This paper is concerned with convex bodies in n-dimensional lp, spaces, where each body is accessible only by a weak separation or optimization oracle. It studies the asymptotic relative accuracy, as n→∞, of polynomial-time approximation algorithms for the diameter, width, circumradius, and inradius of a body K, and also for the maximum of the norm over K.

It is shown that, for any lattice polytope P⊂ℝd the set int (P)∩lℤd (provided that it is non-empty) contains a point whose coefficient of asymmetry with respect to P is at most 8d · (8l+7)22d+1. If, moreover, P is a simplex, then this bound can be improved to 8 · (8l+7 )2d+1. As an application, new upper bounds on the volume of a lattice polytope are deduced, given its dimension and the number of sublattice points in its interior.

Using the polynomial method of Dvir [On the size of Kakeya sets in finite fields. Preprint], we establish optimal estimates for Kakeya sets and Kakeya maximal functions associated to algebraic varieties W over finite fields F. For instance, given an (n−1)-dimensional projective variety W⊂¶n(F), we establish the Kakeya maximal estimate for all functions f:Fn→R and d≥1, where for each w∈W, the supremum is over all irreducible algebraic curves in Fn of degree at most d that pass through w but do not lie in W, and with Cn,W,d depending only on n,d and the degree of W; the special case when W is the hyperplane at infinity in particular establishes the Kakeya maximal function conjecture in finite fields, which in turn strengthens the results of Dvir.

In 1955 a programme of study of the first 10000 zeros of the Riemann Zeta-function

was completed. Use was made of the high-speed digital computer SWAC and a report of this programme has appeared recently [1]. More recently still, the programme has been extended to the first 25000 zeros. All these zeros have σ= ½ The purpose of this paper is to summarize the methods needed for this (and possibly future) work from the highspeed computer point of view.

Let K = {K1, K2, …, Kp} be a system of p bounded closed convex sets in affine space An of n dimensions. If λ1, λ2,…, λp are any p real numbers, we use λ1K1+λ2K2+…λpKp to denote the bounded closed convex set consisting of all the points

The n-dimensional content or volume of this set is a homogeneous polynomial of degree n in the parameters λi, that is

where the summation is over all sets of suffixes 1 £ij, £p, for 1 £j £ n. Further the coefficients may be chosen to be positive and symmetric in their arguments These coefficients, which are in number, are called the mixed volumes of the convex sets.

If E1 and E2 are subsets of ℝn and a- is an isometry or similarity transformation, it is useful to be able to estimate the Hausdorff dimension of E1 ∩ σ(E2) in terms of the dimensions of E1 and E2. If E1 and E2 are compact, then, as σvaries, dim (El ∩ σ(E2)) is “in general” at most max (dim E1 + dim E2 − n, 0) and “often” at least this value (see Mattila [9] and Kahane [7] for more precise statements of these ideas). However, as we shall see, it is possible to construct non-compact sets E of any given dimension that are “sufficiently dense” in ℝn to ensure that dim (E ∩ σ(E)) = dim E for all similarities σ More generally, we shall show that for each s there are large classes of sets & of dimensions between s and n, closed under reasonable transformations including similarities, such that the intersection of any countable collection of sets in & has dimension at least s. Such collections of sets are required, for example, in the constructions of subsets of ℝn with certain dimensional properties given by Davies [1] and Falconer [5].

Let Z(Γ) be the integral groupring of a finite Abelian group Γ. There is some interest in the study of its class group (Picard group) C(Z(Γ)) (cf. e.g. [1] and [5]). One knows that this group is mapped surjectively onto the class group of the maximal order in the rational groupring Q(Γ). Now is known in the sense that it is the product of the classgroups of the algebraic integer rings, whose quotient fields appear in the decomposition of Q(Γ). One is thus also interested in the kernel D(Z(Γ)) of the map , and it is this which concerns us here. I shall show that it can become very big.

Let G be any group and G′ its derived, then G/G′—the group G made abelian—will be denoted by Ga. Over any ring R, denote by E2(R) the group generated by the matrices as x ranges over R; the structure of E2(R)a has been described in a recent theorem [2; Th. 9.3] for certain rings R, the “quasi-free rings for GE2” (cf. §2 below). Now over a commutative Euclidean domain, E2(R) is just the special linear group SL2(R); this suggests applying the theorem to the ring of integers in a Euclidean number field. However, the only number fields whose rings were shown to be quasi-free for GE2 in [2] were the non-Euclidean imaginary quadratic fields. In fact that leaves the application of Th. 9.3 of [2] to the ring of Gaussian integers unjustified (I am indebted to J.-P. Serre for drawing this oversight to my attention). In order to justify this application one would have to show either (a) that the Gaussian integers are quasi-free for GE2., or (b) that Th. 9.3 of [2] holds under weaker hypotheses which are satisfied by the Gaussian integers. Our object in this note is to establish (b)–indeed our only course, since the Gaussian integers turn out to be not quasi-free.

We show that the exponent of distribution of the ternary divisor function $d_{3}$ in arithmetic progressions to prime moduli is at least $1/2+1/46$, improving results of Friedlander–Iwaniec and Heath-Brown. Furthermore, when averaging over a fixed residue class, we prove that this exponent is increased to $1/2+1/34$.

In this note we report on some numerical results regarding reverse flow solutions of the Falkner-Skan equation

on the half line 0 < t < ∞, which satisfy the boundary conditions

and

By a zonotope we mean any set in Euclidean n-dimensional space Rn which can be written as a Minkowski (vector) sum of a finite number of line segments. A zonotope is a convex centrally-symmetric polytope, and all its faces are zonotopes. Familiar examples of three-dimensional zonotopes include the cube, rhombic dodecahedron, elongated dodecahedron (Figure 1) and truncated octahedron. Photographs of models of more complicated examples appear in [1, Plate II].

