Regenerative phenomena were introduced some forty years ago to address problems in the theory of continuous-time Markov processes. The early work in the theory left a number of difficult unsolved problems, in the classification of $p$-functions, oscillation and inequalities, the multiplicative theory, and the theory of unbounded semi-$p$-functions. Recent years have shown progress on all of these fronts, and this paper surveys these results, while drawing attention to significant problems that remain open.

Let $K$ be the (real closed) field of Puiseux series in $t$ over ${\mathbf R}$ endowed with the natural linear order. Then the elements of the formal power series rings ${\mathbf R}[\![\xi_1,\dots,\xi_n]\!]$ converge $t$-adically on $[-t,t]^n$, and hence define functions $[-t,t]^n\to K$. Let ${\mathcal L}$ be the language of ordered fields, enriched with symbols for these functions. By Corollary 3.15, $K$ is o-minimal in ${\mathcal L}$. This result is obtained from a quantifier elimination theorem. The proofs use methods from non-Archimedean analysis.

It is a well-known problem of Von Neumann to discover whether the countable chain condition and weak distributivity of a complete Boolean algebra imply that it carries a strictly positive probability measure. It was shown recently by Balcar, Jech and Pazák, and by Veličković, that it is consistent with ZFC, modulo the consistency of a supercompact cardinal, that every ccc weakly distributive complete Boolean algebra carries a contiuous strictly positive submeasure – that is, it is a Maharam algebra. We use some ideas of Gitik and Shelah and implications from the inner model theory to show that some large cardinal assumptions are necessary for this result.

We give a theoretical lower bound for the slope of a Siegel modular cusp form that is as least as good as Eichler's lower bound. In degrees $n=5,6$ and 7 we show that our new bound is strictly better. In the process we find the forms of smallest dyadic trace on the perfect core for ranks $n \le 8$. In degrees $n=5,6$ and 7 we settle the value of the generalized Hermite constant $\gamma_n'$ introduced by Bergé and Martinet and find all dual-critical pairs.

We show that the Weierstrass points of the generic curve of genus $g$ over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0 generate a group of maximal rank in the Jacobian.

We present a simple proof of the fact that every countable group ${\Gamma}$ is weak Rohlin, that is, there is in the Polish space $mathbb{A}_{\Gamma}$ of measure preserving ${\Gamma}$-actions an action $\mathbf{T}$ whose orbit in $\mathbb{A}_{\Gamma}$ under conjugations is dense. In conjunction with earlier results this in turn yields a new characterization of non-Kazhdan groups as those groups which admit such an action $\mathbf{T}$ which is also ergodic.

We extend a recent result on the existence of wandering domains of polynomial functions defined over the $p$-adic field ${\mathbb{C}_p}$ to any algebraically closed complete non-archimedean field ${\mathbb{C}_K}$ with residue characteristic $p>0$. We also prove that polynomials with wandering domains form a dense subset of a certain one-dimensional family of degree $p+1$ polynomials in ${\mathbb{C}_K}[z]$.

Let $M\subset \mathbb{R}^n$ be a connected component of an algebraic set $\varphi^{-1}(0)$, where $\varphi$ is a polynomial of degree $d$. Assume that $M$ is contained in a ball of radius $r$. We prove that the geodesic diameter of $M$ is bounded by $2r\nu(n)d(4d-5)^{n-2}$, where $\nu(n)=2{\Gamma({1}/{2})\Gamma(({n+1})/{2})}{\Gamma({n}/{2})}^{-1}$. This estimate is based on the bound $r\nu(n)d(4d-5)^{n-2}$ for the length of the gradient trajectories of a linear projection restricted to $M$.

We study deformations of functions on isolated singularities. A unified proof of the equality of Milnor and Tjurina numbers for functions on isolated complete intersections singularities and space curves is given. As a consequence, the base space of their miniversal deformations is endowed with the structure of an $F$-manifold, and we can prove a conjecture of V. Goryunov, stating that the critical values of the miniversal unfolding of a function on a space curve are generically local coordinates on the base space of the deformation.

Sufficient conditions are given on a Banach space $X$ which ensure that $\ell_{\infty}$ embeds in ${\mathcal L}\, (X)$, the space of all bounded linear operators on $X$. A basic sequence $(e_n)$ is said to be quasisubsymmetric if for any two increasing sequences $(k_n)$ and $(\ell_n)$ of positive integers with $k_n \leq \ell_n$ for all $n$, $(e_{k_n})$ dominates $(e_{\ell_n})$. If a Banach space $X$ has a seminormalized quasisubsymmetric basis then $\ell_{\infty}$ embeds in ${\mathcal L}\, (X)$.

We obtain operator-valued analogues of Bohr's inequality involving both the absolute values of operators and their norms, that when restricted to the scalar case imply the classical Bohr inequality. In the scalar case we extend Bohr's inequality to the case where one function is majorized by another function, to the Hardy space, $H^2(\mathbb{D})$, and to bounded analytic functions on the annulus.

We show that the analytic rank, as defined by Murphy, of a unital graph C*-algebra is either 1 or 0, depending on whether or not the underlying graph possesses an initial loop. As a corollary, we show that the analytic rank of certain quantum spaces (including some quantum spheres, projective spaces and lens spaces) is 1.

A unital C*-algebra $A$ is said to have cancellation of projections if the semigroup $D(A)$ of Murray–von Neumann equivalence classes of projections in matrices over $A$ is cancellative. It has long been known that stable rank one implies cancellation for any $A$, and some partial converses have been established. In this paper it is proved that cancellation does not imply stable rank one for simple, stably finite C*-algebras.

In this paper, we show that the set of all common fixed points of a one-parameter nonexpansive semigroup is that of some single nonexpansive mapping. We next compare our result with Bruck's famous fixed-point theorem. We finally prove very simple convergence theorems to a common fixed point. In our discussion, we assume neither the strict convexity of the underlying space, nor the weak compactness of the domain of a nonexpansive semigroup.

We provide a criterion for the energy measures of regular Dirichlet forms on post-critically finite self-similar sets to be singular with respect to every self-similar measure. A probabilistic interpretation of the singularity is also discussed.

We consider the uniqueness of the positive solution to a semilinear elliptic equation with Dirichlet boundary condition and the nonlinearity satisfying $f(0)<0$ and having asymptotic sublinear growth rate. A similar idea is also applied to the nonexistence of a positive solution to a superlinear problem.

We derive a sharp, localized version of elliptic type gradient estimates for positive solutions (bounded or not) to the heat equation. These estimates are related to the Cheng–Yau estimate for the Laplace equation and Hamilton's estimate for bounded solutions to the heat equation on compact manifolds. As applications, we generalize Yau's celebrated Liouville theorem for positive harmonic functions to positive ancient (including eternal) solutions of the heat equation, under certain growth conditions. Surprisingly this Liouville theorem for the heat equation does not hold even in ${\mathbb R}^n$ without such a condition. We also prove a sharpened long-time gradient estimate for the log of the heat kernel on noncompact manifolds.