The Mahler measure of a nonzero $n$-variable polynomial $P$ is the integral of $\log|P|$ on the unit $n$-torus. A result of Boyd and Lawton says that the Mahler measure of a multivariate polynomial is the limit of Mahler measures of univariate polynomials. We prove the analogous result for different extensions of Mahler measure such as generalized Mahler measure (integrating the maximum of $\log|P|$ for possibly different $P$'s), multiple Mahler measure (involving products of $\log|P|$ for possibly different $P$'s), and higher Mahler measure (involving $\log^k|P|$).

We obtain an asymptotic formula for the number of square-free integers in $N$ consecutive values of polynomials on average over integral polynomials of degree at most $k$ and of height at most $H$, where $H \ge N^{k-1+\varepsilon}$ for some fixed $\varepsilon\gt 0$. Individual results of this kind for polynomials of degree $k \gt 3$, due to A. Granville (1998), are only known under the $ABC$-conjecture.

We give a simple proof of the value of the resultant of two Chebyshev polynomials (of the first or the second kind), values lately obtained by D. P. Jacobs, M. O. Rayes and V. Trevisan.

In this paper we study uniqueness of entire functions sharing a non-zero finite value with linear differential polynomials and address a result of W. Wang and P. Li.

Let $R$ be a semiprime ring with center $Z(R)$. For $x,y\in R$, we denote by $[x,y]=xy-yx$ the commutator of $x$ and $y$. If $\sigma$ is a non-identity automorphism of $R$ such that $$ \Big[\big[\dots\big[[\sigma(x^{n_0}),x^{n_1}],x^{n_2}\big],\dots\big],x^{n_k}\Big]=0 $$ for all $x \in R$, where $n_{0},n_{1},n_{2},\dots,n_{k}$ are fixed positive integers, then there exists a map $\mu\colon R\rightarrow Z(R)$ such that $\sigma(x)=x+\mu(x)$ for all $x\in R$. In particular, when $R$ is a prime ring, $R$ is commutative.

We prove a necessary and sufficient condition on the list of nonzero integers $u_1,\dots,u_k$, $k \geq 2$, under which a monic polynomial $f \in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ is expressible by a linear form $u_1f_1+\dots+u_kf_k$ in monic polynomials $f_1,\dots,f_k \in \mathbb{Z}[x]$. This condition is independent of $f$. We also show that if this condition holds, then the monic polynomials $f_1,\dots,f_k$ can be chosen to be irreducible in $\mathbb{Z}[x]$.

Let $\lambda (n)$ denote the Liouville function. Complementary to the prime number theorem, Chowla conjectured that \begin{equation*} \label{a.1} \sum_{n\le x} \lambda (f(n)) =o(x)\tag{$*$} \end{equation*} for any polynomial $f(x)$ with integer coefficients which is not of form $bg(x)^2$. When $f(x)=x$, $(*)$ is equivalent to the prime number theorem. Chowla's conjecture has been proved for linear functions, but for degree greater than 1, the conjecture seems to be extremely hard and remains wide open. One can consider a weaker form of Chowla's conjecture. Conjecture 1. [Cassaigne et al.] If $f(x) \in \mathbb{Z} [x]$ and is not in the form of $bg^2(x)$ for some $g(x)\in \mathbb{Z}[x]$, then $\lambda (f(n))$ changes sign infinitely often. Clearly, Chowla's conjecture implies Conjecture 1. Although weaker, Conjecture 1 is still wide open for polynomials of degree $\gt 1$. In this article, we study Conjecture 1 for quadratic polynomials. One of our main theorems is the following. Theorem 1 Let $f(x) = ax^2+bx +c $ with $a\gt 0$ and $l$ be a positive integer such that $al$ is not a perfect square. If the equation $f(n)=lm^2 $ has one solution $(n_0,m_0) \in \mathbb{Z}^2$, then it has infinitely many positive solutions $(n,m) \in \mathbb{N}^2$. As a direct consequence of Theorem 1, we prove the following. Theorem 2 Let $f(x)=ax^2+bx+c$ with $a \in \mathbb{N}$ and $b,c \in \mathbb{Z}$. Let \[ A_0=\Bigl[\frac{|b|+(|D|+1)/2}{2a}\Bigr]+1. \] Then either the binary sequence $\{ \lambda (f(n)) \}_{n=A_0}^\infty$ is a constant sequence or it changes sign infinitely often. Some partial results of Conjecture 1 for quadratic polynomials are also proved using Theorem 1.

