This paper presents a new probabilistic algorithm to compute modular polynomials modulo a prime. Modular polynomials parameterize pairs of isogenous elliptic curves, and are useful in many aspects of computational number theory and cryptography. The algorithm presented here has the distinguishing feature that it does not involve the computation of Fourier coefficients of modular forms. The need to compute the exponentially large integral coefficients is avoided by working directly modulo a prime, and computing isogenies between elliptic curves via Vélu's formulas.

Let S be a non-empty proper subset of the set of places of a global function field F and E a cyclic Kummer or Artin–Schreier–Witt extension of F. We present a method of efficiently computing the ring of elements of E which are integral at all places of S. As an important tool, we include an algorithmic version of the strong approximation theorem. We conclude with several examples.

In this paper, the study of the expressive power of certain classes of program schemes on finite structures is continued, in relation to more mainstream logics studied in finite model theory and to computational complexity. The author shows that there exists a program scheme – whose constructs are assignments and while-loops with quantifier-free tests and which has access to a stack – that can accept a P-complete problem, the deterministic path system problem, even in the absence of non-determinism, so long as problem instances are presented in a functional style. (The proof given here leans heavily on Cook's proof that the classes of formal languages accepted by deterministic and non-deterministic logspace auxiliary pushdown machines coincide.) However, whilst this result is of independent interest, in that it leads to a deterministic model of computation capturing P, whose non-deterministic variant also captures P, the program scheme can also be used to build a successor relation in certain classes of structures (namely: the class of strongly connected locally ordered digraphs, the class of connected planar embeddings, and the class of triangulations), with the consequence that on these classes of graphs, (a fragment of) path system logic (with no built-in relations) captures exactly the polynomial-time solvable problems.

To support formal reasoning in mathematical and software engineering applications, it is desirable to have a generic prover that can be instantiated with a range of logics. This allows the prover to be applied to a wider variety of reasoning tasks than a fixed-logic prover. This paper describes the design principles and the architecture of the latest version of the Ergo proof engine, Ergo 6. Ergo 6 is a generic interactive theorem prover, similar to Isabelle, but with better support for proving schematic theorems with user-defined constraints, and with a different approach to handling variable scoping. A major theme of the paper is that Prolog implementation technology can be generalized to obtain efficient implementations of generic proof engines. This is demonstrated via a Qu-Prolog implementation of Ergo 6.

The proof of the relative consistency of the axiom of choice has been mechanized using Isabelle⁄ZF, building on a previous mechanization of the reflection theorem. The heavy reliance on metatheory in the original proof makes the formalization unusually long, and not entirely satisfactory: two parts of the proof do not fit together. It seems impossible to solve these problems without formalizing the metatheory. However, the present development follows a standard textbook, Kenneth Kunen's Set theory: an introduction to independence proofs, and could support the formalization of further material from that book. It also serves as an example of what to expect when deep mathematics is formalized.

The paper describes a procedure for determining (up to algebraic conjugacy) the conjugacy class in which any element of the Monster lies, using computer constructions of representations of the Monster in characteristics 2 and 7. This procedure has been used to calculate explicit representatives for each conjugacy class.

If (Q, A) is a marked polygon with one interior point, then a general polynomial f belonging to K[x,y] with support A defines an elliptic curve Cf on the toric surface XA. If K has a non-archimedean valuation into R we can tropicalize Cf to get a tropical curve Trop(Cf). If in the Newton subdivision induced by f is a triangulation and the interior point occurs as the vertex of a triangle, then Trop(Cf) will be a graph of genus one and we show that the lattice length of the cycle of that graph is the negative of the valuation of the j-invariant of Cf.

Extensive numerical experiments have been conducted by the authors, aimed at finding the admissible range of the ratios of the first three eigenvalues of a planar Dirichlet Laplacian. The results improve the previously known theoretical estimates of M. Ashbaugh and R. Benguria. Some properties of a maximizer of the ratio λ3/λ1 are also proved in the paper.

In this paper we generalize the construction of a domain-theoretic integral, introduced by Professor Abbas Edalat, in locally compact separable Hausdorff spaces, to general Hausdorff spaces embedded in a domain. Our main example of such spaces comprises general metric spaces embedded in the rounded ideal completion of the partially ordered set of formal balls. We go on to discuss analytic subsets of a general Hausdorff space, and give a sufficient condition for a measure supported on an analytic set to be approximated by a sequence of simple valuations. In particular, this condition is always satisfied in a metric space embedded in the rounded ideal completion of its formal ball space. We finish with a comments section, where we highlight some potential areas for future research and discuss some questions of computability.

This paper presents an algorithm for computing numerical evidence for a conjecture whose validity is predicted by the requirement that the equivariant Tamagawa number conjectures for Tate motives as formulated by Burns and Flach are compatible with the functional equation of the Artin L-series. The algorithm includes methods for the computation of Fitting ideals and projective lattices over the integral group ring.

Long-term solutions of the theta method applied to scalar nonlinear differential equations are studied in this paper. In the case where the equation has a stable steady state, lower bounds on the basin of non-oscillatory, monotonic attraction for the theta method are derived. Spurious period two solutions are then analysed. Under mild assumptions, precise results are obtained concerning the generic nature and stability of these solutions for small timesteps. Particular problem classes are studied, and direct connections are made between the existence and stability of period two solutions and the dynamics of the theta method. The analysis is extended to a wide class of semi-discretized partial differential equations. Numerical examples are given.

The authors determine all the absolutely irreducible representations of degree up to 250 of quasi-simple finite groups, excluding groups that are of Lie type in their defining characteristic. Additional information is also given on the Frobenius-Schur indicators and the Brauer character fields of the representations.

We formulate a variational problem on a Riemannian manifold M whose solutions are piecewise smooth geodesies that best fit a given data set of time labelled points in M. By a limiting process, these solutions converge to a single point in M. which we prove to be the Riemannian mean of the given points for some particular Riemannian manifolds such as Euclidean spaces, connected and compact Lie groups, and spheres.

Morgan Ward pursued the study of elliptic divisibility sequences, originally initiated by Lucas, and Chudnovsky and Chudnovsky subsequently suggested looking at elliptic divisibility sequences for prime appearance. The problem of prime appearance in these sequences is examined here, from both a theoretical and a practical viewpoint. We show calculations, together with a heuristic argument, to suggest that these sequences contain only finitely many primes.

The aim of this paper is to extend the previous work on transfer matrix compression in the case of graph homomorphisms. For H-homomorphisms of lattice-like graphs we demonstrate how the automorphisms of H, as well as those of the underlying lattice, can be used to reduce the size of the relevant transfer matrices. As applications of this method we give currently best known bounds for the number of 4- and 5-colourings of the square grid, and the number of 3- and 4-colourings of the three-dimensional cubic lattice. Finally, we also discuss approximate compression of transfer matrices.

We assign names and new generators to the transitive groups of degree up to 15, reflecting their structure.

The Alekseev–Gröbner lemma is combined with the theory of modified equations to obtain an a priori estimate for the global error of numerical integrators. This estimate is correct up to a remainder term of order h2p, where h denotes the step size and p the order of the method. It is applied to nonlinear oscillators whose behaviour is described by the Emden–Fowler equation y″+tνyn=0. The result shows explicitly that later terms sometimes blow up faster than the leading term of order hp, necessitating the whole computation. This is supported by numerical experiments.