The notions of isoparametric maps and submanifolds in semi-Riemannian spaces are the generalizations of such notions in Riemannian spaces. The generalizations are different according to the purposes. We take the definitions as in the Riemannian case. Quadratic isoparametric maps and submanifolds are interesting examples which can be studied in detail. In this paper we study what we call quadratic isoparametric systems. In fact we give a classification of such systems of codimension 2. We use three different methods to show that quadratic isoparametric submanifolds of codimension 2 are homogeneous. The classification of quadratic isoparametric systems is done algebraically. By this we have changed the geometric problem of classifying quadratic submanifolds of codimension 2 into the algebraic problem of classifying quadratic isoparametric systems of codimension 2. The classification of such systems with arbitrary codimension is still open.

The theory of isoparametric functions and a family of isoparametric hypersurfaces began essentially with E. Cartan in 1930's. He defined a real valued function V defined on a Riemannian space form to be isoparametric if ∥grad υ∥2=TV and ΔV = SV for some real valued functions S, T. Then a family of hypersurfaces Mt, is called isoparametric if Mt,=V-1 (t) where t is a regular value of V.

We develop some ideas contained in the author's paper [8] which was, in turn, inspired by Bierlein and Stich [5]. The main body of the present paper is divided into three sections. Section 2 is concerned with some vector-lattice-theoretical results. They are then applied to extensions of quasi-measures and measures in Sections 3 and 4, respectively.

Let X be a vector lattice, let x ε X+ and let S be a non-empty set. Theorems 1 and 2 describe some properties of the convex set

(see Section 2 for the definition of the sum above). The extreme points of Dx,s are characterized in terms of the components of x. It is also shown that if X has the principal projection property and S is countable, then extr Dx,s is, in some sense, large in Dx,s. Furthermore, for finite S, each point in Dx,s is then a sσ-convex combination of extreme ones.

We give a short and constructive proof of the general (multi-dimensional) Implicit Function Theorem (IFT), using infinitesimal (i.e. nonstandard) methods to implement our basic intuition about the result. Here is the statement of the IFT, quoted from [4];

Theorem. Let A ⊂ ℝn × ℝmbe an open set and let F:A → ℝ be a function of class Cp (p≥1). Suppose that (xO, yO) ε A with F(xO, yO) = 0 (xO ε ℝn, yO ε ℝm) and that the Jacobian determinantis not zero at (xO, yO). Then there is an open neighbourhood U of xO and a unique function f:U→ ℝmwith

F(x, f(x)) = 0

for all x ε U. Moreover, f is of class Cp.

This paper obtains a simple formula for the distance from a given operator to the set of invertible operators without requiring the underlying space to be separable. That formula is used to compute the distance to the Fredholm operators with a given index. These results require the further study of the concepts of essential nullity and essential deficiency, which permitted us to characterize the closure of the invertible operators. We also introduce a parameter called the modulus of Fredholmness.

Let be a group-theoretic property. We say a group has a finite covering by -subgroups if it is the set-theoretic union of finitely many -subgroups. The topic of this paper is the investigation of groups having a finite covering by nilpotent subgroups, n-abelian subgroups or 2-central subgroups.

R. Baer [12; 4.16] characterized central-by-finite groups as those groups having a finite covering by abelian subgroups. In [6] it was shown that [G: ZC (G)] finite implies the existence of a finite covering by subgroups of nilpotency class c, i.e. ℜc-groups. However, an example of a group is given there which has a finite covering by ℜ2-groups, but Z2(G) does not have finite index in the group. These results raise two questions, on which we will focus our investigations.

The variety O2 of all algebras (L; ∧, ∨, f, g, 0, 1) of type (2, 2, 1, 1, 0, 0) such that (L; ∧, ∨, f, 0, 1) and (L; ∧, ∨, g, 0, 1) are Ockham algebras is introduced, and, for n, m εℕ, its subvarieties DMSn, of double MSn-algebras, and DKn,m, of double Kn,m-algebras, are considered. It is shown that DKn,m has equationally definable principal congruences: a description of principal congruences on double Kn,m-algebras is given and simplified for double MSn-algebras. A topological duality for O2-algebras is developed and used to determine the subdirectly irreducible algebras in DKn,m and in DMSn. Finally, MSn-algebras which are reduct of a (unique) double MSn-algebra are characterized.

Many special cases of the equation x2+C= yn where x and y are positive integers and n≥3 have been considered over the years, but most results for general n are of fairly recent origin. The earliest reference seems to be an assertion by Fermat that he had shown that when C=2, n=3, the only solutions are given by x = 5, y = 3; a proof was published by Euler [1]. The first result for general n is due to Lebesgue [2] who proved that when C = 1 there are no solutions. Nagell [4] generalised Fermat's result and proved that for C = 2 the equation has no solution other than x = 5, y = 3, n = 3. He also showed [5] that for C = 4 the equation has no solution except x = 2, y = 2, n = 3 and x = 11, y = 5, n = 3, and claims in [6] to have dealt with the case C = 5. The case C = -1 was solved by Chao Ko, and an account appears in [3], pp. 302–304.

A Banach space E is said to have Property (w) if every operator from E into E' is weakly compact. This property was introduced by E. and P. Saab in [9]. They observe that for Banach lattices, Property (w) is equivalent to Property (V*), which in turn is equivalent to the Banach lattice having a weakly sequentially complete dual. Thus the following question was raised in [9].

Does every Banach space with Property (w) have a weakly sequentially complete dual, or even Property (V*)?

