In this note, we prove that a four-dimensional compact oriented half-conformally flat Riemannian manifold M4 is topologically $\mathbb{S}^{4}$ or $\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^{2}$, provided that the sectional curvatures all lie in the interval $\left[ {{{3\sqrt {3 - 5} } \over 4}, 1} \right]$ In addition, we use the notion of biorthogonal (sectional) curvature to obtain a pinching condition which guarantees that a four-dimensional compact manifold is homeomorphic to a connected sum of copies of the complex projective plane or the 4-sphere.

An element a in a ring R is left annihilator-stable (or left AS) if, whenever $Ra+{\rm l}(b)=R$ with $b\in R$, $a-u\in {\rm l}(b)$ for a unit u in R, and the ring R is a left AS ring if each of its elements is left AS. In this paper, we show that the left AS elements in a ring form a multiplicatively closed set, giving an affirmative answer to a question of Nicholson [J. Pure Appl. Alg. 221 (2017), 2557–2572.]. This result is used to obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for a formal triangular matrix ring to be left AS. As an application, we provide examples of left AS rings R over which the triangular matrix rings ${\mathbb T}_n(R)$ are not left AS for all $n\ge 2$. These examples give a negative answer to another question of Nicholson [J. Pure Appl. Alg. 221 (2017), 2557–2572.] whether R/J(R) being left AS implies that R is left AS.

In 1996, a q-deformation of the universal enveloping algebra of the Schrödinger Lie algebra was introduced in Dobrev et al. [J. Phys. A 29 (1996) 5909–5918.]. This algebra is called the quantum Schrödinger algebra. In this paper, we study the Bernstein-Gelfand-Gelfand (BGG) category $\mathcal{O}$ for the quantum Schrödinger algebra $U_q(\mathfrak{s})$, where q is a nonzero complex number which is not a root of unity. If the central charge $\dot z\neq 0$, using the module $B_{\dot z}$ over the quantum Weyl algebra $H_q$, we show that there is an equivalence between the full subcategory $\mathcal{O}[\dot Z]$ consisting of modules with the central charge $\dot z$ and the BGG category $\mathcal{O}^{(\mathfrak{sl}_2)}$ for the quantum group $U_q(\mathfrak{sl}_2)$. In the case that $\dot z = 0$, we study the subcategory $\mathcal{A}$ consisting of finite dimensional $U_q(\mathfrak{s})$-modules of type 1 with zero action of Z. We directly construct an equivalence functor from $\mathcal{A}$ to the category of finite dimensional representations of an infinite quiver with some quadratic relations. As a corollary, we show that the category of finite dimensional $U_q(\mathfrak{s})$-modules is wild.

We investigate the real space H of Hermitian matrices in $M_n(\mathbb{C})$ with respect to norms on $\mathbb{C}^n$. For absolute norms, the general form of Hermitian matrices was essentially established by Schneider and Turner [Schneider and Turner, Linear and Multilinear Algebra (1973), 9–31]. Here, we offer a much shorter proof. For non-absolute norms, we begin an investigation of H by means of a series of examples, with particular reference to dimension and commutativity.

Let ℚsymm be the compositum of all symmetric extensions of ℚ, i.e., the finite Galois extensions with Galois group isomorphic to Sn for some positive integer n, and let ℤsymm be the ring of integers inside ℚsymm. Then, TH(ℤsymm) is primitive recursively decidable.

The closure of a braid in a closed orientable surface Ʃ is a link in Ʃ × S1. We classify such closed surface braids up to isotopy and homeomorphism (with a small indeterminacy for isotopy of closed sphere braids), algebraically in terms of the surface braid group. We find that in positive genus, braids close to isotopic links if and only if they are conjugate, and close to homeomorphic links if and only if they are in the same orbit of the outer action of the mapping class group on the surface braid group modulo its centre.

We study the indexing systems that correspond to equivariant Steiner and linear isometries operads. When G is a finite abelian group, we prove that a G-indexing system is realized by a Steiner operad if and only if it is generated by cyclic G-orbits. When G is a finite cyclic group, whose order is either a prime power or a product of two distinct primes greater than 3, we prove that a G-indexing system is realized by a linear isometries operad if and only if it satisfies Blumberg and Hill’s horn-filling condition. We also repackage the data in an indexing system as a certain kind of partial order. We call these posets transfer systems, and develop basic tools for computing with them.

For a locally compact group G, we study the distality of the action of automorphisms T of G on SubG, the compact space of closed subgroups of G endowed with the Chabauty topology. For a certain class of discrete groups G, we show that T acts distally on SubG if and only if Tn is the identity map for some $n\in\mathbb N$. As an application, we get that for a T-invariant lattice Γ in a simply connected nilpotent Lie group G, T acts distally on SubG if and only if it acts distally on SubΓ. This also holds for any closed T-invariant co-compact subgroup Γ in G. For a lattice Γ in a simply connected solvable Lie group, we study conditions under which its automorphisms act distally on SubΓ. We construct an example highlighting the difference between the behaviour of automorphisms on a lattice in a solvable Lie group and that in a nilpotent Lie group. We also characterise automorphisms of a lattice Γ in a connected semisimple Lie group which act distally on SubΓ. For torsion-free compactly generated nilpotent (metrisable) groups G, we obtain the following characterisation: T acts distally on SubG if and only if T is contained in a compact subgroup of Aut(G). Using these results, we characterise the class of such groups G which act distally on SubG. We also show that any compactly generated distal group G is Lie projective.

