The main result in this paper, contained in Theorem 1, is a generalisation of the inequality of the arithmetic-geometric means. A result of a similar character has been proved by Siegel (2). The present result gives an improvement in the inequality in the case when the variables involved are not all distinct, whereas Siegel's result does not. The theorem is used in § 3 to obtain a result in connection with totally real and positive algebraic integers.

The development of the theory of local rings has been greatly stimulated by the importance of the applications to algebraic geometry, but it is none the less true that this stimulus has produced a theory which, on aesthetic grounds, is somewhat unsatisfactory. In the first place, if a local ring Q arises in the ordinary way from a geometric problem, then Qwill have the same characteristic as its residue field. It is partly for this reason that our knowledge of equicharacteristic local rings is much more extensive than it is of those local rings which present the case of unequal characteristics. Again, in the geometric case, the integral closure of Q in its quotient field will be a finite Q-module. Here, once more, we have a special situation which it would be desirable to abandon from the point of view of a general abstract theory.

The object of this paper is to evaluate a few infinite integrals involving E-functions by applying the Parseval-Goldstein [1] theorem of Operational Calculus; that, if

and

then

when the integrals are convergent.

In this paper we prove a theorem in Operational Calculus and use it to evaluate a few infinite integrals involving Legendre, Bessel and E-functions. We write

when

and

when

(2) is a generalisation of (1) as given by Meijer [2] and it reduces to (1) when v = ±½ by virtue of the relation

The first formula to be proved is

where R(z)>0.

The basic formula to be proved is

where p≧q + 1, z ≠0; | amp z | < π, R(n)>0, r = 1, 2,…,p. For other values of pand qthe result holds if the integral converges. From this formula some results, involving Bessel functions and Confluent Hypergeometric functions, will be deduced.

Several writers (4), (6), (7), (9) have used orthogonal expansions in discussing properties of Fourier transformations, and Kober (3) has used such expansions to derive fractional Fourier and Hankel transformations. In 1950 Barrucand (1) noted a reciprocity holding between the coefficients in the expansions in Laguerre polynomials of pairs of functions which are transforms with respect to the kernel J0(2x½).

Let R be a ring and let Rn be the complete ring of n × n matrices with coefficients from R.