In this paper, we give two examples, both of which answer the question in the negative. Both examples are James type spaces considered in [1]. They both possess properties stronger than Property (w). The first example has the property that every operator from the space into the dual is compact. In the second example, both the space and its dual have Property (w). In the last section we establish some partial results concerning the problem (also raised in [9]) of whether (w) passes from a Banach space E to C(K, E).

The concept of reduction and integral closure of ideals relative to Artinian modules were introduced in [7]; and we summarize some of the main aspects now.

Let A be a commutative ring (with non-zero identity) and let a, b be ideals of A. Suppose that M is an Artinian module over A. We say that a is a reduction of b relative to M if a ⊆ b and there is a positive integer s such that

)O:Mabs)=(O:Mbs+l).

An element x of A is said to be integrally dependent on a relative to M if there exists n y ℕ(where ℕ denotes the set of positive integers) such that

It is shown that this is the case if and only if a is a reduction of a+Ax relative to M; moreover

ᾱ={x ɛ A: xis integrally dependent on a relative to M}

is an ideal of A called the integral closure of a relative to M and is the unique maximal member of

℘ = {b: b is an ideal of A which has a as a reduction relative to M}.

Let G be a finite abelian group of rank m, M an oriented compact connected surface, and F(G, M) the set of all orientation preserving free G-actions on M. Two actions φ1, φ2εF(G, M) are equivalent if there exists an orientation preserving homeomorphism h of M such that

hφ1(f) for all f ε G.

Let E be a Hausdorff locally convex space with continuous dual E1 and let M be a subspace of the algebraic dual E* such that M ∩ E1 = {0} and dim M = ℵ0. In the terminology of [4] the Mackey topology τ(E, E1 + M) is called a countable enlargement of τ(E, E1). There has been some interest in the question of when barrelledness is preserved under countable enlargements (see [4], [5], [6], [8], [9]). In this note we are concerned with the preservation of the quasidistinguished property for normed spaces under countable enlargements; this was posed as on open question by B. Tsirulnikov in [7]. According to [7] a Hausdorff locally convex space E is quasidistinguished if every bounded subset of its completion Ê is contained in the completion of a bounded subset of Ê (equivalently, in the closure in Ê of a bounded subset of E). Any normed space is clearly quasidistinguished and remains so under a finite enlargement (dim M < χ0) since the enlarged topology is normable. (See the Main Theorem of [7] for a general result on the preservation of the quasidistinguished property under finite enlargements.) We shall write QDCE for a countable enlargement which preserves the quasidistinguished property.

Let F be a Banach space, (ω, ℱ, P) a fixed probability space, D a directed set filtering to the right with the order ≤, and (ℱt, D) a stochastic basis of ℱ, i.e. (ℱt, D) is an increasing family of sub-σ-algebras of ℱ:ℱs ⊂ for any s,t ε D and s≤t. Throughout this paper, (Xt) is an F-valued, (ℱt)-adapted sequence, i.e. Xt, is ℱt-measurable, t ε D. We also assume that Xt, ∈ L1, i.e. ∫ ∥Xt∥ <∞. We use I(H) to denote the indicator function of an event H. Let ∞ be a such element: t <∞, t ∈ D, = D ∪ ∞, and ℱ∞ = σ. A stopping time is a map τ:Ω→ such that (τ<t) ∈ ℱt, t ∈ D. A stopping time τ is called simple (countable) if it takes finitely (countably) many values in D(). Let T and Tc be the sets of simple and countable stopping times respectively and Tf = {τ ∈ Tc: τ<∞ a.s.}. Clearly, (T, <) and (Tf, <) are directed sets filtering to the right. For τ ∈ Tc, let

and

= {(Xt): there is σ∈ Tf such that ∫(ι<∞) ∥Xι∥ < ∞, σ ≤ τ ∈ Tc},

= {(Xt):(Xι, ι ∈ T) converges stochastically (i.e. in probability) in the norm topology},

ℰ = {(Xt):(Xι, ι ∈ T) converges essentially in the norm topology}.

In [6] B. H. Neumann proved the following beautiful result: if a group G is covered by finitely many cosets, say G = xiHi, then we can omit from the union any xiHi, for which |G|Hj| is infinite. In particular, |G:Hj| is finite, for some j ∈ {l,…,n}.

In an unpublished result R. Baer characterized the groups covered by finitely many abelian subgroups, they are exactly the centre-by-finite groups [8]. Coverings by nilpotent subgroups or by Engel subgroups and by normal subgroups have been studied, for example, by R. Baer (see [8]), L. C. Kappe [2,1], M. A. Brodie and R. F. Chamberlain [1], and recently by M. J. Tomkinson [9].

Recently, P. Kaplan and K. S. Williams [10] considered (as an example) the representation of primes by binary quadratic forms of discriminant –768. These forms fall into 4 genera, each consisting of two classes. In particular, they considered the forms

F=3X2+642 and G = 12X2+12XY+19Y2.

It follows from genus theory (as explained in [10]) that every prime p ≡ 19 mod 24 is represented by exactly one of the forms F and G. Based on numerical data, they conjectured that a prime p ≡ 19 mod 24 is represented by

where

Vo = 2, V1 = -4, Vn+2=-4Vn+1 -Vn (n∨0).

We prove that if n>0 is an integer and r>0 is a real number, then

The upper bound is best possible. Inequality (*) is a converse of a result of G. Bennett who proved that Qn(r)>l.