Let G be a finite group, H a copy of its p-Sylow subgroup, and N the normalizer of H in G. A theorem by Nishida [10] states the p-homotopy equivalence of suitable suspensions of BN and BG when H is abelian. Recently, in [3] the authors proved a stronger result: let ΩkH be the subgroup of H generated by elements of order pk or less; if

then BN and BG are stably p-homotopy equivalent. The hypothesis above is obviously verified when H is abelian. In the same paper the authors recall that H does not verify such condition when p = 2 and G = SL2(Fq) for a suitable odd prime power q; in this case BG and BN are not stably 2-homotopy equivalent.

For a (bounded, linear) operator A in a (complex, infinite-dimensional, separable) Hilbert space ℋ, the inner derivation DA as an operator on ℬ(ℋ), is defined by DAX = AX – XA. Johnson and Williams [4] showed that, when A is a normal operator, range inclusion DBℬ(ℋ)⊆DA(ℋ)⊆ is equivalent to the condition that B = f(A), where f is a Lipschitz function on σ(A) such that t(z, w)(f(z)–f(w))/(z–w) is a trace class kernel on L2(μ) whenever t(z, w) is such a kernel. (Here μ is the dominating scalar valued spectral measure of A constructed in multiplicity theory). This result is deep and its proof is difficult. In the present paper, we establish the following analogous result which is easier to prove: for a normal operator A, range inclusion DB℘2(ℋ) holds if and only if B = f(A) for some Lipschitz function f on σ(A). Here ℘(ℋ) stands for the Hilbert-Schmidt class of operators on ℋ. As by-products of our argument, we generalize some results in [4], [8], [9] concerning the non-existence of a one-sided ideal contained in certain derivation ranges; for example, we show that if A is hyponormal and if the point spectrum σP(A*) of A* is empty, then DAℬ(ℋ) does not contain any nonzero right ideal.

Let Ω = H1⊕…⊕Hn be an abelian group of permutations of a finite non-empty set S. If Hi is generated by φi, let sφi(α) denote the length of the cycle of φi containing α. For any function f on S, let A(f,Ω) = (φ ∈ Ω|fφ = f). In Theorem 2 we show that, if for every i ≠ j and α ∈ S, Sφi(α) and Sφj(α) are relatively prime, then A(f, Ω) = A(f, H1)⊕…⊕A(f, Hn) for all f, while in Theorem 3 we prove the natural converse.

In [2], Tosiro Tsuzzuku gave a proof of the following:

THEOREM. Let G be a doubly transitive permutation group of degree n, let K be any commutative ring with unit element and let p be the natural representation of G by n × n permutation matrices with elements 0, 1 in K. Then ρ is decomposable as a matrix representation over K if and only ifn is an invertible element of K.

For G the symmetric group this result follows from Theorems (2.1) and (4.12) of [1]. The proof given by Tsuzuku is unsatisfactory, although it is perfectly valid when K is a field. The purpose of this note is to give a correct proof of the general case.

In [2], H. Delange gives the following characterization of the sine function.

Theorem A. f(x)=sin x is the only infinitely differentiable real-valued function on the real line such that f'(O)= 1 and

for all real x and n = 0,1,2,….

It is clear that, if f satisfies (1), then the analytic continuation of f is an entire function satisfying

for all z in the complex plane. Hence f is of at most order one and type one. In this note, we prove the following theorem.

Groups that can be represented as the product of two proper subgroups have been studied extensively; one of the latest contributions is a paper by Wielandt (8), in which references to previous work can be found. In the case where the two proper subgroups have only the unit element in common, we adopt the term ‘general product’introduced by Neumann (1).

Djabali [1] has proved that, if R is a right and left noetherian ring with an identity and if the proper prime ideals of R are maximal, then R has a right and left artinian two-sided quotient ring. Robson [5, Theorem 2.11] and Small [6, Theorem 2.13] have proved independently that, if Ris a commutative noetherian ring, then Rhas an artinian quotient ring if and only if the prime ideals of Rthat belong to the zero ideal are all minimal. We shall generalise these results by proving the

Theorem. Let R be a right and left noetherian ring with a regular element. Then R has a right and left artinian two-sided quotient ring if and only if each prime ideal of R consisting of zero–divisors is minimal.

