Let denote the semigroup, under composition, of all entire functions of a complex variable and for , let Γ(f) denote the Schützenberger group of the ℋ-class of which contains f. The main results of this paper completely describe Γ(P) where P is a polynomial function. Γ(P) is trivial if P is a constant function. If Deg (P) (the degree of P) is one, then Γ(P) is isomorphic to the group of all matrices of the form where a and b are complex numbers with a ≠ 0. If Deg (P) > 1, then Γ(P) is isomorphic to ℂM, the multiplicative group of nonzero complex numbers if and only if P(z) = α(z +β)n + γ where α ≠ 0. If P is not of this form and Deg (P) > 1, then Γ (P)is a finite cyclic group and its order can be determined by defining (where αn−1 and α n are the coefficients in P of zn−1 and zn respectively) and then inspecting the coefficients of Q.

J. M. Ball has introduced the notion of polyconvexity to study nonlinear problems in elasticity and he has shown that polyconvexity implies rank 1 convexity. In this paper we prove by a counterexample that the converse of this implication is false in two dimensions.

A Laplace transform is developed for functions which are holomorphic in the complex wedge Ω = {z| |arg (z)| < σ}, where 0 ≦ σ < π. The resulting transform will be holomorphic in a complementary wedge of the form Ωa = {a+ z||arg (z)|< (π/2) +σ for some a. This Laplace transform is shown to be an isomorphism between two appropriate spaces. The spanning properties of sets of the form {eλkS}k∊I in the domain space are studied. These results are then applied to a control problem.

Let H be the Hopf line bundle over the complex projective space of complex dimension k – 1. We determine the codegree of the virtual bundle –nH in the range l ≦ n ≦ k. This codegree has geometric significance as a stable James number.

In this paper we begin a systematic study of smooth tight maps with singularities of surfaces into E3, particularly C∞-stable maps. The class of C∞-stable tight maps of surfaces into E3 is much larger and richer than the class of C∞ (or even topological) tight immersions. We describe the general structure of C∞-stable tight maps of surfaces into E3. We show that, given any integer n ≧ 2 and a compact surface X other than the sphere or the projective plane, there is a C∞ -stable tight map X → E3 with exactly n topcycles. This is very different from the situation for tight topological immersions, where Cecil and Ryan have shown that the number α(f) of topcycles of a map f: X → E3, X a compact surface other than S2, satisfies the bound 2 ≦ α(f) ≦ 2 − Euler number of X. We prove also an analogue of the Cecil–Ryan result for C∞-stable maps.

We extend the notion of order of singularity for complex-valued functions, as originally set forth by Hadamard, to Banach algebra-valued functions. Restricting our attention to linear operators whose spectral radius is one, we obtain a connection between the rate of growth of the norm of iterates of a linear operator and the rate of growth of the norm of the resolvent of the operator near the spectrum of the operator. In the finite dimensional case, we obtain an upper bound on the size of the Jordan block corresponding to an eigenvalue of maximum modulus.

We consider eigenvalues λ =(λ1, λ2) ∈R2 for the problem W(λ)x = 0, x ≠ 0, x ∈ H, where W(λ) = R + λ1V1 + λ2V2), and R, V1, V2 are self-adjoint operators on a separable Hilbert space H, R being bounded below with compact resolvent and V1, V2 being bounded. The i-th eigencurve Z1 is the set of eigenvalues λ, for which the i-th eigenvalue (counted according to multiplicity and in increasing order) of W(λ) vanishes. We study monotonic and asymptotic properties of Zi, and we give formulae for any asymptotes that exist. Additional results are given in the finite dimensional case.

Let S be an E-unitary regular semigroup and V a variety of bands. We prove that S can be embedded into a semidirect product of a band from V by a group if and only if S can be embedded in a canonical way into the semidirect product of the free band in V over a well-determined partial semigroup by the greatest group homomorphic image of S. Moreover, we show that every E-unitary regular semigroup with regular band of idempotents E can be embedded into a semidirect product of a band B by a group, where B belongs to the variety of bands generated by E.

