1. It is a well known theorem due to Frobenius that the number of solutions of the equation

Xn = 1

in a finite group G, is a multiple of the greatest common divisor (n, g) of n and the order g of G. Frobenius himself proved later that the number of solutions of the equation

Xn = a

where a is a fixed element of G, is a multiple of (n, ga), ga being the order of the centralizer Z(a) of ain G.

The purpose of this note is to establish the following

Theorem. The centre of a (left) hereditary local ring is either afield or a one-dimensional regular local ring.

Before starting the proof, it is necessary to explain the terminology. A ring R with an identity element is called a left local ring if the elements of R which do not have left inverses form a left ideal I. In these circumstances (see [1, Proposition 2.1, p. 147]), I is necessarily a two-sided ideal and it consists precisely of all the elements of R which do not have right inverses. Furthermore, every element of R which is not in I possesses a two-sided inverse. Thus there is, in fact, no difference between a left local ring and a right local ring and therefore one speaks simply of a local ring. In addition, I contains every proper left ideal and every proper right ideal. We may therefore describe I simply as the maximal ideal of R.

It is well known that when the characteristic p(≠ 0) of a field divides the order of a finite group, the group algebra possesses a non-trivial radical and that, if p does not divide the order of the group, the group algebra is semi-simple. A group algebra has a centre, a basis for which consists of the class-sums. The radical may be contained in this centre; we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for this to happen.

1. The properties of the circulant determinant or the circulant matrix are familiar. The circulant matrix C of order 4 x 4, with elements in the complex field, will serve for illustration.

The four matrix coefficients of c0, c1 c2, c3 form a reducible matrix representation of the cyclic group ℐ4, so that C is a group matrix for this. Let ω be a primitive 4th root of 1. Then Ω as below, its columns being normalized latent vectors of C,

is unitary and symmetric, and reduces Cto diagonal form thus,

where the μr, the latent roots of C, are given by

All of the above extends naturally to the n x n case.

The Laplace transform of a function f(t) ∈ L(0, ∞) is defined by the equation

and its Hankel transform of order v is defined by the equation

The object of this note is to obtain a relation between the Laplace transform of tμf(t) and the Hankel transform of f(t), when ℛ(μ) > − 1. The result is stated in the form of a theorem which is then illustrated by an example.

Since [3]

where , a result involving Wk, m, (z) can be transformed into a result involving MacRobert's E-function. Further this result can be generalised with the help of the known integrals for E-functions.

The object of this paper is to use this method to obtain some recurrence relations and series for MacRobert's E-functions.

In previous papers [1, 2, 3] the sums of a number of series of products of E-functions have been found. For the definitions and properties of the E-functions the reader is referred to [4, pp. 348–358]. In § 3 a further series of this type is given. The proof is based on an integral of an E-function with respect to its parameters, to be established in § 2. Similar integrals were given in [5] and [6].

Let E be an arbitrary (non-empty) set and S the restricted symmetric group on E, that is the group of all permutations of E which keep all but a finite number of elements of E fixed. If Φ is any commutative ring with unit element, let Γ = Φ(S) be the group algebra of S over Φ,Γ ⊃ Φ and let M be the free Φ-module having E as Φ-base. The “natural” representation of S is obtained by turning M into a Γ-module in the obvious manner, namely by writing for α∈S, λ1∈Φ,

The commutator [a, b] of two elements a and b in a group G satisfies the identity

ab = ba[a, b].

The subgroups we study are contained in the commutator subgroup G′, which is the subgroup generated by all the commutators.

The group G is covered by a well-known set of normal subgroups, namely the normal closures {g}G of the cyclic subgroups {g} in G. In a similar way one may associate a subgroup K(g) with each element g, by defining K(g) to be the subgroup generated by the commutators [g, x] as x takes all values in G. These subgroups generate G′ (but do not cover G′ in general), and are normal in G in consequence of the identical relation

(A) [g, x]Y = [g, y]−1[g, xy]

holding for all g, x and y in G. (By ab we mean b−1ab.) It is easy to see that

{g}G = {g, K(g)}.

In the analysis of mixed boundary value problems in the plane, we encounter dual integral equations of the type

If we make the substitutions cos we obtain a pair of dual integral equations of the Titchmarsh type [1, p. 334] with α = − 1, v = − ½ (in Titchmarsh's notation). This is a particular case which is not covered by Busbridge's general solution [2], so that special methods have to be derived for the solution.