Volume 12, Issue 2

We present a survey of results on word equations in simple groups, as well as their analogues and generalizations, which were obtained over the past decade using various methods: group-theoretic and coming from algebraic and arithmetic geometry, number theory, dynamical systems and computer algebra. Our focus is on interrelations of these machineries which led to numerous spectacular achievements, including solutions of several long-standing problems.

We determine the stable cohomology groups ($$H_S^i \left( {{{\mathfrak{A}_n ,\mathbb{Z}} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\mathfrak{A}_n ,\mathbb{Z}} {p\mathbb{Z}}}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {p\mathbb{Z}}}} \right)$$ of the alternating groups $$\mathfrak{A}_n$$ for all integers n and i, and all odd primes p.

Let $$\Bbbk$$ be a field of characteristic zero and G be a finite group of automorphisms of projective plane over $$\Bbbk$$. Castelnuovo’s criterion implies that the quotient of projective plane by G is rational if the field $$\Bbbk$$ is algebraically closed. In this paper we prove that $${{\mathbb{P}_\Bbbk ^2 } \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\mathbb{P}_\Bbbk ^2 } G}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} G}$$ is rational for an arbitrary field $$\Bbbk$$ of characteristic zero.

The main purpose of this paper is to present in a unified approach to different results concerning group actions and integrable systems in symplectic, Poisson and contact manifolds. Rigidity problems for integrable systems in these manifolds will be explored from this perspective.

We apply Cartan’s method of equivalence to find a Bäcklund autotransformation for the tangent covering of the universal hierarchy equation. The transformation provides a recursion operator for symmetries of this equation.

We prove that on an asymptotically Euclidean boundary groupoid, the heat kernel of the Laplacian is a smooth groupoid pseudo-differential operator.

Systems of differential equations with state-dependent delay are considered. The delay dynamically depends on the state, i.e. is governed by an additional differential equation. By applying the time transformations we arrive to constant delay systems and compare the asymptotic properties of the original and transformed systems.

We consider systems of integral-algebraic and integro-differential equations with weakly singular kernels. Although these problem classes are not in the focus of the main stream literature, they are interesting, not only in their own right, but also because they may arise from the analysis of certain classes of differential-algebraic systems of partial differential equations. In the first part of the paper, we deal with two-dimensional integral-algebraic equations. Next, we analyze Volterra integral equations of the first kind in which the determinant of the kernel matrix k(t, x) vanishes when t = x. Finally, the third part of the work is devoted to the analysis of degenerate integro-differential systems. The aim of the paper is to specify conditions which are sufficient for the existence of a unique continuous solution to the above problems. Theoretical findings are illustrated by a number of examples.

We show that (I) there is a Lindelöf space which is not weakly Menger, (II) there is a Menger space for which TWO does not have a winning strategy in the game Gfin(O,Do). These affirmatively answer questions posed in Babinkostova, Pansera and Scheepers [Babinkostova L., Pansera B.A., Scheepers M., Weak covering properties and infinite games, Topology Appl., 2012, 159(17), 3644–3657]. The result (I) automatically gives an affirmative answer of Wingers’ problem [Wingers L., Box products and Hurewicz spaces, Topology Appl., 1995, 64(1), 9–21], too. The selection principle S1(Do,Do) is also discussed in view of a special base. We show that every subspace of a hereditarily Lindelöf space with an ortho-base satisfies S1(Do,Do).

Two variations of Arhangelskii’s inequality $$\left| X \right| \leqslant 2^{\chi (X) - L(X)}$$ for Hausdorff X [Arhangel’skii A.V., The power of bicompacta with first axiom of countability, Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 1969, 187, 967–970 (in Russian)] given in [Stavrova D.N., Separation pseudocharacter and the cardinality of topological spaces, Topology Proc., 2000, 25(Summer), 333–343] are extended to the classes with finite Urysohn number or finite Hausdorff number.

Our purpose is to determine the complete set of mutually orthogonal squares of order d, which are not necessary Latin. In this article, we introduce the concept of supersquare of order d, which is defined with the help of its generating subgroup in $$\mathbb{F}_d \times \mathbb{F}_d$$. We present a method of construction of the mutually orthogonal supersquares. Further, we investigate the orthogonality of extraordinary supersquares, a special family of squares, whose generating subgroups are extraordinary. The extraordinary subgroups in $$\mathbb{F}_d \times \mathbb{F}_d$$ are of great importance in the field of quantum information processing, especially for the study of mutually unbiased bases. We determine the most general complete sets of mutually orthogonal extraordinary supersquares of order 4, which consist in the so-called Type I and Type II. The well-known case of d − 1 mutually orthogonal Latin squares is only a special case, namely Type I.

We establish the basic properties of the class of generalized simply connected John domains.

We introduce and study a rough (approximate) curvature-dimension condition for metric measure spaces, applicable especially in the framework of discrete spaces and graphs. This condition extends the one introduced by Karl-Theodor Sturm, in his 2006 article On the geometry of metric measure spaces II, to a larger class of (possibly non-geodesic) metric measure spaces. The rough curvature-dimension condition is stable under an appropriate notion of convergence, and stable under discretizations as well. For spaces that satisfy a rough curvature-dimension condition we prove a generalized Brunn-Minkowski inequality and a Bonnet-Myers type theorem.

Supervised learning methods are powerful techniques to learn a function from a given set of labeled data, the so-called training data. In this paper the support vector machines approach is applied to an image classification task. Starting with the corresponding Tikhonov regularization problem, reformulated as a convex optimization problem, we introduce a conjugate dual problem to it and prove that, whenever strong duality holds, the function to be learned can be expressed via the dual optimal solutions. Corresponding dual problems are then derived for different loss functions. The theoretical results are applied by numerically solving a classification task using high dimensional real-world data in order to obtain optimal classifiers. The results demonstrate the excellent performance of support vector classification for this particular problem.