Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Book Review: Algebra The Beautiful: An Ode To Math’S Least-Loved Subject By G. Arnell Williams, Judith V. Grabiner

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In his book Algebra the Beautiful, G. Darnell Williams has undertaken a challenging job – to show the importance, deep structure, intellectual connections, and sheer beauty of classroom algebra. This review describes some of the questions the book raises, the historical and cultural context it provides, and the intellectual apparatus it deploys.

Train Algebra, Mary Soon Lee

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

On Properties Of Positive Semigroups In Lattices And Totally Real Number Fields, Siki Wang

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis, we give estimates on the successive minima of positive semigroups in lattices and ideals in totally real number fields. In Chapter 1 we give a brief overview of the thesis, while Chapters 2 – 4 provide expository material on some fundamental theorems about lattices, number fields and height functions, hence setting the necessary background for the original results presented in Chapter 5. The results in Chapter 5 can be summarized as follows. For a full-rank lattice L ⊂ Rd, we are concerned with the semigroup L+ ⊆ L, which denotes the set of all vectors with nonnegative …

On The Mysteries Of Interpolation Jack Polynomials, Havi Ellers

HMC Senior Theses

Interpolation Jack polynomials are certain symmetric polynomials in N variables with coefficients that are rational functions in another parameter k, indexed by partitions of length at most N. Introduced first in 1996 by F. Knop and S. Sahi, and later studied extensively by Sahi, Knop-Sahi, and Okounkov-Olshanski, they have interesting connections to the representation theory of Lie algebras. Given an interpolation Jack polynomial we would like to differentiate it with respect to the variable k and write the result as a linear combination of other interpolation Jack polynomials where the coefficients are again rational functions in k. In this …

Propeller, Joel Kahn

The STEAM Journal

This image is based on several different algorithms interconnected within a single program in the language BASIC-256. The fundamental structure involves a tightly wound spiral working outwards from the center of the image. As the spiral is drawn, different values of red, green and blue are modified through separate but related processes, producing the changing appearance. Algebra, trigonometry, geometry, and analytic geometry are all utilized in overlapping ways within the program. As with many works of algorithmic art, small changes in the program can produce dramatic alterations of the visual output, which makes lots of variations possible.

Minimal Circuits For Very Incompletely Specified Boolean Functions, Richard Strong Bowen

HMC Senior Theses

In this report, asymptotic upper and lower bounds are given for the minimum number of gates required to compute a function which is only partially specified and for which we allow a certain amount of error. The upper and lower bounds match. Hence, the behavior of these minimum circuit sizes is completely (asymptotically) determined.

Quasi F-Covers Of Tychonoff Spaces, Melvin Henriksen, J. Vermeer, R. G. Woods

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

A Tychonoff topological space is called a quasi F-space if each dense cozero-set of X is C*-embedded in X. In Canad. J. Math. 32 (1980), 657-685 Dashiell, Hager, and Henriksen construct the "minimal quasi F-cover" QF(X) of a compact space X as an inverse limit space, and identify the ring C(QF(X)) as the order-Cauchy completion of the ring C*(X). In On perfect irreducible preimages, Topology Proc. 9 (1984), 173-189, Vermeer constructed the minimal quasi F-cover of an arbitrary Tychonoff space. In this paper the minimal quasi F-cover of a compact space X is constructed as the space of ultrafilters …

A Summary Of Results On Order-Cauchy Completions Of Rings And Vector Lattices Of Continuous Functions, Melvin Henriksen

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This paper is a summary of joint research by F. Dashiell, A. Hager and the present author. Proofs are largely omitted. A complete version will appear in the Canadian Journal of Mathematics. It is devoted to a study of sequential order-Cauchy convergence and the associated completion in vector lattices of continuous functions. Such a completion for lattices C(X) is related to certain topological properties of the space X and to ring properties of C(X). The appropriate topological condition on the space X equivalent to this type of completeness for the lattice C(X) was first identified for compact spaces X in …

An Algebraic Characterization Of The Freudenthal Compactification For A Class Of Rimcompact Spaces, Melvin Henriksen

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Throughout C(X) will denote the ring of all continuous real-valued functions on a Tychonoff space X, and C*(X) will denote the subring of bounded elements of C(X). The real line is denoted by R, and N denotes the (discrete) subspace of positive integers. A subset S of X such that the map f → f|_s is an epimorphism of C(X) (resp. C*(X)) is said to be C-embedded (resp. C*-embedded) in X. As is well-known, every f Є C*(X) has a unique continuous extension βf over its Stone-Čech compactification βX [GJ, Chapter 6]. That is, X is …

A Simple Characterization Of Commutative Rings Without Maximal Ideals, Melvin Henriksen

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In a course in abstract algebra in which the instructor presents a proof that each ideal in a ring with identity is contained in a maximal ideal, it is customary to give an example of a ring without maximal ideals.

