Let G be a locally compact Abelian group, and the set of bounded complex (regular countably-additive Borel) measures on G. It is well known that becomes a Banach space if the norm is defined by

the supremum being over all finite sets of disjoint Borel subsets of G.

For each non-empty subset Λ of the complex plane, let (Λ) be the set of all those operators (on a fixed Hilbert space H) whose spectrum is included in Λ. The problem of spectral approximation is to determine how closely each operator on H can be approximated (in the norm) by operators in (Λ). The problem appears to be connected with the stability theory of certain differential equations. (Consider the case in which Λ is the right half plane.) In its general form the problem is extraordinarily difficult. Thus, for instance, even when Λ is the singleton {0}, so that (Λ) is the set of quasinilpotent operators, the determination of the closure of (Λ) has been an open problem for several years (3, Problem 7).

An optimal control for a nonlinear system is considered. The existence of an optimal-control pair, the characterization of the optimal control in terms of the optimal system and the uniqueness of solutions for the control problem are established. The uniqueness requires smallness assumptions on parameters in the functional.

The fact that for two or more real positive quantities there exist three well-known algebraic means, the Arithmetic, the Geometric, and the Harmonic, which stand in a fixed order of magnitude independent of the quantities operated on, suggests the question whether there may not be other algebraic means that stand in a definite order of magnitude with reference to those just named and to one another. The following paper supplies an affirmative answer to the question. The results given in the first section are, so far as I know, novel; some of those in the second section are well known, but I hope some freshness may be apparent in their treatment here.

The science of the solution of Differential Equations has been in great measure systematized by the aid of ideas borrowed from the Theory of Functions, the equations being classified according to the singularities possessed by their solutions. In the case of linear Differential Equations of the second order

the solutions can have no singularities except at the singularities of the functions q(x) and r(x) (and possibly also at x = ∞ ): these equations may therefore be classified simply according to the number and nature of these singularities.

There are various algebras which may be associated with a discrete group G. In particular we may consider the complex group ring ℂG, the convolution Banach algebra l1(G), the enveloping C*-algebra C*(G) of l1(G), and the reduced C*-algebra determined by the completion of l1(G) under the left regular representation on l2(G). There is a substantial literature on the circle of ideas associated with the embeddings

Saturated formations are closed under the product of subgroups which are connected by certain permutability properties.

Let X be an infinite set and S be a transformation semigroup on X invariant under conjugations by permutations of X. Such S is termed x-normal. In the paper, we describe elements of a x-normal semigroup S of one-to-one transformations.

We present a new approach to Davie’s theorem on the uniqueness of solutions to the equation

for almost all Brownian paths. A generalization of this result and a discussion of some closely related problems are given.

We study the following problem: establish existence and classification of closed curves which are critical points for the total curvature functional, defined on spaces of curves in a Riemannian manifold. This problem is completely solved in a real space form. Next, we give examples of critical points for this functional in a class of metrics with constant scalar curvature on the three sphere. Also, we obtain a rational one-parameter family of closed helices which are critical points for that functional in ℂℙ2 (4) when it is endowed with its usual Kaehlerian structure. Finally, we use the principle of symmetric criticality to get equivariant submanifolds, constructed on the above curves, which are critical points for the total mean curvature functional.

We introduce two measures of weak non-compactness JaE and Ja that quantify, via distances, the idea of boundary that lies behind James's Compactness Theorem. These measures tell us, for a bounded subset C of a Banach space E and for given x* ∈ E*, how far from E or C one needs to go to find x** ∈ ⊂ E** with x**(x*) = sup x*(C). A quantitative version of James's Compactness Theorem is proved using JaE and Ja, and in particular it yields the following result. Let C be a closed convex bounded subset of a Banach space E and r > 0. If there is an elementinwhose distance to C is greater than r, then there is x* ∈ E* such that each x** ∈at which sup x*(C) is attained has distance to E greater than ½r. We indeed establish that JaE and Ja are equivalent to other measures of weak non-compactness studied in the literature. We also collect particular cases and examples showing when the inequalities between the different measures of weak non-compactness can be equalities and when the inequalities are sharp.