We prove some numerical inequality for the Horikawa indices for Eisenbud–Harris special nonhyperelliptic fibrations of genus 4 on algebraic surfaces under the assumption that the multiplication map of the fibration is not surjective. Furthermore, we prove that the inequality is best possible by constructing the examples satisfying the equality.

We use the divide-and-conquer and scanning algorithms for calculating Khovanov cohomology directly on the Lee- or Bar-Natan deformations of the Khovanov complex to give an alternative way to compute Rasmussen s-invariants of knots. By disregarding generators away from homological degree 0, we can considerably improve the efficiency of the algorithm. With a slight modification, we can also apply it to a refinement of Lipshitz–Sarkar.

We show that standard cyclic actions on Brieskorn homology 3-spheres with non-empty fixed set do not extend smoothly to any contractible smooth 4-manifold it may bound. The quotient of any such extension would be an acyclic 4-manifold with boundary a related Brieskorn homology sphere. We briefly discuss well-known invariants of homology spheres that obstruct acyclic bounding 4-manifolds and then use a method based on equivariant Yang–Mills moduli spaces to rule out extensions of the actions.

For a locally compact Hausdorff space X and a C*-algebra A with only finitely many closed ideals, we discuss a characterization of closed ideals of C0(X,A) in terms of closed ideals of A and a class of closed subspaces of X. We further use this result to prove that a closed ideal of C0(X)⊗min A is a finite sum of product ideals. We also establish that for a unital C*-algebra A, C0(X,A) has the centre-quotient property if and only if A has the centre-quotient property. As an application, we characterize the closed Lie ideals of C0(X,A) and identify all the closed Lie ideals of HC0(X)⊗minB(H), H being a separable Hilbert space.

Let F be a non-Archimedean local field of characteristic zero. Let G = GL(2, F) and $3\widetildeG = \widetilde{GL}(2,F)$ be the metaplectic group. Let τ be the standard involution on G. A well-known theorem of Gelfand and Kazhdan says that the standard involution takes any irreducible admissible representation of G to its contragredient. In such a case, we say that τ is a dualizing involution. In this paper, we make some modifications and adapt a topological argument of Tupan to the metaplectic group $\widetildeG$ and give an elementary proof that any lift of the standard involution to $\widetildeG$; is also a dualizing involution.

Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a fusion category over an algebraically closed field $\mathbb{k}$ of arbitrary characteristic. Two numerical invariants of $\mathcal{C}$, that is, the Casimir number and the determinant of $\mathcal{C}$ are considered in this paper. These two numbers are both positive integers and admit the property that the Grothendieck algebra $(\mathcal{C})\otimes_{\mathbb{Z}}K$ over any field K is semisimple if and only if any of these numbers is not zero in K. This shows that these two numbers have the same prime factors. If moreover $\mathcal{C}$ is pivotal, it gives a numerical criterion that $\mathcal{C}$ is nondegenerate if and only if any of these numbers is not zero in $\mathbb{k}$. For the case that $\mathcal{C}$ is a spherical fusion category over the field $\mathbb{C}$ of complex numbers, these two numbers and the Frobenius–Schur exponent of $\mathcal{C}$ share the same prime factors. This may be thought of as another version of the Cauchy theorem for spherical fusion categories.

We introduce a generalization of the Lisca–Ozsváth–Stipsicz–Szabó Legendrian invariant ${\mathfrak L}$ to links in every rational homology sphere, using the collapsed version of link Floer homology. We represent a Legendrian link L in a contact 3-manifold ${(M,\xi)}$ with a diagram D, given by an open book decomposition of ${(M,\xi)}$ adapted to L, and we construct a chain complex ${cCFL^-(D)}$ with a special cycle in it denoted by ${\mathfrak L(D)}$. Then, given two diagrams ${D_1}$ and ${D_2}$ which represent Legendrian isotopic links, we prove that there is a map between the corresponding chain complexes that induces an isomorphism in homology and sends ${\mathfrak L(D_1)}$ into ${\mathfrak L(D_2)}$. Moreover, a connected sum formula is also proved and we use it to give some applications about non-loose Legendrian links; that are links such that the restriction of ${\xi}$ on their complement is tight.

Let A be the product of an abelian variety and a torus over a number field K, and let $$m \ge 2$$ be a square-free integer. If $\alpha \in A(K)$ is a point of infinite order, we consider the set of primes $\mathfrak p$ of K such that the reduction $(\alpha \bmod \mathfrak p)$ is well defined and has order coprime to m. This set admits a natural density, which we are able to express as a finite sum of products of $\ell$ -adic integrals, where $\ell$ varies in the set of prime divisors of m. We deduce that the density is a rational number, whose denominator is bounded (up to powers of m) in a very strong sense. This extends the results of the paper Reductions of points on algebraic groups by Davide Lombardo and the second author, where the case m prime is established.