For a finite group $G$, define $l(G)=(\prod _{g\in G}o(g))^{1/|G|}/|G|$, where $o(g)$ denotes the order of $g\in G$. We prove that if $l(G)>l(A_{5}),l(G)>l(A_{4}),l(G)>l(S_{3}),l(G)>l(Q_{8})$ or $l(G)>l(C_{2}\times C_{2})$, then $G$ is solvable, supersolvable, nilpotent, abelian or cyclic, respectively.

For a group $G$, let $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}(G)$ denote the graph defined on the elements of $G$ in such a way that two distinct vertices are connected by an edge if and only if they generate $G$. Let $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}^{\ast }(G)$ be the subgraph of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}(G)$ that is induced by all the vertices of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}(G)$ that are not isolated. We prove that if $G$ is a 2-generated noncyclic abelian group, then $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}^{\ast }(G)$ is connected. Moreover, $\text{diam}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}^{\ast }(G))=2$ if the torsion subgroup of $G$ is nontrivial and $\text{diam}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}^{\ast }(G))=\infty$ otherwise. If $F$ is the free group of rank 2, then $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}^{\ast }(F)$ is connected and we deduce from $\text{diam}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}^{\ast }(\mathbb{Z}\times \mathbb{Z}))=\infty$ that $\text{diam}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}^{\ast }(F))=\infty$.

A subset $A$ of a finite abelian group $G$ is called $(k,l)$-sum-free if the sum of $k$ (not necessarily distinct) elements of $A$ never equals the sum of $l$ (not necessarily distinct) elements of $A$. We find an explicit formula for the maximum size of a $(k,l)$-sum-free subset in $G$ for all $k$ and $l$ in the case when $G$ is cyclic by proving that it suffices to consider $(k,l)$-sum-free intervals in subgroups of $G$. This simplifies and extends earlier results by Hamidoune and Plagne [‘A new critical pair theorem applied to sum-free sets in abelian groups’, Comment. Math. Helv. 79(1) (2004), 183–207] and Bajnok [‘On the maximum size of a $(k,l)$-sum-free subset of an abelian group’, Int. J. Number Theory 5(6) (2009), 953–971].

Let $G$ be a finite abelian group, $A$ a nonempty subset of $G$ and $h\geq 2$ an integer. For $g\in G$, let $R_{A,h}(g)$ denote the number of solutions of the equation $x_{1}+\cdots +x_{h}=g$ with $x_{i}\in A$ for $1\leq i\leq h$. Kiss et al. [‘Groups, partitions and representation functions’, Publ. Math. Debrecen85(3) (2014), 425–433] proved that (a) if $R_{A,h}(g)=R_{G\setminus A,h}(g)$ for all $g\in G$, then $|G|=2|A|$, and (b) if $h$ is even and $|G|=2|A|$, then $R_{A,h}(g)=R_{G\setminus A,h}(g)$ for all $g\in G$. We prove that $R_{G\setminus A,h}(g)-(-1)^{h}R_{A,h}(g)$ does not depend on $g$. In particular, if $h$ is even and $R_{A,h}(g)=R_{G\setminus A,h}(g)$ for some $g\in G$, then $|G|=2|A|$. If $h>1$ is odd and $R_{A,h}(g)=R_{G\setminus A,h}(g)$ for all $g\in G$, then $R_{A,h}(g)=\frac{1}{2}|A|^{h-1}$ for all $g\in G$. If $h>1$ is odd and $|G|$ is even, then there exists a subset $A$ of $G$ with $|A|=\frac{1}{2}|G|$ such that $R_{A,h}(g)\not =R_{G\setminus A,h}(g)$ for all $g\in G$.

The first example of a torsion-free abelian group $(A,+,0)$ such that the quotient group of $A$ modulo the square subgroup is not a nil-group is indicated (for both associative and general rings). In particular, the answer to the question posed by Stratton and Webb [‘Abelian groups, nil modulo a subgroup, need not have nil quotient group’, Publ. Math. Debrecen27 (1980), 127–130] is given for torsion-free groups. A new method of constructing indecomposable nil-groups of any rank from $2$ to $2^{\aleph _{0}}$ is presented. Ring multiplications on $p$-pure subgroups of the additive group of the ring of $p$-adic integers are investigated using only elementary methods.

We study a natural discrete Bochner-type inequality on graphs, and explore its merit as a notion of “curvature” in discrete spaces. An appealing feature of this discrete version of the so-called ${{\Gamma }_{2}}$-calculus (of Bakry-Émery) seems to be that it is fairly straightforward to compute this notion of curvature parameter for several specific graphs of interest, particularly, abelian groups, slices of the hypercube, and the symmetric group under various sets of generators. We further develop this notion by deriving Buser-type inequalities (à la Ledoux), relating functional and isoperimetric constants associated with a graph. Our derivations provide a tight bound on the Cheeger constant (i.e., the edge-isoperimetric constant) in terms of the spectral gap, for graphs with nonnegative curvature, particularly, the class of abelian Cayley graphs, a result of independent interest.

Let $A$ be a ring with local units, $E$ a set of local units for $A$, $G$ an abelian group, and $\alpha$ a partial action of $G$ by ideals of $A$ that contain local units. We show that $\text{A}\,{{\star }_{\alpha }}\,G$ is simple if and only if $A$ is $G$-simple and the center of the corner $e{{\delta }_{0}}\left( \text{A}\,{{\star }_{\alpha }}\,G \right)e{{\delta }_{0}}$ is a field for all $e\,\in \,E$. We apply the result to characterize simplicity of partial skew group rings in two cases, namely for partial skew group rings arising from partial actions by clopen subsets of a compact set and partial actions on the set level.

We provide an introduction to methods and recent results on infinitely generated abelian groups with decidable word problem.

We consider the model theoretic notion of convex orderability, which fits strictly between the notions of VC-minimality and dp-minimality. In some classes of algebraic theories, however, we show that convex orderability and VC-minimality are equivalent, and use this to give a complete classification of VC-minimal theories of ordered groups and abelian groups. Consequences for fields are also considered, including a necessary condition for a theory of valued fields to be quasi-VC-minimal. For example, the p-adics are not quasi-VC-minimal.

We prove that the additive group of the rationals does not have an automatic presentation. The proof also applies to certain other abelian groups, for example, torsion-free groups that are p-divisible for infinitely many primes p, or groups of the form ⊕pϵIZ(p∞), where I is an infinite set of primes.

Nielsen transformations determine the automorphisms of a free group of rank n, and also of a free abelian group of rank n, and furthermore the generating n-tuples of such groups form a single Nielsen equivalence class. For an arbitrary rank n group, the generating n-tuples may fall into several Nielsen classes. Diaconis and Graham [‘The graph of generating sets of an abelian group’, Colloq. Math.80 (1999), 31–38] determined the Nielsen classes for finite abelian groups. We extend their result to the case of infinite abelian groups.

In this paper, we characterize quadratic number fields possessing unique factorization in terms of the power cancellation property of torsion-free rank-two abelian groups, in terms of Σ-unique decomposition, in terms of a pair of point set topological properties of Eilenberg–Mac Lane spaces, and in terms of the sequence of rational primes. We give a complete set of topological invariants of abelian groups, we characterize those abelian groups that have the power cancellation property in the category of abelian groups, and we characterize those abelian groups that have Σ-unique decomposition. Our methods can be used to characterize any direct sum decomposition property of an abelian group.