Müntz-Legendre polynomials $L_n(\Lambda;x)$ associated with a sequence $\Lambda=\{\lambda_k\}$ are obtained by orthogonalizing the system $(x^{\lambda_0}, x^{\lambda_1}, x^{\lambda_2}, \dots)$ in $L_2[0,1]$ with respect to the Legendre weight. If the $\lambda_k$'s are distinct, it is well known that $L_n(\Lambda;x)$ has exactly $n$ zeros $l_{n,n}\lt l_{n-1,n}\lt \cdots \lt l_{2,n}\lt l_{1,n}$ on $(0,1)$. First we prove the following global bound for the smallest zero, $$ \exp\biggl(-4\sum_{j=0}^n \frac{1}{2\lambda_j+1}\biggr) \lt l_{n,n}. $$ An important consequence is that if the associated Müntz space is non-dense in $L_2[0,1]$, then $$ \inf_{n}x_{n,n}\geq \exp\biggl({-4\sum_{j=0}^{\infty} \frac{1}{2\lambda_j+1}}\biggr)\gt 0, $$ so the elements $L_n(\Lambda;x)$ have no zeros close to 0. Furthermore, we determine the asymptotic behavior of the largest zeros; for $k$ fixed, $$ \lim_{n\rightarrow\infty} \vert \log l_{k,n}\vert \sum_{j=0}^n (2\lambda_j+1)= \Bigl(\frac{j_k}{2}\Bigr)^2, $$ where $j_k$ denotes the $k$-th zero of the Bessel function $J_0$.

We obtain nontrivial estimates of quadratic character sums of division polynomials $\Psi_n(P)$, $n=1,2, \dots$, evaluated at a given point $P$ on an elliptic curve over a finite field of $q$ elements. Our bounds are nontrivial if the order of $P$ is at least $q^{1/2 + \varepsilon}$ for some fixed $\varepsilon > 0$. This work is motivated by an open question about statistical indistinguishability of some cryptographically relevant sequences that was recently brought up by K. Lauter and the second author.

Let $F$ be an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, and let $A$ be an associative unitary $F$-algebra graded by a group of prime order. We prove that if $A$ is finite dimensional then the graded exponent of $A$ exists and is an integer.

The paper describes entire solutions to the eiconal type non-linear partial differential equations, which include the eiconal equations $(X_1(u))^2+(X_2(u))^2=1$ as special cases, where $X_1=p_1{\partial}/{\partial z_1}+p_2{\partial}/{\partial z_2}$, $X_2=p_3{\partial}/{\partial z_1}+p_4{\partial}/{\partial z_2}$ are linearly independent operators with $p_j$ being arbitrary polynomials in $\mathbf{C}^2$.

Let $T_{n}$ denote the $n$-th Chebyshev polynomial of the first kind, and let $U_{n}$ denote the $n$-th Chebyshev polynomial of the second kind. We give an explicit formula for the resultant $\operatorname{res}( T_{m}, T_{n} )$. Similarly, we give a formula for $\operatorname{res}( U_{m}, U_{n} )$.

We consider a class of strongly $q$-log-convex polynomials based on a triangular recurrence relation with linear coefficients, and we show that the Bell polynomials, the Bessel polynomials, the Ramanujan polynomials and the Dowling polynomials are strongly $q$-log-convex. We also prove that the Bessel transformation preserves log-convexity.

Let $R$ be a dense subring of $\operatorname{End}(_DV)$, where $V$ is a left vector space over a division ring $D$. If $\dim{_DV}=\infty$, then the range of any nonzero polynomial $f(X_1,\dots,X_m)$ on $R$ is dense in $\operatorname{End}(_DV)$. As an application, let $R$ be a prime ring without nonzero nil one-sided ideals and $0\ne a\in R$. If $af(x_1,\dots,x_m)^{n(x_i)}=0$ for all $x_1,\dots,x_m\in R$, where $n(x_i)$ is a positive integer depending on $x_1,\dots,x_m$, then $f(X_1,\dots,X_m)$ is a polynomial identity of $R$ unless $R$ is a finite matrix ring over a finite field.

