We study sets on which measurable real-valued functions on a measurable space with negligibles are determined by their range.

The genus series for maps is the generating series for the number of rooted maps with a given number of vertices and faces of each degree, and a given number of edges. It captures topological information about surfaces, and appears in questions arising in statistical mechanics, topology, group rings, and certain aspects of free probability theory. An expression has been given previously for the genus series for maps in locally orientable surfaces in terms of zonal polynomials. The purpose of this paper is to derive an integral representation for the genus series. We then show how this can be used in conjunction with integration techniques to determine the genus series for monopoles in locally orientable surfaces. This complements the analogous result for monopoles in orientable surfaces previously obtained by Harer and Zagier. A conjecture, subsequently proved by Okounkov, is given for the evaluation of an expectation operator acting on the Jack symmetric function. It specialises to known results for Schur functions and zonal polynomials.

In the present paper, we face the problem of classifying classes of orientable PL 5-manifolds M5 with h ≥ 1 boundary components, by making use of a combinatorial invariant called regular genusG(M5). In particular, a complete classification up to regular genus five is obtained: where denotes the regular genus of the boundary ∂M5 and denotes the connected sumof h ≥ 1 orientable 5-dimensional handlebodies 𝕐αi of genus αi ≥ 0 (i = 1, . . . ,h), so that .

Moreover, we give the following characterizations of orientable PL 5-manifolds M5 with boundary satisfying particular conditions related to the “gap” between G(M5) and either G(∂M5) or the rank of their fundamental group rk(π1(M5)): Further, the paper explains how the above results (together with other known properties of regular genus of PL manifolds) may lead to a combinatorial approach to 3-dimensional Poincaré Conjecture.

We give explicit combinatorial expresssions for the characteristic cycles associated to certain canonical sheaves on Schubert varieties X in the classical Hermitian symmetric spaces: namely the intersection homology sheaves IHX and the constant sheaves ℂX. The three main cases of interest are the Hermitian symmetric spaces for groups of type An (the standard Grassmannian), Cn (the Lagrangian Grassmannian) and Dn. In particular we find that CC(IHX) is irreducible for all Schubert varieties X if and only if the associated Dynkin diagramis simply laced. The result for Schubert varieties in the standard Grassmannian had been established earlier by Bressler, Finkelberg and Lunts, while the computations in the Cn and Dn cases are new.

Our approach is to compute CC(ℂX) by a direct geometric method, then to use the combinatorics of the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials (simplified for Hermitian symmetric spaces) to compute CC(IHX). The geometric method is based on the fundamental formula where the Xr ↓ X constitute a family of tubes around the variety X. This formula leads at once to an expression for the coefficients of CC(ℂX) as the degrees of certain singular maps between spheres.

Using Feferman-Vaught techniques a condition on the fine spectrum of an admissible class of structures is found which leads to a first-order 0–1 law. The condition presented is best possible in the sense that if it is violated then one can find an admissible class with the same fine spectrum which does not have a first–order 0–1 law.

If the condition is satisfied (and hence we have a first-order 0–1 law) we give a natural model of the limit law theory; and show that the limit law theory is decidable if the theory of the directly indecomposables is decidable. Using asymptotic methods from the partition calculus a useful test is derived to show several admissible classes have a first–order 0–1 law.

Let Lp = Lp(X, μ), 1 ≤ p ≤ ∞, be the usual Banach Spaces of real valued functions on a complete non-atomic probability space. Let (T1, . . . ,TK) be L2-contractions. Let 0 < ε < δ ≤ 1. Call a function f a δ-spanning function if ‖f‖2 = 1 and if ‖Tkf - Qk-1Tkf‖2 ≥ δ for each k = 1, . . . ,K, where Q0 = 0 and Qk is the orthogonal projection on the subspace spanned by (T1f , . . . ,Tkf). Call a function h a (δ, ε) -sweeping function if ‖h‖∞ ≤ 1, ‖h‖1 < ε, and if max1≤k≤K|Tkh| > δ-ε on a set of measure greater than 1 - ε. The following is the main technical result, which is obtained by elementary estimates. There is an integer K = K(δ, ε) ≥ 1 such that if f is a δ-spanning function, and if the joint distribution of (f , T1f , . . . ,TKf) is normal, then h = ((fΛM)Ꮩ(-M)/M is a (δ, ε)-sweeping function, for some M > 0. Furthermore, if Tks are the averages of operators induced by the iterates of ameasure preserving ergodic transformation, then a similar result is true without requiring that the joint distribution is normal. This gives the following theorem on a sequence (Ti) of these averages.Assume that for each K ≤ 1 there is a subsequence (Ti1 , . . . ,Tik) of length K, and a δ-spanning function fK for this subsequence. Then for each ε > 0 there is a function h, 0 ≥ h ≥ 1, ‖h‖1 < ε, such that lim supi Tih ≤ δ a.e.. Another application of the main result gives a refinement of a part of Bourgain’s “Entropy Theorem”, resulting in a different, self contained proof of that theorem.

In this paper we study the q-Carleson measures for a space of M-harmonic potentials in the unit ball of Cn, when q < p. We obtain some computable sufficient conditions, and study the relations among them.

We prove an integration formula involving Jack polynomials conjectured by I. P. Goulden and D.M. Jackson in connection with enumeration of maps in surfaces.

