We conjecture that five well-known identities universally satisfied by commutators in a group generate all such universal commutator identies. We use homological techniques to partially prove the conjecture.

Let E be a quasi-complete locally convex space and A a subset of E. It is shown that if every real-valued C∞-function in the weak topology of E is bounded on A, then A is relatively weakly compact. Furthermore, if all real-valued C∞-functions on E are bounded on A, then A is relatively compact in the associated semi-weak topology of E.

In this paper we prove algebraic generalizations of some results of C. J. K. Batty and A. B. Thaheem, concerned with the identity α + α−1 = β + β−1 where α and β are automorphisms of a C*-algebra. The main result asserts that if automorphisms α, β of a semiprime ring R satisfy α + α-1 = β + β−1 then there exist invariant ideals U1, U2 and U3 of R such that Ui ∩ Uj = 0, i ≠ j, U1 ⊕ U2 ⊕ U3 is an essential ideal, α = β on U1, α = β−1 on U2, and α2 = β2 = α−2 on U3. Furthermore, if the annihilator of any ideal in R is a direct summand (in particular, if R is a von Neumann algebra), then U1 ⊕ U2 ⊕ U3 = R.

In this paper, we generalize the classical F. and M. Riesz theorem to compact groups and compact commutative hypergroups. The group SU(2) of unitary matrices is also studied.

In this paper we prove that if an oval in a finite projective plane of order n ≡ 3 (mod 4) has the four point Pascal property and if each of its tangents and secants has the five point Pascal property, then the plane is Pappian and the oval is a conic.

We also establish results concerning Ostrom conics and ovals with the three point and four point Pascal properties.

For a positive continuous weight function ν on an open subset G of CN, let Hv(G) and Hv0(G) denote the Banach spaces (under the weighted supremum norm) of all holomorphic functions f on G such that ν f is bounded and ν f vanishes at infinity, respectively. We address the biduality problem as to when Hν(G) is naturally isometrically isomorphic to Hν0(G)**, and show in particular that this is the case whenever the closed unit ball in Hν0(G) in compact-open dense in the closed unit ball of Hν(G).

General periodic and fixed point theorems are proved for a class of self maps of a quasi-metric space which satisfy the contractive definition (A) below. Two examples are presented to show that the class of mappings which satisfy (A) is indeed wider than a class of selfmaps which satisfy Caristi's contractive definition (C) below. Also a common fixed point theorem for a pair of maps which satisfy a contractive condition (D) below is established.

Let Nn(ω) be the number of real roots of the random algebraic equation Σnv = 0 avξv (ω)xv = 0, where the ξv(ω)'s are independent, identically distributed random variables belonging to the domain of attraction of the normal law with mean zero and P{ξv(ω) ≠ 0} > 0; also the av 's are nonzero real numbers such that (kn/tn) = 0(log n) where kn = max0≤v≤n |av| and tn = min0≤v≤n |av|. It is shown that for any sequence of positive constants (εn, n ≥ 0) satisfying εn → 0 and ε2nlog n → ∞ there is a positive constant μ so that for all n0 sufficiently large.

In this paper we study the space of multipliers M(r, s: p, q) from the space of test functions Φrs(G), on a locally compact abelian group G, to amalgams (Lp, lq)(G); the former includes (when r = s = ∞) the space of continuous functions with compact support and the latter are extensions of the Lp(G) spaces. We prove that the space M(∞: p) is equal to the derived space (Lp)0 defined by Figá-Talamanca and give a characterization of the Fourier transform for amalgams in terms of these spaces of multipliers.

This paper presents new proofs of some classical transcendence theorems. We use real variable methods, and hence obtain only the real variable versions of the theorems we consider: the Hermite-Lindemann theorem, the Gelfond-Schneider theorem, and the Six Exponentials theorem. We do not appeal to the Siegel lemma to build auxiliary functions. Instead, the proof employs certain natural determinants formed by evaluating n functions at n points (alternants), and two mean value theorems for alternants. The first, due to Pólya, gives sufficient conditions for an alternant to be non-vanishing. The second, due to H. A. Schwarz, provides an upper bound.

Directly indecomposable absolute subretracts that are commutative Noetherian rings are described. This is an application of our main result characterizing unital directly indecomposable absolute subretracts which contain a maximal ideal with nonzero annihilator.

Let D be a nonzero derivation of a noncommutative prime ring R, and let U be the subring of R generated by all [D(x), x], x ∞ R. A classical theorem of Posner asserts that U is not contained in the center of R. Under the additional assumption that the characteristic of R is not 2, we prove a more general result stating that U contains a nonzero left ideal of R as well as a nonzero right ideal of R.