Let $R$ be a unit-regular ring and let $\sigma $ be an endomorphism of $R$ such that $\sigma (e)=e$ for all $e^2=e\in R$ and let $n\ge 0$. It is proved that every element of $R[x \mathinner;\sigma]/(x^{n+1})$ is equivalent to an element of the form $e_0+e_1x+\dots +e_nx^n$, where the $e_i$ are orthogonal idempotents of $R$. As an application, it is proved that $R[x \mathinner; \sigma ]/(x^{n+1})$ is left morphic for each $n\ge 0$.

We strengthen certain results concerning actions of $(\Comp,+)$ on $\Comp^{3}$ and embeddings of $\Comp^{2}$ in $\Comp^{3}$, and show that these results are in fact valid over any field of characteristic zero.

We use some classical estimates for polynomial roots to provide several irreducibility criteria for polynomials with integer coefficients that have one sufficiently large coefficient and take a prime value.

In the work presented below the classical subject of orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle is discussed in the matrix setting. An explicit matrix representation of the matrix valued orthogonal polynomials in terms of the moments of the measure is presented. Classical recurrence relations are revisited using the matrix representation of the polynomials. The matrix expressions for the kernel polynomials and the Christoffel--Darboux formulas are presented for the first time.

We determine the necessary and sufficient combinatorial conditions for which the tensor product of two irreducible polynomial representations of $\GL(n,\mathbb{C})$ is isomorphic to another. As a consequence we discover families of Littlewood--Richardson coefficients that are non-zero, and a condition on Schur non-negativity.

We study some global aspects of differential complex 2-forms and 3-forms on complex manifolds. We compute the cohomology classes represented by the sets of points on a manifold where such a form degenerates in various senses, together with other similar cohomological obstructions. Based on these results and a formula for projective representations, we calculate the degree of the projectivization of certain orbits of the representation $\Lambda^k\C^n$.

Erratum to {\it The Lehmer Polynomial and Pretzel Links}, Canad. J. Math. {\bf 44}(2001), 440--451.

In this note we show that the image of the transfer for permutation representations of finite groups is generated by the transfers of special monomials. This leads to a description of the image of the transfer of the alternating groups. We also determine the height of these ideals.

In this paper we find a formula for the Alexander polynomial $\Delta_{p_1,\dots,p_k} (x)$ of pretzel knots and links with $(p_1,\dots,p_k, \nega 1)$ twists, where $k$ is odd and $p_1,\dots,p_k$ are positive integers. The polynomial $\Delta_{2,3,7} (x)$ is the well-known Lehmer polynomial, which is conjectured to have the smallest Mahler measure among all monic integer polynomials. We confirm that $\Delta_{2,3,7} (x)$ has the smallest Mahler measure among the polynomials arising as $\Delta_{p_1,\dots,p_k} (x)$.

We continue to study the simplest closure conditions for chains of spectral transformations of the Laurent biorthogonal polynomials ($\LBP$). It is shown that the 1-1-periodic $q$-closure condition leads to the $\LBP$ introduced by Pastro. We introduce classes of semi-classical and Laguerre-Hahn $\LBP$ associated to generic closure conditions of the chain of spectral transformations.

Vector invariants of finite groups (see the introduction for an explanation of the terminology) have often been used to illustrate the difficulties of invariant theory in the modular case: see, \eg., \cite{Ber}, \cite{norway}, \cite{fossum}, \cite{MmeB}, \cite{poly} and \cite{survey}. It is therefore all the more surprising that the {\it unpleasant} properties of these invariants may be derived from two unexpected, and remarkable, {\it nice} properties: namely for vector permutation invariants of the cyclic group $\mathbb{Z}/p$ of prime order in characteristic $p$ the image of the transfer homomorphism $\Tr^{\mathbb{Z}/p} \colon \mathbb{F}[V] \lra \mathbb{F}[V]^{\mathbb{Z}/p}$ is a prime ideal, and the quotient algebra $\mathbb{F}[V]^{\mathbb{Z}/p}/ \Im (\Tr^{\mathbb{Z}/p})$ is a polynomial algebra on the top Chern classes of the action.