We present a subordination theory for spatial branching processes. This theory is developed in three different settings, first for branching Markov processes, then for superprocesses and finally for the path-valued process called the Brownian snake. As a common feature of these three situations, subordination can be used to generate new branching mechanisms. As an application, we investigate the compact support property for superprocesses with a general branching mechanism.

In this paper we prove, that under certain hypotheses, the planar differential equation: ˙x = X1(x, y) + X2(x, y), ˙y = Y1(x, y) + Y2(x, y), where (Xi, Yi), i = 1, 2, are quasi-homogeneous vector fields, has at most two limit cycles. The main tools used in the proof are the generalized polar coordinates, introduced by Lyapunov to study the stability of degenerate critical points, and the analysis of the derivatives of the Poincar´e return map. Our results generalize those obtained for polynomial systems with homogeneous non-linearities.

Let VN(G) be the von Neumann algebra of a locally compact group G. We denote by μ the initial ordinal with |μ| equal to the smallest cardinality of an open basis at the unit of G and X = ﹛α ; α < μ﹜.We show that if G is nondiscrete then there exist an isometric *-isomorphism of l∞(X) into VN(G) and a positive linear mapping π of VN(G) onto l∞(X) such that π o = idl∞(X) and and π have certain additional properties. Let UCB((Ĝ)) be the C*–algebra generated by operators in VN(G) with compact support and F(Ĝ) the space of all T∈ VN(G) such that all topologically invariant means on VN(G) attain the same value at T. The construction of the mapping π leads to the conclusion that the quotient space UCB((Ĝ))/F((Ĝ)) ∪UCB((Ĝ)) has l∞(X) as a continuous linear image if G is nondiscrete. When G is further assumed to be non-metrizable, it is shown that UCB((Ĝ))/F((Ĝ)) ∪UCB((Ĝ)) contains a linear isomorphic copy of l∞(X). Similar results are also obtained for other quotient spaces.

Using Feferman-Vaught techniques we show a certain property of the fine spectrumof an admissible class of structures leads to a first-order law. The condition presented is best possible in the sense that if it is violated then one can find an admissible class with the same fine spectrum which does not have a first-order law. We present three conditions for verifying that the above property actually holds.

The first condition is that the count function of an admissible class has regular variation with a certain uniformity of convergence. This applies to a wide range of admissible classes, including those satisfying Knopfmacher's Axiom A, and those satisfying Bateman and Diamond's condition.

The second condition is similar to the first condition, but designed to handle the discrete case, i.e., when the sizes of the structures in an admissible class K are all powers of a single integer. It applies when either the class of indecomposables or the whole class satisfies Knopfmacher's Axiom A#.

The third condition is also for the discrete case, when there is a uniform bound on the number of K-indecomposables of any given size.

For a fixed algebraic number α we discuss how closely α can be approximated by a root of a {0, +1, -1} polynomial of given degree. We show that the worst rate of approximation tends to occur for roots of unity, particularly those of small degree. For roots of unity these bounds depend on the order of vanishing, k, of the polynomial at α.

In particular we obtain the following. Let BN denote the set of roots of all {0, +1, -1} polynomials of degree at most N and BN(α k) the roots of those polynomials that have a root of order at most k at α. For a Pisot number α in (1, 2] we show that

and for a root of unity α that

We study in detail the case of α = 1, where, by far, the best approximations are real. We give fairly precise bounds on the closest real root to 1. When k = 0 or 1 we can describe the extremal polynomials explicitly.

The spectral theory for the Neumann Laplacian on planar domains with symmetric, horn-like ends is studied. For a large class of such domains, it is proven that the Neumann Laplacian has no singular continuous spectrum, and that the pure point spectrum consists of eigenvalues of finite multiplicity which can accumulate only at 0 or ∞. The proof uses Mourre theory.

The abstract Witt rings which are Gorenstein have been classified when the dimension is one and the classification problem for those of dimension zero has been reduced to the case of socle degree three. Here we classify the Gorenstein Witt rings of fields with dimension zero and socle degree three. They are of elementary type.

For ameromorphic (or harmonic) function ƒ, let us call the dilation of ƒ at z the ratio of the (spherical)metric at ƒ(z) and the (hyperbolic)metric at z. Inequalities are knownwhich estimate the sup norm of the dilation in terms of its Lp norm, for p > 2, while capitalizing on the symmetries of ƒ. In the present paper we weaken the hypothesis by showing that such estimates persist even if the Lp norms are taken only over the set of z on which ƒ takes values in a fixed spherical disk. Naturally, the bigger the disk, the better the estimate. Also, We give estimates for holomorphic functions without zeros and for harmonic functions in the case that p = 2.

We make precise the structure of the first two reduction morphisms associated with codimension two non-singular subvarieties of non-singular quadrics Qn, n ≥ 5. We give a coarse classification of the same class of subvarieties when they are assumed not to be of log-general-type.

Symplectic and orthogonal Schur functions can be defined combinatorially in a manner similar to the classical Schur functions. This paper demonstrates that they can also be expressed as determinants. These determinants are generated using planar decompositions of tableaux into strips and the equivalence of these determinants to symplectic or orthogonal Schur functions is established by Gessel-Viennot lattice path techniques. Results for rational (also called composite) Schur functions are also obtained.

We show that the Meixner, Pollaczek, Meixner-Pollaczek, the continuous q-ultraspherical polynomials and Al-Salam-Chihara polynomials, in certain normalization, are moments of probability measures.We use this fact to derive bilinear and multilinear generating functions for some of these polynomials. We also comment on the corresponding formulas for the Charlier, Hermite and Laguerre polynomials.