In this note we shall prove that for a continuous function $\varphi :\Delta \to {ℝ}^n$, where $\Delta \subset ℝ$,  the paratingent of $\varphi$ at $a\in \Delta$ is a non-empty and compact set in ${ℝ}^n$ if and only if $\varphi$ satisfies Lipschitz condition in a neighbourhood of $a$. Moreover, in this case the paratingent is a connected set.

Let $F$ be a closed subset of ${ℝ}^n$ and let $P\left(x\right)$ denote the metric projection (closest point mapping) of $x\in {ℝ}^n$ onto $F$ in $l^p$-norm. A classical result of Asplund states that $P$ is (Fréchet) differentiable almost everywhere (a.e.) in ${ℝ}^n$ in the Euclidean case $p=2$. We consider the case $2<p<\infty$ and prove that the $i$th component $P_i\left(x\right)$ of $P\left(x\right)$ is differentiable a.e. if $P_i\left(x\right)\ne x_i$ and satisfies Hölder condition of order $1/(p-1)$ if $P_i\left(x\right)=x_i$.

Let $G$ be a group and $\omega \left(G\right)$ be the set of element orders of $G$. Let $k\in \omega \left(G\right)$ and $m_k\left(G\right)$ be the number of elements of order $k$ in $G$. Let nse$\left(G\right)=\{m_k\left(G\right):k\in \omega \left(G\right)\}$. Assume $r$ is a prime number and let $G$ be a group such that nse$\left(G\right)=$ nse$\left(S_r\right)$, where $S_r$ is the symmetric group of degree $r$. In this paper we prove that $G\cong S_r$, if $r$ divides the order of $G$ and $r^2$ does not divide it. To get the conclusion we make use of some well-known results on the prime graphs of finite simple groups and their components.

Suppose that $A$ is a real symmetric matrix of order $n$. Denote by $m_A\left(0\right)$ the nullity of $A$. For a nonempty subset $\alpha$ of $\{1,2,...,n\}$, let $A\left(\alpha \right)$ be the principal submatrix of $A$ obtained from $A$ by deleting the rows and columns indexed by $\alpha$. When $m_{A\left(\alpha \right)}\left(0\right)=m_A\left(0\right)+\left|\alpha \right|$, we call $\alpha$ a P-set of $A$. It is known that every P-set of $A$ contains at most $\lfloor n/2\rfloor$ elements. The graphs of even order for which one can find a matrix attaining this bound are now completely characterized. However, the odd case turned out to be more difficult to tackle. As...

Let ${\mathrm{𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝙳}}_{k\to d}$ be the following algorithmic problem: Given a finite simplicial complex $K$ of dimension at most $k$, does there exist a (piecewise linear) embedding of $K$ into ${ℝ}^d$? Known results easily imply polynomiality of ${\mathrm{𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝙳}}_{k\to 2}$ ($k=1,2$; the case $k=1,d=2$ is graph planarity) and of ${\mathrm{𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝙳}}_{k\to 2k}$ for all $k\ge 3$. We show that the celebrated result of Novikov on the algorithmic unsolvability of recognizing the 5-sphere implies that ${\mathrm{𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝙳}}_{d\to d}$ and ${\mathrm{𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝙳}}_{(d-1)\to d}$ are undecidable for each ${}_d\ge 5$. Our main result is NP-hardness of ${\mathrm{𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝙳}}_{2\to 4}$ and, more generally, of ${\mathrm{𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝙳}}_{k\to d}$ for all...

Let ${ℱ}_h^i(k,n)$ be the $i$-th ordered configuration space of all distinct points $H_1,...,H_h$ in the Grassmannian $Gr(k,n)$ of $k$-dimensional subspaces of ${ℂ}^n$, whose sum is a subspace of dimension $i$. We prove that ${ℱ}_h^i(k,n)$ is (when non empty) a complex submanifold of $Gr{(k,n)}^h$ of dimension $i(n-i)+hk(i-k)$ and its fundamental group is trivial if $i=min(n,hk)$, $hk\ne n$ and $n\&gt;2$ and equal to the braid group of the sphere $ℂ$ $P^1$ if $n=2$. Eventually we compute the fundamental group in the special case of hyperplane arrangements, i.e. $k=n-1$.

In this paper we prove the following theorems in incidence geometry. 1. There is $\delta >0$ such that for any $P_1,\cdots ,P_4$, and $Q_1,\cdots ,Q_n\in {ℂ}^2$, if there are $\le n^{(1+\delta )/2}$ many distinct lines between $P_i$ and $Q_j$ for all $i$, $j$, then $P_1,\cdots ,P_4$ are collinear. If the number of the distinct lines is $<c{n}^{1/2}$ then the cross ratio of the four points is algebraic. 2. Given $c>0$, there is $\delta >0$ such that for any $P_1,P_2,P_3\in {ℂ}^2$ noncollinear, and $Q_1,\cdots ,Q_n\in {ℂ}^2$, if there are $\le c{n}^{1/2}$ many distinct lines between $P_i$ and $Q_j$ for all $i$, $j$, then for any $P\in {ℂ}^2\setminus \{P_1,P_2,P_3\}$, we have $\delta n$ distinct lines between $P$ and $Q_j$. 3. Given...