We use circulant matrices and hyperelliptic curves over finite fields to study some arithmetic properties of certain determinants involving Legendre symbols and kth power residues.

By previous work of Giordano and the author, ergodic actions of $\mathbf{Z}$ (and other discrete groups) are completely classified measure-theoretically by their dimension space, a construction analogous to the dimension group used in $\text{C}^{\ast }$-algebras and topological dynamics. Here we investigate how far from approximately transitive (AT) actions can be that derive from circulant (and related) matrices. It turns out not very: although non-AT actions can arise from this method of construction, under very modest additional conditions, approximate transitivity arises. KIn addition, if we drop the positivity requirement in the isomorphism of dimension spaces, then all these ergodic actions satisfy an analogue of AT. Many examples are provided.

A system of functional equations satisfied by the components of a quadratic function is derived via their corresponding circulant matrix. Given such a system of functional equations, general solutions are determined and a stability result for such a system is established.

In this paper, we investigate the method of fundamental solutions (MFS) for solving exterior Helmholtz problems with high wave-number in axisymmetric domains. Since the coefficient matrix in the linear system resulting from the MFS approximation has a block circulant structure, it can be solved by the matrix decomposition algorithm and fast Fourier transform for the fast computation of large-scale problems and meanwhile saving computer memory space. Several numerical examples are provided to demonstrate its applicability and efficacy in two and three dimensional domains.

Recently, systematic sampling on the circle and the sphere has been studied by Gual-Arnau and Cruz-Orive (2000) from a design-based point of view. In this note, it is shown that their mathematical model for the covariogram is, in a model-based statistical setting, a special case of the p-order shape model suggested by Hobolth, Pedersen and Jensen (2000) and Hobolth, Kent and Dryden (2002) for planar objects without landmarks. Benefits of this observation include an alternative variance estimator, applicable in the original problem of systematic sampling. In a wider perspective, the paper contributes to the discussion concerning design-based versus model-based stereology.