^*$-algebra. We also prove that the double dual $A(H)^{\ast \ast }$ is neither commutative nor semisimple with respect to the Arens product, unless the underlying hypergroup H is finite. Finally, we study the unit elements of $A(H)^{\ast \ast }.$

For every group G, the set $\mathcal {P}(G)$ of its subsets forms a semiring under set-theoretical union $\cup $ and element-wise multiplication $\cdot $, and forms an involution semigroup under $\cdot $ and element-wise inversion ${}^{-1}$. We show that if the group G is finite, non-Dedekind, and solvable, neither the semiring $(\mathcal {P}(G),\cup ,\cdot )$ nor the involution semigroup $(\mathcal {P}(G),\cdot ,{}^{-1})$ admits a finite identity basis. We also solve the finite basis problem for the semiring of Hall relations over any finite set.

The main purpose of this paper is to prove Hörmander’s $L^p$–$L^q$ boundedness of Fourier multipliers on commutative hypergroups. We carry out this objective by establishing the Paley inequality and Hausdorff–Young–Paley inequality for commutative hypergroups. We show the $L^p$–$L^q$ boundedness of the spectral multipliers for the generalised radial Laplacian by examining our results on Chébli–Trimèche hypergroups. As a consequence, we obtain embedding theorems and time asymptotics for the $L^p$–$L^q$ norms of the heat kernel for generalised radial Laplacian.

This article studies the properties of word-hyperbolic semigroups and monoids, that is, those having context-free multiplication tables with respect to a regular combing, as defined by Duncan and Gilman [‘Word hyperbolic semigroups’, Math. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 136(3) (2004), 513–524]. In particular, the preservation of word-hyperbolicity under taking free products is considered. Under mild conditions on the semigroups involved, satisfied, for example, by monoids or regular semigroups, we prove that the semigroup free product of two word-hyperbolic semigroups is again word-hyperbolic. Analogously, with a mild condition on the uniqueness of representation for the identity element, satisfied, for example, by groups, we prove that the monoid free product of two word-hyperbolic monoids is word-hyperbolic. The methods are language-theoretically general, and apply equally well to semigroups, monoids or groups with a $\mathbf {C}$-multiplication table, where $\mathbf {C}$ is any reversal-closed super-$\operatorname {\mathrm {AFL}}$. In particular, we deduce that the free product of two groups with $\mathbf {ET0L}$ with respect to indexed multiplication tables again has an $\mathbf {ET0L}$ with respect to an indexed multiplication table.