We say that a ring R has bounded index if there is a positive integer n such that an = 0 for each nilpotent element a of R. If n is the least such integer we say R has index n. For example, any semiprime right Goldie ring has bounded index, and so does any semiprime ring satisfying a polynomial identity [10, Theorem 10.8.2]. This paper is mainly concerned with the maximal (right) quotient ring Q of a semiprime ring R with bounded index. Several special cases of this situation have already received attention in the literature. If R satisfies a polynomial identity [1], or if every nonzero right ideal of R contains a nonzero idempotent [18] then it is known that Q is a finite direct product of matrix rings over strongly regular self-injective rings, the size of the matrices being bounded by the index of R. On the other hand if R is reduced (that is, has index 1) then Q is a direct product of a strongly regular self-injective ring and a biregular right self-injective ring of type III ([2] and [15]; the terminology is explained in [6]). We prove the following generalization of these results (see Theorems 9 and 11).

During the last few years several articles on asymptotic martingales (amarts) have appeared. The first unified treatment was given by Edgar and Sucheston in [7], where further references can be found. The purpose of this paper is to add some further results to the theory of amarts.

Let X and Y be normed spaces and let L(X, Y) denote the set of linear transformations (henceforth called “operators”) T with domain a linear subspace D(T) of X and range R(T) contained in Y. The restriction of T to a subspace E is denoted by T/E; by the usual convention T|E = T|E∩ D(T). For a given linear subspace E the family of infinite dimensional ssubspaces of E is denoted by (E). An operator Tis said to have a certain property ℙ ubiquitously if every E ∈ (X) contains an F ∈(E) for which T|F has property ℙ For example, T is ubiquitously continuous if each E ∈(X) contains an F∈ (E) for which T|F is continuous. In the present note we shall characterize ubiquitous continuity, isomorphy, precompactness and smallness. A subspace of X is called a principal subspace if it is closed and of finite codimension in X. The restriction of an operator to a principal subspace will be called a principal restriction. The symbol T will always denote an arbitrary operator in L(X, Y).

Let be either a C*-algebra (with norm ∥ ∥) or a symmetric ideal of operators on a Hilbert space (with norm denoted by σ). Let a1…, an be self-adjoint elements, and let a0 = .

Let S be an ideal of a semigroup V. In such a case, V is an (ideal) extension of S by T = V/S. The problem considered in [2] is the construction of all congruences on V in terms of congruences on S and T. This did not succeed for all congruences but it did for those congruences whose restriction to S is weakly reductive. If the extension is strict, more precise constructions are also given there. With some relatively weak restrictions on S, we are able to obtain in this way all congruences on V in the form indicated above.

The following result is well known in the theory of analytic functions; see [1].

Theorem A. Suppose that f(z) is an entire function of a complex variable z. Then f(z) satisfies the functional equation

where z = x + iy (x, y real), if and only if f(z) = aexp(sz), where a is an arbitrary complex constant and s is an arbitrary real constant.

Let f(n) = an2+ bn + c be an irreducible quadratic polynomial with integer coefficients, and let D denote the discriminant b2 – 4ac of f(n).We shall assume that (D, k) = 1, and that for all positive integer n, f(n) is positive and coprime with k, where k is a fixed integer greater than 1.

Compact elementary operators acting on the algebra ℒ(H) of all bounded operators on some Hilbert space H were characterised by Fong and Sourour in [9]. Akemann and Wright investigated compact and weakly compact derivations on C*-algebras [1], and also studied compactness properties of the sum and the product of the right and the left regular representation of an element in a C*-algebra [2]. They used the concept of a compact Banach algebra element due to Vala [17]: an element a in a Banach algebra A is called compact if the mapping x → axa is compact on A. This notion has been further investigated by Ylinen [18, 19, 20], who showed in particular that a is a compact element of the C*-algebra A if x ↦ axa is weakly compact on A [19].

Many q-identities have been proved combinatorially. For example