This paper gives a brief overview of some configurations in which high-frequency wave propagation modelled by Helmholtz equation gives rise to solutions that vary rapidly across thin layers. The configurations are grouped according to their mathematical structure and tractability and one of them concerns a famous open problem of mathematical physics.

A module M is called a D4-module if, whenever A and B are submodules of M with M = A ⊕ B and f : A → B is a homomorphism with Imf a direct summand of B, then Kerf is a direct summand of A. The class of D4-modules contains the class of D3-modules, and hence the class of semi-projective modules, and so the class of Rickart modules. In this paper we prove that, over a commutative Dedekind domain R, for an R-module M which is a direct sum of cyclic submodules, M is direct projective (equivalently, it is semi-projective) iff M is D3 iff M is D4. Also we prove that, over a prime PI-ring, for a divisible R-module X, X is direct projective (equivalently, it is Rickart) iff X ⊕ X is D4. We determine some D3-modules and D4-modules over a discrete valuation ring, as well. We give some relevant examples. We also provide several examples on D3-modules and D4-modules via quivers.

Quasiperiodic media is a class of almost periodic media which is generated from periodic media through a ‘cut and project’ procedure. Quasiperiodic media displays some extraordinary optical, electronic and conductivity properties which call for the development of methods to analyse their microstructures and effective behaviour. In this paper, we develop the method of Bloch wave homogenisation for quasiperiodic media. Bloch waves are typically defined through a direct integral decomposition of periodic operators. A suitable direct integral decomposition is not available for almost periodic operators. To remedy this, we lift a quasiperiodic operator to a degenerate periodic operator in higher dimensions. Approximate Bloch waves are obtained for a regularised version of the degenerate operator. Homogenised coefficients for quasiperiodic media are obtained from the first Bloch eigenvalue of the regularised operator in the limit of regularisation parameter going to zero. A notion of quasiperiodic Bloch transform is defined and employed to obtain homogenisation limit for an equation with highly oscillating quasiperiodic coefficients.

We describe the connected components of the space $\text {Hom}(\Gamma ,SU(2))$ of homomorphisms for a discrete nilpotent group $\Gamma$. The connected components arising from homomorphisms with non-abelian image turn out to be homeomorphic to $\mathbb {RP}^{3}$. We give explicit calculations when $\Gamma$ is a finitely generated free nilpotent group. In the second part of the paper, we study the filtration $B_{\text {com}} SU(2)=B(2,SU(2))\subset \cdots \subset B(q,SU(2))\subset \cdots$ of the classifying space $BSU(2)$ (introduced by Adem, Cohen and Torres-Giese), showing that for every $q\geq 2$, the inclusions induce a homology isomorphism with coefficients over a ring in which 2 is invertible. Most of the computations are done for $SO(3)$ and $U(2)$ as well.

It has been well established that congruences between automorphic forms have far-reaching applications in arithmetic. In this paper, we construct congruences for Siegel–Hilbert modular forms defined over a totally real field of class number 1. As an application of this general congruence, we produce congruences between paramodular Saito–Kurokawa lifts and non-lifted Siegel modular forms. These congruences are used to produce evidence for the Bloch–Kato conjecture for elliptic newforms of square-free level and odd functional equation.

Bollobás and Nikiforov (J. Combin. Theory Ser. B. 97 (2007) 859–865) conjectured the following. If G is a Kr+1-free graph on at least r+1 vertices and m edges, then ${\rm{\lambda }}_1^2(G) + {\rm{\lambda }}_2^2(G) \le (r - 1)/r \cdot 2m$, where λ1 (G)and λ2 (G) are the largest and the second largest eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix A(G), respectively. In this paper we confirm the conjecture in the case r=2, by using tools from doubly stochastic matrix theory, and also characterize all families of extremal graphs. Motivated by classic theorems due to Erdös and Nosal respectively, we prove that every non-bipartite graph of order and size contains a triangle if one of the following is true: (i) ${{\rm{\lambda }}_1}(G) \ge \sqrt {m - 1} $ and $G \ne {C_5} \cup (n - 5){K_1}$, and (ii) ${{\rm{\lambda }}_1}(G) \ge {{\rm{\lambda }}_1}(S({K_{[(n - 1)/2],[(n - 1)/2]}}))$ and $G \ne S({K_{[(n - 1)/2],[(n - 1)/2]}})$, where $S({K_{[(n - 1)/2],[(n - 1)/2]}})$ is obtained from ${K_{[(n - 1)/2],[(n - 1)/2]}}$ by subdividing an edge. Both conditions are best possible. We conclude this paper with some open problems.