We consider the equation $$-y^{\text{'}}\left(x\right)+q\left(x\right)y(x-\varphi \left(x\right))=f\left(x\right),x\in ℝ,$$ where $\varphi$ and $q$ ($q\ge 1$) are positive continuous functions for all $x\in ℝ$ and $f\in C\left(ℝ\right)$. By a solution of the equation we mean any function $y$, continuously differentiable everywhere in $ℝ$, which satisfies the equation for all $x\in ℝ$. We show that under certain additional conditions on the functions $\varphi$ and $q$, the above equation has a unique solution $y$, satisfying the inequality $$\parallel y^{\text{'}}{\parallel }_{C\left(ℝ\right)}+{\parallel qy\parallel }_{C\left(ℝ\right)}\le c{\parallel f\parallel }_{C\left(ℝ\right)},$$ where the constant $c\in (0,\infty )$ does not depend on the choice of $f$.

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.

Let $\Omega$ be a bounded domain of class $C^2$ in $ℝ$N and let $K$ be a compact subset of $\partial \Omega$. Assume that $q\ge (N+1)/\left(N-1\right)$ and denote by $U_K$ the maximal solution of $-\Delta u+u^q=0$ in $\Omega$ which vanishes on $\partial \Omega \setminus K$. We obtain sharp upper and lower estimates for $U_K$ in terms of the Bessel capacity $C_{2/q,q^{\text{'}}}$ and prove that $U_K$ is $\sigma$-moderate. In addition we describe the precise asymptotic behavior of $U_K$ at points $\sigma \in K$, which depends on the “density” of $K$ at $\sigma$, measured in terms of the capacity $C_{2/q,q^{\text{'}}}$.

Given an integer $n\ge 3$, let $u_1,...,u_n$ be pairwise coprime integers $\ge 2$, $𝒟$ a family of nonempty proper subsets of $\{1,...,n\}$ with “enough” elements, and $\epsilon$ a function $𝒟\to \{\pm 1\}$. Does there exist at least one prime $q$ such that $q$ divides ${\prod }_{i\in I}{u}_i-\epsilon \left(I\right)$ for some $I\in 𝒟$, but it does not divide $u_1\cdots u_n$? We answer this question in the positive when the $u_i$ are prime powers and $\epsilon$ and $𝒟$ are subjected to certain restrictions. We use the result to prove that, if ${\epsilon }_0\in \{\pm 1\}$ and $A$ is a set of three or more primes that contains all prime divisors of any...

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...

In this paper, we examine a natural question concerning the divisors of the polynomial $x^n-1$: “How often does $x^n-1$ have a divisor of every degree between $1$ and $n$?” In a previous paper, we considered the situation when $x^n-1$ is factored in $\mathbb{Z}\left[x\right]$. In this paper, we replace $\mathbb{Z}\left[x\right]$ with ${𝔽}_p\left[x\right]$, where $p$ is an arbitrary-but-fixed prime. We also consider those $n$ where this condition holds for all $p$.