On The Equivalence Of The Ring, Lattice, And Semigroup Of Continuous Functions, Melvin Henriksen

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

A large number of papers have been published that are devoted to showing that certain algebraic objects obtained by defining operations on the set of all continuous real-valued functions on a suitably restricted topological space determine the space. We mention but a few of them in this article.

Some Remarks About Elementary Divisor Rings, Leonard Gillman, Melvin Henriksen

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By a slight modification of Kaplansky's argument, we find that the condition on zero-divisors can be replaced by the hypothesis that S be an Hermite ring (i.e., every matrix over S can be reduced to triangular form). This is an improvement, since, in any case, it is necessary that S be an Hermite ring, while, on the other hand, it is not necessary that all zero-divisors be in the radical. In fact, we show that every regular commutative ring with identity is adequate. However, the condition that S be adequate is not necessary either.

We succeed in obtaining a necessary …

Rings Of Continuous Functions In Which Every Finitely Generated Ideal Is Principal, Leonard Gillman, Melvin Henriksen

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The outline of our present paper is as follows. In §1, we collect some preliminary definitions and results. §2 inaugurates the study of F-rings and F-spaces (i.e., those spaces X for which C(X) is an F-ring).

The space of reals is not an F-space; in fact, a metric space is an F-space if and only if it is discrete. On the other hand, if X is any locally compact, σ-compact space (e.g., the reals), then βX-X is an F-space. Examples of necessary and sufficient conditions for an arbitrary completely regular space to be an F-space are:

(i) for every f …

Concerning Rings Of Continuous Functions, Leonard Gillman, Melvin Henriksen

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The present paper deals with two distinct, though related, questions, concerning the ring C(X, R) of all continuous real-valued functions on a completely regular topological space X.

The first of these, treated in §§1-7, is the study of what we call P-spaces -- those spaces X such that every prime ideal of the ring C(X, R) is a maximal ideal. The background and motivation for this problem are set forth in §1. The results consist of a number of theorems concerning prime ideals of the ring C(X, R) in general, as well as a series of characterizations of P-spaces in …

On A Theorem Of Gelfand And Kolmogoroff Concerning Maximal Ideals In Rings Of Continuous Functions, Leonard Gillman, Melvin Henriksen, Meyer Jerison

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This paper deals with a theorem of Gelfand and Kolmogoroff concerning the ring C= C(X, R) of all continuous real-valued functions on a completely regular topological space X, and the subring C* = C*(X, R) consisting of all bounded functions in C. The theorem in question yields a one-one correspondence between the maximal ideals of C and those of C*; it is stated without proof in [2]. Here we supply a proof (§2), and we apply the theorem to three problems previously considered by Hewitt in [5].

Our first result (§3) consists of two simple constructions of the Q-space vX. …

On The Continuity Of The Real Roots Of An Algebraic Equation, Melvin Henriksen, John R. Isbell

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It is well known that the root of an algebraic equation is a continuous multiple-valued function of its coefficients [5, p. 3]. However, it is not necessarily true that a root can be given by a continuous single-valued function. A complete solution of this problem has long been known in the case where the coefficients are themselves polynomials in a complex variable [3, chap. V]. For most purposes the concept of the Riemann surface enables one to bypass the problem. However, in the study of the ideal structure of rings of continuous functions, the general problem must be met directly. …

On The Ideal Structure Of The Ring Of Entire Functions, Melvin Henriksen

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Let R be the ring of entire functions, and let K be the complex field. The ring R consists of all functions from K to K differentiable everywhere (in the usual sense).

The algebraic structure of the ring of entire functions seems to have been investigated extensively first by O. Helmer [1].

The ideals of R are herein classified as in [2]: an ideal I is called fixed if every function in it vanishes at at least one common point; otherwise, I is called free. The structure of the fixed ideals was determined in [1]. The structure of the …