It is shown that even in the fourth order case there exist real symmetric ordinary differential expressions with nonempty essential spectrum which are not in the limit-point case.

[Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A91 (1982), 205–212]

In this paper, we are interested in the L2-continuity of the Eisenbud–Wigner time-delay operator in potential scattering theory. Using the ideas due to Jensen–Kato [5], we first establish some low energy estimates on the resolvent of the Schrödinger operator and its derivative in weighted Sobolev spaces. Then applying these results together with the global decay of the wave functions (Lemma 3.2), we show that the Eisenbud–Wigner time-delay operator extends to a bounded operator on L2(Rn) with n ≧ 4, on condition that the potential V(x) decreases as fast as 0(|x | −4−ε) at infinity and that 0 is neither the eigenvalue nor the resonance for the Schrodinger operator –Δ + V for n = 4 or 5.

Semilinear elliptic equations of the form

are considered, where Δm is the m-th iterate of the two-dimensional Laplacian Δ, p(t) is continuous in [0, ∞), and f(u is continuous and positive either in (0, ∞) or in ℝ.

Our main objective is to present conditions on p and f which imply the existence of radial entire solutions to (*), that is, those functions of class C2m(ℝ2) which depend only on |x| and satisfy (*) pointwise in ℝ2.

First, necessary and sufficient conditions are established for equation (*), with p(t) > 0 in [0, ∞), to possess infinitely many positive radial entire solutions which are asymptotic to positive constant multiples of |x|2m−2 log |x as |x| → ∞. Secondly, it is shown that, in the case p(t < 0, in [ 0, ∞) and f(u) > 0 is nondecreasing in ℝ, equation (*) always has eventually negative radial entire solutions, all of which decrease at least as fast as negative constant multiples of |x|2m−2 log |x| as |x| → ∞. Our results seem to be new even when specialised to the prototypes

where γ is a constant.

We consider a variety of integral representations, single and multiple, old and new, for solutions of the hyper-Bessel equation u(n) – zmu =0. In particular, we show how a very early multiple Laplace integral solution of Molins (1876) may be related to recent Mellin–Barnes integral representations given by the present authors by way of multiple integral solutions given by Saxton and the second author for an associated equation. Although both these multiple integral solutions may be found by elementary methods, it is not easy to find their asymptotic expansions for large z, and we show how these may conveniently be obtained from our earlier results [10].

A solution is given to an open question of Blyth and Varlet concerning bistable subvarieties of MS-algebras.

Let G be a group and let A be a fixed point free group of automorphisms of G. It is shown that the centraliser near-ring MA(G) has at most one nontrivial ideal. Conditions on the pair (A, G) are given which force MA(G) to be simple. It is shown that if a nonsimple near-ring MA(G) exists, then A and G have unusual properties.

The symmetry set of a plane curve y is the locus of centres of circles which either (i) are tangent to y at at least two distinct points, or (ii) have at least 4-point (A3) contact with y somewhere. The points (ii) also lie at cusps of the evolute of γ and the symmetry set, together with the evolute, can be studied by regarding their union as a full bifurcation set. For information on symmetry sets, see [2, 4, 5, 7, 8].

Here we shall use a theorem of Ozawa [9] to deduce global formulae relating three features of symmetry sets. The transitions which occur on the symmetry set of a generic one-parameter family of plane curves have been found [4], and more insight into the global formulae can be gained by tracing them through the transitions and verifying that they are invariant (see Section 2). We also briefly introduce symmetry sets of plane polygons in Section 3, and show that, contrary to first impressions, the same global formulae hold there.

With certain initial and boundary conditions the solution u* to the semilinear heat equation ∂u*/∂t = ∂u* + λ * f(u*), where f is a positive superlinear function and λ is the supremum of the open spectrum for the steady state problem Δw + λf(w) = 0, is found to exist for all time and to be unbounded. Moreover u* approaches w* a singular steady state, as / tends to infinity.

Exact solutions recently discovered for non-conservative three-wave resonance are here related to the ‘one-lump’ solutions obtained by Backlund transformation in conservative cases.