NEW YORK SEMINAR ON GENERAL TOPOLOGY AND TOPOLOGICAL ALGEBRA

February - early March 2005

CHECK FOR CAMPUS AND LOCATION

FEBRUARY 10:  Mel Henriksen, Harvey Mudd College. "Residue class fields of rings of real analytic and real entire functions". At City College. Tea 3:00, NAC 8/133; Mel has just returned from a trip to Iran, and might be willing to talk about it. Talk 4:00 NAC 6/114. For parking, contact R. Kopperman, rdkcc@cunyvm.cuny.edu.

     ABSTRACT: More than 50 years ago, I showed that if M is a maximal ideal of the ring E(C) of entire functions, then E(C)/M is always isomorphic as a ring the complex field C, even though this residue class field is sometimes infinite dimensional as an algebra over the real field R. In this talk residue class fields of the ring A(R) of real analytic functions and the ring E(R) of real entire functions are described. They turn out to be either R, C, or a real closed field F that is an eta-one set. That is: whenever A and B are countable (possibly empty) subsets of F such that a in A and b in B imply a < b, there is an x in F such that a < x < b. By a theorem of A. Dow, any two fields of this latter kind are isomorphic iff the continuum hypothesis holds. This is part of joint research with Marek Golasinski. Unfamiliar definitions and techniques will be reviewed.

MARCH 3:   Don Johnson, "A representation theorem revisited". At City College. Tea 3:15, NAC 8/133; talk 4:00 NAC 4/113. For parking, contact R. Kopperman, rdkcc@cunyvm.cuny.edu.

     ABSTRACT: In 1962, I represented the members of a certain class of lattice-ordered rings (the reduced Archimedean f-rings) as rings of extended continuous functions on locally compact spaces. The existence of this representation has proved useful.However, the opacity* of the proof obscured the identity of the representing functions, thus limiting this usefulness. Herewith, a new, more transparent proof: one which finds ready application. First, a very strong statement of the uniqueness of the representation, something that had been missed the first time around. Second,the relationship between homomorphisms and continuous functions is explored: the homomorphisms are, indeed, defined by composition with continuous functions. This produces some insight with regard to the question that prodded me to return to this topic: "What can one say about the functoriality of this representation?"
Further applications abound,most of which are joint work with Tony Hager.

   *From the Random House unabridged: opaque, impenetrable, dull, stupid, or unintelligent

MARCH 10:   Venu Menon, Univ. of Conn, Stamford. "Intrinsic topologies on posets". At City College. Tea 3:15, NAC 8/133; talk 4:00 NAC 4/113. For parking, contact R. Kopperman, rdkcc@cunyvm.cuny.edu.

     ABSTRACT: A topology on a partially ordered set is called an intrinsic topology if it is defined directly from the order. So, it is only natural to look for purely order theoretic characterizations of topological properties like compactness and separation properties. In this talk we look at Scott topology, Lawson topology, and interval topology and search for order theoretic characterizations for some topological properties. We will review several well known results, present few new results, and pose some questions for future research.

For more information, contact:

CCNY (212-650-5346): R. Kopperman
College of Staten Island (718-982-3626): P. R. Misra
Baruch College (212-387-1463): A. Todd
LIU C. W. Post Center (516-299-2447): S. Andima
Marymount College (914-631-3200): M. Hastings
Queens College, Math. (718-997-5849): G. Itzkowitz
Queens College, Comp. Sci. (718-997-3478): T. Y. Kong