Let $\mathcal {P}(\mathbf{N})$ be the power set of N. We say that a function $\mu ^\ast : \mathcal {P}(\mathbf{N}) \to \mathbf{R}$ is an upper density if, for all X, Y ⊆ N and h, k ∈ N+, the following hold: (f1) $\mu ^\ast (\mathbf{N}) = 1$; (f2) $\mu ^\ast (X) \le \mu ^\ast (Y)$ if X ⊆ Y; (f3) $\mu ^\ast (X \cup Y) \le \mu ^\ast (X) + \mu ^\ast (Y)$; (f4) $\mu ^\ast (k\cdot X) = ({1}/{k}) \mu ^\ast (X)$, where k · X : = {kx: x ∈ X}; and (f5) $\mu ^\ast (X + h) = \mu ^\ast (X)$. We show that the upper asymptotic, upper logarithmic, upper Banach, upper Buck, upper Pólya and upper analytic densities, together with all upper α-densities (with α a real parameter ≥ −1), are upper densities in the sense of our definition. Moreover, we establish the mutual independence of axioms (f1)–(f5), and we investigate various properties of upper densities (and related functions) under the assumption that (f2) is replaced by the weaker condition that $\mu ^\ast (X)\le 1$ for every X ⊆ N. Overall, this allows us to extend and generalize results so far independently derived for some of the classical upper densities mentioned above, thus introducing a certain amount of unification into the theory.

Symmetry theory is of fundamental importance in studying systems of partial differential equations. At present algebras of classical infinitesimal symmetry transformations are known for many equations of continuum mechanics [1, 2, 4]. Methods foi finding these algebras go back to S. Lie's works written about 100 years ago. Ir particular, knowledge of symmetry algebras makes it possible to construct effectively wide classes of exact solutions for equations under consideration and via Noether's theorem to find conservation laws for Euler–Lagrange equations. The natural development of Lie's theory is the theory of “higher” symmetries and conservation laws [5].

To each discrete left cancellative semigroup S one may associate an inverse semigroup Il(S), often called the left inverse hull of S. We show how the full and reduced C*-algebras of Il(S) are related to the full and reduced semigroup C*-algebras for S, recently introduced by Li, and give conditions ensuring that these algebras are isomorphic. Our picture provides an enhanced understanding of Li's algebras.

On pages 338 and 339 in his first notebook, Ramanujan records eighteen values for a certain product of theta-functions depending on two integral parameters m and n. When (m, n) = 1, it can be seen that each of these values is a unit. The purpose of this paper is to establish each of these eighteen values and to prove that under certain general conditions this product is indeed a unit. Lastly, we prove that certain quotients of theta-functions are algebraic integers.

We consider three classes of polynomial differential equations of the form ẋ = y + establish Pn (x, y), ẏ = x + Qn (x, y), where establish Pn and Qn are homogeneous polynomials of degree n, having a non-Hamiltonian centre at the origin. By using a method different from the classical ones, we study the limit cycles that bifurcate from the periodic orbits of such centres when we perturb them inside the class of all polynomial differential systems of the above form. A more detailed study is made for the particular cases of degree n = 2 and n = 3.

An iteration technique for characterizing boundedness of certain types of multilinear operators is presented, reducing the problem to a corresponding linear-operator case. The method gives a simple proof of a characterization of validity of the weighted bilinear Hardy inequality

for all non-negative f, g on (a, b), for 1 < p 1, p 2, q < ∞. More equivalent characterizing conditions are presented.

The same technique is applied to various further problems, in particular those involving multilinear integral operators of Hardy type.

Let X be an infinite set, be the group of all bijections of X and S be a semigroup of total transformations of X with the composition of transformations f and g in S defined by the formula

We say that S is a -normal semigroup if

Certain subsemigroups of the full transformation semigroup Tn on a finite set of cardinality n are investigated, namely those subsemigroups S of Tn, which are normalised by the symmetric group on n elements, the group of units of Tn. The Sn-normal closure of an element of Tn is determined, and the structure of the Sn-normal ideals consisting of the members of Tn whose image contains at most r elements is studied.

In connection with algebras of unbounded operators, Lassner showed in [4] that, if T is a densely defined, closed linear operator in a Hilbert space such that its domain is contained in the domain of its adjoint T* and is globally invariant under T and T*,then T is bounded. In the case of a Banach space (in particular, a C*-algebra) weshowed in [6] that a densely defined closed derivation in a C*-algebra with domaincontaining its range is automatically bounded (see the references in [6] and [7] for thetheory of derivations in C*-algebras).