In this paper, we will denote by convex figure a compact convex subset of the n-dimensional Euclidean space ℝn, and by convex body a convex figure with non-empty interior. The principal kinematic formula in integral geometry gives the measure of the set of congruent convex bodies intersecting with a fixed convex body. Specifically, let K, L be two convex bodies in ℝn and G(n) the group of special motions in ℝn. Each element, g: ℝn → ℝn, of G(n) can be represented by

where b∈ℝn and e is an orthogonal matrix of determinant 1. Let μ be the Haar measure on G(n) normalized as follows: Let μ:ℝn × SO(n) → G(n) be defined by φ(t, e)x = ex + t, xεℝn, where SO(n) is the rotation group of ℝn. If v is the unique invariant probability measure on SO(n), η is the Lebesgue measure on ℝn, then μ is chosen as the pull back measure of η⊗v under φ−1. If Wi(K), Wi(L) are the quermassintegrals of K, L, i= 0, 1,…, n, the principal kinematic formula states that

where ωn is the volume of the unit n–ball.

Deformation spaces of quasi-Fuchsian groups provide the simplest nontrivial examples of deformation spaces of Kleinian groups. Their understanding is of interest with respect to the study of more general Kleinian groups. On the other hand, these spaces contain subspaces isomorphic to Teichmüller spaces, and are often useful for the study of properties of Teichmüller space. A recent example of this is the study of the Teichmüller space of the punctured torus by Keen and Series [KS].

Let A be an arbitrary set of positive integers (finite or infinite) other than the empty set or the set consisting of the single element unity. Let p(n) = pA(n) denote the number of partitions of the integer n into parts taken from the set A, repetitions being allowed. In other words, p(n) is the number of ways n can be expressed in the form n1a1 + n2a2 + …, where a1, a2, … are the distinct elements of A and n1, n2, … are arbitrary non-negative integers. In this paper we shall prove that p(n) is a strictly increasing function of n for sufficiently large n if and only if A has the following property (which we shall subsequently call property P1): A contains more than one element, and if we remove any single element from A, the remaining elements have greatest common divisor unity.

Maxwell's equations within a dielectric and/or a magnetic medium were first developed macroscopically and must be complemented by constitutive relations to obtain solutions. These relations connect D with E (and with B in optically active material) and H with B (and again with E in optically active material). The atomic and molecular theories of quantum mechanics allow a microscopic approach to derive these constitutive relations where the macroscopic electric and magnetic fields are averages of the microscopic fields e and b. In classical electromagnetic theory Lorentz [1] originally showed how to derive the Maxwell's macroscopic equations from electron theory using microscopic fields obeying the Maxwell's equations in vacuo but coupled to electronic and ionic sources. There are two distinct steps in this procedure. The first introduces microscopic polarization fields, both electric amd magnetic, p and m from which microscopic electric displacement vector field d and auxiliary magnetic field h are simply constructed. The resulting equations for the microscopic fields e, b, d, and h are called the atomic field equations. The second step is the statistical one where the macroscopic fields E, B, D, and H are defined as averages of the microscopic fields and these macroscopic fields are then shown to obey the phenomenological macroscopic Maxwell's equations. A historical appraisal may be found in the recent book by de Groot [2].

Let N be a large positive integer and let n1, …, nN be any N distinct integers. Let

Hardy and Littlewood proposed the problem: to find a lower bound for

in terms of N, this lower bound to be a function of N which tends to infinity with N. It is easily seen, on examining the case when n1, …, nN art in arithmetic progression, that a lower bound of higher order than log N is impossible.

We prove that the log-Brunn–Minkowski inequality (log-BMI) for the Lebesgue measure in dimension $n$ would imply the log-BMI and, therefore, theB-conjecture for any even log-concave measure in dimension $n$ . As a consequence, we prove the log-BMI and the B-conjecture for any even log-concave measure in the plane. Moreover, we prove that the log-BMI reduces to the following: for each dimension $n$ , there is a density $f_{n}$ , which satisfies an integrability assumption, so that the log-BMI holds for parallelepipeds with parallel facets, for the density $f_{n}$ . As a byproduct of our methods, we study possible log-concavity of the function $t\mapsto |(K+_{p}\cdot ~\text{e}^{t}L)^{\circ }|$ , where $p\geqslant 1$ and $K$ , $L$ are symmetric convex bodies, which we are able to prove in some instances and, as a further application, we confirm the variance conjecture in a special class of convex bodies. Finally, we establish a non-trivial dual form of the log-BMI.

Let p be a prime and let F be a polynomial in one variable with coefficients in GF(p), the field of p elements. Let d be the degree of F, and let r+1 denote the number of distinct values F(µ) as µ. ranges over GF(p). A generalization of the Waring problem modulo p leads to the question the determination of a lower bound for r.

Let K be an algebraic number field of degree n and discriminant d. Let K(1),…, K(n) be the embeddings of the field. Then n = r1 + 2r2 where K(1), …, K(rl) are real and the remainder complex, satisfying . The conjugates of the number μ in K(i) are denoted by μ(i.

Let ν be a valuation of any rank of a field K with value group Gν and f(X)= Xm + alXm−1 + … + am be a polynomial over K. In this paper, it is shown that if (ν(ai)/i)≥(ν(am)/m)>0 for l≤i≤m, and there does not exist any integer r>1 dividing m such that ν(am)/r∈Gν, then f(X) is irreducible over K. It is derived as a special case of a more general result proved here. It generalizes the usual Eisenstein Irreducibility Criterion and an Irreducibility Criterion due to Popescu and Zaharescu for discrete, rank-1 valued fields, (cf. [Journal of Number Theory, 52 (1995), 98–118]).